Smacka

I just received one of the first shipments of the subject aircraft. it took about 1 1/2-hours to complete. I have two major issues as follows:

1) The vertical stab is warped so bad that if you set rudder null forthe top of the stab, the bottom is a quarter inch offset, and if you set rudder null for the bottom of the stab, the top of the rudder is offset from the top of the vertical stab by at least 1/4 inch.

2) The nose wheel landing gear wire is ~.140 in diameter. Th main landing gear wires (on the main wing) are ~.170 in in diameter. The bracket for the nose wheel landing gear will accept the .170 in diameter wire, so the nose wheel flops arond inside the bracket. It is extremely loose fitting.

I contacted Horizon Hobby and they said they have not received any such complaints. They want to know if it is an isolated case, or if they have a manufacturing defect on a global scale, meaning an entire production run.

Have any of you had these types of issues? If so, please contact Horizon so we can ALL receive due remedy.

Thank you!!

Captain.MPN

I purchased the subject plane a few days ago, and maidened it last night... The same exact issues listed in your post were found in my plane as well... However i have not contacted Horizion yet. For the record, to my suprise, it did not fly nearly as well as they implied. If i were a beginer, i think i would've lost her on the first flight..! I would love to here more about this...

Mitchell

tombo523

Captain MPN:
Check the exponential setting on the transmitter. It is backwards, making the controls very sensitive. The numbers should be positive, not negative. Use the same numbers but make them positive!
You should find that the T-34 is a great flying plane.

Captain.MPN

Thanks so much Tombo, but I already did that... Prior to my maiden. They were set at +35% ??? I'm not sure what's going on there.

Smacka

Perfect!
JR and Spektrum radios use positive expo to flaten out the input to output curve and cause the plane to fly less aggressive around null stick position. All this means is that it takes more stick movement to get the plane to react, so it makes it easier for a new pilot to fly without upsetting the plane. New pilots tend to "over steer" the plane with the radio sticks. This way, a nervous pilot will not make as big of an impact on the plane when he "jittters" the sticks.

+35% on both high and low rates is a great starting point for expo. Fly the plane and you may find you want more positive expo to soften the characteristics around null even more. As the new pilot becomes more at ease, you can decrease the positive expo and fly the wings off the plane.

When the new pilot gets good, you cna remove the droops, forget the flaps, set the radio for negative expo and let 'er rip all over the sky. This Mentor "can be" a little crotch rocket if set up correctly.

Note:
Futaba and JR/Spektrum are opposite each other when it comes to expo. With a Futaba radio, negative expo softens the flight characteristics around null, rather than positive expo as with JR/Spektrum. I have no idea why they do it differently. Just make sure you know it is different, otherwise when you are trying to calm down a snappy plane, you will only make it worse.

dafpnp

I'll be eager to know more about this plane

sk8man101

I took out the Spektrum receiver and put in a Futaba FASST receiver. When we try to throttle up, we get 5 beeps. Anyone know what the beeps mean?

dwilt72

I have the same problem.