swcheese

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So, I finally got up the nerve to buck my wifes scorn and bought an RC plane, the "RTF" Nexstar Select .46. I figured something basically ready to go would be less heart breaking to watch pow a deep furrow into the earth than something I spent a gazillion hours building. So anyway, All is well when it comes out of the box but I soon found out that EVERYTHINGwas a little out of whack. For example, the piece on the rudder that connects to the servo pushrod was insalled about 3/4 of an inch too high on the rudder which caused it to interfere with the elevator, so, I had to move that. Next, every "cleavis" I think you call it was at least 4 turns out of adjustment and the front wheel was almost at a 30 degree angle when the controls were at rest. Next, when I checked the CG, I found it was rear heavy by almost 5 OZ. OK, I realize that all planes will need SOMEfine tuning but it seems to me that if it says "Ready to fly in 20 minutes" on the box it should not, at the very least require removal and re-alignment of parts. I sure hope it flies easier than it preps! Oh, and the simulator than comes with the set is pretty cool, but really only good for getting used to the controls because without depth of field and other visual refferences it is pretty hard to maintain situational awareness.

Scar

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Welcome to the world of RC flying!

Dave Olson

swcheese

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I am actually REALLY excited to try it! Thankfully my club's president will start me off 2 mistakes high! I figure I'll get a good minute and a half before he takes over!

noveldoc

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Bet the guy at that Chinese factory did not spent a gazillion hours assembling that plane with his hot glue gun.

Building from a kit can require a certain amount of fiddling and adjusting that I am sure they do not do.

Agree though it will all be worth it when you get your thumbs on those sticks.

Tom

WestCoastFlyer

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swcheese, welcome to the hobby! Remember the basic purpose is to have fun so don't put a lot of pressure on yourself. Yes, your wife'll kill you if destroy that airplane, therefore a huge waste of money in her eyes,. but try not to think about that lol [sm=regular_smile.gif]

Seriously, people learn at different rates of speed. Learning to fly RC has been described as similar to learning to play a musical instrument - for most people it's more difficult than it looks. Try not to put too much pressure on yourself, listen to everything your instructor tells you and have fun!

swcheese

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Thanks!  Four PM can't come fast enough today!

shaggy48

let us know how it went. And good luck

Charlie P.

Probably a dozen different stations, each making a sub-assembly that . . . hopefully . . . all fit together. When the Rudder Dooer is not checking his jigs and wanders off the mark and the Elevator Dooer is wandering the other way it's enivatable they meet. I doubt very much the Box Filler checks anything but parts count.

Granted, it is misleading they promise "20 Minutes". But then, I have taken 10x the "20 Hours" or whatever that some ARFs promise. Just working on a Saratoga now and it is the closest thing to flight ready I've handled to date. They're getting scary good; but still far short of kit built with care and quality components.

As the Russian Aircraft Industry said in WWII: "Perfection is the enemy of good enough." I tend to build heavy, and ARFs come in lighter than I would liklely build and therefore probably fly better. But they don't absorb abuse as well IMHO.

swcheese

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Forgive my ignorance, but what does IMHO stand for?

dmowery

IN-My-Humble-Opinion No sweat edgimakachin aint crakedup to wut it sposed ta be-Im dummer than a box of rocks -only way I knew what it ment was from a 11 year old that told me as he was finger flyin on his cell phone, said he was Texan or sumpin lik it

carrellh

I would guess all of the "RTF" models require adjustments, but still take less time than an ARF.

A new pilot came to our club with the Tower Trainer RTF and it had some issues:

The elevator (or rudder) pushrod was adjusted very short and barely had enough threads to get it set correctly. I guess this can be expected. I assume they use a power tool to screw the clevis on and probably do not attempt to adjust it to be flight ready even though the box does say RTF.

The other issue was a potential safety hazard. All three of the servos in the fuselage did not have the screw installed to retain the servo arm. If the servo arms came off in flight, someone could be hurt, and a totally new guy wouldn't have any way to know a screw should be there. I gave him screws from my plane since I have a bag of spares at home.

swcheese

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Gotcha, just a little drain bramage... popody's nerfect.

CGRetired

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I started out with a Tower Trainer 40 ARF that I put together. It wasn't perfect, but it worked fine. But, my work and travel schedule really put a strain on my RC training.

After about a year and a half of on-and-off training, I saw the Hobbico Nexstar Select RTF on the market and saw that it was bigger than the Tower 40 trainer, so I bought one from Tower Hobbies.

After I got it in, I left it in the box and went to my instructor's house and we put it together. It took about 90 minutes from start to finish, which included many of the adjustments you said you needed to do on yours.

The maiden flight went well, he flew it, of course, and trimmed it out. We did not hook up the AFS but left the other gizmo's on (wing tip spoilers and the speed brakes). I solo'ed fairly quickly after that, although I did have one landing that was on the far edge of the runway and ended up crunching in the landing gear on a berm that popped up out of no-where... [:@] That tore off the left side landing gear.

I took it home and a couple days later, I went back to his house where we both fixed the gear and it was ready to fly.

After I solo'ed with it, I flew it for several weeks when I upgraded to a Tiger 60 ARF.

I gotta tell you, though, this is one rugged plane. I put it through a really tough initial flying regime, as most trainee's do, and that was, oh, 8 - 10 years ago??? Anyway, from the best of my knowledge, both the Nexstar Select and the Tiger 60 are both flying. You see, I sold the Nexstar to a fellow club member for peanuts (much less than what I paid for it) because he was having financial difficulties and really wanted to fly, and I wasn't flying it much, so I sold it to him. He passed away a couple years ago and from what I understand, his widow sold the aircraft to someone out of town, so I don't know if it still flys, but I believe it still does.

Anyway, the short of it is, it is a good trainer, and, in spite of what people say about the "gizmo's", it did me well. I took the gizmo's off shortly after I solo'ed and re-trimmed the plane, and it flew just fine.

Best of luck with it and let us know how you progress.

CGr.

chocorrol

is there antything better than waiting to maiden your first plane?

swcheese

My Feedback: (1)

Thanks for the encouragment! We had planned to try it out last night but there was a really stiff cross wind at the field so we we had content ourselves with just doing the final adjustments and fine tunings. I hope to get out this weekend! On an other note I keep reading about people who sold their trainors and I really think I am gonna hang onto mine just because it's my first plane, you know? Anyway, I got to the field last night and found that a few of the guys in the club had gotten together and put together a field box with pretty much everything I might need that they presented to me.I was really touched by that. I think I have found a great hobby with a great bunch of people who love it. Now, if I can just learn to fly with out too much damage!

CGRetired

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Ooooh.. crosswinds and trainers are not a good thing.. well, they can be for someone that has some experience, but with a high-wing trainer, and a beginner, that high wing gets sort of "in the way" when there is a stiff crosswind. Ask me how I know.. [X(]

The first few weeks after solo were interesting because I was out at the field every other day, after work or on my day off. And, I just didn't care what the wind was doing, but I had to be really careful, especially on take-off. You see, our field has a tree line about, oh, 75 feet or so, behind the flight line. The tree line ends suddenly to an open field area. So, on take-off, you start to go with the plane protected "by the tree line" then as soon as you exit that protection area, the wind hits that windward wing and it tries to flip it.. so it gets demanding with aileron control on take off, to keep the wings level.

CGr.

red head

Where are you flying in Topsham ??? It's been a few years since I was up there. Welcome to the Sport ( ??? ) it's really great. Be sure to "LISTEN" to your instructor and TRY to keep everything SMOOTH and EASY , the plane will talk to you if you learn to listen. ENJOY !!! RED

CGRetired

My Feedback: (1)

Great advice!! And to add a little to that, don't over-fly the plane. Get it trimmed for straight and level flight at your throttle setting (trim will tend to change as you change throttle settings). What I mean by that is to take off, establish a flight altitude, head across on your downwind leg, then adjust your trim for aileron and elevator for straight and level with hands-off. Once set, do your flying but try to remember where that "throttle sweet spot" is for your trim setting and return to it. Remember if you change throttle settings, especially with a trainer, you will have to adjust your trim.

Once done, and you make your turn to head back upwind, just relax your fingers and watch the plane. It will fly, pretty much by itself, straight and level, while it reacts to the wind. Don't get in the habit of trying to overcorrect for every movement that the plane makes. All you are doing at that point is consuming battyery power and having no effect on the plane's flight path, even though you think you are.

Now, don't discount flying the plane here, my point is to advise you to not overcorrect for every movement the plane makes. You will see this as you gain experience, though.

I learned this by my instructor watching me trying to correct for everything the plane was doing and told me to leave the sticks alone for a few seconds as it moved around, but always recovered by itself.

Enjoy your flying!!!!

CGr.

Boudacia

I bought the Nexstar RTF and it had a few adjustments once at the field. As far as the 20 mins....that is sooo bogus. Try about hour and half. Been a great plane  to train on but it did bite the big one after four weeks. I was sooo upset! Ran home and order a Nexstar ARF that night and moved all parts to it. Bad part was explaining to my husband the rush to buy the ARF and not look for it on EBay. I have the bug and can't sit out on a training session waiting for EBay. Hubby is worried where this will led to.

bigtim

My Feedback: (13)

the best thing I did was to take my nextar to our field, and have one of the better pilots check it out for me, and trim it for level flight, after beating it up and retiring it, after several years of fun with it.

I stripped the covering off the fuse repaired all the loose and broken areas that were covered with plastic film and converted it to a float plane its still lives to this day

swcheese

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At the Brunswick Area Modelers Airfield on Rt. 201.

swcheese

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AWESOME!

IllinoisAviator

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I'm glad to say I landed my nexstar in a stiff/strong crosswind on my first flight right on the back two wheels. Let's just say I bought it used for $100 and wasn't too worried about crashing it... hahaha

IllinoisAviator

My Feedback: (7)

I've also already upgraded, yes the trainers are fun at first but for some they just get old after about ... welllllll a week ? :P

holychow

Wow!!!! What a great looking airplane!!!. I'm a newbie planning on my first plane, now I'm really excited!!