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Zagi Flying Questions

Old 03-15-2003, 01:44 AM
  #1  
Flying Nole
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Default Zagi Flying Questions

Hello RCU members,

I've been flying R/C gas planes for a while, and cruising RCU, but this is my first post.

I just finished a Zagi 400X and I took it out for its maiden voyage this afternoon.

So far I'm not too impressed with its flight characteristics. Given all of the happy Zagi flyers I'm sure my problems are of my own making. Hopefully somone here can offer some insight and suggest solutions. Here are my questions/problems:

1. When I tried to balance the plane at the recommended 8" back from the tip I had to move the battery very far forward in the battery compartment. There is an indentation in the compartment that gives you some discretion as where to place the battery. I had to move my battery way beyond the indentation, almost to the front of the compartment. This causes the radio compartment cover to rise up. That isn't a problem, but I think that I may have done something wrong during construction. Any ideas why the battery has to be so far forward?

2. Even with the battery all the way forward, the plane feels tail heavy. It wanted to pitch up during flight. I made my best attempt to assemble according to the instructions without mods.

3. Once I established an oval pattern things settled down. Then I tried a roll. I got about 1/2 of the way through then the plane dove in from 100' up. Fortunately it was a Zagi! The damage was minimal and I'll be out tomorrow.

4. The plane seemed underpowered and slow. I broke the engine in, but it still seemed pretty slow. I'm using the Gunther prop. Should the letters on the propeller face towards or away from the plane?

Hope that wasn't too long. I still don't know if I explained my situation well enough for anyone to offer advice.

I appreciate any help that can be offered. I know that that Zagi is a great plane. Hopefully I can get my problems taken care of soon.

Thanks!
Old 03-15-2003, 03:09 AM
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zorroo-delete
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Default Zagi Flying Questions

Hi there, I've not yet flown a zagi type craft but I'll soon be building one. I'll only try to speak to that part of your question regarding the placement of the prop ie raised letters forward or aft.

I'm pretty sure you want the raised letters towards the rear of the plane ie visable from the rear. Also, when you attached the 2 wires to the motor they should have been reversed ie- the red (or hot wire) on the motor terminal that doesn't have the "dot" next to it.

I'm sure you'll get answers to all your questions & good luck on future flights.

Ed
Old 03-15-2003, 04:09 AM
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d_wheel
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Default Zagi Flying Questions

Mine balances a tad tail heavy when the battery is as far forward as it will go.

You want to trim the elevons so that they are up a bit with the elevator stick in the center. The plans show the bottom of the elevons to be in line with the bottom of the wing. That's how I set mine up and haven't had to change it. On launch, I hold just a bit of up until it starts climbing. It will then slowly pick up speed and climb slowly with hands off of the controls.

The Zagi requires down elevator when inverted. You can't do a roll without adding down elevator unless you are pretty high when entering the maneuver.

The plane is underpowered! Remember, you aren't flying a gas plane. Even underpowered, I regularly get so high that it is difficult to see what the Zagi is doing. I usually spend the first half of my flights doing loops, rolls, inverted, etc., then the last half looking for thermals. On my second flight last Saturday, it was in the air over 40 minutes. 30 or so with the motor turned off, circling in a thermal.

I have the lettering on the prop facing away from the aircraft.

Later;

D.W.
Old 03-15-2003, 04:45 PM
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ActionCommander
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Default Zagi Flying Questions

If considering trying a flying wing, there are a number of product alternates available that many have indicated are better. Among the features of these alternates include the use of pure bouncy EPP instead of brittle styrofoam, improved aerodynamics such as the elimination of the central "banana nose", improved prop efficiency, and less adverse stall behavior.

It seems that the Speed 400 was added to the original Zagi (unpowered) slope wing as an afterthought, involving cutting a notch out of the trailing edge and resulting in the prop running loudly and inefficiently because it is too close to the trailing edge. The motor also introduced balance problems to a wing not originally designed for it. Adding insult to injury, many other flying wing kit manufacturs cloned this design.

The powered flying wing is an amazing combination, thanks to Trick R/C for evangelizing it.

Time for the plug: The 48" Unicorn has been developed over the last two years overcoming the above issues, and is finally available as a kit for $50.00 (core+hardware kit), with free shipping for a limited time. For complete details and on-line ordering:

http://www.unicornwings.net

- Mark
Old 03-17-2003, 07:56 PM
  #5  
BoomZilla
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Default Zagi Flying Questions

If you haven't flown a flying wing before, finding the right CG can be tricky. If it is too far forward, the wing will have to pitch nose up in level flight. This makes it much slower and hard to perform aerobatics. Try inching the weight back. This should level out the wing and increase your cruising speed. As you start to get too far back, the nose will not drop in stalls (instead it will drop into a spin) and pitch control will get real sensitive.

I can get 4-5 rolls in succesion without much trouble.

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