A not-so-newbie returning with questions...

A not-so-newbie returning with questions... (Full Version)

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altos -> A not-so-newbie returning with questions... (5/11/2008 10:58:35 PM)
I flew thermal gliders 23 years go and a very little bit of slope. The usual Gentle Lady, Oly II, a custom Oly II stretched to 122", an early foam core slope trainer and a 99" Sagitta... anyway, I abandoned the sport after repeatedly being shot down by rude flyers who insisted on turning on their transmitters without looking for who else was on their frequency or.... here's a great one... "couldn't have been me because I was 20' away and my antenna wasn't fully extended". What a joy. Regardless, I wandered into an RC shop the other day by chance and spotted spread spectrum radios. Interesting. Takes out the "clown factor". Having mused over that I am seriously considering reentering the battle of the thermals. But my experience is 20+ years old, therefore, I have some questions under the assumption that I would be thermal gliding, no F3B (or whatever they call it these days), probably rudder, elevator, spoiler but flaps would be nice and maybe... ailerons. Maybe. This would be high-start flying or going to the slope and flying when there isn't enough wind for the "real" slope guys. Questions; a. Spread spectrum; recommendations for a lower end unit as I don't need highly esoteric functionality? b. "Park flyer" radios - what does that really mean? Limited range to 400 yards or ???? c. I used to buy Futaba way back when. Just about all systems came with a radio, receiver, batteries and 3-4 servos. It appears these days its more piecemeal. If someone buys, for instance, a Spektrum radio and receiver will Hitec or Futaba or ??? servos work with the receiver? (read; how far does mix-and-match go, if at all). d. Suggestions on a airplane, a light wing loading floater, 100 inches or so? Apparently Marauder is popular, Oly II is still around, arthobby has some nice planes... And I have to restart my collection of tools to build which is no big deal but I don't want an excessively difficult kit. Glider-wise, I value functionality and durability over fashion and trendy. The old Sagitta kit was about the limit of my talent. Any suggestions for a oldy-newbie appreciated. Regards,

kwmtrubrit -> RE: A not-so-newbie returning with questions... (5/11/2008 11:52:52 PM)
The Riser 100 is what I have and love it. Easy build, spoilers included and a great flier, very forgiving also. I flew yesterday in winds of 10-15mph.

ejett -> RE: A not-so-newbie returning with questions... (5/12/2008 12:45:10 AM)
Lots of 2.4 ghz stuff out there and Futaba has a good system. So, depending on what you want in the way of radios, you pretty much have a wide open field. I would suggest for reasonable capability and something you won't outgrow really quickly, a 9CAP system with 2.4 gHz module and appropriate receiver. This will let you expand into full house gliders without having to "upgrade" right out of the chute. Jr's 9303 has a huge following and you can get a 2.4 module and recievers for it as well. Get a good radio and you can fly anything, anytime. Definitely, you do not want a limited range park flyer radio, but Futaba and Jr. have full range models. Make sure you get with someone who has some 2.4gHz experience as far as installation in the plane and antennae orientation. New high tech airframes have a lot of carbon and carbon/kevlar which makes installation more critical than a wood airplane. As far as servos go, most any will work with anybody else. Even Airtronics has caved in and use the same plugs as Jr., Hitec, Specktrum. Futaba still has the rib on the one side of the connector to make sure you don't plug it in backwards, but every body else's servos will work with Futaba if you are careful about the orientation of the plug. It's pretty much standardized now so you can use radio gear from your favorite and buy your favorite servos. Believe it or not, there are lots of good planes available now. Depending on whether or not you want to build your own model... There are some really good ARF's out there - Topaz, AVA, Soprano and on up to $1500-$2000 F3J planes. On the less expensive side of the build it yourself, you will find good kits from Skybench Aerotech and Laser Arts/Mountain Models in addition to the time honored designs Gentle Lady, Oly II, Riser, Spirits, Bird of Time. There is really a lot of stuff out there. In general, it seems that the hobby has moved to flying ARF as a majority and I'd say the highest tech, best built planes are made by those European enterprenuers available at folks like SkipMillerModels.com (Pikes, Espadas, Topaz, etc.) and others. S[end some time searching and looking and reading to see what folks like and don't like. Welcome back to the hobby and RCU and I know you will have a great time. EJ

altos -> RE: A not-so-newbie returning with questions... (5/12/2008 3:56:20 AM)
Great post, EJ. I have quite a bit of research to do.... Thanks again, Altos

ejett -> RE: A not-so-newbie returning with questions... (5/12/2008 4:06:01 AM)
Most likely Ed Anderson will jump in here or on your thread in RC Groups. He has composed a lot of links for equipment and reference. Generally, he will paste this information into a post on suitable threads. Ed's a good guy and thrives on helping others especially new folks to the hobby. I know you are not new to it, but in 23 years a lot of water has flown under the bridge. I have not organized my information as neatly and compactly as Mr. Anderson. He does a good job with it, so I've not been really motivated. EJ

OzMo -> RE: A not-so-newbie returning with questions... (5/12/2008 4:33:47 AM)
Altos welcome back! Does this make you the proof that RC is an addiction? LOL[:D] I too have returned to sailplanes. I still do fly and instruct glow flying. I went with the Skybench big bird Xl and will do the spoilers and some fiber strap to the wing spars and TE. It was started last night and I have one wing panel started. (sky benches' Oly II is laser cut and has updated airfoils BTW). I am told 100" is kind of an orphan size, 2 meter and the unlimited or 3 meter (118") are popular in contests. If your just gona fly for fum 100" is fine. Airfoils are the big change of late. charlesriverrc.org is a good site to check into for "the latest and greatest". very nice site with super info. I went with a larger wingspan so I can see the thing better but I want to mess around with 2 meter as well. I just bought an Ebay gentle Lady to modify with spoilers and updated airfoil. I will beef the wing up with a little carbon fiber. I have used the fiber banding material used on comercial bales and such also. It is free (FREE IS GOOD[8D]) and much less splintery to use. Lots of choices here these days also look into the Marauder and the Chrysalis and some decent gliders do show up on eba^ now and then. OzMo

altos -> RE: A not-so-newbie returning with questions... (5/12/2008 5:45:56 AM)
Well.... now you folks have gone off and gotten me in trouble. Sort of.... then again, hummm... maybe not. With all the great suggestions offered it appears that a higher end spread spectrum is the way to go. And, as one would expect, the choices of what to fly are endless. Starting all over can be fun. My beloved wife, however, reminded me that I have a Hasagawa 1/8 scale Sopwith Camel static museum kit that has sat totally untouched in its box for quite some time doing nothing but proofing the concept of gravity. Luckily my brain was somewhat active at that precise moment and I responded that I was going to sell it to help fund this new venture ! My gawd... this may work out yet! The research continues. Keep those suggestions/comments coming. Thanks again, altos

mred33 -> RE: A not-so-newbie returning with questions... (7/25/2008 11:18:41 PM)
For a radio, you can stay with 72MH and you will not have near the problems you had before with it. It seems that everyone is jumping on to 2.4 fast and now is a good time to go to E-Bay and pick up a slightly used 9303 transmitter and the receiver is your choice. If you watch it close, you can find one that has the mod. in it to select any of the channels we use now, so you are not stuck on any one freq. You can also get a 7 channel scan select receiver to go along with it and cheap too. If you later decide to go with 2.4, you can get the mod. that plugs in the back and a new receiver and you set for 2.4 and 72 any time you like. With so many leaving 72, I am almost alone now. As for sail planes, they are so many out there I couldn't even begin to list them all. Just look around until you find something and go with that. Sky Bench has some that are great along with so many others. You can go big or small, it's up to you, but you can't beat something like the Bird of Time or Olly II or III or the Bird series from Sky Bench. They only sell kits, so if you are looking for an ARF don't bother with them. Esprit, Tower and a lot of other places sell good sail planes. It is getting to the point that you are almost overwhelmed with the selection. Nothing like when you were in it before. If you are in a hurry to get flying now, I would start with an ARF to get flying and then maybe look for a kit to build after that. If you are looking for a motor glider, watch out on the ARF side. Some of them are so narrow in the nose and a fiberglass fuse that you really need to build a new fuse to use a motor. The Spirit 100 is one of them. I have that one now and the fiberglass fuse would need to be cut up pretty bad to stuff a motor in there. I am building a new fuse for it and using the wing from the kit. I can also use the fiberglass fuse for Hi-Start some time, but mostly I will be flying with motor. For a motor in a 100" class, you will need something like an AXI-2820* motor. Kits are no problem to modify for a motor system, so you can pretty much pick one and go from there. If you have any more questions, all you gotta do is yell and someone will pick up on it. Ed

Alex.schweig -> RE: A not-so-newbie returning with questions... (7/26/2008 12:37:50 AM)
Robbe-Futaba FX 18 is a great radio on 35 MHZ PCM but the 9CAP PCM is also a great radio. Both of these have lots of specialized sailplane programming features.

BMatthews -> RE: A not-so-newbie returning with questions... (7/26/2008 2:53:18 AM)
The new Spektrum model 6i is supposed to be a "full range" setup. And it's budget priced to boot. For thermal flying with larger models definetly stay away from any radio setup that hints of parkflyer range limits. I've got a DX6 that I only plan on using for sport flying and folks have tested it way out past what the maker recomends. But large models can fly WAAAAY out there and you don't want any range limits on them when you do this. But the 6i and DX7 are offered as full range options.

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