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All Forums >> RC Airplanes >> RC Gliders, Sailplanes and Slope Soaring >> RE: New Radian
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RE: New Radian - 4/19/2009 3:06 AM   
Tom Nied



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From: Carol Stream, IL, USA
Status: offline 		I'm no "gliding expert" but I do find better results high above treeline. In fact I'll turn the motor on sooner with the theory that if I'm higher, it'll take less motor run to get back up to altitude. Also I've been paying attention to my motor runs and flight angle to maximize my altitude gain. As we have noticed, it almost goes up like a rocket, the higher you can get it the better. So get it up and play. Gosh we're having a good time with the parkzone Radian. Rainy weather predicted here over the next few days. I might have to go over it and consider securing my nose weight better rather than just using the ESC velcro holding the two bolts I put in there.

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RE: New Radian - 4/19/2009 3:43 AM   
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Status: offline 		Rain here next couple days, nuts. Tried it today but wind was 10-20mph. No problem flying it, just had no clue when it hit lift, ans when trying to circle, it went "downstream" in a hurry. First time out with no thermal action for me, but fun nonetheless. Downsides to the radian in my opinion only are the bad glue job on fuse joint, the placement of rx in bottom hatch(seems pretty vulnerable there), and the worst thing is, I just know I'm gonna snap the tail off getting it in and out of truck/car. The amount of flex in the fuse by the tail affects responsiveness I'm sure, but for thermal hunting it is fine. My wings also seem to be fitting loosely in sockets, along with wing tube fitting loose as well. So far nothing to worry about that a wrap of tape on tube and wing root wont fix when it gets bad enough. But, this is with well over a dozen flights, and plenty of high G moves thrown in. As to flying higher, I to find it easier to find big lift. But my favorite thing is shutting down motor at a decent altitude and looking for lift all the way to the ground then relaunching. It is so awesome to hit small pockets of lift close to ground, then working them up and specking out . Whatever drawbacks it may have, it's thermal abilities and good manners more than make up for them!

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RE: New Radian - 4/19/2009 4:20 AM   
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Status: offline 		WOW!!! A bit off topic, but kinda related. Will remove if not wanted on here. Just went out to shop to glue bottom hatch on after inadvertently popping it lose by pushing to hard on battery pack a minute ago. Heard a noise up by fenced in garbage 50-75 ft away, shined my light up there and almost thermalled myself! Biggest daggum bear I've seen in my life, and I've seen a bunch of 'em!!! Made a dash back to house and regain my nerves, then watched him tear apart my "bear proof" trash bin. Guess the ol' gorilla glue can wait till morning !!!

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RE: New Radian - 4/19/2009 4:34 AM   
Tom Nied



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Status: offline 		All I ask is that you keep them up there.

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RE: New Radian - 4/19/2009 6:34 AM   
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quote:

ORIGINAL: matrix-RCU

Tinkrerpilot,

Was out this morning and charged the battery in my car on the way to the field.


Are you using Lipo batteries? If you are, I suggest that you not charge the batteries in the car while traveling. Precharge them at home in a safe explosive proof bag or container. Or just charge them at the field from your car's battery, if doing so, charge the battery OUTSIDE of your car' interior.

Sailplane

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RE: New Radian - 4/19/2009 10:01 AM   
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Good point. If you guys have not seen what Li-Po's can do when mishandled or charged wrong. It is not a pretty sight. Let alone the fumes and temps they put off when on fire. That car interior would be no nore IF it went off for any reason. Always good to use a bunker or the Li-Po bag that will contain a burning Li-po. Pre charge is always a good way to go, or at the field, where it can be monitored. I would hate to see anyone try to explain why the car burned up on the way to the flying field. Just a good word of caution.

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RE: New Radian - 4/19/2009 2:48 PM   
Tom Nied



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Status: offline 		My battery never gets warm, certainly not hot when I charge it with the supplied charger. http://www.horizonhobby.com/Products/Default.aspx?ProdID=PKZ1040 Notice that the plug cord is about a foot long. In a car, that doesn't give much length to put it in a safe spot. Can I expect it to go awry and set fire to my car someday? That would be a drag since it sits in the garage, it would burn the house down as well and maybe the neighbors house as well because of the close proximity.

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RE: New Radian - 4/19/2009 11:20 PM   
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Status: offline 		Tom,

Yes, all three, and maybe even four, if you include your neighbor's house, can burn down. One of my fellow club members was monitoring his LiPo as it was charging in his large two-car garage with RC workshop. During the charging process, he decided to go into his house (the house and garage were connected) to get a cup of coffee. About four MINUTES later, he started back to the garage to continue his RC work and to continue the monitoring of the LiPo battery.

Well, he never did get back into the garage; the garage was on fire with such force that there was no way for him to enter. By the time that the fire department put out the fire, the entire garage was gone along with a car, his RC stuff and seven RC aircraft. Even a small part of his house was burned.

He was OK only because he was not in the garage when the LiPo exploded; Perhaps, he would not be here today if he had not gone for his cup of coffee. He was not using a LiPo Sack or any kind of an explosive safety container.

Tinkrerpilot has written a very good description of the explosive force of a LiPo battery gone wrong. Follow his advice.

Sailplane

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RE: New Radian - 4/20/2009 12:52 AM   
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Status: offline 		Take a look at some of the videos and you can see why. This is not meant to scare you, but to be aware of the dangers of the stuff that we play with everday in our hobby. Respect the equipment and use properly.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YCWdnjLqVWw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-DcpANRFrI4&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4OsBc8RqSKU

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RE: New Radian - 4/20/2009 3:31 AM   
Tom Nied



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Status: offline 		OK, so I watched the videos and even some extras and in all I noticed there was some kind of mishandling. Charging incorrectly, puncturing, striking. Yeah charging with my peak charger at full blast is probably a bad idea. And I don't think I'm going to take a nail and try driving in through all three cells. And hitting it with a hammer just sounds insane. Certainly I'm going to be careful. I think what I would really like to do is charge outside the car altogether.

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RE: New Radian - 4/22/2009 12:24 AM   
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Status: offline 		Most of the older vids of lipos burning are really mishandled badly, and they are older tech lipos. I haven't ever had one puff up on me and still use some gen 1 tp packs(good for 5c discharge, 7c burst). I don't what the most recent incedent involving actual flames are, but not real recently. I charge mine wherever I need to with a radio shack power converter (110vac-12vdc, 3amp max)for a power source. Wish the weather would turn around here, going into thermal withdrawal, or maybe thermal shutdown? Soon, soon I hope, I'm hooked bad on this sailplane stuff .

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RE: New Radian - 4/22/2009 1:40 AM   
matrix-RCU


 

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Status: offline 		I keep the battery and charger close to me so if something starts to go awry I can quickly pull over....

I've been using lipos for a few years now and so far have not had a problem. But I agree, you do need to take some extra precautions with these batteries. I keep my lipos in a fire proof container when not in use....Soon A123 batteries will take over and we won't have to worry about lipos anymore...but until then, I'll risk it...

Rushed home today because the wind was dead this evening....but so were the thermals....had to power up to altitude 4 times and never did find a thermal...but the Radian really does float around .

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RE: New Radian - 4/23/2009 2:03 AM   
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Status: offline 		Man, wind and rain keeping me grounded, going nuts I tells ya! Anyone ever catch thermals on windy days with the radian? I tried, but not good enough to read the plane in stronger winds like 15 gusting to 25mph, and just ended up going downwind fast when trying to circle. Fun, but calmer days are definately more my style with the radian. Untill things calm down here, good luck to those that have decent weather now.

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RE: New Radian - 4/23/2009 5:51 AM   
Tom Nied



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Status: offline 		CBM, I had the same experience here Wednesday. I tried flying, and only got 10 minutes and had to land. Winds 15 gusting to 30. I tried ballasting up but eventually just gave up. It was just too windy here in the Chicagoland area western suburbs. No, trying to find thermal activity in this wind was useless. I even went out a second time prior to sunset thinking the winds had died down, it wasn't any better. You know it's bad when the seagulls are having trouble. I kept it in my car decided better days were coming. Let's face it, if its too windy, it's not fun. I'm going to wait for better weather conditions. They say it's going to warm up, but it's going to be windy. Not good for my flying enjoyment. One good thing, I came home and the charger worked fine and got a good solid green led. Supposedly a full charge. I can just tell, with the right conditions, I'll get over an hour flight.

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RE: New Radian - 4/23/2009 8:29 AM   
da Rock



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Status: offline 		When life gives you lemons, make lemonade.

When Mother Nature gives you wind, go sloping.

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RE: New Radian - 4/23/2009 1:29 PM   
Tom Nied



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Status: offline 		I knew I had it wrong, I ended up going to Home Depot and picked up a table saw.

< Message edited by Tom Nied -- 4/23/2009 1:58 PM >

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RE: New Radian - 4/23/2009 10:57 PM   
matrix-RCU


 

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Status: offline 		I flew mine last night also in 10+MPH winds and I agree, not as fun as those calm days with some nice thermals. I read somewhere that thermals are always present....yeah right...I couldn't find one (maybe they were mixed in with the high winds). It was probably too cold to generate any significant thermals....approx 48 degrees (yeah my hands were getting numb after the 4th climb)

I would just power up, head as far downwind as possible and then watch it slowly coast back while losing altitude....definitely not as rewarding as finding thermals that take it up and out of sight

Beautiful weather forecasted for tomorrow though! 71 degrees and 5-10 mph winds....cough, cough...I think I'm coming down with something....better call work right now!!!

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RE: New Radian - 4/24/2009 7:24 PM   
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Status: offline 		Hee hee! Yeah, work sometimes gets in my way to. Nice and sunny today, but winds still feirce, getting tired of it . In the meantime, built a handlaunch glider . 58 inch span, a bit heavy at 14 ozs, but seems to flaot real nice in the yard between gusts. Gonna go try it now at the park. If the wind destroys it, I'm out like 5$ of foam and 3 days designing/building fun. Here I go!

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RE: New Radian - 4/24/2009 8:40 PM   
CBM Racing


 

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Status: offline 		Back to the repair shop, again. Heheh. My hlg was no radian, but worked great for the amount of wind I had to fight. Radian woulda been better actually today, the took my homemade job and I had to do to much walking , radian would have been sweet with the monster lift today and I could have made it back against wind. Glueing fuse back together and putting larger rudder on and turning ailerons into flaps. Better luck next time!

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RE: New Radian - 4/25/2009 1:17 AM   
Tom Nied



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Status: offline 		CBM, what kind of foam are you using? As a grocery cashier, I saw a foam posterboard go by me today. I had some similar ideas.

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RE: New Radian - 4/25/2009 4:06 AM   
matrix-RCU


 

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Status: offline 		Had the Radian out again today, twice....those 5-10 mph winds forcasted turned out to be 10-15mph, gusting I'd say to 20 Found out that it'll climb in the drafts once it's high enough.....had a heck of a time getting her down though....the winds were overpowering the rudder and elevator controls.

One thing this plane is doing for my flying skills in general is improving my orientation. With the long flight times you really need to concentrate on which way the plane is heading....for instance, I know it's heading away from me in a slight right bank since that was the control input, yet visually it looks like it's pointing up and possibly banking left. So instintively you want to correct for the visual but if you stay with what you know your control inputs were eventually the visual comes around and matches up.....sometimes tough to overcome the mind game.

Waiting for light winds for the next expedition....without thermals it's just not as enjoyable...


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RE: New Radian - 4/25/2009 4:44 AM   
Tom Nied



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Status: offline 		matrix, I've noticed the same things regarding orientation. Sometimes I just let go of the right stick until I really have it understood. Especially when I'm not sure. Once I have it back in sight and have detected it's orientation, then I'll go from there. Just a note, don't lose it in the Sun, completely lost it once. Fortunately it flies by itself when needed.

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RE: New Radian - 4/26/2009 6:23 AM   
CBM Racing


 

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Status: offline 		For foam I'm just using pink insulation foam. Works good, light weight, and easy to work with. I sometimes lose orientation flying that high and far away. What I do is just put it into a left turn, then wait until it appears to turn to right, then I know that it is facing me more or less. Losing it at high altitude sure makes me pucker up for a few moments, all I can think of is, "it's gone! NOOOooo!" Then it comes into view and think, better get down some and back in aways. Such a thrill to climb it on nothing but warm air until almost out of sight, then when it goes out of sight that panicky feeling sticks with me for awhile. I'm hooked bad on it.

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RE: New Radian - 4/26/2009 2:02 PM   
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Status: offline 		I have been putting a rectangular piece of chrome trim sheet on my leading edge for visability. cut them about 1 1/2" x 4", round the corners. Then lay them over the leading edge. Make sure that you put as much below, as above. This way when you are really strugling WAAYY out there, they will flash as it porposes. If loosing it just call a soft circle, the sun reflects, like a strobe light! Then you get an idea where it is and that it is facing you, next time around you are prepared, and confident.
This will help get you higher and farther. Time to think about a $20 locating device. Make a lable,with your phone#, stick it in a very visable place. Lost airplanes do come home on there own. Keep em' up there! Now just imagine how high a 3m could fly! Snuts

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RE: New Radian - 4/26/2009 2:25 PM   
Tom Nied



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Status: offline 		Do guys ever use binoculars?

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