eich

So after a long time of not flying, I decided to get back into the sport. Well electrics have come a long way in 10 years and I decide to get a park flyer.

After some research I tried the "Firebird Outlaw." Three words..."Piece of &*$#"

So I decided to go on to something with 3 channels. My final choices were the Aerobird, GWS Beaver, and the Art-Tech Wing-Dragon. As you could guess from the subject line, I went with the last one.

To start off, you can find info about the Wing-Dragon at:
http://www.art-tech.cn
http://www.powerlinehobbies.com

What can I say about the plane? Well it has taken a few bad crashes (almost all pilot error) and has come out just fine. A little 5 min epoxy for the tail, and you are ready to go with just a bruised ego. It can easily take off from the ground on packed dirt or cement, and it can do any aerobatics possible with only 3 channels. It is nice to note that the motor has a standard speed controler, not just an on/off swithch.

But what about the downside? I have two major complaints. First, the landing gear. This is a tail dragger and the front gear are the wire type that bend even when I have the once in a while perfect landing. Second, the tail gear is a piece of *@(#, and broke very quickly. I replaced it with some spring steel and a replacement wheel, and is doing just fine.

Second complaint is the radio, The two origional servos have already died (after about a month), and I occasionally get a control "fart" for half a second (This caused one bad crash when landing on a windy day).

Now comes the real question, would I recomend this plane. The answer would be a conditional yes. So what the heck are the conditions? If you already have experence with other RC toys of this level, or are teaching somebody how to fly (and you know how to), I would strongly suggest this plane. I would NOT suggest this for someone without any RC experence.

On days with no wind, you can cut the throttle back to 1/4 and fly about as fast as someone can run. But if you then bring up the power to full (and move your control rods to a more throw), you can have fun with looping, lazy-eights, 2ch rolls, etc.

So for about $120 this plane has brought me back to RC fun, but just know what you are getting into.

I'll post pics if people want.

geiger

Yes, I have one, and purchased one for my father.

I have crashed mine spectacularly many times (I'm a beginner) ... nose into a parking lot (a few times), into tree branches, wing cartwheels on landing. There has been damage except the wings skew (as they are held by elastics) and the prop eats into the styrofoam. My solution is to patch with Poly instafill light spackling compound. The little tail wheel is not strong - I'd advise filling the spokes with epoxy, or replacing it. The main gear bends easily. On my father's plane the gear wire snapped at the 90 bend while inserting - definitely defective but easy to replace. Infact, we flew it anyway without gear in a field, hand launching. In tall grass it landed better without the gear, although the wings catch and skew, and the prop eats the styrofoam. We also snapped the wing spar, but just epoxied the whole wing together and it's fine.

I've gotten a bit better at flying. I find takeoffs difficult because of awkward steering. Hand launches are easy with full throttle, cutting quickly to 1/2 or 1/3 throttle for flying.

So far, I've had lots of fun, and the plane takes alot of abuse.

Hugh

seismic

hi
can it carry 9volt battery and a wireless camera like that

http://www.raidentech.com/24ghzmiwicoc.html

(front of the plane, it has really wide space)

PigHeaded

My Feedback: (8)

Hello,

I just bought this for my son to practice with. I just finished putting it together. I am not happy with the hardware but it was a cheap plane and if my son does well with it, than it was money well spent. I do like the plastic fuselage. I expected it to be a styro one. I like the 1000mAh 7 cell pack, it should give a good duration flight. On initial testing I found the servos to be low quality. They hum constantly. I expect them to live a short life. The plastic control horn on the elevator came lose during testing and had to be refastened. I expect to dab a little thick CA on the horn to keep it connected. The wing spar socket split when I attempted to attach the wings together. This did not matter much as I had planned to epoxy the area anyway.

The setup can easily be replaced with better gear. It is all easily accessible. It depends on how long you want to keep playing with this bird. I might replace it all if my son really likes the plane.

I liked the CD that came with the plane. Lots of good info. One item stated was that the battery should be disconnected once you have finished using the airplane and before you turn off your transmitter. I failed to do this and had the plane setting on my table. 20 minutes latter the engine started up and raced off the table. When I went to grab the plane I was bitten my the prop before I could get the battery off. So of course I paid for treating it as a toy. Please note that this is not a toy motor. I have a couple of good gashes in my finger to prove this. Just happy is was not a glow engine

It will get it's first flight tomorrow. I think it should do fine. I had hoped to use my peak charger to charge the pack, but it does not used a standard connector. Does anyone know where to find the connectors. I would like to make an adapter so I can do a quick charge at the field.

Thank you,
Jerry

raddboy

The connectors are "Tamiya small" as seen here for purchase at [link=http://cheapbatterypacks.com]Cheap Battery Packs[/link]. Look under "connectors". I've got this plane and find it to be everything I wanted. I used to fly RC Power and Sail planes before coming back to the sport with this EP trainer. Flys like a dream and absorbs a huge amount of abuse. Mine also came with a spare wing and 1100 NiMH battery pack. The only problem is that it came from Hong Kong with a Mode 1 transmitter (throttle/rudder right stick, elevator left stick). I opened it up though and converted it to Mode 2 (rudder/elevator right, throttle left)......much better. The ESC (Electronic Speed Control) seems to work okay, but not the best. Everything however is as it should be and this is a lot of plane for the money. Does okay up to 15 MPH wind too!

jjjones

I've been looking at these on Ebay. The transmitters in all the pictures from various sellers seem to be set up so the left stick can only move up/down, and the right stick only right/left. What's up with that? RADDBOY, you got yours direct from Hong Kong? How did that work? Any tips? I'm a newbie, and would like to try it out on the cheap.

raddboy

Go to Ebay and search on "Wingo"...the Wing Dragon will should up selling from $70-$80 plus $15 shipping. Ask them what mode the transmitter is in if that matters to you. I ordered mine directly from Hong Kong because Hobby-Lobby didn't have them in stock yet. Otherwise, I would have bought from them! Yep, the radio came in Mode 1 and I had to open it up to convert it to Mode 2. For that reason alone, I would buy from Hobby-Lobby in the future. Yet, one I got from Hong Kong is perfect! They even threw in an extra wing and spare 1100mah battery. She flies wonderfully, does loops and even a little inverted flight if you're guick on the gimbles. :^) The OEM 1000mah is okay giving 10 min flights. With the additional 1100mah pack and two more 1050mah that I picked up from CheapBatteryPacks.com I'm ready for some serious fun. After being out of RC for almost 15 yrs. I'm simply using this girl as my re-trainer, but she's a blast to fly! In a few weeks, I'll pick up a gentle 4 ch. with ailerons.

mogo

I just recently purchased the wing-dragon from Hobby-Lobby and had to wait almost 2 months because it was on back order. Let me tell you it was well worth it! The remote has up-down left right on the right stick and a throttle slide control on the left. I have never flown before and my first time was a great one. A little bounce on the landing but no damage! I would highly recomend this plane to any beginer and would also recomend Hobby-lobby to order from as far as the transmitter setup goes. Have fun, i sure am!

macmamujo

We are getting the new and improved ones in 12 days. All the electric componants are upgraded.(ie ,stronger servos, new rx internals,better antenna shaft for more range).


www.parkflyers.com

crash99

My Feedback: (3)

I do not know If I would buy one if it came from powerlines.[] So far, we bought one for Christmas. The speed controller appeared to be bad (No control at all) so then sent me another one. The speed controller was also bad. As soon as we connected the servos the plane acted like we were getting hit by RF. I reported it to the hobby shop and he thought I must be having a senior moment. He asked me to come into the shop.

So we tried a 3rd with a new motor and the same thing happen. So we tried a 4th and the same thing happen again. I have tried known good servos(GWS and powerlines), Known good receivers (gws, Futuba, the owner's JR system, Powerlines) and 4 different speed controllers. The first batch of airplanes worked great due to the owner of the hobby shop brought one out. That sold me on this airplane for my son's Christmas.

I placed a 10a eflite speed controller in the plane with the GWS and Futuba receivers with no problems. That’s why I think the problem is with the speed controllers. I was told by powerlines it was modulation problems with my receivers. [:@] Hum ............ If I was new to RC, I would think it was my stuff.

I am waiting for a larger speed controller to come in, to place it in the inside of this Wing Dragon so my son could fly it. The hobby shop folks offered to refund me the price of the Wing Dragon but I thing this will be a great flying airplane for my son. I would not promote powerlines to anyone.

Thanks
Crash99

raddboy

Here's a detail that blows me mind....I know...small task. Anyway, the ESC on my (HongKong) Wing Dragon say 50A!!! WHAT!?!? I'm going to put a watt meter on the motor this weekend and see what it's drawing, but this is probably 2x overkill!

PigHeaded

My Feedback: (8)

Hello All,

I bought this plane on Ebay for my son to fly. We took it out and attempted to fly it. It would ROG very well with a little rudder control. The airplane lifted off about 50 feet and when the plane reached about 15 feet I attempted to turn left, no response. Then I tried right and the plane banked right I leveled her out but still needed to trim the elevator so I had to hold some up on the stick. I was going to bring her around so I could trim it out and as I was banking right the engine stopped and then started again and stopped again. The plane nosed in but I managed to level it before it hit. Brought it back and tried it again. Same scenario as before except no engine out. So I banked it right and was going to trim the elevator out so i began to bring it around for a trim pass but it leveled out and started heading away from me. No response from the controls. The plane looked like it wanted to turn but would level it self and kept going. It started a slow decent and finally nosed in 400 feet away. When I got her there was a chunk of the wing missing from a prop hit. Finally decided to do full range test. So started walking the plane as my son hit the rudder. At about 70 feet the controls became erratic the elevator and rudder were jumping around.

I replaced the receiver with a Hitec 555 and adjusted my Futaba 6xa transmitter and checked out the controls. Much better than that am TX I got from with the plane. I set it up so that the rudder and elevator are on the right stick and throttle on the left. I also get much better engine control now. I believe I was getting interference using the am radio. I still need to fix the wing and fix the rudder throw problem then take it out for another attempt. I don't expect to see this kind of problem again. If so, than I will have to pull the speed controller and replace it with another one.

I like the plane and I want it to fly. It gives my son a chance to learn without having to risk a glow plane. It is big and bright and looks great in the air, just hope this fixes my problems.

Thank you,

Jerry

jjjones

Hey RADDBOY- How did you convert to Mode 2? DId it involve soldering?

raddboy

Yes, converting to Mode 2 involved soldering and moving gimbels from one side to the other.

Swapping the gimbels left to right isn't for the faint of heart. It involves using a Dremel tool to carefully grind down some plastic tabs in order to move a slide varistor that's connected to the right gimbel(rudder) to the left so that the left gimbel controls elevator(as it comes)and rudder(as it's modified). That leaves the right to control the throttle only. When you've got it to this state, then swap the full left gimbel assembly to the right and right gimble assembly to the left and don't forget the trim varistors. Now it's in mode 2.


Kevin

raggeldyman

Hi all, mabey not the best place to ask this but this is the only post I can find on the wing dragon.
I have flown mine twice (only the third time I've flown)It flys good but wind is a real problem.
By my figures it has a wing loading of something like 7.5 oz per sqft which puts is into the glider range as far as wing load goes. Agan by my figures i need to add somethhing around a pound to get it in to the sport plane range of wing loading. My intuition says that cant be right not enugh power to fly ect. What I would like to know is if anyone has looked at this tried difrent loadings (adding weight trimed wings ect) and or is it posible to make it fly better in the wind. Or should I just wait for light wnd days to fly it?

raddboy

10-15 mph windspeed is max for this plane. The light wing loading is what makes it so gentle and slow which is perfect for training. You could certainly experiment with greater wing loads, but as you stated, I'm not sure there's enough motor to compensate. I personally feel that the Wing Dragon handles MORE wind than most trainers. Some of the more reputable ones (slow stick, etc) are smaller and even MORE sensitive to wind. Hey, let us know how it goes!

golferjon

Hey,

I am new to flying and I can't handlaunch the "Wing Dragon"(landing gear broke when I was putting it in) It just flies into the ground. Also Are there anyways to make the main wing stronger?


Thanks, Jon

raddboy

Jon and everyone,
Test glide your Wing Dragon into the wind first! No power! Depending on the headwind, you(or a buddy) should EASILY be able to hand toss this plane and glide it in for a nice landing 30 ft. away. It sounds like Jon didn't have the elevator trimmed out before flight. More up-elevator on the trim tab. Once you have these hand tosses working well, then go for throttle up.

Kevin

golferjon

What is the "Trim Tab"? I also noticed that when I would hold it in my hand(full throttle) and I turned the rudder a direction it would pull that way, same with the elavator but when I tried to make it climb(held the elavator up) it had no pull up it just tried to go down(or didn't move)I also tried to put the survo on the highest notch so it had most pull up I havent flown yet but I hope it works! Is there anyway to fix this?

Thanks, Jon

raddboy

The trim tab is the "micro adjustment" slide next to the gimbel(stick). There is usually one for elevator and one for rudder in a 3 ch. system. Looking at the rear stabilizer assembly, the elevator should be near flat with the horizontal stab or maybe a little turn upwards. The rudder should be in perfect alignment with the vertical stabilizer. Adjust these with the transmitter and receiver on using the trim tabs. Next, check the CG (Center of Gravity) on your Wing Dragon. You should be able to reach underneath the wing next to the fuselage and pick up the plane with right index finger under the right wood wing spar and left index finger under the left wood wing spar. It should balance right about there. If it tips forward, you will have to add some weight towards the rear. Once it's balanced, find a little head wind and give her a toss. She should glide straight and you should be able to land her gently. BTW - the landing gear isn't very sturdy and will bend after almost every landing. It's bends back easily and often however.

golferjon

Hey,

One last question is there any way to make the plane stronger(wing,fuelsulage,etc.)?


Thanks for all your help, Jon

raddboy

There are probably ways to make the plane stronger, but it would add weight. I personally find this trainer to be INCREDIBLY strong. When I first started, this plane took an inordinate amount of abuse and kept coming back. Here's a funny that happened to me at the local flying field a couple weekends ago. In spite of the dihedral in the main wing, this girl will do inverted flight and flat spins. After a 5-7 second inverted session, I noticed something dangling from the fuselage......THE BATTERY!!! You can imagine the instability that a swinging battery would have on it's flight characteristics by constantly changing the CG. It was doing some serious porpoising through the air as I brought her around for final approach. Somehow I got her on the ground in one piece as she slid under a picnic table for refuge. I've since added some velcro to the inside battery compartment. Hey, I even got some Testors paint and painted the pilot to look more realistic.

mogo

Hey Radboy do you have any pictures of your Wing Dragon you could post? I will post some of mine in the nexted couple of days.

golferjon

Hey,


That was close!! I read on a site beginnerparkflyers.nexuswebs.net-index2.html that you can put a strip of duct tape on the front edge and back to make it stronger. I already did this on mine and tested the balence and it is perfect! I also think one of the main problems with the "Wing Dragon" is that the wings turn if it crashes and the propller chewes up the wing. I fixed this put getting tighter rubber bands now it won't even move an inch!

Jon

raddboy

Sure, here's my Wing Dragon

and here's my latest addition