nonaste

Has anybody had any experience with this bird. I'm a rank newbie at this. I bought one on the recommendation of the hobby store resident expert and instructor. I was gonna get an F27 Stryker, figuring foam, replaceable cheap foam parts, figuring how could I go wrong. He said get the Commander which is two channel and a great beginning machine. Gawd what an awful experience I had. I went to to the BIG park, figuring park flyer, right? 7 am in the morning, no wind, at least not on the surface. Sheesh, right off the top when I hand launch this thing it promptly does a nose dive and digs the prop into wing. A little packing tape later I reopen the manua,l which doesn't discuss nose dives but does mention these two tiny screws beneath the v-tail. So I mess with them as instructed. I relaunch and off this thing soars like up to about two hundred feet after a great deal of porposing, wing overs, dives and other aerobatics I didn't think possible. I believe a lot of this can be attributed to my being behind the power curve. But this thing seems hard to control. Apply power, 45 degree climb. Kill power 45 degree dive. The thing started drifting west and I lost control about 500 feet away at 200 feet altitude. It landed in somebody's back yard, never to be seen again. This aircraft is very hard to control. Does anybody have any input on the flight charcteristics of this bird? I know a lot of my problems are probably created by me but I just wonder is this thing really a beginner bird?

INeedHelp

My Feedback: (1)

Not sure about the Commander but the Firebird 2 I started with flew great out of the box. Sure sounds like something was wrong with the plane to make it act like that.

cwildt

Sounds like the tail was way our of adjustment to begin with, then you went too far with the adjustment. My Firebird II tended to climb and stall, but incremental adjustment of those screws fixed it. HOWEVER, I live in a breezy area and my plane still wants to porpoise sometimes, but throttle control ( or even a slight turn) will dampen it. Follow the manual (next time).

nonaste

Yup, the tail was way out of adjustment. Just like the man says, "RTFM!"

Trung

I learned on this bird man, my first launch it too, nose dived and chiped the wing. At first it porposed like crazy cuz you gotta hold the throtle stick at a precise position... not too much nor too little. That the only bad thing about it I think. But with practice it's pretty easy to fly, actually very easy to fly. But then it also gets boring very fast, but ohh well it taugh me how to fly so not too bad. And read the instruction on how to adjust the tail to make it climb less, and adjust accordingly so it climbs at about 20 to 30 degrees at full throttle. If needed use the lil plastic thingy uder the wing. I had a blast with this modification, otherwise it's very hard to keep a steady flight. Hope that helps, but you mentioned that it landed in someones backyard and never to be seen again so I dunno if this is too helpful now.

Troglotech

The Commander is a real docile bird to fly....in the right wind conditions. This was my first single motor plane after a series of the 'vector thrust' control types and I found it really easy to fly. It sounds to me like you found some blustery conditions at altitude. Without the third channel your only elevation control is the throttle and as soon as you hit a head wind it will want to climb....hit a reasonably brisk head wind and it will loop (as you found out)....then it will dive. I flew my Commander many times (in the hudreds) and it was only in these conditions where I had a problem, in all other conditions it was great to fly, you CAN do acrobatics by picking up speed in a spiral dive but they are limited.

I would recommend fitting a 'key finder' fob to your next one....at least you will have some chance of finding it!

nonaste

Thanks guys. I now am convinced that all my first flight problems come under the category of DFU, Dumb F*****g User[] I ordered a keyfinder and got another Commander off of Ebay. I gotta admit. I'm a little nervous about relaunching this thing. I'm gonna go further upwind into the park, make sure it's calm, and try to keep it upwind of me. And try to make all the necessary wing adjustments.[sm=drowning.gif]

Troglotech

I would recommend that you run the Commander in 'pro' mode as the standard mode makes it difficult to turn the plane back into the wind which is an easy way to lose it. If, on your next flight, the plane starts porpoising, bring it straight back down (it's better to crash it than to lose it) and back off the control horns half a turn. The Commander is a little harder to fly with the 7-cell battery due to the centre of gravity being pushed further forward, it is better to start with the 6-cell until you are happy flying it. With the 7-cell it tends to come back to earth rather quickly. Another Forum member recommended cutting a slice off the polystyrene block that sits behind the battery (about 1/2") and putting this slice in front of the battery when using the 7-cell and behind it when using the 6-cell, that would certainly make sense. The trim of the plane when delivered should be spot-on, it may be that you adjusted your last Commander too far from ideal settings, it sounds like it needed full power to climb and when you reduced the throttle the airspeed was too low to properly sustain flight.

EDIT: I forgot my top tip for the Commander....... The trim controls (the little levers below and to the side of the joysticks) work differently to most RC systems in that they 'learn' their positions whenever the battery is reconnected in the plane and the TX is switched back on. So what you can do is....fit a new battery to the plane, pull the throttle trimmer right back towards you (minimum) and then switch on the TX as normal (not forgetting to pull the throttle back to get 'pro' mode). You will then find that whenever you push the throttle trim fully forwards the motor will run at a medium speed. This means that you can use the trim control as a 'cruise' setting....get the plane to a reasonable height and then push the throttle trim fully forwards and you can cruise around getting used to flying with just the directional controls....very relaxing....the plane will slowly lose height but I found I could fly around at about 10 foot off the ground for ages only using the throttle for turns. The 'trim' trick only works when you change the battery and remember to have the trim fully towards you when you first switch the TX on.....

nonaste

Thanks Troglotech. Nice instructional piece. I'll certainly give it a whirl.

bhpd1438

even though the firebird commander is meant for 'beginners', you still have to remember a few simple points......

1) You still have to be gentile on the power and stick.
2) If you feel like you are losing it, GET YOUR FINGER OFF OF THE POWER, and try, as hard as it may seem, to get off the stick also. This airplane will usually right itself if you just let go. it will glide (it's almost like a powered glider). You are less likely to eat the wing if you have no power when you crash or have a 'hard landing'.

GOOD LUCK.

ps, remember to toss it into the wind and land into the wind. if you take off with a tailwind, you could easily cause it to nose down.

nonaste

Darn good advise. I've been doing a little sim time with FMS, using a 2-ch T-Hawk which was designed by some gent and it behaves precisely like my Commander.

My wife says "Keep the damn bird in the box until you can fly the sim" I agree with her.

Troglotech

nonaste......did you get to fly the Commander this weekend? The weather was pretty good in Hampshire....good flying weather....so how did you get on?

nonaste

Hi there. I haven't flown it yet. Weather was calm Sunday but I've been practicing a lot with FMS, trying to improve my control. I can do quite well in a dead calm simulation. However, when I dial in 5 mph the same thing happens to me that happens in the park. The bird launches well into the wind but when I turn downwind she takes off out of sight I can't get turned back into the wind. And now, as I write this, something's occurred to me. The wind speed I dialed in is 5 m/s, which I think is 5 meters per second and certainly NOT 5 mph...[sm=eek.gif] Hmmm, I'm gonna have to figure out the conversion and dial in whatever is 5 mph and see how I do. Hopefully, I can fly it because it is seldom dead calm around here.

nonaste

Holy cow No wonder I couldn't control it. I was trying to fly the thing in 12 mph winds. Lol. I shall now dial in 2.0 m/s which is equivalant to the 5mph I want and try again.

Troglotech

That's going to make quite a difference.......multiply m/s by 2.3 to give you miles per hour or by 3.6 to give you kilometers per hour. I hope you get to fly the real thing soon....the Commander is great fun......