Jason Paul

Hello - I'm a total newbie. I'm not 100% sure I'm going to get a plane, but there's a good chance. I've been reading a bit on the forums and think that the Slo-V may be the plane for me, as ugly as it is.

As for instruction - I'll probably be taking care of that myself. There is a gas field (pretty nice actually) close to my house. However, I get the impression that you have to join the club and get a license, etc. for instruction - i.e. they're more geared toward gas planes. So, I'm not sure about getting instruction there. I can check with my LHS, but I'm generally a loner.

Here is my situation - please let me know if the Slo-V would be appropriate.

I'm brand new - never flown.
I will likely be learning alone.
I will have a fairly limited space, as in a football field or slightly larger.
I know nothing about RC at this point, so I'd rather start with a RTF plane.
I'm a sportkite flyer, so I will probably only want to fly a plane when the wind is low anyway.
I'm an adult and very careful with my stuff.

There may be a few other points I didn't mention, but based on the above, does the Slo-V sound like the right plane for me?

Thanks,
Jason

fredbobjoe

My Feedback: (2)

well, if you are going to fly when there is no wind, slo-v plus football field=FUNbut this plane cant take much, so be sure it is a windless day, but, it can handle a slight breeze, though. a sky scooter is alot more durable and can handle more wind and can be flown in a baseball field size area. that's all i have to say. have fun flying!

Rat1

It has been said in many forums that somethign with a pusher prop (prop behind the wing) is much better as a trainer. Some of these models include a T Hawk, Aerobird, Firebird etc. The frame work is built mainly out of this PCV plastic so the tend to be very durable. Only problem I have seen with the pusher type models is the prop will take chunks out of the wing if landings are fairly level. The Slo V is a tractor type plane with the prop out front. The prop is pretty durable itself but the prop shafts are pretty soft and will tend to bend in a nose in landing. Being the Fuselage stick is carbon fiber it is prone to shattering in hard nose ins. The Slo V is a good trainer but there better not be any wind higher then 3 mph for your first flights. I highly recomend using the 7 cell ParkZone J3 Cub battery rather then the weaker 6 cell Slo V battery. I also highly recomend sliding the wing all the way back to make the Slo V slightly nose heavy. A tail heavy plane will stall very quickly and crash hard were a nose heavy plan will fly but it will be sluggish.

Jason Paul

Thanks for the information. I came across the other trainers (T-Hawk, Aerobird, Firebird), but thought the Slo-V would be better because of my limited flying space. I've read several posts about how added speed = more required space. I'd also read what you said about the pusher props causing more damage after a crash.

Is the Sky Scooter available RTF?

Thanks,
Jason

banks04

My Feedback: (9)

If you have never flown get the slo-v cause its slo and the other planes are a bit faster.The slower the better in my opinion.I have a slo-v and its great like others have said tho wait for a no wind day 2 fly untill u get better.It will handle some wind but not alot.I have flown mine in 7-10mph winds but then its not like your flying your just fighting 2 keep it from crashing lol.The other planes are good but in my opinion get something slow.

Rat1

I am not meaning to disrepect or anything but what is holding you back from getting something not RTF????

If it is questions about servos and speedcontrols etc then most of the member here can leand a hand.

I personally recomend the Mountain Models Magpie for a trainer. you can get it with two different wings. One wing does not have ailerons but has moder dihedreal which helps it fly and turn without the use of ailerons. The other wing has ailerons but much less dihedreal for easier flight with ailerons.

As far as a radio system goes I highly recomend the Hitec Flash 4X which is one of the best inexpensive computer type radios on the market. They can usually be had in some of the classifieds adds for 35 to 45 dollars. For a receiver I highly recomend the Hitec 555. Just make sure it is the right shift for the transmitter you are using. Negative shift for Futaba and Hitec and Posistive shift for Jr and Airtronics.

Servos.

A good sized servo to use in most of these smaller Parkflyer type planes would be the GWS Naro Servos or Hitec 55 servos. GWS also has a smaller lighter servo call the Pico which works good for saving weight on planes that fly even slower.

Speed control. One of the more highly recomended speedcontrols is the Castle Creations Pixi series. I use the Pixi 20 on most of my applications. They also have a smaller speedcontrol but it handles less amperage.

The Magpie can be purchased with the GWS350 C motor which is also a fairly good power plant. I got my Magpie with the Kan 650 battery pack.

There is a slew of battery chargers that will charge both Nicd (not hardly used by many anymore) or NiMh which is more readily used. some of these chargers can be purchased new for around 50 dollars and even less if you can find a good used one someplace.

The assembly instructions for the Magpie are straight forward which means for an easy build. Pne thing to note is the recomendation for the spray on glue they recomend before using the wing tape. They call for the 3M super 77 adhesive. this can be purchased in many craft stores. Read the can carefully as some of the newer Super 77 now has acetone in it which will eat foam. Some building supply stores carry 3M Polystyrene Foam insulation 78 Spray adhesive which is claimed to be foam safe. I did a test spary with this and found that I had no eating of foam when I tried it.

some other things you would need are 5 min epoxy, Thin CA and maybe some oderless CA ,which is mostly foam safe.

I know Mountain Models has talked about offering a complete kit for the magpie which would include all the needed radio gear, transmitter(I think it is a Hitec radio),battery and charger for around 260.00 which is a steal in my book.

It is a just an option.

To answer your question about the Scooter, some have had ok to good results with this plane while others have not had. Yes it can be purchased in an RTF form. I myself am not too keen on RTFs anymore because of the radio frequency(27mhz, most commonly used in toys sold by department stores including toy cars, boats etc) they come in and some of the manufactures such as HobbyZone and ParkZone use radio gear in which you can not substitute other non ParkZone/HobbyZone parts if a replacment is needed. Meaning you must buy the parts from parkZone/HobbyZone to get the plane back in the air again.

Jet Screamer

My Feedback: (1)

I recently ordered a Slo-V and am waiting for it to arrive. My flying experience is about half a dozen times with a firebird outlaw. I never was able to land the Firebird outlaw properly, only crash landings. Is the Slo-V able to land in the grass or must it land on flat level hard ground? I thought maybe the larger wheels would permit a rolling grass landing. Thanks!

Rat1

Maybe if the grass is real short. In taller grass the wheels will bury in and flip the V up on its top. I land on a baseball Diamond or a gravel section or real short grass.

jackariah

I love my slo-v. I was new and my wife got me the plane for christmas.

I have wrecked the crap out of mine. However, now that I have ruined and bent back 1/2 dozen shaft props, (2) fusulages (both of which I reglued with CA and still work great), 1/2 dozen GWS 1180 props (stock 1147 props are durable, but I don't like the pitch), broke a few servo gears, have taped up the wing a bit, broke a set of wing braces, and finally cracked a wheel spoke (which I glued back)... ALL of this occured because of 2 reasons... 1. I flew it in the wind and 2. I like to flow low... these 2 do not work when you are new.

NOW... I have put a 1260 EFlite Prop (durable and great size and pitch), 6 and 7 cell battery (I personally like the 6 for slow flight), and have snipped the prop shaft back to reduce exposure to being bent. In no wind the plane is an ABSOLUTE pleasure to fly. It is calming and soothing to see just how slow you can fly it and to do lazy 8's in front of you. When it is calm I can literally fly around myself at an attena's distance away. When the wind picks up... WELL, I have gotten pretty good... and thus I like to fly it in a good steady breeze... gust are what kill you. I have flow it in 10+ winds with great fun.

Also, I can now fly upside down for great distances, left and right, and in fact can flight right side up... do a half loop and fly upside down and then push the nose back UP and put the plane into normal flight again. Death spirals, low altitude loops and touch and goes. etc. I am even starting to try some slip turns (my words for it), tail flips (pretty weak effort put can be done) etc.

I also, put a upgraded motor which is cool but uses more battery power and thus less time.

In general, I had a bit of buyers remorse a month into it because after all my crashed and replacements I could have bought a slow stick with a cheap controller, but now I don't feel that way. I have let a couple of person that I met at the park fly the slo-v, both of which had 15+ experience and both own stock Slow Sticks and both commented that the like the Slo-v flight characteristics. Maybe there were just being nice, but I did some tricks like a death spiral and pulled our a few feet before ground and they both said... "I don't think I could do that with my Slow Stick". What that means I do not know...

I am now good enough to fly it out my back yard over the 9th fairway of my golf coarse. I have a second story deck and launch the plane by hand (which I mostly do, however, ground lifts are very easy with no or little wind) and buzz around the coarse in between trees and such. It is a blast.

Again, in calm weather it is a pleasure to see fly and in a little wind... well that is a whole new thing... fun either way.

I am going to buy a new front wing, back wing, and a night module. Leave the decals off and use this plane for calm days. I will leave the other setup for windy days and for friends to fly.

Now that I am done wrecking, I am amazed at how little I spend to have such fun.

Please note... this is my first plane. I will adventually get others, but until then the Slo-v fits my needs.

Jason

Jason Paul

Thanks for the replies.

Rat, no offense taken. I was just looking for a RTF so I can save some hassle and some money. I'm trying to stay below $175 or so. I understand the point of PZ plane parts being unique to themselves and not transferrable to future planes. That is definitely something I'm taking into consideration. However, given my budget, I don't think I have a whole lot of choices when it comes to getting completely set up.

I'm just testing the waters right now. If I get a Slo-V and can't use the radio on anything else, that's OK - not ideal - but OK. I'll still be able to fly the Slo-V and even pass it down to the kids if I decide I want to get into flying a little more seriously.

If anyone has any suggestions for complete setups that would be good and within my budget, please let me know. Again, I know next to nothing about RC planes and am just learning the absolute basics right now. I'm not totally against getting an ATF and my own radio, I just have some stuff to learn first. I probably won't get anything for at least 2-4 weeks, so I'm in no rush.

Thanks,
Jason

Rat1

Do some searching on line for GWS dealers. They can set you up with a complete package for around 200.00. I know it is a tad more then you are looking to spend but it is worth a shot.

If you do go with the Slo V then make sure you stop there with the ParkZone products or RTf products. do some reading both here and Rcgroups.com. Rcgroups has a larger population of members for electric type flying. When it is not blowing then do some reading etc on the forums. There is such a vast base of knowledge available that you will learn everythign needed in a few weeks of reading and asking questions.

Jason Paul

Thanks again Rat. I've actually been trying to figure out how to set up a plane since this morning. I've still got lots of questions about how to match up appropriate radio equipment, motors, planes, and batteries. I have a lot of reading to do, but I may skip the RTF thing and go with my own radio and an ARF. We'll see.

I'll check out the RCGroups forum as well.

Thanks,
Jason

Time Pilot

Heed the wind warnings. I don't live there, but Texas sounds like a windy place. If you are teaching yourself, you'll want close to zero wind to learn to fly otherwise the wind will be pushing your Slo-V all over the place and you won't know the difference between what you are doing with the Tx and what the wind is doing to the Slo-V.

Jet Screamer

My Feedback: (1)

Just got my Slo-V today and am wondering what if anything else I need to do to the plane to make it better/stronger before my first flight. I've already assembled per the instruction booklet. Thanks!

Rat1

Do not bother wth the battery that comes shipped with the Slo v. Go back and purchase the 7 cell 600 mah battery used in the ParkZone j3 cub. I fly mine with the wing in the rear most position as it is recomended in the manual to move the wing rearward for flying out doors.

When picking up your slo V make sure you pick it up infront of the main wing. Do not pick it up behind the wing as you will put pressure on the control rods which may strip the servos and or bend and break the control rod guides.

Fisher

I would not dump the 6-cell battery so quickly. It definitely has less power but I cycled mine once and recharged it before the first flight and it has two advantages.

1. The plane flies a little slower (not much) so it generally crashes a little slower.

2. The battery is a little lighter so the plane seems to take less damage when it hits the ground.

I have flown the 6 and 7 cell packs back to back and like I said, no reason to dump the 6 cell. My 12 year old son prefers the 6 cell for just the reasons I mentioned.

No matter what plane any new person gets they will be crashing and repairing it. I very much agree with jackariah about the Slo-v. It has its limits but they expand with your flight skills. Once I got the hang of putting it in the air, some loops and landing fine I thought I was going to get board with it. But you can start pushing yourself then and have way more fun. The 7-cell pack is very nice for pulling yourself out of a low level stall etc... With that extra kick you just need to get the plane level and give it full throttle to keep it in the air.

I just ordered a Stryker body, Rx, motor, etc... but no TX and will us my Slo-v TX. It is all set up and seems to work fine. I have not run into the problems Rat has mentioned with the lower priced Electronics so I am very happy with the ParkZone products. Their mix of price and performance for a new person in this hobby is the only reason I am in it now. But I can feel the pull to look at Real RC gear soon.

Any new flier should definitely get the FMS flight simulator since it is free, works great and has a Slo-v model to practice with. Just do a search for FMS flight simulator. Also go to Gary Gunnerson's web site for extra models.

Pick a calm morning and get flying. Then get a night flight module and pick a calm night to get flying.

Have fun!!!

Jet Screamer

My Feedback: (1)

THis FMS flight simulator sounds nice but what do I need to use it? All I have is my mouse and keyboard and now the Slo-V controller.

Fisher

I use a joystick. I think others have used their radios equipped with a USB or Serial cable. Since you and I only have the Slo-v TX we need to us a joystick. I think you can pick one up at the local Best Buy or CompUsa for about $10.

http://gunnerson.homestead.com/files/fms_models.htm

http://n.ethz.ch/student/mmoeller/fms/index_e.html

You can use a keyboard for control but I doubt that that you would learn much about controlling the plane with a TX. The joystick is close enough to the stick on the TX to really help.

simplyloge

Jason.

Go with the slo-v if you are going to be self taught. The PZ tx has 2 modes on it which will help you from over controlling the plane ( mode A). At $130 you can crash this thing and not feel bad....it's easy to rebuild or fix .......if your experience is anything like mine....crashing is part of the learning curve. After you get over the fear of crashing the slo-v.....you will catch on quick and really enjoy the plane.

ajboehm

Fisher:

Wow, that FMS software with the Slo-V simulator is great

If I would have had it sooner, I could have possibly save a wing assembly, some props, and a few other plastic pieces that have not survived my learning process.

Thanks again for the reference.

jackariah

KEEP THE 6 CELL BATTERY PACK... again I like it better than the 7 cell. When I buy the next battery (3rd battery) it will be a 6 cell. With that said... I do like the 7 cell for higher speed acrobatics.

Get the 1260 Eflite prop, snip the tip off the prop shaft, and that is about it...

fun fun fun

Fisher

ajboehm:

Your welcome but you and I should be thanking the kind harted folks who wrote and distribute the FMS for free.

Happy flying.

Jason Paul

Thanks everyone. After doing more research, I think I'm probably going to get the Slow Stick instead. I should get the same flight characteristics, but more expandable electrics/radio. Due to a generous benefactor, I should be able to get a full setup for about the same price.

Thanks,
Jason

Rat1

Slo V or Slow stick heed the warnign about wind or slight breezes when first trying to fly it. Yes both have been flown in winds up to 10 mph but then again these people that have done it have been flying these slower flying models for quite a while.