cloudwalker

Hi Guys, I have read very good reports on the P arkzone Radian so far, but trawling the forums I read some disturbing reports about props breaking . O.K These reports go back quite a few years, but if there was an issue with props breaking and fire walls being damaged, has the problem been resolved, if indeed ther was a problem. Thanks in advance for any reply. Bill

OzMo

My Feedback: (3)

Hi Cloudwalker,
Prop problem indeed is history. But even if you happened accross an old stock plane its still a GREAT PLANE!
I have been very impressed with the Radian. I am a tiny bit more advanced in my skill levels BUT I STILL WANT ONE
They signal lift quite well and are just to much simple relaxing fun.
My flying buddy has been able to find lift sooner and more often with his Radian than I can with my built up sailplanes.[:@]

pault

My Feedback: (34)

hello..........the radian is a great sailplane.........you will not be disapointed.....i have not had a prop issue....pault

cloudwalker

Hi ozmo and pault, Thanks for your reply. I have been on to horizon and they tell me the prop problem has been sorted. The new props end with -1 Bill

aeajr

My Feedback: (2)

Prop issue is over.

Firewall problems seem to be very isolated. Ibelieve they are more pilot related than product related. I have mine for 18 months. Stil lflying same prop and firewall is fine.

davidj

Just got back from a Radian One Design TD contest with 30 second motor runs. We had 8 expert and 8 novice pilots and we got 6 rounds in. At the end we had a group launch with about 14 radians all at the same time. TOO MUCH FUN

JeffinTD

A buddy let me fly his Radian, to which he had added flaps. The next day I picked up a Radian Pro bind and fly. I believe they share the same prop and firewall. Mine's been fine, though I have an extra spinner and prop (just because).

Both versions are a lot of fun.

w0pya

I have a Radian Pro with a climbing issue. I am reading about 55 W on the power meter with the stock prop. the radian just climbs and has an issue with the nornmal Nebraska wind.

changed to a CAM 10x8 folding prop. power meter reads about 217W. sure climbs great to gliding alt. (abt 400 ft)

anyone know what the power should be with the stock prop?

cheers, w0pya

aeajr

My Feedback: (2)

With the stock prop it should be about 170 watts.  55 watts does not make sense at all.

w0pya

tks fer the reply. 170W sounds about right, remembering the way the pro climbed the first bunch of flights. I think the pitch of the blades is reducing with air load. guess the only way to check it is replace the blades or the spiner and blades.

rain nd cool today, tks again fer the reply.
cheers, w0pya

w0pya

Radian Pro Prop: climb issue and power issue solved. I removed the stock prop and spinner and installed a DK 50403 ALU spinner and Aero-naut 10x8 blades. power meter show 217W and climbs to gliding alt. in about 15 seconds. Nebraska wind no issue! back to having fun, still trying to break 10min. glide time.
cheers all.w0pya

DUCO

Sounds like a winner, I love mine and I too changed the prop as comes w/bird.

rotorbroke

If you are looking for simple, motor assisted, sailing pleasure, once you go Radian you will never go back. I am thermally challanged, and I regularly get 40 minutes from a 1300 mAh battery. No maintanence but a little CA and packing tape here and there. Stop my truck at a park, attach the wings, add a battery, throw into the wind, and enjoy. Bring sunscreen.

w0pya

maybe someone will send some lift to eastern Nebraska.
We had a Radian Pro gathering today sponsered by the local SWIFT glider group. Eight R-Pros and lots of good flying. Temps were about 92F by the time we quit. With an onboard timer (cam) and a 30 second motor run managed to just make eight minuets for the best time.
Plan is to do it again.

keep em flying. larry

Zor

Hello everyone,

I am not sure if this is the proper thread to discuss "radian sailplane" problems.

I just bought one (see pics) and putting it together I ran into a severe connection problem.

All four connectors from the receiver to the flaps and ailerons are very loose.
Two will not even stay together. No feel of any resistance upon insertion and just fallout easily.
That is not a reliable electrical connection.

I wonder if anyone has encountered this problem with their radian.

Has anyone been able to remove the black plastic housing of the female connectors so that they could be squeezed and provide good solid connection ? That mean 12 females to be tightened.

It is hard to believe that such poor quality is coming from Parkzone which I think is Hobbico.

It is time consuming and expensive to run around and try to findnew small connectors to replace likely all eight (8) connectors (males would have to be changed as well to be of the same type as the new females.

Anyone feedback will be highly appreciated.

Many thanks.

Zor

FrankFuss

Make sure the connectors are actually seating all the way. With mine, on the Y-cables, the pins in the female connectors were offset in one direction. I had to bend them a little so that they were centered. Other that that I had no problems. Good luck.

Zor

Hi FrankFuss,

Thanks for your response. It is much appreciated.

Ya !!! ___Good luck is what I need in this case.

I have seen lots of ARF and RTF at the flying field but I never played with them myself.
They were not mine.

This is the first ever RTF I have acquired in all my years of modeling.
I now had the opportunity to see how cheap and poor quality they can be.

I even reinforced the fuselage rear end as it was flexing so much just ahead of the stabilizer.
the cross section of foam is quite small. A friend at the field had told me about it and had done it on his Radian.

The Spectra I am building has no comparison. The regular structure of balsa and balsa sheeting is by comparison solid as a rock. I only have more work to do on the wings. The rest is all done..

I managed to squeeze inall the metal female connectorand had the initial flight but I have no confidence in the reliability of these cheap connectors. It is a good thing that this is a model I do not really care about. If it fails and smashes to pieces I have lots of Weldbond and duck tape .
Also lots of accumulated foam from the grocery and from packagings.

It is tun to fly and very responsive. Of course being all foam and nearly all the weight that close to the CG it definitely need dual throws and some exponential which I now have to do. I am used to models in the 7 to 12 lbs while this is only a bit over 2lbs (34.6 oz) .

I bought it on impulse. I bought the Spectra to have an electric sailplane but I can hardly find the time to finish it. This one was finished in about one hour Hee! Hee! .

I think "old age" is catching up with me.

Best regards de Zor.

FrankFuss

Hi Zor,

When you reinforce the rear end, check the balance because of the added weight.

I left my Radian Pro mostly stock. I added a light carbon strip reinforcement along the center of the elevator. I worked the elevator to free up the hinge. I carefully reshaped the elevator and rudder pushrods so they had a gentle bend that matched the pushrod tube. This and a little graphite lube freed up their movement considerably. The wing tube was a tight fit so I had to relieve it a little.

I don't think there is a problem with the flex in the fuselage for thermal type flying as long as you can avoid hard landings. It is after all only a foam model and must be treated gently. I might use a little fiberglass packing tape if I try a field with a rougher landing surface.

My goal was to try the full-house foam glider to see how I liked it before I decided to spend more money on a better composite glider.

I used an Spektrum AR6210 receiver, which was good idea because I see that I get many fades at longer distances so it is good to have the extra remote receiver.

I have never had an AFR that I did not have to spend a lot of time to get everything working well and fixing any manufacturing or design flaws. I probable spent more like 6 hours getting my Radian Pro ready. Much of that time was spent getting the radio setup to my liking.

Regards,
Frank

Zor

w0pya and all interested in the Radian sailplane,

I am using your post "w0pya" for the following observation for two reasons.
1- You are referring to the propelller.
2- I am a ham also and active on 80, 40 and 20 meters. VA3?? and VE3??? (two licenses).

I noticed that the prop originally mounted on this Radian does not turn in a flat plane 90 degrees to the shaft axis. It turns following the periphery of a wide based cone.

The blades axis of rotation is further back than their CG and the mass acting at the CG of the blades takes priority over the forward force of the thrust created by the blades

As a result the blades are forming a wide based cone while rotating at any speed (RPM).

Of course the thrust is still there but I found this an interesting observation.
I also wonder why the sloppiness in the blades axis ( which allows the blade folding back) is so loose.

I am considering this as just "plain poor quality" of the components like the electrical connectors that are used on this model.

Oh well ___it was only more than $300.00 CDN so we can spend lots of time fixing things or replacing some of the supplied components.

What else is new in this industry beside high cost and poor quality.

73 Y0PYA

Zor

OzMo

My Feedback: (3)

err what??
On the blade loose issue I set mine just past tight enough to hold position then loosen a tiny bit till they flop. Use lock tight on the nuts. I make this adjust right after installing the props before the locktight sets. Centrifical force will keep 'em perpendicular to the shaft with power on. They NEED to be loose enough to fold back when the power is off.

Zor

Red inserts by Zor.
Some comments below may be helpful for some new Radian owners and perhaps even older owners.

One things that I found "annoying" is that the system comes with a charger that needs 10 to 15 DC volts to feed the charger.

I like to charge the batteries in my shack and monitor as they charge. I do not have time to spend outdour using the battery (ries) of my vehicles in the driveway. The cord is not long enough to plug into the cigar lighter in the dash and keep the lipo outside the vehicle. That cigar lighter plug-in connector does not fit very well to a battery in the vehicle engine area.
Sure the model packaging says "just fly" . Some industry people are just very shortsighted or not very "intelli____" Anyone can figure it out.

Fortunately I have 13.8 volts filtered DC supply working off the 117 V AC available in my shack and was able to make adaptation to that supply. I can still use the cigar lighter connector that came with the charger while at the flying field.

Best to you and all Radian fliers.
It is fascinating to read about anyone's activity, problems and solutions.

Zor

Zor

Hello OzMo,

Thank you very much for your good posting.

It appears you do not have the folding propeller supplied with the Radian pro that I bought.

I had noticed the very loose blade mounting on my prop.
The blades are loose enough to measure over 1/4 inch of movement at the tip circumference keeping the center hub in fixed position.

It is not a problem as an application end result but I thought it was poor workmanship.

So some investigation was now made and I removed the cone (2 tiny screws).

The blades are hinged using each one pin and I do not see or think there is any adjustment there for my prop.

Five pictures show not in sequence but quite obviously ___
- Before cone removval ...
-Side marked 1 ___no screw head for adjustment
- Side marked 2 ___no screw head for adjustment
-A pic making us realize how far ahead of the pivot axis of the blades is their CG.
- A pic showing the necessity in above line for the blades to fold close to the fuselage.

As I wrote before, when the prop is activated it does not turn in a flat plane (geometrical plane) 90 degrees with its rotation axis. It turns forming a cone if we line up our view point to observe that.

Again thanks and best regards,

Zor

FrankFuss

I found the easiest way to insert the wing mounting screws is to put my hand underneath on the plastic tab on the top of the wing, then direct the screw by feel to the center of the plastic tab where there is a treaded section. Once the screw engages the threaded hole, it treads in easily. I only tighten the screw until all the plastic parts are level with the foam surface and then put a piece of tape over the screw to keep it from turning.

Frank

Zor

[/quote]

Frank, you are a super helper and after we know what is gong on it appears so simple.

Some explanations for the readers so I do not appear as stupid as it might look.

The threaded recess in the plastic at the top of the wings is not all the way through. We see no sign of that threaded hole looking at the top of the wings. We would have to remove that plastic part from the wing to see that hole. There is no reason to remove that plastic part while assembling the model.

The screws go in from the bottom of the wing and we see the hole in the foam in which the screws fit in just slipping in. Hole and scfrews are he same diameter without side play.

If the top part of the plastic that has the threaded hole is not EXACTLYaligned with the hole in the foam then the thread do not engageand we can turn the screws all day. Just a few thou of misalingnment prevents thethread engagement. The manual seem to consider this alignment is automatic amd I did not read anyhing about this subject.. In reality we have to giggle the wings around a bit to create the alignment until we can feel the threads engaging in the platic.

Ya ___once we know it is all so simple. The manual should have some advice about inserting these screws. It is like a lot of the rest. A manual of poor quality like the flaps and ailerons pre-mounted and having warps as much as 1/8 inch.

I wonder what is the life expectancy for foam hinges bending up to 40 degrees.
Anyone has 200 or more hours of flying with foam hinges ?

Being my first foam model I could not know what to expect but I am surelynot impressed.
No I am not a reviewer .

I am already tempted to cut the hinge lines and install small pinned hinges thus having less resistance to the tiny servos and have known solid reliablility.

Looks like I will have lots of fun wih this model. What I see and learn makes me anxious to proceed and finish my Spectra which has all balsa structure and good strong fabric and dope covering and finish.

Hope you all have as much enjoyment as I have playing with this stuff.

Zor

Zor

Cloudwalker,

Are you still following this thread that you initiated ?

I was searching for a thread that I could join and discuss with Radian sailplane lovers.

I certainly did not intend to hijack the thread even though I realize that your initial question has been answered.

I am wondering if I can or if I should continue posting here.
I do not see any sense in initiating myself a new thread dealing also with Radian sailplanes.

What say ?

Zor