monkey77

I just recently purchased and began flying a Thunder Tiger eHawk 1400. On the first flight I noticed that when I would go into a turn the plane had a tendancy to want to severly drop the wing tip on the inside of the turn and proceed to go into a spin pretty much straight down. Is this a characteristic of sailplanes in general or the eHawk? It has a V tail and ailerons. Do I need to do any mixing in the radio for the v tail? I'm completely new to the v tail setup and it has been about 10 years since I flew any kind of sailplane. Any input would be great.

Thanks
- Dan

29904

I bought one because one of the reps in Toledo said it flew so good. Well guess what. It's a dog. Mine also would drop the nose in a turn and the last flight it started spinning and refused to recover. Anyone one want it for $50 plus postage? Just some minor repairs to make to the fuse. [:@]

Have since bought a Multiplex Electric Easyglider and love it. One of the best flying airplanes I have had since I started flying in 1969. Liked it so well that I bought another as a spare. Flying it with a stock motor and a 2100 Lipo battery. I have flown the thing for over an hour and landed because it's endurance is better that mine.

larry

Arktos34

My Feedback: (3)

I too own an ehawk 1400 that does the same thing! The wings and ailerons were warped when received and I thought I had them straight BUT alas two spirals into mother earth. How did you make out on wings and what did you do? Any info will be appreciated.

monkey77

Wow, glad (happy I am not crazy anyway) that others have had the same problem I had. Mine is sitting in my basement now...I haven't touched it since my last disapointing flight that ended in a downward spiral from about 75 feet above the ground. It seems that once this plane gets started in a downward spin it is over. I don't know if the v tail doesn't have the surface area to compensate or what but the thing will start to spin when you are in a turn. If you don't get things flattened out quick it will be over in a matter of a few seconds.

I noticed this behavior the first flight out with my eHawk. Thankfully it had just rained a day earlier so the ground was soft. Only damage was to the prop. I chalked it up as an error on my part and took it back home. Went over the wings again and made sure everthing was flattened out and straight. Then rebalanced everything again. The next time I took it out I thought everything was fine. Climbed to about 300 feet without any major issues (other than it took almost all the battery to get there). Cut power and started sailing around...probably in the air for 5 minutes. Disaster struck and the spiral started. I couldn't do anything except watch as it spiraled downward. The plane is totally unresponsive when it gets into the spiral.

To anyone thinking about buying this plane I would strongly advise against it. It does not perform well at all. Wish I would have done some more research before I bought it. I just wanted something I could have and carry easily so that on lunch breaks I could get 30 or 40 minutes of flying in.

If anyone has a solution for this plane I would love to know.

Dan

sparky flier

My Ehawk 1400 was a dream to fly. Even with the little speed 400 it came with, it was groovy and fast. I did make sure the wings had the same washout in them, and balanced them. I totaled it when I reversed the elevator servo on the Tx. I plan to get another one of these days.

Sparky

ferdirc

It is well known among free flighters that spiralling tendencies can be cured by a combination of
1. Smaller vertical tail (fin) area
2. More wing dihedral

Fix # 1 is probably easier to implement.

Good luck!

Ferdi Hendriks

Arktos34

My Feedback: (3)

What I have decided to do is to use the ailerons as flaps and control plane with the V tail. I hope to get my conversion done by next year ie 2 Jan!!! I also am going to try a speed 480 motor with Kontronik speed controller. I do appreciate the feedback and have a merry Christmas and happy new year.

Chocks

There is not enough washout in the wing tips!!!

Arktos34

My Feedback: (3)

OK I agree but how much is sufficient? Do you have an e hawk 1400? As of right now the wings are finally straight and I have no ailerons connected. Have no plans to fly in the near future as it is too cold and windy

Arktos34

My Feedback: (3)

Still too cold to fly. If I eliminate the Ailerons and just use the V-tail will this eliminate the problem? Will I still need washout?

BaldEagel

Martin
Reflex both ailerons up by 3/16" and the problem goes away, it is effectivly washout. but do retrim up ailerons is the same as down elevator.
Mike

Arktos34

My Feedback: (3)

OK Finally got to fly the modified e hawk with V tail only, speed 480 motor and 7 cell nimh battery. It is still in one piece and had NO tendencies to spin into ground. Ailerons are disabled. After repairing damaged servos, I will use them as flaparons for speed control upon landing. Thanks to all for their input.

Martin Croney

henrie van rooij

I've just finished putting one of these Hawks together. It's because I have serious misgivings about the c of g given in the booklet that I signed up to this site in order to find out if other people have a more informed opinion on this. All these reports of spiralling into the ground, it worries me somewhat. I wonder if the to my taste too far back c of g has anything to do with all that spiralling, as even I know that a rearward c of g makes a plane less stable. Now that I found this place I suppose I'll be reading the reports and reviews first next time I fancy a plane and think I really need that one too!

henrie van rooij

I've just finished putting one of these Hawks together. It's because I have serious misgivings about the c of g given in the booklet that I signed up to this site in order to find out if other people have a more informed opinion on this. All these reports of spiralling into the ground, it worries me somewhat. I wonder if the to my taste too far back c of g has anything to do with all that spiralling, as even I know that a rearward c of g makes a plane less stable. Now that I found this place I suppose I'll be reading the reports and reviews first next time I fancy a plane and think I really need that one too!

Terror Dactyl

I am in the process of putting one together. A couple of the guys at my field also have one and the problems they had were that they put in brushless motors and tried to make hotliners out of them. They learned the hard way that the wing needs to be pinned in at the leading edge, they both had the wing pop out of the fuse. One of the guys got another one and after gluing the wing together and attaching it to the fuse he then drilled thru the securing mount and then glued a carbon rod in the wing so that it would then be secured in the fuse even in a strong dive pull out.

BTW I got a chance to fly his today. It has two HS 56's in the wing and this one only has one servo for the tail ( he noticed that using rudder on this bird tended to slow it way down and that was a problem), while it still has the brushless motor and a 3s1p battery I think that my bird with the four servos and a 2s1p battery wil be about the same weight and the speed in a thermal will have to be watched for.

I was handed the bird at a pretty good altitude and after about ten mins later I used the throttle for the first time to climb back up to altitude. I did notice that it would tend to spiral fairly easy, but with, for me, a change from the way I fly floaters to this bird that needs the speed to stay up it was not real hard to gain altitude. I was not trying to core thermals as much as figure eighting across the front of the wind and then doing some fairly big circles in lift.

I had been a little lax on wanting to finish this bird until I go to fly this one today and I am not ready to go for it.

I also think that I will have to get some color on this transparent yellow bird, for visibility at altitude, maybe some sky shine.

Arktos34

My Feedback: (3)

I made my 1st flight in 2005 using Blue Arrow servos. 2 for ailerons and 1 for Elevator. I had wing warps to begin with which needed a lot of straightning. Motor stock Rhondo 400 with speed control and 1300 NiMh batteries. Had stability problems. Worked on washout and this helped. 8/16 spiral into ground. No apparent reason. Very slow gradual turn. 10/8 spiral into ground. Modified plane for only V tail and no ailerons. Death spiral into ground!!!! I am now going to put 1 servo for wings and try that. I switched to a speed 480 and it did have some punch. Am almost ready to try flying this again. I had a lot of problems with the blue arrow servos with stripped gears and very noisey. Wish me luck.