Hanger 9 T-34 it flys!!
Built stock with the fixed gear.
No fuel tank included
No spinner
No notch in the horizontal stab.
No blind nuts for the engine mount bolts
Also has fiberglass wing tips.
Other than the missing items the ARF is well built and the covering is very good too.
Installed an OS 70 SurpassII with a 11x7 3 blade graupner prop.
I had to put the battery pack aft of the servos to balance without using lead. Balanced as per the instructions.
On first take off the plane wanted to nose down hard and bank to the right. I had the control surfaces centered and figured this wouldn't be an easy first flight. But I was wrong. I got the airplane under control and trimmed after a minute or two.
Now with the plane under control it was time to see what it could do. This plane is fast. Half throttle on the OS 70 was plenty.
This is also a very quick maneuvering little airplane. The control surface throw given in the book are for High rates. believe me. Vertical very good but not unlimited. Prop selection may help.
Landed, set radio for low rates, 75%, Now with the plane trimmed and control surfaces reduced the plane took off and flew great.
full elevator ,low rates, at a moderate speed = tip stall. Flying fast and level, pulled back on the stick and the T-34 went into a climbing spiral. kinda cool and unexpected.
Keep the speed up on landings. its not a floater. It makes really neat nose high landings. Super stable on the ground, touch and goes are easy thanks to the tricycle landing gear.
I scratched the covering on the wing tips while trying to land the airplane going to slow. If you give it too much elevator right before touch down the T-34 will climb just a smidgen then kind of just drop onto the ground. So keep the speed up with minimal flare. I made several landings at different speeds and It does better with some speed. If you dead stick head for the runway quick. It wont be in the air long.
Also this plane kind of wobbles around a little bit while flying. It flys well enough but doesn't give me that "rock solid" feel. Maybe because the Fusealage isn't very long??
This plane really reminds me of the Yellow Aircraft Extra .60 size i used to have. It crashed due to pilot error and excessive elevator.
After 4 flights and about 20 landings I looked the airplane over and found one of the main landing gear came loose. No biggy just re tighten the set screw.
Wing tips scratched up a little because of my landing experiments.
The elevator is in an upward direction for level flight. Could be a wing incidence issue. I have to check on it later.
Om happy with it. For $160.00 I couldn't build it an better.