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Old 08-13-2005, 05:19 AM
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ADD hobbiest
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Default RE: GREAT PLANES FLATOUTS

I bought and built the Flatana last week. This is only my third plane, first two are RTF, I spent about 6 hrs building. I could build another one (of the same plane) in 2-3 hrs easy.

I stayed with the stock motor and pretty much followed Great Planes recommended setup. I tried thin CA first (you can about guess what the top of my wing looks like when I glued the cf rods to the le and te!) Definitely use medium CA with accelerator.

My two other planes are three channel so I was concerned that I might not be able to handle a 3d foamy, that it might be so responsive that I would just auger it into the ground on maiden. Not so. In normal flight with dual rate on, I found this plane very easy to fly, and it does exactly what I expect every time. I realy like it as a parkflyer. I have about 15 flights in now with wind anywhere from calm to 20 mph. While I don't suggest the 20 mph, I was able land it safely without even loosing a wheel pant! For perspective, my first rc flight was this June.

I have been trying some 3dstuff because it looks so cool, and my plane is probably now 20% CA from hard unscheduled "landings". During my last three flights with the Flatana I have been able to accomplish some variation on hovering and harriers. With no wind, I can get it to hover at just above ½ throttle.

As for flexing, I can see where this could delay a response in extreme 3d flight (I'm not good enough to notice if it does) but bridges, tall buildings and full scale aircraft flex all the time, but it doesn't mean the structure is inadequate. I would suspect that indoors it would be difficult to go fast enough to flex the plane much. Also, for some reason the Flatana is the only flatout with extra bracing the length of the fuse, so it might be more rigid about the axis than the others?