Greg Cothern

My Feedback: (8)

I put the first flights on my K-MD yesterday, WoW an awesome bird! I got 4 LONG flights, then on the last flight noticed something wasnt right, landed and realized the rudder servo stripped!!!! I dont know how a metal gear servo stripped? Must have a plastic gear there somewhere but it stripped.
Where in the US can I get the PA servo's? I CANT wait to put this bird in the air again!

aflipz

My Feedback: (10)

I know Icare has bluebird servos but i dunno if he has bms-373mg's yet...

give him a try; (he's in Canada though)


http://www.icare-rc.com/servos.htm

They are not listed but his site is not always up to date.

Brother_Dust

does the extreme flight 2818/900 motor have the same power as the thrust 30?

aflipz

My Feedback: (10)

It would be difficult to tell the difference flying both 2 minutes appart i think.

Here is some footage my buddy shot of my kmd today:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IirIVb3iIPE

bartabac

About the E/Z connectors stuff, thank you Itai for sharing your experience and thank you Aflipz for your advices.
I bought the E/Z connectors that are secured with nuts and I will then add some CA glue on the carbon rods. I still need to find 2mm washers to avoid “vertical� slop, though.

I am very busy working these weeks and the building is going slowly. Anyway it’s like wintertime in Belgium (though it’s July and Belgium is in the Northern hemisphere) so it’s not an appropriate weather to fly RC models. [&o]

TNTtrucks

Boy this week went to crap for me. I was supposed to get my Katana MD from Atlanta Hobby today and just found out after calling for a tracking #, on my dime, that it was actually going out today (ordered on 7/17) still short a battery. All of the combo was 'in stock' on the web when I ordered it a week ago, and I actually talked to them on the phone and was told it was in stock! Glad I didn't drive the 4 1/2 hours to pick it up which I almost did!
I guess many of these places actually have a database of stock to load the website off of, meaning their stock status is a guess at best, or just a flat out lie. They do charge your CC immediately from a web order though, even for out of stock items. Hey, can't short them on their end! I could've ordered this combo from Australia (out of my own country) faster than this and had the PA motor! But worse, I could be flying by the weekend... not anymore. Why I choose this pain, I don't know. I guess it's from allowing myself to get excited about the Katana and what I would've called my 1st top quality 'real' 3D plane. I'm glad everyone loves theirs at least!

What's worse... I get it on both ends... as this happened to my wife's airfoilz... Same 'in stock' b.s. when ordered a week ago with 2-3 day shipping for a fun fly that (last) weekend. Not to mention it showed up with broken and creased up wings so it's going back for a new one anyway.

I don't even want to think of the KatanaMD right now, I just want more booze... Scorpion Mescal... ahhh... [8D]

Is our $, or $ period, really worth giving un-supported, invalid, b.s. stock levels on a website for? What % of sales do they make up by not showing an accurate up-to-date stock status?

Sorry to rant. Here's to us all... Salud!

aflipz

My Feedback: (10)

I understand your frustration, some shops are worse than others. The eflite 260 was just released a couple of weeks ago and months ago some online vendors were selling it and cashing payments monts before it's actual release.

Both the vendors you speak of (atlanta hobby and airfoilz or 3dxhobbies) are some of the best ones out there. Sure they have had some stock "oops" but they are not deliberate. From my experience with them these are people that will bend over backwards to help you.

(takes a large gulp of wine) But i totally understand you. Being Canadian even if the hobby shop you deal with is reputable the shipping and handoff at the border is a crap shoot!

(Takes another large gulp of wine while waiting for products from california, new jersey, moscow, florida, australia and god knows where in the midwest... )

TNTtrucks

Yeah, I thought I went with the right companies on both of them. Glad we don't have the border hand off issues! Just a pain and major let down is all. My experience will not be anyone else's for sure, but just wanted to share mine.

Hobby People got it right at least. Ordered an in stock item and it shipped next day just like the site said with fedex 2 day! Infinity Hobbies from overseas did the same. So has many others in the midwest.

Airfoilz worked it out with me and I'm going to buy from them now/future anyway.

AH didn't do anything but say I should've gotten an email, which I didn't. I guess I could've raised cane with them and they might have 'bent over backwards'? Left to their own choice, they chose to let me cancel my order without saying a word or offering any help or apologies for their mistake. Fine with me, but it still seems like they dropped the ball and their reply was, can you prove we dropped the ball, shouldn't you just take it and not complain? No I shouldn't! If I tried to write code this way or run a business this way the fan would be covered in the proverbial crap. Some people/companies are upheld to their word/commitments, some deny such responsibility. Guess I don't like denial. I held up my end, my cc was debited that day saying so (won't be credited back for 3 days). Not trying to say 'don't shop here', I don't care where anyone buys their stuff, but how a transaction goes matters to some. Plus I'm not alone in this 'shipping'/'in stock' use and abuse of customers (in my opinion) else I wouldn't be spending my time here saying so. I'm hard to deal with I guess, high standards can be a pain... I live with mine every second of every day

Austrailia sounds like a good country to also have an order coming from...

aflipz

My Feedback: (10)

I LOVE getting stuff from Australia I actually have more than one order from down under... There's a bunch of pa motors and spare parts for my KMD crew in Canada but i also ordered some performance bushings from Superpro/Fulcrum for my car. (real not rc...) AUS has been producing some of the coolest stuff in the past few years...

itai

Maiden today, it was windy, very little trim needed,
I will move my battery a little back, had 10 min flight on evo 2170

aflipz

My Feedback: (10)

Cool, glad it sounds like it went ok, what did you think? (knowing you only had a short breezy first impression)

itai

It flaw very well, feels very light ,I felt a little nose heavy, still it was my maiden and will keep you posted

itai

itai

Had some time today, still windy, here are some pictures from my flight.

ThomStilwill

My Feedback: (1)

I bought my Katana MD from a LHS and am having a much different experience that many others. I am using a Park 480/1020, APC 13x6.5E, and TP2100 lipos. I find the plane very tail heavy critical on the tail. I also has a lot of coupling in knife flight.

Build issues were: cowl did not fit correctly, prebuild CF control rods were too short.

It's a pretty plane but does not come close to the Fliton Mini Inspire it was meant to replace, so I have another order in to Fliton. And a Katana MD for sale.

aflipz

My Feedback: (10)

your motor is too small, that causes your cg and KE issues, aswell as you must be brutally underpowered. If the rods are too short you are doing them wrong or using the wrong cf rods. Go ahead, sell it to someone who will know how to set it up and get yourself a lowly fliton...

itai

Moved the CG to 101 mm from the leading edge and this time with a CG machine from GP It improved dramatically
I had to move the EVO battery way back to get this CG but it was worth the effort.

aerofundan

Your coupling issues is because your plane is too tail heavy... and its too tail heavy because like Aflipz said the motor you are using for it is too small... the TP2100 is a really light lipo too, so you have very little weight on the nose, i invite you to try a bigger motor and you will see how the katana md is an awesome flying plane.

Greg Cothern

My Feedback: (8)

I have been enjoying my K-MD as of late. I have a question though, while flying the CG seems dead on neutral, inverted is basically hands off, knife edge is a tiny bit to the belly but very little.
My issue is on landing, when it slows and enters ground effect it pitches up and drops the tail, stays stable but acts as if it is tail heavy.
Could it be tail heavy but the flight envelope is so stable it appears neutral???

ThomStilwill

My Feedback: (1)

aerofundan -

Thanks for the useful reply. I told my LHS what I had for a motor and he said it was a little underpowered, nothing about the weight. It takes over 3oz in the nose to make it neutral. What size (not brand, please) should I look for in a motor and battery? Could I use TP3300?



aflipz -

The rods came prebuilt, so they were built wrong at the factory, and I've had the Inspire for a while and found it flies very well with the gear that I wanted to use in the Katana.

I'm thinking this thing really needs my YS63 with a 14X4w. Maybe that'll solve both my weight and power problems.

aflipz

My Feedback: (10)

3300 = no, you are looking for a pack good for 30-35A continuous that weighs less than 170 grams.

motor= 350 watt class. you are looking for something in the 105 gram range and no the eflite power 10 though it CAN work is not a good motor for this plane, either the extreme flight torque 2818/900, the thrust 30 by PA or anything you can find that will closely match ALL of their specs. (if you want to REALLY enjoy this plane)

you are right, there are some pushrods with a zbend on one side, and you are supposed to glue, wire and shrinkwrap the other end ON THE PLANE with the servos already mounted and arms radio-centered, since you got like 3/4" of zbend rod to meet up with the CF part on final assembly you have a lot of margin to adjust this, but at the factory they are cut to within 1MM of where they need to be; also, you have the same kind of rod for the elevator and there should be one for the option to mount the rudder servo on the tail. maybe you mixed them up is what i am saying.

Can we see pics of your aileron linkages? if you read the manual setting it up everything should be perfect, if you expected to push the cf rod through a ez-connector you are out of luck PA does not believe ez connectors.

itai

ThomStilwill
i think you can try HACKER A30 12M

albo752004

Hi
I've recently aquired the Katana MD from AH, really like the plane but do seem to have an
issue with coupling during knife edge flight. My original cg set with a cg machine was at 95mm.
(had to add a slight amount of tail weight to achieve). A friend flew the plane and said it might
be tail heavy, I read another post that also had a problem with ke coupling and he was
also advised that he was tail heavy. So I removed the tail weight and still seem have
excessive coupling. Could any body help ? My setup is the complete package offered by
atlanta hobby.

Allen

aflipz

My Feedback: (10)

http://www.hackerbrushless.com/motors_a30.shtml


a30-12m would suck hard, a30-16M would be a little better, but would still be some pretty major suckage... KV too high= small prop diameters or major waste of current.

nidam68

Cool Stuff man.....just post me the flying characteristic on your setup ok,tq

nidam68

nice stuff man....pls info me its flying characteristric ok tq