MAKING THE AEROBIRD MORE RESPONSIVE
by Ed Anderson

How you have your Aerobird Challenger or Aerobird Xtreme set-up will
determine
how it
behaves. Also, the speed at which you are flying and the position of the
throttle will impact the way the
plane behaves. And finally the wind strength and direction relative to the
plane will either enhanced or resist the turning of the plane. You have to
become aware of all of these things as you fly your Aerobird.

From the factory the Aerobird it is set for very mild behavior because new
pilots tend to over control the plane. You can make the plane more
responsive
in several ways.

1) In any mode, if you are flying at reduced throttle and want to make an
aggressive turn, boost the throttle for a moment as you give the rudder
input.
The greater flow of air over the tail will make the plane turn faster. A
brief
burst is
all it takes.

2) If you have an Aerobird Challenger, start the plane up in pro mode. In
sport when you give a rudder command, one surface moves. In pro mode, two
surfaces move in coordination giving you twice as much surface area to turn
the plane.

The control surfaces on the Aerobird are called ruddervators because they
provide both rudder and elevator controls. By increasing the size of the
ruddervator surface, or the length of the movement, the throw, of the
surface
we can make the plane more responsive.

3) Another way to get more surface movement is to move the control lines
closer to the hole closes to the tail surface. This results in larger
surface
movement when you
move the stick. This is called increasing the surface throw. You should do
this and get used to it before you do anything that follows.

4) You can tape something very light but stiff to the control surface to
make
it longer. A piece of a business card works well. Tape it so that part of
the card extends rearward from the moveable surface. Try it with just a 1/4
inch and see the difference. You can use tape or glue or both. Make sure it
is flat and perfectly aligned with the control surface or it will throw off
your straight flight performance.

5) I taped across the move able part to the outer stationary part of the
tail.
Then you cut to the side of the moveable part of the tail and trim away the
excess tape. Leave the tape on the outer stationary part as it is weakened
by
having part of it cut away. This makes the control surface wider.

6) You can combine 3, 4 and 5.

7) Lastly, you can drill a new hole in the control horn closer to the
surface.
Again, this will give you more throw. However I would caution this one as I
believe it puts some real strain on the servos. I have heard of people
burning
out the servos this way.

So, do them one at a time.

The first two are easy and require no modifications to the plane. The third
is outlined in the manual. The next three change the tail. The last one
should only be done if you are willing to risk the electronics. While
making
the tail wider and longer also put more stress on the servos, putting a new
hole lower seems to really stress them. Doing 6 and 7 will give you maximum
effect will almost surely burn out the servos.

If you are totally new to flying, you might find this
valuable in your training.

Six Keys to Success
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