Originally posted by GordonJ
Hey, thanks for the informative thread! I'm planning on buying the Aerobird either today or tommorow, and I can't wait to fly this thing!
I have a few questions about it:
About how fast does it fly? And is it powerful enough to fly at half-throttle or so??
I live in the desert. Needless to say, there is no grass where i live, just hard dirt and rocks.
Does the plane have enough to power for ground takeoffs on anything but pavement? Could it land on dirt? (I'm not talking about loose soil either, I'm talking hard, sun-baked ground)
Does the plane come with a video?
About how long to flights really last?
What aerobatics is the plane capable of? Barrel rolls? Loops? etc..
heh...sorry for all the questions, but I'm really looking forward to flying this thing and I want to make sure I know all the in's and out's beforehand.
The plane travels at about 20-25 MPH +/- on the 6 cell. The 7 cell might take it to around 30 tops would be my guess.
I launch by hand as I am on grass, thick grass that is over 1" tall. On the standard landing gear it doesn't really handle this grass at all, so I don't even put the wheels on. However one of the club guys made much bigger wheels and can rise off ground if he finds a relative bare spot, and can land the same way.
If the ground is hard and fairly even you should be able to do both. Just remember, you have no steering so you can't really control direction on the ground.
There is a Video.
Six or 7 cell, the flighs on mine last about 6 minutes at full power, but I spend most of my time flying at half power, or I shut the motor off completely if I can catch the right breeze. I am not sure if I have ever gotten into a thermal. Others tell me they have ridden thermals.
At half power flights last 12 to 14 minutes with a landing reserve. If she is trimmed well and you manage the wind properly you can fly at 1/3, but mine is trimmed for level flight at half power. At less than that, unless I am riding air movement she will slowly lose altitude, but we are not talking a dive here.
Normally I set a timer for 12 minutes for my flighs. At 12, I bring it in. My normal landing procedure is to glide in with power off. Since I am not ligning up for a true runway I just slide it into the grass. If I keep about 1/4 power I have full control, and just flare at the last second cut the power with a little up elevator to gently drop and slide. This way if you catch a wing or something, the prop doesn't bite the back of the wing.
The grass is often too long for a slide, it just catches the plane.
You should be fine. Learn to ROG, but you will save some battery with a hand launch.
Hope that helps!
