richlstubbz

Greetings,

I recently got the Great Planes RealFlight G3.5 Flght Train Sys Md2 w/Cess which included Hobbico FlyZone Cessna 182 4-Channel RTF 34.8".

First off I am glad I had an experienced pilot help me get this airplane going. It ended up being our goal to get this plane flying before it was destroyed completely. We did not have a paved runway for starts so we had to hand launch. The first flight like many have described tends to break something. Mind you I had a 20+ year experience pilot/builder help me set up this plane up and fly it for the first flight(s).

Few things about this plane I didn’t like:

• Flimsy front landing gear
• Motor is secured with a rubber band
• Battery very hard to insert/remove
• Receiver Velcro tape does not stick and just flops around inside. Had to come up with another solution to that problem to prevent loose wires getting into the controllers.
• Mechanical controls can vibrate loose or slip.
• Controls (ailerons, rudder, elevator) need to be bent back and forth until they are loose enough for the servos to control them reliably.

Flight 1 – as soon as it was tossed it snapped and nosed into the ground. And as described the nose gear broke off. We fixed the nose gear with some straps similar to the stock straps and made some adjustments.

Flight 2 – this flight we actually made it off the ground and it was flying relatively nicely with the winds <5mph. Then to the landing. This as well did fine but it broke the nose gear again. We decided to just remove all the landing gear because it started to break the plastic firewall.

Flight 3 – 7ish : all flights where nice and the plane surprisingly flies well. It does tend to climb a lot and you may or may not have to make mechanical adjustments from time to time because you run out of trim. Landing with out the gear on the short grass is actually better than with the gear and the plane slows down enough that its just a gentle hit.

On about the 8ish flight the plane was flying along then the motor just cut power to about half and would not go any higher so we brought it in for a landing no problem. I was not flying for long about 1-3 min and usually I fly for 10ish min at a time around 75-100% power. So I thought maybe the battery had a bad charge. I recharged the pack and tried again. Once again the plane after a short flight lost power and had to land.

I am not sure what is causing this problem. The battery and motor are warm but not any hotter than they where before this started happening.

I know this is a cheap plane, but I figured it would have lasted longer than this and I am glade we got it working right before it was completely distorted like some have reported.

Any help on this would be great.

Thanks,
Richard