widowmaker.. there are some good threads on the ucd60. It is a great plane. I fly with a ys1.10fz and it is well overpowered. cg at 5.5. Make sure you put some thinned epoxy around the firewall with that big of engine in there. I don't care what anyone says on the threads either... the apc 16x4W prop is an awesome prop for that plane and engine combo.. fast spool up and great response. I put a 16x6 and the thing won't sit still or land w/o killing the engine. The 16x4W will act as a break when let off... gives you full throttle control.. it is awesome.. hovers between 1/4 throttle and 1/2.. I had to put some expo on the low end throttle curve to give some resolution and the 16x4w helps with that too.

On the twist. Has anyone got it to harrier yet? like a good 45 degree straight down the runway harrier? I just bought one of these. Was talking to a guy that was able to get it to do a climbing inverted flatspin (tornado)... ROCK!!!

Tried mine today ...in the high wind ...it flew great ,can't wait to ring it out on a calm day....


Twist with a YS63s APC14x4w

c016Y, I'm sure you're correct on that size of a prop for an engine like the 1.10 But I was talking about for a smaller size engine around the .46

Didn't mean to step on any toes!!!!

ghee-grose.. ha.. was not replying to you. I was telling widowmaker.. a lot of people on the U Can Do 60 forum say the 16x4W prop has a long spool up time. Just was not the case with the ys 1.1 IMO.

I think the ys 1.1 would be slightly overpowering the twist.. ha.. That would be CRAZY.

I am thinking ys 63S... maybe saito 72 or 91S.. but... don't want to deal with installing a regulator and I like the built in pump.

I was considering getting a UCD 40 instead of a Twist, but the $$ made the decision for me. I'd like to see one in action!

I don't make it to RC fields very much, so the extent of what I see is on the internet. I will download an RC movie in a heartbeat!!!!

Do you post on any U-Can-Do threads? (I would be interested in reading about it)

rcuniverse 40 and 60
http://www.rcuniverse.com/magazine/a...article_id=187
http://www.rcuniverse.com/magazine/a...?article_id=44
40
http://www.modelairplanenews.com/reviews/3d46_1.asp
60 videos
http://www.3dbatix.com (click videos)
You can click on my profile to see where I have been posting (newest 100 will probably give you all of them).

Thanks alot...now I've spent the last hour watching videos and reading reviews of these U-Can-Do's!!!! Looks like a great plane. There's definitely alot more info out there about it than the Twist.

I honestly like the my UCD 60 with YZ FZ 1.20 better than the twist. The only downside is transporting is a bit more of a hassle. I fly the UCD at half throttle max and thats to pull out of a hover. Hovering with the UCD is much easier than with the twist. With the stock tank I get 30 minute flights because I never have to use much throttle. I have not performed it yet but I can tell that a cool transition from low level knife edge to a hover is going to be easy. I don't know if I will ever get to do it though because I put all my stuff up for sale so I can get a JR Heli Bundle.

Finally !!!!

I have had my Twist built since mid April and Finally I had my first flights tonight!
Thanks to all that have posted info about the flight characteristics.
I pretty much knew what to expect from all of the posts.

This Twist is a keeper and I expect it to be my primary plane for awhile.

Cheers from Nebraska

Great job Cornduster!! Way to go!!

Soooo.... It's amazing what you can learn through experience... Bitter, painful experience...

Things like although the Twist flies great in the wind, there is a limit beyond which you should not go. I now know what that limit is... and so does my Twist!

On Sunday I was flying in a relatively strong 90 degree cross wind that was blowing consistently at around 12 mph and gusting up to as much as 20.

I had flown my Twist, Extra and Ultra Stick for about 3 tanks of gas each and was just deciding that it was time to go home because the wind was really not that much fun anymore. I mean, how many cross wind landings can you do before you get tired of it.

Anyhow, the other two were empty and packed up in the car and I decided that instead of emptying the Twist (which had about 3/4 of a tank of gas in it), I'd fill it up and go again. I flew around for about 15 minutes and my timer on my radio bleeped to indicate that I had a minute left in the tank so I decided it was time to land.

I came in over the field and about 4 feet off the deck when the wind picked up straight at the side of the plane and blew it to the far side of the field. So I gave it some more left rudder and dipped the wing slightly to get it back on track. As I did, the wind gusted and blew the wing down and the wing tip caught the deck and she cartwheeled.

Fortunately I was not flying very fast so it was not a particularly violent landing. Looking at it from where I was at the pilot station, she looked okay. So I walked out and picked her up to find that the force of the impact had pushed the wing into the fuse just behind the canopy several of the glue joints in the fuse had broken.

So she is now on my workbench awaiting the copious time that I don't have right now to fix her. I'll probably get to her on Friday night. It probably won't take more than an hour or two to fix, but she's officially had her first bang.

That's not bad considering she has already had more than a gallon of gas through the engine.

Sorry to hear that Bruce. I had a similar situation a couple of weeks ago with mine, but luckily I was still about 10' or so from the deck and was able to recover before impact.

You say your flight timer is set for 15 minutes.....are you running the stock tank? What size engine is on it? With my .46 I get about 23-25 minutes on a tank. (trust me, I had to fly it dry the other day because my throttle stuck open at about 3/4 throttle)

I'm running a OS 50SX and I'm running it pretty rich. I know that I can probably get 20+ out of the tank, but I very seldom fly a plane longer than 15 because I find my concentration starts waning, and that's asking for a crash!

True...true....

I haven't kept mine in the air more than about 15 minutes, except for that time. I'm afraid I will use up all my luck

I flew mine last night, 2 tank fulls. I did do about 8 touch and go's. I was intrigued by the very light landing on the twist.
I could practically stall it completely and just let it float to the ground like a feather.

We had about 5 mph winds, and I noticed the twist could just hang in the wind with very little throttle and just
stand there, no tendencies to snap or anything.

I didn't go too crazy for the first few flights, just a few loops, knife edge and rolls. I was amazed at the
very tight turns.

All my other planes are just sport planes. So this is my first 3D type plane.

Alot of fun for 96 bucks!

I have never used a timer just a watch, sometimes dead stick landings can be thrilling!

Can you knife edge it pretty good? I can't do it worth a crap! It couples too badly. I haven't a clue how to "mix" it out with the radio either.

This plane is an awesome plane for dead stick landings. I have had 2 unintentional dead stick landings and several intentional. I know... that sounds weird.

When I was doing my pilots license, one of the things we were forced to learn was forced landings - landings where something has gone wrong and you have to put the plane down now. I loved learning about forced landings because it teaches you to land from any position in the shortest possible time with the least damage possible to the plane. I never got to do a real forced landing, but practicing it was always fun.

When I started with RC planes I very quickly learned that they are far less reliable than their full-scale counterparts. So I spent hours on the simulator killing the engine and landing the plane. Now, one of the first things I do when I get a new plane is learn to dead stick the plane from various positions. The advantage is that you learn what the plane is and isn't capable of with no power. With deadstick practice I normally take the plane up pretty high on a calm day, kill the engine and then land her. As I say, I have done several of these with the Twist and it is probably the best dead stick lander I have.

Twice, however, I have had unintentional deadsticks. The first one was coming out of a stall turn. The engine died nose up and I didn't realize I didn't have an engine until I tried to give it throttle to pull out of the dive. I was high enough for it not to be an issue and she landed like a dream.

The second was very shortly after a touch-n-go landing. I was climbing out and the engine leaned and died. The clunk got stuck at the front of the tank. This was a little tougher because I was only about 20 feet above the trees at the end of the runway and I was heading away from the field. I'd taken off into a reasonable head wind so when I turned around I was worried that I was going to get stuck in the trees.

Fortunately, I had enough altitude to clear the top of the trees and I came back into the field. There's about 80 feet from the ground to the tree tops so I managed to circle the plane all the way round and land into the wind! I had exactly the same thing happen to me the same day with my Extra and there is no way that I could do anything but turn 180 deg and land with the wind... hairy landing.

I do need to practice dead stick landings. I've done 3 with my Twist. Two of them happened to be perfectly lined up with the runway and were easy to land safely, but the last one was a close call with the power lines and road.... I didn't account for the headwind and my prop not spinning on idle.

Check out the pics

Oh yeah....No Damage!!!! Yay

Has anyone experimented with the tank position on the twist? I was wondering if the Saito 72 would be able to still draw fuel if I moved the tank back onto the CG. In the stock position I have approximately 3" of line from tank to engine. Moving back to CG would add about 4 more inches for a total of 7. I know the Saitos have excellent fuel draw characteristics but is it that good. It would be sweet to have the CG constant instead of moving from front to back as your flight time progresses.


Disregard... I just noticed that there is not enough clearance to move the tank back . Thats a shame.

I maidened mine on Monday, and it is no longer a Twist... it is now a riot!! I love flying this thing! It was a little windy, and when I landed it would just settle in, touch down and roll about 1'. It comes in sooo nice and slow. Right now I have an OS 46 LA with an 11x6 prop(APC) and it seems to do o.k, at least for the stage of flying experience that I have. No unlimited vertical, and it won't hover, but it does everything I want it to. Maybe when I'm more comfortable I'll put something bigger on it.
Mine knife edges great without any mixing, although I'm still working on keeping it in a straight line. Maybe that's what the mixing would be for??

Yeah, I can knife edge all day, but it looks ugly

Try an APC 12.25x3.75 or a 11.5x4 and you won't be sorry. It will climb for a long while.

My Knife edge is very ugly, and I do not mix, I just fumble it to make it look as smooth as possible! Call me a freelance flier. If I can get several flights in a day without a crash its a success! This is my 5th year flying and only took lessons one weekend day from a good pilot.

License??? What is that? My club has a training program but I never participated. I have been through at least 18 40 sized planes. Only 2 of them have crashed beyond repair. I am down to 4 Planes now, I got rid of the ones I really didn't fly much..

My Thrilling new TWIST, Hanger 9 advanced 40, Kyosho Super stearman Bipe and my original trainer Hobbico Super Star (still in one piece).

As far as dead stick landings: I have had more than a dozen, I just expect to have them now and then. I have been lucky every single time to bring the plane down harmlessly.

I have learned everything from my one flier buddy, online here and trial and error and lots of patients.

My flying club is only about 80 members. So when I go out I am usually the only one there. Seldom do I see another pilot. I only know they exsist from the sign in log in the white mail box by the porta potty.

That means no pressure and I can take as long as I want doing all of the pre-checks and fly making mistakes without spectators.

So the point is: Yeah my Knife edge is pretty Bad, but we always pratise and learn and maybe someday someone will see me do a nice one besides my kids!!!!

Hahaha

Twist Rocks!

Club???....what's that??? There isn't a club within 30 miles of where I live. We kinda have a make-shift meeting of sorts at a local grass strip airport. It's just about 2 miles from my house. They fly full size planes out of there occasionally. They have a couple of Cessnas and a Stinson. They hardly ever fly though. There are 4 ultralights in the area that fly in every Saturday or Sunday for a few minutes to watch us fly RC. There are 4 of us who meet there pretty much every Saturday and Sunday evening. Then there are several that have caught the itch from watching us and bought their own plane. At the most we've had about 10 pilots there at one time. We have a blast!!!

Here's a normal Saturday at 6:00