The Alpha Trainer is great but (There is always a But right?) Here is something you guys need to do when you get one:

Make sure that you seal the stripes with Dope/CA or some other clear coating.

I was teaching a friend of mine how to fly on his brand new Alpha and one of the big "Sunburst" stripes on the wing (The one near the leading edge) came un-glued in flight.

The BAD part is that the ends stayed glued and a 10 inches strip in the middle separated and was flopping in the air stream.

That mess on the wing created a very effective spoiler which caused the wing to drop like a stone and made the plane very difficult to control.

Fighting it with both the rudder and the ailerons I was barely able to line it up with the runway for landing and with reduced airspeed on the approach the wing dropped again causing the plane to veer violently toward parked cars.

Fortunately, it was going very slowly and was only about 3-4 feet of the ground so I was able to level it and sit it down before it went any further.

The only damage was to the prop, not a big deal since the plane flys much better on a 2 blade prop anyways. It has an 11-5 on it now and flys great.

Watch out for those stripes! Out of control R/C Planes are NO FUN!

Regards,
R/C Phile

Hummm, did you re-attach it to the wing? Or was it ripped to shreds?

Jerry

Rip it to shreds? Nope, I came down for a landing immediately when I noticed that the plane was not flying right.

All we did for that day is

1) Re-glue the stripe using a Monokote Iron
2) Make some 1/2 inch wide strips of appropriate lenght with packing tape then Seal the edges of the stripe with the packing tape strips
3) Go back over the tape with the Iron set at a low temp for extra measure

In 20 + Years of Flying that was a new one on me! From Now on checking stripes on wings is definitely part of the pre-flight check...

You would not believe how effective that stripe was at
de-laminating the airflow over the wing and Kill the lift.

At normal flying speeds it made the plane fly as if it was badly out of trim but at landing speed it suddenly became near impossible to control .

I was very fortunate that the "Spoiler" gave me the final kick as I was about to touch down, and stopping the madness was then a simple matter of pulling full up and stalling it right then and there.

R/C Phile

Oh come on! Everyone knows to go over a new arf with and iron or gun. Please. How can you post ALERT on a strip that comes loose? Christ

Hey Joe! I guess not everbody is as smart as you! Thanks for the sarcasim!

hey crash, this is the second alpha that i have heard of, that has done this..i just wanted to say that the guys that got me flying did make me alittle mad by takeing a extra week to get my alpha in the air... BUT!!!! then again i was glad they did.. we used the iron and gun on the hole plane and its still got all the coverings and stripes on it...did other things also but thats for something else......

Been flying an Alpha since Dec. Check the fuel tank often, because the screws on the firewall rub against the bottom front of the tank. Over time, they created enough of a hole that fuel was leaking everywhere in the plane.
After crashing the first Alpha, we got another one. I put a strip of foam tape on the front edge of the tank. Decided to take a look at it, and there were already little indentations in the tape after only 3 flights!

First of all watch your language. Second, mr. smart britches, the covering had been gone over. There was simply not enough adhesive on that sticker to hold it properly.

That strip which came loose really did have serious affect on the flight characteristics. It was not just dangling, it was still attached at both ends and sticking out in the middle like a "Rice Boy" car rear wing . It could have caused the plane to be destroyed or worse, hit something or somebody and cause real damage.

I was most likely flying R/C before you were out of your diapers and I don't appreciate the sarcasm either.

This is a place to learn from others and get more enjoyment out of hobby.

If you don't get that I suggest you take out your frustration elsewhere.

Regards,
R/C Phile

The same thing happened to my Alpha last night (4-29-03). The strip came loose in the middle and began flapping, both ends stayed attached. It came loose from where the wing join, to the decal in the middle of my right wing. I just cleaned the surfaces and used my iron to reattach the strip, and ironed the whole wing. Is this sufficient to fly? Should i glue/tape the strip down also?

Hello Do-Linux, considering the fact that it can affect the controllability to the point of causing a crash I would definitely glue it using CA or seal the edges using some kind of clear coat.

By the way, the stickers on the fuselage might come loose too but that does not create any flying problems, it just looks silly.

Regards,
R/C Phile

Rice Boy? Please explain this term. Since the use of the word "Christ" used in a post offends you, I am certain that "Rice Boy" can't be a racial slur, can it?

Must be another reasonable explanation. What is it?

I am reluctant to post this but here goes....
It would be much better and more responsible to have notified Horizon about this. Maybe you did but your post didn't mention this. I have had personal dealings with them and they are the most sincere and helpful mfg I have delt with.
As to the controlability of a piece of trim flapping in the breeze. I am a little reluctant to think that it had as much of a impact on the contolability of a trainer as you say it did. I have had an entire upper wing of Monokote come off while in flight and it was a little difficult to fly but not too big of a deal.
I have flown R/C combat and was the national season points champion in 2000. I have landed with up to 4 30' combat ribbons draped on one wing.
If you are an instructor and ran into difficulity controling this plane perhaps your skills need to be improved. The role of an instructor is to be able to extract the airplane from an extremis situation as well as hold the trainer switch down on the TX. This sounds like it caught you by suprise but well within the capailibility of someone who is filling the role of an instructor.
I wish you all the luck but I think you owe it to Horizon to address the issue. Horizion is making a large effort to make this great hobby available to a wider group of people which can only make this an even greater lifetime endevor.
Sparky

"It would be much better and more responsible to have notified Horizon about this" :thumbdown

"Oh come on! Everyone knows to go over a new arf with and iron or gun. Please. How can you post ALERT on a strip that comes loose? Christ" :thumbdown

How sad guys, R/C Phile tires to be helpful and relate a problem he had to prevent others from crashing due to an easily overlooked problem and all he gets is criticism.

If some members have nothing better to due than bi@$h and complain while berating others, I'm sure there are better forums for you than RCUniverse

Mike

Thank you Mike


First off there was no racial slur intent on the Car wing thing, it simply common lingo for the popular japanese cars with oversize rear wings.

Second I did not crash the plane nor did I loose control of it. Again, the intent is to warn beginners whom are the very people buying / flying this plane (As you know flying is not always with an instructor).

Believe me, had this happened to a beginner on her/his own a few flights after the first solo the instability of the plane was such that the outcome could have been disastrous.

Third, I do have every intent to notify Horizon of this defect as I believe they can be in for serious liability.

Lastly I never intended to lambast Horizon or the plane, it does fly great as a trainer as mentionned on the first post. I just know that this trainer is getting very popular and want others to benefit from my experience and enjoy the hobby instead of having an unexplained crash on their first trainer and give up.

I hope I am clear this time.

Regards,
R/C Phile

For starters I would like to thank
R/C Phile for putting in this post.
I will pass on the info concerning the alpha to one of the members in our club that has one.
The Alpha trainer kit looks like an excellent deal and notifying Horizon would be an excellent idea.

secondly
Hey guys & gals this forum is for learning.
If we slam people for sharing, they wont share.
I am sure that many people here realize that no matter what skill level we are from beginner to expert that we can learn something from everyone.

OK, it's been fun, but now it's done.