Hello all,
This is my first post. I just bought a cheap 3ch plane (Accipiter Badius or Slope Diver) http://www.raidentech.com/rercracoplgl.html

I know its not the best, but I just wanted something to whet my appetite and give me a feel for flying. I bought a Goldberg kit, and Airtronics radio back in the 80's (a Gentle Lady with an Electric Motor kit), spent a month putting it together and 30 seconds destroying it (glued the "truing wing" page together in the instructions).
The plane I have now seems to be decently made, but I can't get it to stop slowly rolling left during my test glides.
I have tried it handlaunch and powered and the result is the same. The plane rolls slightly left. I give it full trim right or hold the elevator right and it still wants to slowly drift.
Everything looks well aligned.
Any ideas would be greatly appreciated!

Maybe it seems to be trimmed, but it's not. Are you SURE you put the wing halves to together straight? The left wing needs to be reshaped slightly so it produces more lift. Or the right wing needs to have less lift. Since it doesn't have ailerons, you might have to bend the training edge slightly.

Tom

Hehe I'm not sure of anything greenboot! But I do appreciate your help. Using a long straightedge against the back of the wings, they seem to have an even gap on both sides.
I have no idea about the correct way to measure, but when I flip the plane upside down and measure from the back tip of the fuselage to the tips of the wings the wing on the right is 3/16" ahead of the one on the left. I guess that would cause the right wing to lift a little more rolling left?

Newberry,
Actually, if I understand your measure, that would make it turn and roll to the right.
Take some time, make sure everything is square, straight, and true. You may have put the vertical stab on a little crooked, ot some other thing like that. Once in awhile you will have to unhook the control rod, and adjust it more. If it's your first real effort, and you can get it to fly without rolling with the rudder deflected to one side a little, that's the way it goes. I've had a few that I built the when you looked at the plane when it landed, you would swear it couldn't fly right with that much rudder deflection! Un hook the rudder pushrod, and turn the clevis so the rudder points a little to the right, with the trimm button in the middle, then try it.
Keep us posted as to your findings.

Jetts

Thanks Jetts, I guess my description of measurement was misleading. Even though the plane was upside down when measuring, the wing that is slightly forward is the right wing as viewed with the plane pointing away from me. I'll put a few more turns in that rudder pushrod and try again.

Took the plane out this AM. I have been test gliding down a smooth, grassy slope. I tried full right trim all the way to full right rudder, and I still experience a left turn.
greenboot mentioned modifying the trailing edge of the wing. This plane has covered foam wings.
What would be the best method for doing this? Can I just bend the last few inches of wing up on the left side and down on the right?. How about trimming the wing and re-sealing it with clear packaging tape?
Thanks again for any help!
Wayne

If it's turning/rolling left, bend the left trailing edge DOWN and the right trailing edge UP......just a little at a time.

Jetts

Thanks Jetts,
My ignorance is showing. I'm still using paper airplane mentality here... where you bend up for more lift...

Nonsence! There is no ignorance in asking.
You'll be amazed at all the good stuff you can learn here.

Jetts

I'm not that informed on foam wings or gliders for that matter, but is the wing balanced? I don't know if this would be a possibility or not but if the left wing half were heavier, could this cause it to go left?

That's a thought. Give balancing side to side a shot, along with all the other things, It WILL fly good eventually!

Jetts

Thanks everyone for the help!

I bent the left wing trailing edge down, and the right up the best I could. I wouldn't bend much, but I did get a little bit of a crease. What little it did bend certainly made a difference. I can glide straight now with just a little right rudder trim. I even did a few powered hand launches, climbed up to 50' or so, cut the motor and glided back down. That simple straight line flight was 10 seconds of new pilot excitement!

I think in my haste to get the wings together (very skimpy, badly translated instructions) I did not get the wing bottoms perfectly parallel.
I already ordered an extra set of wings for the plane (cheap at $7 from raidentech) as well as an extra tail set ($4) and a 8.4v battery for $10.
I'm going to pay a little more attention assembling this wing!

Thanks again,
Wayne

Newberry,

I also had this same problem when I first flew my Slope Diver. The plane would always turn to one side and eventually I crashed. Amazingly, after the crash (with a now creased wing) the plane flew better than ever before! I discovered that the main wing was slightly different on one side, and after the crash it had bent it just enough to make it fly perfect. When assembling a new wing there is not much you can do but hope for the best. They are very inconsistant in the manufacturing and sometimes have a very bad alignment. When I installed a new set of wings I found it to also fly better without the turning problem.

Thanks for the tip using Raidentech for spare parts. I was paying $13 for a wing, $10 for the tail wing, and $17 for the battery. I've been buying about 1 wing every week so this will save me a lot of money (I just ordered three sets wing/tail from Raidentech).

The slope diver is a cheap plane, but it's great for learning to fly because it's truly DURABLE and has cheap and easily replaced parts. I've really been enjoying having an airplane that can be used again after a wreck.

Thanks for your post ramovan. Its nice to know there is someone else out there with one of these planes. I have continued to work on mine, and its continually getting better. Just this morning I noticed that the wings were somewhat twisted in relation to one another with the right wing trailing edge twisted down and the left front edge up. I loosened the plastic connectors under the wing and twisted the wing past correction, then retightened them. Seemed a little better. Then I got some clear duct packaging tape and attached a piece to the right front wing edge, pulling the tape hard and crossing over to the left rear trailing edge. 2 pieces of tape, and some balancing and it flew nicely this afternoon. (I say flew, but all I have tried is flying in straight lines! I don't have room to turn in my small front yard/field.

If you ever badly damage the plane and need another, I got a good deal from the guy who operates raidentech. He sold me the complete plane including shipping for $80 through paypal. He would probably do the same if you gave him a call.

I have found the plane to be pretty durable also, but my limited experience doesn't give me any other planes to compare it too. I did manage to break the elevator control arm attachment during a cartwheel, but after a little epoxy it is holding up great.

Are you flying this plane stock? What holes in the control arms are you using for the pushrod attachment?

Newberry,

I bought my airplane from the same person on ebay. He sells at least 10 a week so there are a lot of people out there with this plane. I watched them sell for a very long time and was able to buy one for $60 with $18 shipping and then a could hours later I got a second one for $52 and $10 shipping. Not bad because I've seen this airplane selling all over the internet for $129 to $149. I have never flown the second plane as I always want a spare ready to go. I've been through 4 wings now and one elevator.

It is a good quality airplane. I also have a Wattage J3 Piper cub and you wouldn't believe how cheap, flimpsy, and under powered it is. Also the NiCad batteries in it don't even last near 5 minutes and there is no speed control (on/off only). That plane was $99 on sale (normally $129), so the Slope Diver is a much better bargain.

I am running my Slope Diver stock and I am using the center hole in the control horns.

Have fun and let me know how it goes for you. I've been flying mine at least once a week for 3 batteries-worth.

ramovan,
Sounds like you did get some good deals on your plane. Makes you wonder how much the dealers have in them!

What kind of flight times are you getting? I'm a little worried about my battery. The instructions said to charge it for about 3 hours but when I checked mine after 2 hours it was pretty hot. Too hot to hold in my hand without moving it around....
I ordered a new battery and I have a GWS 2002 charger coming from ebay that I hope will do a better job than the included wall unit.

noob,
You should worry! aA battery that is that hot is getting overcharged. When it's good it's just warm, not to hot to hold.

Jetts

Thanks JSB,
That was the rule with my old RC car packs too... This is my first nimh pack though, and I didn't really know what to expect! Hopefully the GWS peak charger will keep that from happening again.
As it is, when I bench test the plane the motor will run 4.5 mins on a full charge before the ESC cuts it off. The specs for this plane call for 10-15 min runs. I don't know if I roasted my battery, or if time is faster in China!

The motor is a 380, and the battery is an 8.4v 600mah that looks like AAA cells.

Newberry, your battery is just fine. Unfortunately, whatever battery time the manufactures of all airplanes claim is always twice what you will actually see. The nice thing about the slope diver is that you can cut the motor off and glide for quite awhile before turning it back on the gain altitude again. I get a good 10-15 minutes of flight if I do it well enough. Also, you can try using the full power to take off and then run the motor at a slower speed to keep it level in the air.... that can make it last longer. Full speed also last 4.5 minutes on my plane just like you found.

The instructions do say to charge the battery for 3 hours THE FIRST time which made my battery extremely hot as well. This is probably too long. I charge about 2 hours per batty now and it's pretty warm when done (and it's not normally fully discharged since the ESC shuts down the motor). Let me know how that new charger works out.... I might need to get me one!

ramovan,
Good to know that my battery is performing correctly. I will let you know how the charger performs. I have read some positive reviews about the GWS MC2002. I could have gotten a slightly cheaper charger, but I wanted something that I could use, even with up to a 12 cell pack later on.
If you are interested in one, there is still on left on ebay where I purchased mine from. The buy it now is cheaper than most of the other final auction prices I have seen ($28) Shipping is a bit high at $16 & $2 Insurance, but still a good price I think.

http://cgi.*********/ws/eBayISAPI.dl...&category=2563

Newberry,
That's about right for that motor/battery combo.
What I said is especially true for NiMH batteries, they are not supposed to get HOT, much less warm. (Less so than NiCads)

Jetts

Newberry,
Also forgot to mention that when you run these on the bench, they are MUCH MORE heavily loaded than when they are in the air, you will see a major improvement in run times while flying. Heat is the worst thing for those NiMH's!

Jetts

Today I ran my Slope Diver through three batteries one right after the other and I think I killed my motor. Running it without letting it cool off in between was probably a big mistake. Now the motor will not run at a constant speed. It acts like a loose connection but all the connections are fine. I think I cooked the motor. I'll have to take the motor off and see if there is a constant steady voltage on the wires to make sure.

So just a warning.... let them cool off before the next run!

Sounds like you smoked the brushes!

Jetts

I finally took mine up for the first time today! I drove to a huge hayfield and took it up to about 300'. What a blast! My first attempt at flying (other than fms) and I go 4 good climbs and one really smooth landing.

Sorry to hear you may have cooked your motor ramovan! You might be able to spray it with motor cleaner and get it straightened back out.
I'm sure the included motors are not the best... now you will have a great excuse to upgrade.

Jetts, I wonder where we could find a good, 380 sized replacement motor with bearings for these planes?

Speaking of cooling, I had considered drilling some holes in the front and rear to get a little air flow through...

Question ramovan, when I shut my motor off to glide, the prop continues to spin instead of folding. Am I doing something wrong?