I am a Intro Pilot/trainer for the West Tennessee RC Club in Jackson, TN.

I had the opportunity to fly the Hobbico Nexstar for the first time this afternoon. When this gentleman brought the plane out, I did my normal preflight checks, such as centering all the control surfaces, throttle, CG, generally checking the plane out to see if it was assembled correctly, ect!! I noticed the appendage hanging from the bottom of the plane and he said it was the autopilot "Cool"

I flew this plane on it's maiden flight, very stable on takoff, "BUT" I do not know if I like the autopilot function. Let me say I flew this plane put it through all the paces that I normally do on a new trainer, and landed it in a crosswind, in decent landing with no damage.

The following are questions (not necessary criticisms) about this plane.

1 - Is it a good thing that when you bank a plane into a turn that it continually try's
to center itself?

2 - With the speed brake the plane (with neutral elevators) continues to climb,
resulting in putting alot on down trim in the elevator.

3 - Just an observation on this one, the rudder has a huge effect on this plane, to
me more so that the other trainer I have flown.

4 - I will say this this plane is very stable on landing, even with a crosswind very
little aileron in put was needed.

Any input would be appreciated on this plane, I don't know if I want to bash it yet, but I know our LHS has about a dozen on the shelf so I know I will be seeing them in January!!

I will have my review on this published in the RCU Magazine here this week. Stay tuned...

Experienced pilots will definitely sense a "weird" feeling as the autopilot tries to correct you and fights you to level. Doesn't feel like what we are used to but if dialed down a bit at a time the beginner can slowly get used to the no auto pilot setup. It might pay to dial the gain down if you feel it fights too much. It is so stable that if you are on a buddy box you can really go low on the gain. I think the higher gains are best suited to add confidence to the brand new pilot or if a buddy box isn't around so the beginner can release the sticks and get back to level. This is great especially when they confuse left and right when the plane is headed toward themselves. If they go the wrong way they can just let go and get back to level until they learn.

I thought this plane was one of the best trainers I've ever seen. I flew it with the anti-spin extensions and the speed flaps and the factory set auto pilot gain. I had my 5 year old son fly it as well. He was doing loops on his first flight.

As far as the climbing you mention, this is also due to the flat bottom airfoil (along w/speed brakeds) so I usually fly it very slow at 1/8th throttle and the balloning goes away. If you throttle up the plane will climb as you noted. The rudder is effective and I was able to fly around a few feet off the ground within the confines of our field using aileron and rudder. Landing is a breeze.

I think the complete package is a winner and sometimes I grimace when I see some of the planes beginners come to the field with and want me to test fly or stand by them with. This is one plane I would have total confidence in even without a buddy box setup. The OS 46fx up front is powerful and reliable and the design of the plane excellent.

Hobbico was very thorough in this package by including everthing they did with this trainer. I only wish I had this way back a few decades ago when I was learning to fly. This plane will certainly help to make more successful pilots.

Please do not think I am being critical of this plane!!!!

But with being used to flying Avistars, Superstars, ect it "was different"

I would like to hear input from other people that has flown this trainer. I am going to do my own research, because I know I will be seeing more of them!!

I did not think you were critical. All good points you made. I also thought it was "different" but in good ways. The Avistars and Superstars are also good trainers. This one just goes that extra mile that none before ever have. As an experienced pilot I personally need to dial the gain down so the correcting is gone. That makes it feel what we consider to be "normal".

If you have not done so you should try stalling the plane. It is really hard. The low speed flight is awesome. You can just putter around with those speed brakes on and 1/8th throttle. It is quite relaxing.

You can check out the beginner forum as I believe there are more discussions on this new trainer in there and more feedback.

The [link=http://www.rcuniverse.com/magazine/article_display.cfm?article_id=258]NexSTAR Review[/link] was just released in the RCU Magazine.

Although I have not flown one, I'm really looking forward to trying one out.
I think that the "training assistants" can be good and bad........the plane seems like it was designed not to crash....which is a very good thing for beginners...but, experienced guys are going to feel the plane fighting them, like Hooter mentioned. The great thing about the plane is that the sensitivity of the auto pilot can be turned down, and the speed brakes can be removed when the student gets more comfortable. I'm curious to know if the auto pilot can be totally disabled.....
Overall, I think the plane will be a hit.....but, I think that new pilots might almost be "re-teaching" themselves once the auto pilot is turned down and the speed brakes come off. I remember reading in the review that the plane needed "overcontrolled" to compensate with the autopilot on....that would not be a good thing once it is turned down or disabled........as we all know, overcontrolling is a common mistake of new pilots, and actually teaching them this kind of scares me. I think that training times will be increased with this plane because of the gadgets, but, the plane is much more likey to stay in one peice!!

If this is the Futaba "Pilot assist" set up, the only big problem is if you fly it in the early morning or late afternoon, it will try to fly toward the sun.

Marc said:

>If you have not done so you should try stalling the plane. It is really hard. The low speed flight is awesome...

Also re: image in post #5, Larry Eddy

Those odd bumps on the outer LE of the wing are the LE droops of the "NASA Safe Airfoil", ref: Andy Lennon's book. Supposedly make the wing stall-proof, as Marc notes.

First time I've seen them on a commercial product, but it looks like someone at Hobbico did their homework as they are a good idea on a trainer.

Good comments on the autopilot, too. I have one on my photo-plane to level the wings during a photo run, but have it so that it can be switched off for "normal" flight. It bugs me to have a plane with a mind of it's own...

Added later: they even did a decent job on the Nexstar manual. It covers a lot of the fine details that an intro pilot would need to know.

--Bill

According to the tech notes on the Tower website, the Nexstar's covering is "polyester based heat shrink." Some of Hobbico's other ARFs are Monocote and some are "shelve paper." I know people who have both. They say that the Monocote is great for repairs, but the "shelve paper", which will not shrink with heat, is terrible. Has anyone tried to shrink the covering on the Nexstar? To me this is an important consideration, but is not mentioned at all in the RCU review. Thanks in advance for anyone's experience with the Nexstar's covering.

As far as the covering, Hobbico makes a big deal about saying planes are covered in Monokote, so if the Nexstar isn't advertised as such, it's probably shelf paper! [:'(]

After doing a little research today, I understand why I the Nexstar flew like it did Sunday!

Other than fighting the autopilot, in turns, and in landing this plane is very stable. I landed it in a very bad crosswind with very little control input other than the down elevator. The crosswind was bad enough it was flipping planes over trying to taxi.

BUT! I will be flying this plane more in the future and I am not sure that if you in a AMA club with a "good" Intro pilot/trainer the autopilot is a good thing.

One of the biggest thing every trainer pilot should learn is how to recover a plane when it get's out of shape before he ever solo's.

Granted I know you can turn the autopilot down, take the speed brakes off, but we will be back at the same old thing, guy's buying trainers, trying them on their own, crashing them and wondering why!

Call me Old Fashioned I still believe to learn how to fly join a good AMA sanctioned club, learn from a seasoned pilot and save their money for that second plane.

Remember you can 'turn down' the sensitivity of the AFS system! I too flew this one in the latter portion of the afternoon and experienced the same thing. The trouble is MANY new pilots will favor the late portion of the day to fly because the wind dies down!

Jerry

I hope somebody brings one of these out to our field soon....I'm very curious to get my hands on the sticks and see what this AFS/autopilot is all about.....I'd like to try turning the sensitivity down also and see if the AFS can be totally disabled.

The AFS can be totally disabled by disconnecting the A & B wires from the sensor.