Dear All,

This is almost 2 1/2 years of patience that has got me my first solo flight,Im very thanks full to aeromodellers like Muinuil from BLR,Nilesh-the great -from Ahmedabad & Many other aeromodellers & instructor.

I was quite nervious before flying & after checking all function,range check, wind direction,started my engine & finally I managed to take off.After takeoff, the model was banking right & I found that the model was banking to right right & immedately I trimmed the right ALERION &a little of the rudder & believe me she was just flying like a beauty,after 13mintues of flight I planned my landing & came into the wind the first approach was over over shot,therefore I increased throttled & pulled up making another circuit & approcahed for landing.wings were leveled but the model cames down very very fast & the touch down was very hard,no damage to model only rubber of the wheel came off,local people found the rubber .

Just a small request can you adv reason for fast landing.?can this hard landing be betterer or improved,need your adv
as therewere zero wind speed ,Yes I did change the fuel tank earlier 180 ml but leaking therefore I used a dubro 250ml capacity.

Also wanted adv ,as it rainy season in goa-India,Is it ok to fly when there are lots of dark clouds but not raining?
secondly as there is lot of grass,at take off the model at full throttle was struggle to take off as its was cutting the grass thereby reducing the rotation of the prop,any suggestion.

As far as rain goes...

I live in Oregon where it rains quite a bit. I frequently fly between showers and even some times when it is raining lightly. Make sure that your plane does not allow water to get into the on-board electronics and protect your transmitter from the rain and you should be ok.

Congratulation's, TopShelf covered the rain, but lighting is a flying no no,on grass use taller tires, that helps the prop, also helps the plane have less resistance on the ground,on landing, slow that sucker down!! When over runway 4 to 6 feet keep the plane level with elevator then add or decrease throttle,engine speed will raise and lower the plane,most people land using elevator, wrong, use throttle speed. Have fun, John

Dear Terill/Topshelf,

thanks for the adv,how do I control the speedy drop towards run way? Is it because of fuel tanks that wt more.

In regards to the rain will postively cover the Receiver with double plastic 7 the same I will protect TX(GOT A VERY BIG BEACH UMBREBELLA FOR THAT).Do you need to protect the servoes(148futaba)?are the water proof.Will

Any probelm with engine with rain drop falling on running engine?

Morning petergomes,
check your center of gravity,if nose heavy plane will drop on low speed,needing more up elevator,if tail heavy elevator gets more sensitive,sometimes to much to control,yes that much extra fuel can cause a nose heavy plane,check c/g with empty fuel tank,adj c/j if needed,fill tank half full,test fly and see what happens.
John.

hI John,

Good morning to you but here in India is 7.45pm.

thanks for your prompt reply.

you exactly right,without fuel the tail is heavy may be 25grams of wt correct the balance.

I really did not understand moving the CG FRONT/BACK,how does one do that ? (pls excuse me as Im a novice at the CG,
When I do the wing along the spar & lift the model. the tail drops slightly down.but after filling fuel the nose getsvery little heavy not a worry about nose.

Should I use half tank fuel or change the fuel tank from 250ml to 180ml????

As I tested the model on ground with 250ml fuel,it runned continiously for 36min at medium throttle.I want to see how long can this fly in air & understand when to land?

need you expertise.

also will need to chop the grass as I cannot get bigger wheels than 2.5inches & the bigger the wheeels more the wt,if im not wrong.

Hi petergomes,check the c/g with the fuel tank empty, if you balance the plane with fuel in the tank it will become tail heavy as the fuel is used while flying causing the plane to become sensitive in the elevator, most trainers balance on the spar if you don't have prints thats a good balance point<your plane is a lite weight trainer?> move the battery is the best way to change the c/g,I add weight as a last resort,as a beginner have the plane balaced level or the nose a little down,one size taller wheels usually don't weigh that much more.Hope this helps,John.

Hi petergomes,
sorry,missed part of ?,for now fill the tank half or less full and then test fly, can always fill tank later if you like long flights, but that much fuel does change the way plane flies as c/g from fuel amt. ON my larger planes the tank is on the c/g so the handling stays the same,only weight changes.John.

Peter,

TerrellFlyer has you on the right track with regard to CG. Balance with tank empty and the NOSE should slightly drop.

For flight times, I use a simple kitchen timer or watch with a count down timer. Determine how many minutes your plane will run at FULL THROTTLE then subtract a minute. This gives you ample reserve if you need to go around or cannot land due to traffic.

Dear john/topshelfl,

thanks a million,

Ive tired this CG SOLUTION & come to this conclusion.
At empty fuel tanks the tail is slightly heavy around 15 to 20gms,so I put the battery in the front of the CG.Now I find a very slight diffrence i.e nose up by 25 to 30 degree,if I had may be 10 to 15 gms ,this is solving the problem,also checked with the landing gears change the wheel & used foam wheels (made of hard sponge)this perfectly works.

will check CG now with half tank empty may be 150ml & then fly the model.will keep you updated.

Ive already ORGANSIED the time problem with a alarm clock & Ive decided NOT to fly more than 15min to 20min on full tank & on half tank just 8min,

can you help in adv how to perfectly check that rudder/elavator & most of all the alerions are properly straight?any sight or diagrams.As I learnt one simple method of checking with a ruler seeing that both elavators sides are parellel to the rulers & also I do the same with rudder & Alerion(but find it little confusion with alerion(any suggestion)

Hi Pete, you should balance your plane with EMPTY fuel tank. What are you using to measure CG ? Good luck.........

Hi petergomes,
tank empty c/g level or nose down a little!! Ruler or something similar works fine,but in flight other forces effect the plane. Tork of the prop,propwash on the plane,thrust line, just to name a few items,so in flight you will probably have the controls trimmed a little off center,not to worry,plane should be trimmed to fly level with no control inputs as you change speed or even props, the plane can fly different,trim the plane at the ave.speed you fly and the prop you usually use,as you have already learned,c/g changes as weight of fuel changes in flight,hope this helps, John.

As far as rain and the servos, reciever goes...a trick I learned from running the Monster Pirate(4 wheel drive, 1/8th scale MUD EATER) is to get some #9 round balloons and feed the servos into those.If you get a bag, it may take a few tries till you get the hang of it. Naturally, the end with the wires comes out the stem. Take a pin and poke where the shaft comes up for the control horn.(stretch the balloons well first) A dabba silicone, a pull tie and your set. Do the same with your reciever..it works great!