I just got an Aerobird Challenger, and am trying to self teach. I've taught myself to do landings and ground sweeps fine, but I'm having trouble with turns. It seems as though the turning is delayed, and sometimes when I turn, the plane turns on it's side, and I end up diving. It's not a spiral dive described, when you hold the stick too long, but just a straight dive. I'm only running 25-50% throttle.

give it less stick...yes those take a while to come around.... give it a little stick(not all the way) and wait for a second or two.... as soon as the plane starts to come around...let the stick go back to center or even give a little (again...no need to push the stick all the way..) opposite direction..... just use small inputs....

You will find the challenger will turn better with throttle input. They fly so slow there is not enough airflow over the control surfaces so a little help from the prop thrust is needed.

When a plane banks, the wing has to produce more lift to avoid diving. If you bank far enough over, the wing can't keep up, and you dive.

To be able to do a highly-banked turn, you need to get the wing to produce more lift. You can do that two ways. One is to increase the angle of attack. You do that by pulling back on the elevator. This also increases drag, and reduces airspeed, and if you over-do it, you wind up stalling the wing and going down in a hurry.

The other way to get more lift is to get more air moveing over the wing by just flying faster. With heavier models, it's quite possible to fly along straight and level with just enough speed to fly straight, but not enough speed to turn. Lots of models are crashed this way because the pilot slowed down too much when doing downwind before landing. When the pilot trys to turn, there isn't enough airspeed to produce the needed lift, and the plane goes down.

So, you are over-banking for your airspeed. Both suggestions above are right on as well.

Try increasing power before starting your turn, and go easy on the rudder. These things don't react immediatly, you need to be paitent and let the plane resond to your controls.

Oh, if you play a lot of video games, you might be in the habbit of pulsing the controls, like pushing a button over and over. That doesn't work very well. Try a small stick movement held for a longer period of time, and think slow, smooth control imputs, nothing sudden or jerky.

Yup, the aerobirds don't fly very good at all compared to the larger nitro planes... I got one for my wife to mess around with and ended up getting her a superstar instead.... Anyway, It definately needs more throttle for the turns... About 2 seconds before you enter the turn give her at LEAST 3/4 throttle... Then give a small input (like maybe slightly more than 1/4 stick travel) and hold it JUST until the wings bank at about a 30 degree angle.... AS the plane starts to roll, you also want to EASE in a little up elevator... Start when it's about 15 degrees banked. Once it's at 30 degrees, stop your left/right input, but hold just a slight amount of up elevator (whatever amount it takes to keep the nose up level, not climbing or diving)... When you've just about come about to where you want to exit the turn, start pushing in opposite aileron and wait till it responds... As it rolls out ease back off the elevator and once the wings are level re-center the stick and drop your throttle back to normal cruise setting again.

Pssst.....guys..... the Challenger doesn't HAVE an elevator...OR rudder....or aelieron....


but adding a little power is a great suggestion

Actually, the Aerobird Challenger is a 3-channel plane, Rudder, Elevator, and Throttle.

The Rudder and Elevator functions are done using V-tail mixing, but it's the same thing, you have independant rudder and elevator functions.

Oooops....[sm=drowning.gif]

Sorry...I thought it was the same as the Firebird....

How do you quick 180 turns?

Bleh, I'm thinknig of getting an instructor.

Just practice. Turning tight is the same as turning gently. You just need more airspeed, more elevator, and a steaper bank.

You might have to increase the control throws to really turn quickly. But I wouldn't do that yet. Work on nice open turns with a fairly flat bank. 30 degrees or so. Once you get so that you can fly a box or a racetrack pattern, then you can start trying to turn it faster.

If you are flying in a small area that requires tight 180 turns, go find a more open space until you are able to make the turns.

I can fly in my Dad's back yard, but when I'm up there, and he wants to fly, we go to a sports complex that has a bunch of soccer fields. His plane can fly in his backyard, but he isn't ready yet, so we make the drive. You might have to do something simular for now.

The Aerobird Challenger is a V-tail........(Rudder-vater.....)

As mentioned before power or speed is your friend.
If you can master to fly that thing, you will probably be pro.lol
Good lord..... a V tail without airlerons.

Just give it full power to pull it thur the turns.
Back out the power on straight ways to conserve the juice.

Read up on lift theary.
wind over and under the wing via by the prop (power)
Or speed. Just extend your arm out and swing it back and forth.
Feel the wind ?

A glider fly in this way also aside from thermal.
Gravity pulls the glider towards the the earth.
Speed it gain thereby more wind is generated.

When your plane stalled and started towards the ground.
Instead of pulling on the elevator. neaturalzize the controls.
The plane will head toward the ground faster to gain speed so the wing
can start flying again. I guess give yourself plenty of altitude.lol

The control surfaces only change the pitch of the plane or AOA of the wing
it will not lift the wing or the plane.
There's a maxium pitch or AOA until lift is lost.
Pulling up on the elevator will only cuase the wing to stall or stop flying
if there's not enough turst or power.

The controls will also be less effective with less wind.

To make a tight turn around ?
Do a stall trun as a turn around
Kind of like a skateboarder riding a half pipe pattern.

have fun, don't give up

For a really good explination of how a plane flys, how to turn, and so on, I think this is one of the best websites out there:

"How it Flys"
http://www.av8n.com/how/

This site is aimed at private pilots, and you can ignore a lot of the site, when it goes on about what to look for when looking out of the airplane from inside. But their aerodynaics are non-technical, very readable, and the application applies to models as well as full-scale.

What is pitch and AOA then? Angle of something.

The Aerobird Challenger is OK to learn on for at least "one" good reason. It takes a beating. Believe me I know. It does not fly or respond well when its windy. I almost lost mine on a "fly away" one day because I was flying it when it was too windy. A big gust took it sailing far away from me. Also when its windy, you might try to turn to no avail, the wind will just take it where it wants to. But they can be quite fun and challenging in a "bit" of wind. If you want it to respond quicker, like quicker turns, loops etc put it in the second mode, which I think its called "sport mode". Sorry I don't have the instructions here. My Aerobird as well a the instructions are up in WI. As stated b4 to turn quickly with it, it needs speed/throttle. If you're flying slow, it needs a lot of space to turn. Ask me how I know. I stuck it in the trees twice, trying to turn to land. But turned too slow right into the trees. I also put floats on mine which was a lot of fun. But I just split one of the floats from crashing so I had to take them off. The reason it crashed, I think, was because the receiver was wet and it stopped responding. It crashed on a frozen lake. Frozen lake + foam floats= broken floats. The receiver got wet because the snow was deep, so it wouldn't take off. So I tried to hand launch. Bad idea. Floats were to heavy for a hand launch ant it nosed right into the snow. So then I did what I should have in the first place. I went out towards the middle of the lake where the snowmobilers had packed the snow, and it took of in a flash from there. Anyway, speed is the key, and all advice above is great. Don't be afraid to fly it fast, but don't let it get away from you, and don't fly it when its too windy. Read the instructions and heed the warnings. They are there for a reason. Also read the directions about the second mode. It will respond better, but also a better chance for the "spiral of death". As I said the guys made some great suggestions. I just thought I'd share my experiences with the Aerobird. BTW one more thing. With the floats landing in water, it also needs speed. If you land too slow it will nose right over. In any case don't give up & have fun!!!!
AOA=Angle of attack.
leftnut, yes its a v-tail w/o ailerons. I was a bit concerened about that, but they do fly "OK". They also "coast" very nice. Not the best thing to learn on, but as I said they do take a beating.
Joe

AOA is angle of attack. That's the angle the moving air is hitting the wing.
Pitch is nose-up-nose-down movement.

Obviously, they are closely related. If you pitch the nose up, you increase the AOA, at least for a few moments.