i went to the field today to have some of the guys check out my finished airplane and it got a clean bill of health as well as some nice compliments on my first covering job. i wasnt planing on flying today because i am not yet an official member of the club but a couple of guys offered to take me up. well as luck would have it no one there(there was only a few people today-very cold) had the newer style trainer cord to work with my 7CAP so i asked one of the guys take it up just so i could see it fly. there was a moment of fear when 1 month of my time and a good amount of money raced down the runway and sped up to the point of no return and then it soared into the air. even though i did not get to fly it today myself, it was very exciting to see it take to the air. the guy who flew it said it was excellent, he hardly had to trim it at all. well next weekend i will fly it with an instructor and in the mean time i got to have my plane inspected, trimmed out and get a test flight. all in all it was a good day.

seanb... Always remember it's always a Great Day.. More so on a
maiden flight, When it all comes home in the same condition it went
to the field!! Does it not "feel Great" when your work draws such
praise, And the work that you did, performs so flawlessly.. Now
wait til you fly it... You'll really like that!! Great Work... Keep us
updated!! And Have fun while being safe..

Sounds like my day. I maidened my trainer today, as well.

And....I had the same buddy box problem on my 7CAP.

Here is a tip that worked for us - someone might be able to fine tune this information, but it worked for us.

Since your radio is a computer radio, a regualr buddy box won't work. It has to be another computerized radio. Make sure that your radio is set to PPM and that the other is set to PPM as well. I believe there is a setting in there on the main menu, under "trainer" where you can change it from "inhibited" to "off". I believe it has to be set to off.

We couldn't figure it out, and eventually had about 4 guys out there working with the radios. The JR guys were arguing (jokingly of course) with the Futaba guys. One of the JR guys figured out how to do it on my Futaba radio.....go figure. Anyway, the tip above is what I was able to glean from the commotion before having a fixed radio placed in my hand. Might need to be tweaked by someone who knows for sure.

It was a great day.....for both of us, it sounds like.

As many times as I've heard stories of a newbie's maiden flight, they still give me chills

Great job!

And welcome to the skies!

That is great . It's not to often that a trainer does not need much trimming. I'll bet the goose bumps have not gone away yet. Even if they have they will come back when you get to fly it. Even though you did not fly it, you now know what it's like to at least see your creation fly. It's just like being a proud papa and also the same as seeing your daughter go out on her first date, big smiles and huge shakes all at once. [X(]

Congrats....

Congratulations. To have your hard work rewarded by compliments on your model and then to see it fly well is about as much as you can ask for in this hobby. The same as your first solo flight will be when you and the instructor think you're ready. These moments only come once and you never forget them.

Congrats! Sounds like a heck of a building job.

Btw, byris said:
This isn't true. I use a dumb buddy box with computer radios all the time. (I don't know about PCM vs PPM though, I've never seen a trainer with a PCM receiver. )

The key thing is that you can't use the computer TX to do things like sub trim, duel rates, end point adjustment and so on. The buddy box does not get any of those settings. So, if you do someting like set the control rates at 50% on your TX here is what happens. The instructor holds your TX, so when they fly, they get the 50% rate. But you hold the dumb buddy box. When the instrutor hits the trainer swtich, your TX takes over, but the 50% rate setting is not passed over, so the student now has 100% rates. Sub trim is the same thing, the servo center will move, and can be moved to the point where the buddy box's trim lever can't move far enough to trim out the plane.

So, if you have a computer radio, disable everything, all mixes, all expo, duel rates, end point ajustments, everything. Then you can easily use any TX as the buddy box.

Of course, you can use this to your advantage. Like set the your box to 125% rates, so the instructor has more throw now than the student (who is at 100%). Or, use 2 computer radios and set up the buddy box with lower rates, since it's the buddy box settings that get used.

Some newer compuer TX's have the ability to pass computer settings to the buddy box (actually, that's not what it really does, but close enough for now), and some TX's can pass just some control fucntions but not others. I haven't used one of those rigs yet, so I can't comment on it.

i forgot to add that on the final approach to the runway the engine stalled!(needs a little fine tunning) but the Tiger 2 seems to have nice gliding abilities as well.

Montegue,

I am still trying to figure it out. We have 4 or 5 dumb boxes and none of them worked. We had to borrow another member's radio, take the crystal out, and configure it for it to work as a buddy box.

However, even if it did work, I have all the subtrims and endpoints perfected on my radio. If I were to zero all of that out, it probably wouldn't fly as well.

As I fly more, the TRUE problem will show itself. Right now, I don't have anymore data than I was able to sift that day. I'll post on this thread again once I figure it out.

That's one of the really nice things about the Tiger... NO bad tendencies!

It's SWEET!

That's odd about the buddy boxes, I've never seen that happen before. Did you try various cables?

As for subtrims and the stuff, when using a buddy box, you have to trim the airplane the old fashion way. That means turning clevises and adjusting servo arms and what holes on the servo arm and control surface you use to get the right trim and throws.

All these young wippersnappers, why back in my day, servo reversing was luxary. 6 channel transmitters advertised in BIG LETTERS that they had reversing on _4_ channels, and we thought we had it good. Sheesh! [X(] (wide open spot here for someone who actually flew escapement.....)

Eeeewwww!

Yes, but believe it or not, your plane will fly better if you take the time to do at least a little mechanical trimming. For example, if you use EPA to drop your control down more than about 85% throw, consider moving out on the control horn on the surface in question. It's better to use all the servo resolution and leverage you can get, and that means 100% of travel if possible. Since you also want to be as far out on the servo arm as you can get with in reason, that means you're best limiting travel at the control surface.

In a simular vein, you want the pushrod to leave the servo at a 90 degree angle. (most of the time, if you intentionally want more throw in one direction than another, that's different). If you subtrim a servo over to get something centered, then you're better off adjusting pushrod length and servo arm location.

Also note that most (but not all) servo brands have an odd number of teeth in the output spline. That means that if the arm isn't lining up at 90 degrees for neutral, try flipping the arm around 180 degrees, it might just start lining up right. (Hitec, I think, is the big one that likes to use an even number of teeth, so this doesn't work on some of their servos).

Just a minor point Seanb, the engine did not "stall"--- it quit. do not use the term stall to refer to engine malfunctions. stall in(simple) aerodynamics means loss of flying speed. yes, there is something called a compressor stall, but thats with jet engines.

ELTIGRE, I think you will find you are wrong on the point you made about an engine stalling, it is not just a jet engine that will stall (whoever told you that needs to read up on some things) any type of combustion engine no matter how big or small can and will stall under the right circumstances. an engine just does not quit. for example if i am driving a vehicle with stick shift and i try to drive up a steep hill in a gear that is too high (for example 3rd gear) i would be in too high a gear for the vehicle to get up the hill i would loose all forward momentum and as a result i would stall the engine, it would not just quit.

I believe on the 9 caps that you can pass on the functions to the buddy box by setting the function setting for trainers. the instructor can also determine which controls to pass on to the student. at least that is what the instructions appear to say.