Today was a little windy here in the...uhh....Windy City, and cold. I took the Nexstar up for the first time WITHOUT the flaps and wing droops--I have never used the AFS, thought it would defeat the purpose--- and it was a much more enjoyable plane, still a floater but much more responsive.

WORD OF CAUTION- for those of you out there that are still flying with all the "stuff" on the wing, be prepared to need a SIGNIFICANT TRIM CHANGE ON THE ELEVATOR. I had to bottom out the elevator trim to get it to fly straight/level at full throttle. No need to worry, its a good plane and will be a lot more fun once the "extras"are removed and the trim redone.

I know that a lot of people on this website have had less than perfect experiences with this aircraft, but for what its worth, I like it. It helped to give me the confidence to get my feet wet, never gave me problems, and now I'm hooked. The simulator really speeds up the learning curve, even if in my opinion no one really needs the AFS.

Happy flying!

The Nexstar is a great plane.Even after reading all the bashing and put downs I still purchased it.
After about 40hrs on the sim., I went out today and soloed with no instructor. There were about 6 nervous experienced fliers looking on,and they were absolutely amazed[X(] that I took off and landed on my very first attempt.I flew two more tanks my last landing was dead stick.The Nexstar is still in one piece. It is a great plane to learn on.

I have it too... havent had a chance to fly yet (been looking at it for a month in my room...)

I think though (it has been flown...guy at my feild got it up and put it through its paces...) that i will do well with it...it looks great in the air, and is (relativly...for a trainer) very responisve and stable as well...

Nexstar fliers, can anyone tell me if and where I can get an adapter to fit the end of the interface cord so I can hook up my JR 662 transmiter? Somebody gave me the interface cord and CD (P2) but I can't hook to my 662.

I have the plane too , i outgrew it though and now its for sale....anyone want it ? never seen a crash !

Hey flycfii,

I'm in the Schaumburg area, what field are you flying out of? I just finished putting my Nexstar together, and I'm looking for a good field and an instructor. Any recommendations? Thanks!

You're just asking for trouble by saying that. Gotta be careful... they can come around and jinx ya! [:@]

Hey race77, if you ever want to get out to Busse Woods field, we could get together. Here's the thing- I never had an instructor, just lots of sim time (and a couple hundred hours in Warriors and Cessnas), and I did fine without one. Now I'm not recommending that you go the same route, but if you can fly it well on the sim with some wind and gusts/thermals dialed in, and land it consistantly without crashing, then you are more ready than you think. The truth is that your biggest enemy is fear, and once you overcome that then you will be flying. Just my 2 cents. Also, the AFS system is NOT good for you! All that aside, if you wanna meet up, then I can at least take it up and get it trimmed out for you and show you that it will fly, and give you a few pointers.

Here's the RV-6 all painted and waiting for a radio (9C). Next project- T.F. T-34 glassed with retracts!

I hope I'm not hijacking this thread but I have to ask something concerning the Nexstar.

I have read numerous posts about guys learning to fly with the NexStar and they have posted " the first thing the instructor told me to do was disconnect that !@#$# auto-pilot " and others here on this forum have told new guys to disconnect it. I don't understand..is it an ego thing??? It just sounds like Mr.Instructor has a chip on his shoulder...

now I do understand you have to learn how YOU need to get the aircraft out of trouble when the situation arrises but why all the negativity towards the system? Does it suck that bad? was it set up properly?

Need to know..

Thanks

i am a beginner and trained on the nexstar. i never hooked up the afs or whatever. was told that it would hamper the learning curve. started with the flaps on. in hindsight i wish i hadent used them at all provides to much lift and as stated in other posts when you remove them you have to retrim your elevator. if your starting out my reccomendation would be disconnect the afs thingie, dont put the flaps on. but leave the wing tip extensions on untill you get a few solo flights under your belt.

if you read real close on the afs in a manual or post it is a pain some times to use afs, why?
because it uses heat/light/infared/ sensors to detect shadows and light to keep the plane stable bu i have seen it in the evening and it causes unwanted flying characteristics, and its got a time frame of day that u are supposed to use it, like 11 to 3:30 or something because of the suns position and dont use it in super bright days , however i dont own a gasser yet, but have flown the nexstar, i hated afs, i seemed to take over while i was banking keeping me from going where i wanted to , we dissabled it and i scared the owner, he was white as a ghost, but i love highwings, i make highwings do evil bad things,in a good way ,.i dont see how people crash high wings, but i do understand crashing the low wings,lol

Experienced fliers (instructors) don't like the auto pilot feature because it counters pilot inputs & makes the plane unresponsive (it also has a few minor "quirks). It is intended to correct overcontrolling, & some fliers truly need it. They will progress faster with it --up to the point that they can fly well enough to turn it off. Those that don't need it are better off not using it, because they will have to re-emphasize some control input behaviour.

Hers my problem with the "thingy"; when things go wrong, you are supposed to let go of the sticks and the "thingy" is supposed to level the plane. Now what is this teaching you, when things go wrong release control of the plane and let a gizmo get you out of trouble! I watched one of the "thingies" take over and crash a trainer because it wasn't set up properly prior to the flight. The new guy insisted on using the "thingy" because he though it would save his plane if something went wrong. I refused to fly the plane with the "thingy" connected because I didn't agree with the idea of them so he found another instructor instead. Glad it wasn't me! Trainers usually have a lot of dihedral which means if you relax the right stick the plane will self level any way and even this can teach bad habits. When my son went from a trainer to a low wing. he almost crashed it because he was waiting for the plane to level itself like the trainers after doing a turn! Once I told him that you put it into the turn, you have to get it out of the turnyourself; he was ok![8D]

The point is, who's driving this thing? You, or a microchip? And who is smarter?

See that's what bugs me. The microchip!

I have a nexstar ARF which did not come with the autopilot. On the sim though, the one with the autopilot teaches bad habits when banking. See, you start the bank and you have to hold the aileron control to continue the bank otherwise it will self-right. When flying a plane with no autopilot, that would result in a roll.

I started flying mine with nothing on it - no speed flaps, no anti-spin wingtips, nothing. I like it except for the fact that it tries to skirt to the right on full throttle take off. Even with washers behind the engine mount to reduce right thrust it still does it, seems like it wants to go up on the nose so downthrust may be a factor. Half throttle and its clean.

As for the price, the ARF was competitively priced with the hangar 9 alpha and a few other trainer ARFs. I'm happy with it myself. Mounted a OS .46 AX on the nose and the range of power is very nice.