I certainly hope so!

I just hope you are planing on putting more rubber bands on.

Yeah... that was for a garage photo, not too worried about flying stability there.

Anyway, UPDATE!!! It flies!!! Once. Don't worry, it didn't crash or anything bad. It was just a very windy day. My instructor checked it out, and took it up on maiden to trim it out. After that first flight (which went very well by the way) the winds really picked up and neither I nor my instructor were comfortable flying. In fact, no one at the field really flew today. There were I think three flights today, one of which was the maiden of my trainer. It's too bad really. My instructor was confident that I would do very well with it based on how I flew his Tiger II back in February.

NEXT WEEK IT WILL FLY! Assuming the weather permits, of course.

I can't wait to get some stick time!

Thanks for the update Kiswa!

Too bad you didn't get to fly it. But at least you know that it flies!!

Yeah, it IS nice to know it's actually airworthy.

Maybe I'll practice taxiing since I can't fly... my neighborhood is pretty traffic-free.

Yes, Today was a very windy day. My Instructor and I hung out all day. We went out and tried to fly near the end of the day and flew his lt-25, It was pretty fun cause if you were flying in the wind you could pretty much just sit standing still and hold your altitude, And we didnt have a landing less than 10 feet long. Yep, Float them in

I'm really hoping that this weekend has less wind. I want to see my plane flying with me at the controls! It's going to need another 'maiden' flight though... I'm going to be replacing all the clevises with better ones. One of the aileron clevises that the plane came with was sliding on the threads of the push rod. Which I would say is not a good thing.

So tonight I'll be going to the hobby shop to buy Hayes clevises (they have a metal rod at the end and are very sturdy). Then my instructor will be taking my plane up this weekend and re-trimming it. And hopefully, the weather will cooperate enough to let me get some stick time. Man, I didn't realize just how much I want to fly!

Glad to see it flies well. I've had stripped clevis threads before too, nasty!!
I've been using these lately and liking them a lot so far:

http://www2.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...?&I=LXWH32&P=7

a little bulky but not bad and very sturdy.

Good luck next weekend.

These are the ones I'm going to be getting: http://www2.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...?&I=LXK847&P=7

Only because the local hobby shop guy was at the field when we discovered that my aileron clevis was slipping and he gave me two of these to replace both aileron clevises. He said to just buy some the next time I come in and give him two back and we're even. Seems fair to me, and they're nice clevises (very similar to the ones you linked to - minus the locking bit). Besides, if it happened with one of the clevises that came with the plane, it could happen with others. So I figure I'll just replace all of them.

And thanks for the good luck! I'll probably need it to get the weather to cooperate.

They should be fine. I had been using these on most of my connections until the day I had one start slipping on the rod. Thinking I just got a bad one, I replaced the rod and link(wasn't sure which was bad). Three flights later it was slipping again. This was on a relatively small aileron on a medium speed airplane, should not have had too much of a load. Sorry, I can't trust them anymore. http://www2.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...?&I=LXRU46&P=7 [:'(]
That's me, use what you like, your choice should be OK

Well, I've now replaced all the clevises that came with the plane. I'd recommend that anyone else who buys an ARF do the same (at least check all of yours to see if they need replacing).

I think it should now be just about as sturdy as I can make it. I'm REALLY hoping that I get some stick time this weekend!

That reminds me, I'm also going to my first club meeting tonight. I'm going to be working on the club website and we've got to start discussing what they'd like to accomplish.

Wish me luck on that too!

I promise I'm not following you. Watch out when you change things on the ARF's. A lot of them use metric wire/hardware so the clevis's or other parts may not fit right. More critical when using metal to metal fits..

Bruce

Yeah, I know... I'm leading.

Seriously though, I noticed that the rods were metric when we first went to field-replace the aileron clevises and a member offered me a replacement that just didn't work. Those Hayes ones worked well because they're not threaded, so they'll go onto any threading as long as the rod isn't smaller than the opening of the clevis.

I can't remember if I mentioned it here or not, but the wing bolts weren't long enough. I had to hit up Lowes to get some metric bolts that would work (and I had to Dremel the heads of the bolts to fit the small wing nuts). The wing doesn't shift anymore since I replaced the bolts that came with the ARF with longer ones from Lowes. (The wing on this plane can be with or without dihedral, depending on which brace you use and is held together with bolts and wing nuts that attach to the brace through the bottom of the wing.)

Good catch on the wire and you are exactly correct about the unthreaded plastic. Sometimes when I am installing a plastic part and the screw just doesn't want to start, I run a tap into it for a few turn so it can get a start. don't go all the way or it may be too loose.
Nice work on wing bolts too.
Well, I got to go back to work for a bit. You'll have to lead someone else for a while. HEHE. Later dude..

!!!UPDATE!!!

I flew yesterday (Saturday)! And I almost soloed too. My last flight of the day was my first take-off and I flew the whole flight, but I didn't land. I just wasn't comfortable enough yet, since my last flight of the day was also my third flight ever. My insructor said I was an extremely fast study and he expects me to solo before he sees me again (he's going TDY for a couple weeks, so I'm getting a new instructor 'til he gets back). I really just need to practice landing approaches and I'll be able to solo.

Anyway, I had a great day! I was nervous as heck the first time I took the sticks, but by my third flight, I was comfortable enough to fly the whole time (until the landing). I would have flown a lot more than three flights, but I had a battery problem. The RX battery I had was on it's last legs and had to be replaced.

Oh yeah, my plane did suffer some minor damage. My instructor did a ground loop after taxiing off the runway very fast to clear it for another pilot who had to land ASAP. The transition from blacktop to gravelly-street surface made the last turn of the plane much bouncier than he was quite ready for and it just flipped right over. The plane suffered only minor scratches and no stuctural damage, so no biggie.

Verdict: I had a lot of fun and I cna't wait to do it again!

The opening post in this thread is like the PRIMER on HOW TO GET STARTED IN RADIO CONTROL FLYING--- THE RIGHT WAY !
Congratulations to KISWA
The continuation of the thread all the way to learning/landing proves the effectiveness of the correct approach.
Success based on methodical / logical behaviour.
GOOD JOB KISWA
WELL DONE

Thank You!

Congrats. Takeoff were very hard to me because i couldn't get over the whole using the rudder on the ground but then switching to ailerons. I got it now and can do it all day.
Landings are pretty easy. Just come in slow.

Weel done KISWA, keep it up and let us know how you are doing.

Well, I won't be flying this weekend because I'm going out of town. But the weekend after, I'm planning on getting together with another instructor (since mine is going TDY for a few weeks) and getting those landings down pat. Once I solo, trust me I'll be letting everyone know!

Edited for typos... [:@]