Hi all,
I am a rookie and have not flown as of yet other than the G3 simulator. I did purchase a Nexstar, but I should of did more research, I have read more negative than positive things about this plane in all of the forums. I will deal with its short comings and flaws. I will have an instructor trim my plane on its maiden voyage and assist me with my training needs. I did remove the Active Flight Stabilizer and the Speed brake flaps. I did not remove the Airfoil Extensions on the wings. I did connect the aileron servo and the rudder servo together with a "Y" connector because I was told the plane would be easier to fly. Before I go to the field for the first time, does anyone have any thoughts on my plane or setup.

Thanks
Maykaman

Are you saying you do not have separate control of the rudder?
Are the rudder and nose wheel still on the same servo?
Are you saying that every time you move the aileron control for a left turn , the rudder and nose wheel also turn left?

We'll go from there.

BTW- WHO told you to do this?

Got to agree with Bruce, if somebody told you to connect the rudder and aileron servos then you got a batch of bum info. Aileron and rudder need to be on separate channels.

As far as the plane itself. I am an instructor at our field and I currently have a student that came out with the Nexstar. You've done a good thing disconnecting the flight stabilizer and removing the speed brakes, go ahead and finish the job by removing the airfoil extensions. Once all that is done the nexstar flies like just about any other trainer on the market today. Make sure you assembly is good and all flight controls are securely fastened, but your instructor should check all of that for you. You should be fine.

Hope this helps

RCKEN forgot to say this: reconnect the rudder the way it was when you bought it. You would never be able to do a proper crosswind landing the way it is now. In many ways it is connected to operate like a 3-channel airplane, only worse. I can think of no reasonable reason for doing that to this airplane. Did an instructor tell you to do this or the Hobby shop guy? I'm really curious now. BTW, I'm also an instructor and would NEVER have a student hook his plane up this way unless he had a physical handicap. Then he would be limited to flying only in certain weather conditions

I learned how to fly with a Nexstar and I don't have anything bad to say about the airplane. I'm tired of hearing all the bad things people say about it. I'm still flying mine and enjoying it. taking the speedbrakes off is not a bad idea, you don't want them when you start learning to land, it can fly too slow. I agree to leave the AFS unhooked, you would just have to fight it anyway. I have been flying for just over a year now and have flown other trainers and can say none of them fly better or are tougher than my Nexstar. As long as you follow their guidelines for the replacement guarantee they honor it with no problems. That's how I know it will fly to slow with the speedbrakes, I got slow enough to not have enough airflow over the control surfaces. But, that was pilot error not the plane. Have your instructor help you add some throw to the ailerons. Mine had a very slow roll rate with the factory settings. And DO NOT leave the rudder hooked to the ailerons with a Y harness. Take the wing droops off when you are ready to start doing rolls and flying inverted, they really make the plane want to fly upright. And practice trimming it in flight, you will need to when you take the droops off.

I have had five planes since all but one are flyable (one requires minor repairs) if I could afford enough engines and flight packs.

I'm the CFI at our field so I get to fly Nexstars until they come out of my ears. It is a first class trainer and has few faults. The criticisms that I have seen levelled at it suggest that it is a bit of a slug in the performance area. The problem is that the pilots are beginners and their assessments are based upon their limited skills. They often don't know enough to increase the control throws & conclude that the benign handling that characterizes its factory set-up is all there is to be had -- not so by a long shot. The aircraft is comfortably aerobatic to the point of outside loops & knife-edge flight (albeit with a hell of a lot of elevator & aileron juggling). At nearly 70 MPH it is as fast as any trainer out there.

buckskin- I hope you were not implying that anyone in THIS thread had said something bad about Nexstars. I did not read any such comment here. The plane does fly better w/o the gadgets, this is a fact. It may fly slower for students with them but that isn't necessarily better. It IS a good flying plane in a good pilots hands.

maykaman,
As others have already said, move that rudder to it's own channel again before trying to fly it. Whoever gave you that advice has no clue about RC planes.

Not sure where you read all those bad comments about the Nexstar either. It's a decent enough trainer, but overpriced due to the "extras" that you really don't need.

Good luck, and welcome to RCU!
Dennis-

I love my Nexstar except for the take off tendencies but I think it might be due to too much throw in the front wheel. Going to take some of it out and give it a try again.
Flies great!!!!

Thanks for your responses! Bruce yes the rudder, ailerons and front wheel all move with the right stick. The left stick only controls power. This information is on a videotape I purchased from the "1st U.S. Flight School" called ONE WEEK TO SOLO. From everyones comments it looks like the right thing to do would be remove the "Y" harness and that is what I will do. Thanks again for all the good info.

Have your instructor help you add some throw to the ailerons. Mine had a very slow roll rate with the factory settings.

How much throw should be added ? Mine rolls way to slow.

That's a good question, looking forward to the answer.

I'm curious why you would removed one of the great aids of the NexStar? The speed brakes for what gives you the chance to recover, and think about what you are doing. They make landing much easier and decrease the stall speed considerably. I don't understand why you would remove these. You're using them on the simulator so why not stick with them until you get your feet under you?

You paid top dollar for a trainer, why not use it to its fullest ability? (Besides AFS) The NexStar has some haters, but if you do proper preflight and set all trims neutral prior to ever taking it to the field the plane will do you right.

I've had nothing but good luck with my NexStar and think the plane is a good 1st plane.


On my ailerons, I increased the throws to max after I got my feet under me. The NexStar doesn't have a good roll rate, even if you switch over to dual aileron servos, as I've done.

Good luck at the field and your 1st flight!

Cheers,

VG

I think that with the exception of the AFS the Nexstar should be flown factory stock for the first few flights. After that, the gimmicks (as I call them) can be weaned off, remembering the pitch changes you will encounter when they are removed. ALWAYS have an instructor test fly after removing a "gimmick" device as the handling will change. I personally believe the AFS teaches bad habits IMHO, please no aguments I know not all agree on this. I don't like a stabilizer that wants to fight me for control.

Goog luck

In the past I've always been nice when it comes to this subject. But I think that I'll dust off my soapbox for a bit.

First off, I know that this is America and anybody is free to sell a product for whatever they want. But I also think that the makers of the nexstar are preying on people and over exaggerating the "ease" with which somebody can fly. The have taken an otherwise ordinary trainer, thrown on some gadgets, raised the price, and advertised a product that make it easy to learn to fly. While the gadgets on this plane may be some help (more on that in a bit), I don't think they are worth the added price of this trainer (higher price when compared to similar trainers).

Second, the learning aids on this plane actually hurt the student and make it harder to learn to fly. Some of the newer flyers out there may be scratching their heads at that statement, but take a second to think about it. This plane has all of these learning aids that help them learn to fly and they use all of these aids when learning to fly. What happens when they move up to a second plane that doesn't have those aids? Now they have to learn skills that they should have learned on the trainer, but since the trainer made it "easy" to learn they didn't learn those skills. As I have said elsewhere, I'm an instructor and I currently have a student that came out with a Nexstar. Before I agreed to teach him I had him take all that "stuff" off the plane. I want the student to learn to handle the plane and how to fly it. They need to learn how to recover the plane themselves, and not rely on some piece of electronics to do it for them. This isn't helping the student, this is hurting them in the long run. When I am teaching a student I advance them along as I teach them. For instance, as the students skills advance I will wait longer before I will take control of an airplane that is in trouble. I do this so that the student will develop the skills needed to save his plane on his own without help. If I am constantly recovering the plane for the student they don't learn anything, and the same thing applies to the learning aids on the Nexstar.

I'm sure that there are odd circumstances where somebody can't find an instructor, live 50 miles north of nowhere, and have to teach themselves to fly. And for those people this plane may be a help for them. But for the other 99% of people I would recommend to save their money and buy less expensive trainer without all the gadgets. Oh, yeah, what about the guarantee if the student crashes? Tower Hobbies has the same deal on their trainers. If you crash your plane while working with an instructor Tower will replace the plane for free.

Ok, I'll climb off of my soapbox now.

Some students need the aids, some (maybe most) don't. They are there to cover the broadest possible spectrum of student abilities -- that is the intent of the Nexstar.

What is definately NOT needed in the case of Maykaman is the Y-extension linking the rudder & ailerons.

I like the Nexstar. New guys have been showing up at our field with these and they are easy to instruct on. The OS engines run well new. The plane never needs re-rigging like some trainers. The pilot gets up flying quickly. If all the new pilots want to show up with their new Nexstar and a Futaba radio, that would be fine by me.

-Cheech

Hi all, I started with my Nexstar and i believe it is a very good plane minus the afs. I strongly suggest to remove it or you will be fighting it instead of flying it. Also the sun has to be in the right direction. I would take of the speed flaps after 2 flights and adjust your throws acording. Put all of your servo leads back into there original positions. I think you will enjoy this plane and have many safe take offs and landings. my 2 cents

Just unplug the AFS if you don't use it -- you dont have to remove it. If you do remove it, you will have to re-balance the plane

I have a nexstar myself and I think this is a great trainer. I flew other trainers as well, but this is very stable, big enough to follow, and can fly fast or slow. I think connecting the rudder and ailerons would be suicide and the plane wouldn't even take off.

No Bruce I wasn't trying to imply that anyone on this thread had said anything bad about the Nexstar. I apologize if it sounded that way. But, I have read several other Nexstar threads that were not nearly as fair to what I consider a top notch trainer.

Both of my Nexstars needed about 5 or 6 turns more throw on the ailerons before my instructor was comfortable flying it. But other than that they flew excellent right out of the box. The speedbrakes and my inexperience cost me shipping to try the guarantee. With the speedbrakes on you don't get any prop wash over the elevator or rudder, so you don't have any control near stall speed. My replacement never had them installed. About a week after I soloed I took the airfoil extensions off.

I now have the throws maxed out on the ailerons, and nearly maxed on the rudder and elevator. It flies knife-edge better than my Arresti-40 did, with enough opposite aileron to counter the roll coupling on the rudder. It does outside loops, hammerheads, immelmans, and split S'es. I have moved on to more advanced planes but this one is still fun to fly. I am now running a ST 40 on it because of problems with the OS, but it still performs at least as good as an LT-40 with an OS 46.

i also had the nexstar and think its a great trainer. the sofware alone is worth the extra $$$. anyway heres my take on training aides and ive only been flying for about 3 months now. afs, diconnect dont use. training flaps, i wish i had not put mine on only slows the plane down to much and creates a bunch of lift. if you put the flaps on and get it trimmed be sure to take out some of that down elevator trim you would have put in to counter act the flaps. and the wing tip extensions i would leave them on till youve soloed and are comforatable flying. and tying the rudder into the airlerons sounds wacky to me id leave the plane the way it was set up from the factory.

Hello All, I'm a new student and learning to fly the Nexstar. I have to agree, that it is a great airplane. I noticed most folks here are discussing taking off the AFS and other aids and I agree. I also was warned about the AFS before purchasing my first plane but I still bought the Nexstar. One other item I wanted to mention that I haven't seen mentioned here is you can buy the Nexstar as a kit without the electronics. That means no AFS pertruding from the belly, which I'm convinced causes drag. In fact so, a friend (experienced) of mine crashed his AFS-Nexstar this weekend (total wreck including engine). It had flown a little squirrly and most folks at our field say the Nexstar is a bad flyer. Well, this weekend I let a few fly 'MY' non-AFS-Nexstar (kit) and where impressed. So, I recommend purchasing the non-AFS Nexstar for $99 and building it yourself (ARF).

My Nexstar has the OS .46 AX engine and runs nice.

Also learned on the Nexstar, I removed the AFS and covered the hole with Monocoat. I used the speed brakes and droops and had no problems and weaned myself of them as I felt comfortable. I have a club and field with no one interested in instructing. So since I had about 4 months on G2 I soloed day 1 with it. It's had its bumps due to poor decisions when the engine stalled due to being far to rich of mixture (remove the needle valve limiter) but both of my crashes where very repairable without buying replacement parts. The plane flies well even today but collects dust due to me flying my Goldber Piper GP Dazzler and CoroPlast SPAD. Other planes in project phase need more money.

If you are learning on a buddy box ( which you should be) there is no need for all of that junk on the plane, your instructor can more effectively teach you how to fly without them .. Every bit of it adds a tendency which causes the plane to fly worse, not better. Once you remove all of the "flight aids" the Nexstar is a great little trainer and it is quite a good flyer and can be really aerobatic. It also has good radio gear and a great little engine. Its a very good starter plane, and the flight sim that comes with it is the icing on the cake.

Just to show my students what the plane is capable once they get a little further along, I like to take off and immediately fly through a rolling circle on the 1st non test flight. And that is on the stock aileron rate setup. That being said, you can do this with most any plane if you know what you are doing[8D]


Having the rudder and aileron linked together is pointless if not just a bad idea. I dont see how you can steer the plane on takeoff roll like this.