I've been having a similar problem with my NexStar (turning to the right during/immediatly after takeoff). I've learned to control it with the rudder, but it's still a little hairy at times. I had one of the more experienced instructors take it off last weekend and he said it seems like the right wing has a tendency to drop (not a good thing). I still have the wing extensions on there (the flaps came off after the first weekends flights), and plan to take them off before flying this weekend. There does seem to be an excessive amount of right thrust, so if removing the droops doesn't help with the problem, reducing the right thrust is next.

I want to get a little more comfortable flying this before I move on to my BigStik which I plan to build as a tail dragger.

We have had two Nexstars at our field this year during training night. Landing gear fell out of one in flight, brought it in perfect with no damage. Landing gear very loose on other. The guy ended up bolting a wire between the two landing gear struts and it is fine. I flew the Nexstar and it flys nice, but they kinda scare me with someof the horror stories I have heard.

I just wanted to share a pic of my britbrat-inspired taildragger conversion. I have to get around to removing the dihedral, but I still love this plane! O.S. 52 Surpass up front. This airframe has been crashed and rebuilt, and I have literally flown the covering off (will re-cover soon). Something like 65 hours on this airframe- wow!

I just flew my first four flights solo on my nexstar and I must say that it flys great!!! just one thing I hate...that darn nose gear is to sensitive.....I have to be very careful on takeoff...but landings are a breeze..luckly I havent had any hard landings...but how many people have had there landing gear fall off of there nexstar?....geez I hope this never happens to me!!!![X(]...

Never had that happen since one came lose on the ground, cleaned paint from holes and never happened again.

flycfii looks nose heavy to me, haha.

I too have the nextstar. Not stated in the manual, is a very important step to installing the gear. I read in one of the reviews to remove the paint frof the edge that slides into the mount. After doing that my gear locked in and stayed in. Can't think which review it was, but the link to it is on Tower Hobbies website.

I stand corrected. I first said I didn't know what was wrong with yours I had no problem with mine. Well this past weekend the wing came off in flight. No reason, just came off and fluttered to the ground. As for the rest of the plane, lawn dart! I wrote Hobbico and they said that was a problem with the plane and that they would replace it. The first thing the new one gets, drilled for dow rods. I'll use the bolt and rubber bands. Overkill? Maby, but I don't want this to happen again. Here are some pics.

I've seen this a couple of times. I strongly suspect that the wing hold-down bolt was not screwed into the threaded receptacle in the rubber shock mount. Sometimes the bolt misses its receptacle & screws down along the back-edge of the fitting -- gripping the edge of the plastic fitting. It looks & feels like it is properly located -- then in flight you get the lawn-dart syndrome.

You really have to be carefull with that & give the wing a good tug to ensure that you haven't made a mistake in the assembly.

Yeah Britbat thats what I told him in the other thread but he said he was sure the bolt stripped, or the plastic nut stripped out, must have really tighened it to tight maybe, just my thoughts tho.

I recently purchased a Nexstar and got everything set up to fly. Since I've never flown before, I had it checked out by more experienced people at the field. It all looked good and was given the thumbs up to fly. I found a great instructor at the field, who was experienced with flying the Nexstar, and agreed to take it up to see how it flew. Before take-off, he advised me to remove the spoiler, the aileron, the AFS, and to increase the rudder throws. The take-off was beautiful, straight and level. He trimmed out all the controls and had the Nexstar flying without a hitch. I didn't want to bother him anymore that day since he was already giving instructions to another person.

A few days later, I returned to the field and found several people who had been flying for years and agreed to give me a lesson or two. The take-off by the instructor could be described as 'squirrely' and immediately after leaving the ground vear off violently to the right with a crash narrowly adverted. The plane was returned to the ground as soon as possible with the instructor saying they had never seen that kind of behavior out of a plane. So I packed it up and returned home a bit dispondent.

A few days later I ran into the original instructor and told him of the 2nd take-off experience. He took it off without any problems and without vearing off to the right, without modifying the plane in anyway. He said that the biggest thing to getting the plane to take-off straight and maintain straight, was to take off at 1/2-throttle. Anything more than that and the plane would always go right on take-off.

Hope this helps a little.

I must say that I havent experienced any of these flying symptoms with my nexstar...well except that the landing gear came out right when I was picking it up to carry it to the runway.....but other than that the plane flies great!!! the nose gear is a bit sensitive, but nothing a little trim cant fix.....I just hope the wing doesnt fall off[X(].....

I am an instructor at my field and have also noticed the strong right pull of the Nexstar. I agree with those who say it is because of the large right-thrust of the engine. It does help a lot to do your take-off with a long roll at 1/2 or so throttle.

Another problem one of the students had was that the wing was very loose even when the wing bolt was screwed in as far as it would go. The wing would rock back and forth with a 1/4 inch gap between the bottom of the wing and the fuselage. We were very concerned about it coming off in flight. So the student replaced the rubber bolt mount with a sturdy piece of plywood and a metal blind nut. Now the wing is held on quite firmly.

Made a world of difference in the way it flies! Whereas it used to fly real floppy and loose (you know, wouldn't hold a track, couldn't be trimmed for straight, etc.), now it tracks well around corners and holds a heading. I think the wing mounting and taking some of the right thrust out of the engine are the best modifications to make. [8D]

I AM AN INSTRUCTOR I HAVE TAUGHT STUDENTS ON THE NEXSTAR. WE DIDN'T HAVE ANY YAW PROBLEMS. I BET IF YOU TAKE SOME TIME YOU WILL DISCOVER SOMETHING ISN'T STRAIGHT. AFTER YOUR FIRST FLIGHT WHEN TRIMS ARE ALL SET YOU NEED TO CENTER THE NOSE WHEEL. OR MAKE SURE YOUR MAINS ARE STRAIGHT WITH JUST A DAAD BIT OF CAMBER TO HELP SLOW YOU DOWN. GOOD LUCK FLYIN IS GREAT IF YOU EVER TEACH PUSH YOUR STUDENTS INTO THE SIG LT-40 KADET

The large right thrust can indeed cause a drift to the right, both on take-off and in flight at full throttle, but it is entirely manageable.

The wing floppiness is due to failure to properly engage the threaded receptacle with the wing hold-down bolt. If the wing is correctly installed, it can be cranked down quite tightly & will not come off in flight under the most extreme aerobatics..

First of all- Ashley, there is no reason to shout.

Next- Yes, everything on the Nexstar in question was as straight as myself and two other instructors could get it. Obviously that's the first thing we checked. And a great many other experienced flyers have reported similar happenings here.

Next- Britbrat, the wing bolt WAS engaged with the threaded recepticle. The wing would not have stayed on at all if it wasn't. There is nothing else for the bolt to go into. It is quite possible and even likely that the plastic threaded recepticle had it's threads stripped out from repeated attempts to get the wing on tight enough. The bolt would screw down only so tight, and then it would just turn in place. In any case, this wing hold-down system on this particular plane was just not robust enough.

Guys, I am not just making this stuff up to see my post counter go up. I thought that I would add a few comments to this discussion about how my friends and I have encountered and responded to problems that others might have also. I do know how to set up and fly a Nexstar. I'm just trying to help others.

this debate is great well again had to chime in after crashing repairing thats one.the ugly one crashing and repairing thats two. and again this weekend on my last declaired flight was getting a bit windy minor crash and repairing thats three . I love this plane this weekend broke the wing tips in a croud thrilling cart wheel( pilot error) repaired that. the shock mount was the only fatality ordered a new one from tower.
if you crank the bolt to tight it will fail without question, doesn't have to be cranked just snug if it hadn't failed the wing would have been a total loss instead small repairable dammage NBDeal
as far as take offs go start your roll get your throttle up and use that rudder it seems nobody uses the rudder, that is how you aim your plane right? if you cant you need to get some more sim. time. this plane is prety forgiving. with the auto pilot disabled and the trim adjusted properly this plane is easy parts are cheap and the enjine will power any 40 size sport plane if you lean her out a bit .
it sounds to me like alot of the problems arise from people trying to over fly this plane to slow and not letting it fly its self if it heads right a little R rudder on take off and she will get on the line. up to speed. elevator then airborne dont over control . every plane is different sure but alot of engenering went into this plane it should fly well out of the box after trimming just my 2.95$ but I stand by it. PCC Half Moon Bay flypcc.org

I'm wondering why this plane continues to be so popular when I read all the controversial things about it. There are so many trainers out there that don't seem to have the issues that the Nexstar has. My own trainer experience was with an Avistar and it, along with many others, has a great reputation. I have no experience with the Nexstar, just curious why people buy it when it apparently has some issues.

I'm gonna chime in here again. I have flown quite a few of these with various students and I now have finally come across one that has shown the tendencies listed in this thread.

Here is what we found. The engine had too much right thrust. The wing extensions were not placed on each wing half equally. One side was closer to the fuselage than the other. This showed it's ugly head right after takeoff, the plane rolled hard right and full elft aileron and rudder would only level it, I chopped power and instantly had good control.

On this plane we corrected each problem individually and all is now well and good. The AFS was never functional/installed on any of them and as the student progressed we removed the "extra goodies".

So if there are problems, simple checks are usually all that is needed. It's a good trainer and can take a pretty good beating. I saw one cartwheel pretty hard and all it did was pop the gear out and crush the nose. We trimmed a 1/4 inch off the end of the gear and snapped it back into place and CA'd the nose and we were back in the air in short order.

Yes there are better trainers out there, like the LT-40 and others but for the price, the Nexstar is not bad.

You are correct in that there is nothing else for the wing to screw into -- however, if you miss the receptacle, the bolt passes along-side, or behind the receptacle & the threads on the bolt "grip" the edge of the receptacle fitting, or even the silicone rubber shock mount, thus giving the impression of being correctly bolted in place. I have caught several students with their wings supposedly bolted down, whereas they were just being held by the threads on one side of the bolt, as it interfered with the receptacle. I have also seen a couple of wing separations from this mis-mount. This faulty set-up gives precisely the symptom that you described (bolt turning & not tightening any further) & it results in wing separation in flight. If the student is lucky, it fails as he pulls up off the runway & damage is easily repairable -- otherwise [:@] I don't discount the possibility of a stripped thread, but I have never encountered one in hundreds of Nexstar flights. That's why I suspected a mis-mounted wing.

As for the right turn "problem" -- it really isn't a problem. The reason for the substantial right thrust, is to configure the plane optimally for flight at "training" speed (~1/3 - 1/2 throttle). It will pull right somewhat at full power in flight & more so on take-off at full throttle, where the flight controls are less effective. As Bigtim noted, use the rudder -- your first instructor clearly knows how to use it. If the right thrust annoys you excessively, simply shim it out -- the plane flies OK like that as well.

oops just re read my post better give it L.rudder if your heading R. unless your looking for a spin out he he

Hi All.....

I originally started this thread on the Nexstar. Now that is converted to the "WAR DUCK" things are much better now.

As for the wing bolt.......I took some carpet tape and trimmed it down to the exact width of the top of the fuselage where the wing
meets the fuselage and stuck it down. Just gives me more security to tighten down the bolt and compress the tape a little. Not sure how
much it helps.....but it helps my peice of mind.

For what thats worth.

Also......as soon as I converted it to a taildragger......problems ended on that nasty take-off stuff !!!! See my NEXSTAR TO WARDUCK
thread and you will see pics of it as a taildragger. The factory trike gear was just to sensitive. Even tho I filed a flat spot on the shaft
and "perfectly" lined it up before my first take off.....a couple of easy landings later.....it had to be re-aligned.

I had the same problems on take off ( veering off to the right ) replaced the nose gear with a dual wire unit . This keeps the plane from puling (over center) under acceleration, causing the wheel to camber over resulting in to tracking even more to the right. The biggest improvement on take off was slow throttle input at no more than 1/2 max. once the plane is airborne then increase throttle. I did 14 touch and goes in a row last night with this plane. before I have learned this I was frightful of take offs , even ground looped it on take off and ripped the tail off of it.
I love this plane- it has got me hooked on this sport.

My nexStar had a problem with wing incidence being off two degrees negative and corrected by shimming the wing mounting and its at three quarters postive degree and it flys beautifully now before it was so hard on take offs and not flyin smoothly in the air. I used a great planes laser incidence meter and its works nice. Its best check that with a new plane. It was too late for Me to return it to hobbico for a replacement plane. Now gone about three gallons of nitro fuel and flies like a charm. NexStar is a great plane to work with when I crashed it big time tore off landing gear after a hard landing and rebuilt firewall. Happy landings Everyone

I am new to the hobby and I have only had my Nexstar for 2 months. Mine has the same problem!! Got to reading this post and others last night. Today I put 1 set of washers behind the motor mount and took out some of the right thrust. Just a little left but not as much. What a difference!!! I fell in love with this plane today! Takes off straight as an arrow and handles better in the air!! Just thought i would let others know!! Happy landings!!! Gary