This morning I went flying. one other guy at the field with his son, having a grand time we were.. Then after the first flight of warming up.. Doing just run of the mill pattern stuff, I decided to get crazy...


I circled oh it must have been at least. 800 Feet.. the bird was just a little itty bitty thing in the sky at this point..

AND my famous last words... "Hey Watch this!".. was said...


At this point I throttled down... got the nose straight down and Full throttled... Engine races..... and out of the sky fell this bird at well.. we estimate 80+ MPH.. DIVE Bombing out of the sky...

around 100 feet... I pulled back as far as she would go.... 'VOOOOOSH" was heard as the plane pulled an amazing stunt and actually... Well... leveled out..


Ladys and gentlmen... I was astonished by the nexstar.. I was almost positive that a Dive of that magnitude at full throttle would have resulted in the engine blowing or at the very very least a Wing folding under the immense stress of a highspeed pull out..


SO... i landed it and we looked the plane over.. no obvious signs of Trama.. the only real damage was a few decals Ripped off in the dive.



SO I did it again... Thinking this bird is breaking... Again climbed up as high as i could get it.. This time my instructor was watching and was like... you realize... a dive of that magnitude is sure to snap somthing...


-Nose down... Full throttle...

Vooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo ooooooooooooooOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOooooooooo oooooooooooooM!!!!


right before i was going to pull out...... I heard it.. a defining sound... like no other... "THAPTHAPTHAPTHAP"...... Flutter ><, I throttled down... pulled back on the stick hoping i had elevator left...


VOOOOOOSH! the plane pulled out feet over the ground... and i was able to bring her home..



This point, It had drawn a crowd of people... They came over to check the plane out... We were unsure of where the flutter originated... all the control surfaces seemed solid with no signs of any damage... Again more decals and Stripes of monokote had been ripped from the body... but that was is..



So all in all.. im quite happy with my trainer.. It has passed my seal of approval... a 800+ Foot dive straight down with full throttle.... and able to survive... not once. but twice...


=) I Think its time to get a new plane with some aerobatic abilities... the instructor who tought me was there today and came over.. "That plane isnt going to last long with your crazy side... its a trainer.. if you want to beat it.. by all means beat it.. but If you want to do wild stuff... step up your game and get a new plane that can do those things.. with ease"


Note well taken! Maybe my P51 Mustang build up will have to wait, and ill go shopping for aerobatic planes!

Dorsil,

Pretty COOL!!! I too am bored with my Nexstar but want to keep it in good shape to train my son and daughter. I haven't done what you did , but have done as much aerobatics with it that it will do. I have other planes, one is the CG Chipmunk that I built and a TOC1 ARF 30% Yak 54. Both models mean to much to me to start out with so I think I'm going to get the Funtana 100 with a Magnum 1.20 4 stroke. That should keep me chasing it for awhile. Hope you get yourself a cool model that will do 3D so you can chase yours too. When we get good with them and are flying with it and not behind it, we can go on to better things. Mine will be the Yak with a DA 50 in it.

Gibbs

I just ordered a nextstar and this makes me feel better about the plane

I to have beat the heck out of this plane it sure is a durable model after a few hard landings and a couple of semi-minor crashes requiring some repair the plane fly's still . although a more aerobatic model is a step up I remember the first time I flew my next plane super nervous and a tail dragger to boot, the plane is called a GIZMO super fun kit I got from my LHS.the old trainer is now hanging in the rack it gave me a ton of fun though. a good start for the mustang is a sig something extra plenty maneuverable mid wing tail dragger will fly well with your OS 46.

Dorsil,

You are definitely ready to move up. You may want to take it easy as the NextStar was not designed for that kind of flying and your risking not only the airframe, but a perfectly good engine and radio. Save it for the next plane that will handle that kind of flying.

Don't think just because you move up it's time to retire the NextStar. I really enjoy shooting touch-n-go's and climbing it up until it’s a just a spec, kill the engine and see how long I can keep it up there. And, the plane will stay aloft on a strong thermal. As you fly aerobatics, it still a lot of fun to just slowly poke around the field on occasion spend some time seeing how slow you can fly or keep a plane up while dead stick.


Hogflyer

Dorsil,
I too had the Nexstar...wanna know what I did??
Bought a Hangar 9 Twist 3D, build the Nexstar engine and servo's over in the Twist....best buy I've ever done!!
The Twist is one heck of an acrobatic, fun plane!! You will not out grow that one soon, trust me!!
And for less than $100 for this baby, you can not go wrong.

The Twist is, in my opinion, an awesome 2nd plane!!
If you can land a Nexstar, the Twist is a breeze to land!!
Just my .02.....