dertwosubsw2

When ever I get done with my college education for the quarter, I think I am going to by myself a Nexstar select. All the local pilots of the rc club recommended the plane to me. I know have an AMA # coming to me. I can't wait to start flying. Is there any hints that you guys have so I could have successful flights other than practicing on the similator, getting a trainer, and pulling the auto pilot out? I can't wait to also see my J-3 Piper Cub fly someday.

Is Dynamite 10% nitro fuel good for this type of plane?

Trollmaster

You may want to focus on the Nexstar an forget the Cub. Also , those "Auto Pilots" for planes are a waste of money along with a temp gauge. There are no specs for heat ranges on glow engines. Sure you can point the thing at the head and get a reading but it's of no value

Just need to be careful what kind of garbage you spend your hard earned money on.

bigtim

My Feedback: (13)

you will have a good time with this plane there is also the flaps,and droops that you can take or leave.
when I was flying mine I left them on, they slow the plane a bit, but you really don't need them to learn.
the best thing is the sim that comes with the plane it will definatly give you a leg up in the learning curve,it got me to get the G-3 similator after realizing how much it helped me learn to fly.

don't try to yank it in the air on take off it will stall on you fast, a long T.O. roll with some speed helps get in the air smooth.
you will find it wants to glide quite a bit, at first I would get close to the ground and just cut the engine to land.
also witht the help of a instructor take the needle limiter off and run the engine a little rich for the first few flights and read the engine instructions as well, a clear understanding of how to tune the OS 46fxi will make the engine last for several planes to come.
I am now turning mine into a float plane

Mr67Stang

I entered this hobby about a year and a half ago and purchaced the Nexstar Select as well. It is currently $380. If you get the Tower Trainer RTF for $250 that will leave you with $130 to spend on feild equipment or about enough to buy a used Simulator that you wont get board with in the first week. But as you said, you've made your decision.

garyo1954

Spend some on fuel. The only time you have too much fuel is when you are on fire.

bigedmustafa

My Feedback: (2)

I trained on a Nexstar when I first started flying a couple of years ago. Overall, I liked the plane, but the Nexstar does have a couple of week points. The snap-in landing gear can be a bit troublesome.

It's not unusual to see gear fail to lock into place and then have it come sliding out while the plane is taxiing or in flight. The fuel tank stoppers will often come loose; mine did and it resulted in a fuselage full of fuel. I had to pack the inside of my Nexstar with kitty litter to soak up the oil from the spill.

The Nexstar's huge wing chord is one of the keys to its gentle glide characteristics, it's a wonderful airframe with which to learn to land. This same trait can be a problem when flying in windy conditions, however. Turning into the wind will often cause a "ballooning" effect as the wind pushes the plane upward rapidly, resulting in mushy and haphazard turns.

Please consider the Thunder Tiger Easy Fly 40H Super Combo with Side Kick field accessory package:

http://www.thundertiger4u.com/easy-t...k-p-13081.html

This package includes a high quality glow-powered trainer with pre-installed radio system, .40-sized glow engine, and pretty much everything you need to go fly it except a bottle of fuel. At $259.99, it's an amazing bargain.

You can read a review of the Easy Fly 40 here:

http://www.masportaviator.com/ah.asp?CatID=1&ID=124

Since the $259.99 price includes both field equipment and free delivery, you can take your $128.99 or so that you save and buy a full-blown simulator, a couple of cases of fuel, your next plane, or whatever the heck else you want.

jetmech05

there are better and cheaper trainers than the Nexstar.

bkdavy

My Feedback: (1)

I believe that comes with the OS 46 AX which is an excellent engine. Have never tried Dynamite 10%, so I don't know if its formulated for aircraft use. You want from 5-15% nitro, and at least 18% oil, preferrably with some castor oil. I personally recommend the Morgan Fuels Omega 15.

You'll also want some spare props. I've found the APC 11x5 to be a perfect match for the Nexstar. It gives better thrust than the stock nylon prop, which gets you off the runway easier. Its also a little quieter.

Brad

Mr67Stang

The Nexstar comes with an OS .46 FXi Just a slightly changed version of the FX.

rwright142

dertwosubsw2, I trained on the NexStar. I liked that everything was included in the package - minus fuel and field equipment. I practiced on the sim and it was good practice. I especially used it for flying towards me because that was difficult for me to get used to.
I did not compare buying everything separately (a cheaper trainer, radio, servos, etc) so I cannot comment on the cost savings. I also liked that engine was already broke in at the factory, and the sturdy landing gear. The bolt on wing is nice, vs the ones that use rubber bands. That's just my preference and others like the bands better. Like bkdavy said, get some extra props.

A couple of things to look out for:
The landing gear may not always snap in place. I read where someone enlarged the holes in the gear strut and that solved their problem. Just make sure you do a thorough preflight check and tug on them before taxiing.
The AFS system (sometimes referred to as the autopilot) is worthless or even dangerous. Disable it. I took the sensor out completely.
No fuel proofing so make sure you do that. My fuselage was soaked before I noticed it.
I did not research this so I cannot comment on the price of buying everything separately. Many have said it is cheaper, but like I said I liked it all in 1 package and I did not have to break in the engine, install the servos, receiver, rods, etc. It it cost me $50 more then I would consider that worth the time savings. Plus, when I was just training I did not have the experience of installing everything. I know an instructor would have helped with that, but I would rather spend the time flying and not assembling.


bigedmustafa, that thunder tiger looks nice, but on URL you listed it's a bit confusing to me. For example, it says the radio, engine, etc are "Accessories Needed". That sounds like they do not come with the combo, but for $259 that's quite expensive without them so maybe the website is not correct.

CGRetired

My Feedback: (1)

I trained with the NexSTAR Select. I did not use the AFS but did use the wing-tip spoilers and the speed brake (flap gizmo). We (my instructor and I) tried the AFS out but found it to be somewhat independable for what it claimed to do.. perhaps we just did not spend a lot of time with it to get it adjusted properly, but we just didn't use it, and I ended up learning just fine (as you can see by the list of planes that I fly now.. I seem to have learned to handle the aircraft without the AFS).

Now as far as the brakes and spoilers are concerned, I did not notice a change in handling after solo once I took the spoilers off.. however, I was still fairly new and would not have noticed the subtle changes that these things produce. Now as far as the flaps/brakes... that was a different story. Once I removed those, I had to drastically change my elevator trim to the point where I had to change the mechanical adjustments at the clevis' to accomodate the change. The plane really came in somewhat steeper on landings with them, but much slower (naturally).

I enjoyed flying the NexSTAR. I did have to perform some repairs, as is normal for a new flyer with a new aircraft, but all were minor which took only some epoxy and some common sense as to the repairs. I did break quite a few props, but that too is normal.

Buy yourself a bag full of APC props (I don't recall what size I used on the NexSTAR, but I bought them by the 5 prop bag.. to make sure I had an adequate supply. That tendency to break props has long since gone away and I break maybe one a year now.

Good luck. You will enjoy the NexSTAR. Advice.. forget the AFS, use the brakes and spoilers for a while. They do help a bit and are easy to remove once you feel confident to fly without them. Not that you can't learn without them... it just makes a few things simpler.

DS.

PS: Jetmech.. I don't know about better, but cheaper, yes indeed. Case in point: Hobbico Super Star RTF. $259. It is not as large as the NexSTAR, but up to the job, and about a hundred bucks less. I just bought one as a club trainer and have flown it a half dozen times and it flys just great. We (my former instructor and I) took it up on the buddy box last week and it was just fine with that setup so it's ready for anyone in our club to use if they have the need.

bigedmustafa

My Feedback: (2)

Unfortunately, the folks at http://www.thundertiger4u.com use the same generic description from the Ace Hobby website for both the ARF and the "Super Combo plus Side Kick" items.

The $259.99 includes the Easy Trainer 40H airframe with engine and radio system pre-installed. The engine is a Thunder Tiger GP-42 2-stroke; it's powerful, reliable, and easy to tune. The radio system is the Hitec Laser 4. The fuel tank is installed and plummed. There is a prop and spinner included.

The Side Kick flight accessory pack also comes included at the $259.99 price point. This includes the glow ignitor and charger, manual fuel pump, 4-way glow/prop wrench, fuel cap kit and fuel line, chicken stick, and even a cardboard carrying caddy.

The folks at http://www.thundertiger4u.com also ship all orders $150 or higher for free.

The Easy Fly 40H airframe is the one with the semi-symmetrical wing, like the Hangar 9 Arrow or Hobbico Avistar. It will fly better in windy conditions and will be more aerobatic once the student masters basic flight and wants to start practicing inverted flight, cuban eights, outside loops, and the like.

Hopefully the folks at thundertiger4u.com will update their item description to make it more clear. I have purchased from them myself, so I have no trouble recommending them. They have great prices, they communicate well when you order or ask a question, and they ship fast.

CGRetired

My Feedback: (1)

That's a good price, BigEd. A lot is included. Sounds like a good deal to me. The Super Star RTF only had the plane, engine, radio, and batteries included.

DS.

dertwosubsw2

How do I fuel proof the fusalage?

I promised the hobby store that I would by from them because they have done a lot of business with me in the past. I feel it is good to build relationships like this.

I would eventually fly the Piper Cub because it was inherited to me along with quite abit of feild equipment. About a 1000$+ was given to me with one built Cub, feild equipment, .60 engine and another cub that still needs to be built.

bigedmustafa

My Feedback: (2)

You can fuel-proof the interior of the fuesalage by applying a light coating of:

A) fuel-proof paint

B) epoxy thinned with denatured alcohol (50/50 mix)

C) Midwest Aero Gloss thinned with dope thinner (50/50 mix)

You will want to pay particular attention of the interior woodwork immediately surrounding fuel tank.

bigtim

My Feedback: (13)

the stopper does come loose on those fuel tanks, mine did also and got fuel in the front of the fuse, I was lucky the tank was close to empty when I noticed it and there wasn't much to clean up.
if your removing the auto pilot/AFS sensor then some covering or even a sticker over the hole would be recomended, even with a exhaust deflector fuel resedue always seems to slime its way down the fusalage and soak the wood there,one reason I removed mine and sealed the hole up.
as for the gear as long as you open the holes in the gear and make sure they click in mine never came out even after a couple of hard crashes.
for myself it worked well for a first plane out of the gate,and it was easy to fly as well as having a somewhat real looking airframe .

bkdavy

My Feedback: (1)

Because of the way the nose is set up on these, it's difficult to get to the fuel compartment for fuel proofing. This is where epoxy thinned with acetone is ideal. You can pour it into the area and roll the plane around to get it to flow all over, particularly in the bottom where leaking fuel will accumulate. Drill a small hole to drain leaking fuel near the back.

Brad

dertwosubsw2

In my RC car, I tend to get quite abit of fuel residue on the main plate of the suspension. Is it the same in planes? How could I keep the fusalage clean to the best of my ability?

bigtim

My Feedback: (13)

something that helps is a exhaust deflector your plane still gets slimed but not as much http://www2.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...?&I=LXL378&P=0 there worth the investment I use them on several planes.

bigedmustafa

My Feedback: (2)

Getting oil residue on your airplane is not any big concern. At the end of the day, you simply take some glass cleaner and a few paper towels and clean off your plane before putting it away until next time. Iron-on mylar covering (Monkote, Ultracote, etc.) cleans up very easily.

The exhaust deflector is a very good investment, however, and will help reduce the workload when it comes to clean up time.