I am building an ARF. My old kit (trainer) had one servo that worked both ailerons. The new plane has two aileron servos. The manual says to use a Y harness if you are using a 5 channel radio, and not to use a Y harness if you are using a 6 channel or above. I have a 7 channel system Futaba 7C 2.4GHz with S3152 digital servos. The plane uses 5 servos. Since this is new to me could any of you give me any info on this? Should I set the second aileron on one of the unused channels? Is it better to do then then go buy a Y harness? I can handle setting it up with the radio, I will just need to read a lot..lol
Any tips or suggestions are appreciated!

You can use either a Y cable or wire each servo to a separate channel and set up your transmitter to work with two servos. It depends on you radio how this is set up, though, and since I am not a Futaba person, perhaps someone that is can explain the way to do it.

But, for simplicity, you can, and probably should, use the Y cable and go with one channel for now. It is much easier and as a new flyer, you won't really notice the difference.

CGr.

You can still use a Y-harness even if you have a radio with more than 5 channels. In fact, using a Y-harness is probably the simplest way to do this and doesn't require any radio programming in order to set it up. Just plug the servos in to the Y-harness and forget about it.

Ken

Don't forget to make sure your control is not reversed. That can ruin your whole day!!

CGr.

A "Y" cable is the simplest yes. I prefer to run my dual aileron servos on seperate channels though.

It gives you seperate adjustability and flap(eron) funtions.

It's not usually difficult to set up a radio to use the second servo. It's a pretty common modification.

I think the Y-harness is the best option for us beginners. It's too early to be thinking about whether both servos are trimmed exactly the same, etc. Using flaperons might seem appealing, but this function reduces the amount of aileron action you have when landing, and entirely changes the flight characteristics of the plane upon landing. Then you start getting into other mixes. Again, for a beginner, don't bother.

Like Ken said, just plug in the Y-harness and forget about it.

Thanks...I will go with the Y-harness. I can always change it down the road.

Hey, where is there good reading on mixing? I am fairly new and have been running Flaperons on my Pulse XT for sometime now. Thanx

Be sure to have the servo control arms either both toward the tips or both towards the fuse.

I guess I don't understand. You have a modern 7 channel computer radio and dual aileron servos? Why bother with a Y harness? You should be able to select a flaperon wing configuration and get your ailerons to function using 2 channels plus get flaps. You should be able to get aileron differential as well (up/down ailerons move at different rates) which should help the adverse yaw issue.

A Y-harness is the simplest option. I see no reason to complicate anythign more than necessary. Using seperate channels is nice for fine tuning the throws and differential but flaperons are more trouble than they are worth if you ask me.