I maidened my 4* this afternoon.....successfully. Not without a bit of drama, though.

The controls were VERY twitchy, the plane wanted to roll to the right, and climb. Got the elevator trimmed out, and added a couple of clicks of aileron trim....if anyting the roll got worse. Brought the plane back around into the wind, added a couple of more clickes and now it is really getting bad. Finally realized I was adjusting the trim in the wrong directions. Doh!!.

About the same time I realize the reason the controls are so darned twitch is the TX is on high rates. Now I'm fighting the roll, and trying to remember which switch the rates are on but don't want to take my eyes off the plane to make sure I'm grabbing the right switch. So....forget the rates, and just get the darned roll trimmed out before it rolls all the way over on it's back.....oh, and by the way it's a lot faster than my Alpha and now it's far enough out that ........well, it's just too far out. Sooooooooo.....take a couple of deep breaths, keep it level and get it headed back to me. A couple of more passes and the roll problem is taken care of.....mostly. On the next pass I get it slowed down and decide that discretion is the better part of valor, cut the power and land it. Nice smooth landing, taxi it back and cut the power. Five to seven minutes in the air.

Went over the plane in the pits, checking all the mounting hardware is still tight, refill the tank and get an idea of fuel consumption. Fill up the gas tank. Verified the high/low rate switch.

Second flight.....now on low rates. Got the roll trimmed out, and made a few more passes getting it to (almost) straight and level hands off. Did some slow flight 3-4 mistakes high, a few more circuits, and landed again. Another smooth landing, and taxi back.

Dorothy....you're not flying a trainer anymore. This is gonna be a fun plane to fly, as soon as I get a bit more comfortable with it. It needs a couple of more flights to finish the break-in that OS recommends, but the engine started and ran like a top. I think I'm gonna like it. I've never flown with expo on the trainer, but I think I'm going to program in about 25-35% before taking it up again....tomorrow if the weather holds and I can slip away from the family for a bit.

Bob,
Way to go, and congrats on the maiden!! The 4-star is a fantastic plane that many underestimate. You'll have years of fun on this plane, as it will do just about anything you want to do with it!!!!

Ken

Congrats on your maiden, let us know how your next flight goes after getting it all trimmed out and flying like you want it. Good luck buddy....

Thanks, Ken. I appreciate your comments a lot.

Get away from the family? No way. I have some of the best times takeing my family. Try it you may like it. Not bashing you. But I was the same way. Just trying to get away with my plane. Took the ol lady an kids one day. She cornered me an thought I was cheating on her with an 27% Extra 260. An I was. She loved the kids loved it. I loved itcause they loved it. My little boy just started landing a nexstar because of that trip to the field. Still on the cord though

Will do.

Bob, boy does your story sound familiar. I about lost my first 4* wihle I was still on the buddy box. I got into some real serious trouble and the instructor managed to pull it out, after clearing the runway, while pulling out of a dive, with all of two inches to spare. He commented on how it was a good thing that the plane was so responsive, I pointed out to him that if he handn't bumped the dual rate switch I wouldn't have got into so much trouble to begin with..

Ken is dead on about it being a good flying plane. Just one word of warning, You have noticed how it comes in nice and slow for landings. It will stall, and with little warning. and that is how I lost my second. Too slow on the down wind in a good breeze, Made my turn to final to soon and when I turned back, it dropped like a rock. Just remember to keep some speed up until you are over the runway. If the plane starts to rock side to side on landing, a few clicks more throttle would be a good idea at that point

I've got #3 ready to go on the bench. I'm still drawing up the mod's I'm going to do. I should start laying out parts next week.

Way to go.....the 4 Star 60 was my second plane as well

My wife tolerates my interest in flying, but really has no interest in going to the field with me to fly. She had a reasonably good time at the club picnic this summer, and has attended a couple of fly-in's with me, but doesn't seem to care much for just a routine afternoon at the field to fly. I have a 2 year old grandson in town who loves to watch the planes, though.

She really does like the helicopters, though. Maybe I should get an inexpensive trainer, and try to get her hooked as well.

Yeah, I know it's a really popular second plane, which is why I got it. I had wanted a PulseXT 60, but they've been on backorder since September and every month Horizon pushes the arrival date out another month.

One of the things I'm reasonably good at is recognizing the onset of a stall. I've made it a point to do a lot of slow flight both on my trainer and on the sim. I've got about 400 hours in full scale, and it's amazing how the responses are fairly similar......"Darn...why is this thing so sluggish.....ooops.....better get the nose down."

Did you do anything to make the bottom of the wing more obvious than the top? I'm thinking of covering the bottom with a checkerboard pattern or perhaps just adding a couple of big Air Force roundels to give it some contrast.

Use large checks or squares or circles so they are discernible from a distance

You're gonna find that all colors on the bottom of the wings are either gray, or black, or shades of such, even white...looks gray..unless the sun hits it.....My 4 Star had a chrome fuse with orange wings and tail.....the contrast was blue and green...A stripe of blue on each wing bottom and the control surfaces were 2 toned......I think the orange vertical stab did more for me because of the sun than anything else...now when I was going vertical and rolling then the stripes on the bottom of the wings is what helped...at times the chrome fuse would reflect the clouds and sky and almost disappear...thanks for the orange

I have two black and two white 6x6 squares on the bottom of my 4*60 wing - one color or the other stands out in almost any lighting condition. I turned/rotated the squares to look like diamond shapes. You could use wide stripes. My gold covering looked the same as my blue covering that was on top under overcast conditions.

Yep, once it goes siloette, the colors go bye bye.

I like big wide bars across the bottom, White and marron, white and purple, or white and Teal. Something that really contrast each other. On the four star, I covered every other rib bay white, then capped the open ones with the contrast color. On top, I've used a white base color and some contrasting colors with the pattern runing basicly wing tip to wing tip. The last two I've covered have had a big red area near the nose and white behind with a lot of color on the vertical.

I need all the help I can get kepping track of where the plane is. I watched one of our guys total out his new Koshoto(SP?) Kelly Sunday. The all white is very dificult to see with the sun anywhere near the back of the plane. What a shame, it was a great looking plane. I was taking photos that day and I only got three shots of the plane. It is fast and trying to keep it framed with some zoom was a nightmare. I got two shots in the air, the last about 30 seconds before in nosed in. The last was the results on the bench.

Here is a couple shots of my Super Aeromaster that I have yet to fly, and my Ruperts Dad which hasn't flown after it rebuild. Next week if the weather cooperates. The Ruperts has the same underside on the wings as the Super Aeromaster. My last 4*60 had the same pattern on the bottom, only yellow and marron. The wing tops were solid yellow with no pattern, and the difference was enough to almost keep me out of trouble.

Don

excellent contrast

First time up with my 4*40 was almost my last. For sure need to know which side is up.

I really like the way the bottom of the wings look on the bipe. I'm going to pick up some black covering this afternoon and add the stipes to the bottom of the wing and stab.

OK, I flew 4 more flights this afternoon. Flys solid as a rock.

On a hunch I checked lateral balance, and sure enough, the plane was heavy on the right. I put some wood screws into the end of the wing on the left to balance it out, made a couple of very small adjustments on the neutral position on the ailerons, and took it back out to the field. Made all the difference in the world. I also put some expo in to smooth out the controls a bit at center. Flew one 5 minute flight to finish trimming it out, landed, checked all the fasteners again, torqued the muffler, glow plug, head bolts, engine mount, etc, filled it back up and started to have some fun.

Flew 3 more 10-12 minute flights and it's a joy. By the last flight I was doing split S's, Immelmans, inside and outside loops, slow rolls, snap rolls, stall turns, spins, you name it. Not real pretty, mind you, but the basic maneuvers for sure. Even tried some inverted flight up high....very smooth and doesn't require near as much down elevator to hold it level.

The engine still isn't totally broken in and I've still got it pretty rich, so I can't really judge speed or power at this point. I'm currently running an MAS 14X8. The battery on my tach was dead so I haven't checked rpm yet. Don't really have a handle on what kind of vertical it's going to have, since the engine isn't peaked yet.

Any suggestions on props for the OS 75 that might be more appropriate?

Picked up some trim material and will be adding stripes to the bottom of the wing and stab in the next day or so.

13 X 6 is the standard prop for the 75

Thats Great Bob!
I maidened my 4*40 on Wednesday. i had some of those trim problems too. this is my 3rd plane and my favorite. took it out today for a few hours. the most fun i had in a while. i'm going to get a few trim sheets and make some squares for a checkerboard pattern for under the wing.

Asking for information here, not as a challenge. The OS site lists 14X6, 14X8 and 15X7 as suggested props. I ordered both the 14" sizes to try when I ordered the engine. How do you get to a 13X6?

I've got enough time on the engine now, ( 6 flights and at least 3 tanks of fuel) that I should be able to go ahead and lean it out for optimum power. What kind of RPM should I expect with either of the 14's or the 13 that you suggest?

Thankis.

OS list the very large props for noise abatement

If you want to get some power, let it rev up a little