Based upon numerous private requests as well as teh "how can we help you" thread, I'm going to give this a try...please let me know what you think!

I'll try to remember to drop by every Thursday and pass along a helpful hint, tip info or tidbit, to fit various areas of the hobby -- car, air, radios, etc.

Most will be links to our F.A.Q.s which will hopefully show you other helpful info as well. Some will be new data based on customers or personal questions here (which will likely become FAQs in the near future!).

Please let me know what you think!!!

Here comes the questions of the week...

AIR:
Why can't I buy plans to repair my ARF?
http://www.greatplanes.com/faq/service-faq.html#q21

Unfortunately, ARF models are not built over plans like those used by a single modeler to build a model kit. Therefore, we do not have any type of plans to provide you for rebuilding your ARF model. However, wing sets, tail sets, fuse sets, and other parts are available for nearly all of our ARF models for purchase through your favorite hobby shop.

Please note that creating a quality set of plans for a model typically takes as much of the designer's time as all other steps in the design process combined. Therefore, it is just not feasible to create them for those kits that don't have a dire need.

For some really helpful info on reading plans and why they take so long, please see:
http://www.greatplanes.com/reviews/readingplans.html



CARS:
My car tends to pull to one side or the other, how do I get it to go straight?
http://www.duratrax.com/faq/faq-q459.html


ENGINES:
My new engine is VERY hard to turn over. I can't get it past one point by hand at all. Is it defective?
http://www.osengines.com/faq/product-faq.html#q1
An ABN engine has an Aluminum piston and a Brass liner with Nickel alloy plating.

A ABN engine's liner is tapered towards the top. This causes the piston to "grab" as it moves towards Top Dead Center (TDC) when the engine is cold. (Some engines will actually seize if you turn them over when cold, requiring considerable force to turn them through TDC.) When an ABN engine is run, the heat of combustion causes the metal parts to expand. Because the piston and cylinder liner are made of different metals, they expand at different rates. The liner expands just enough to make a nice fit for the piston once the engine warms up. The liner is tapered because the cylinder is hotter near the top. The different temperatures cause different amounts of expansion, making a perfect fit when your engine is at optimum operating temperature.

You may interpret what you feel as play in the connecting rod. This is almost never the case with a brand new engine. What you are feeling is a slight springing of the connecting rod as you force the engine through TDC. The piston doesn't go all the way to the top, causing the rod to flex slightly, which gives an "over the center" feeling. Many people have interpreted this as play in one of the rod ends, but it is not and is perfectly normal.


RADIOS:
What is exponential? How about ATV?AFR? AST? DR? ATL? EPA? Triple rates? what do all these terms about how far my servos move mean?

All of these terms are computer radio features (many are also available but adjusted mechanically with "pots" {dials} on non-computer radios) that are used to adjust how the model performs without having to make physical installation/linkage changes. In many cases, you can not get a mechanical linkage to give you a small enough (or large enough) amount of travel for the model to fly its best. These functions let you adjust those travels for optimum performance/safest flight.

ATV has developed into a slang term meaning how far the servos move at their extremes.

EPA is a specific type of ATV in which each end is adjustable separately. For example, the throttle servo can be adjusted at idle separately from high end.

AST is basically ATV where you get just one setting that affects both ends of the travel. If you turn it down to 90% both right aileron and left aileron will move only 90% of the total distance the servo is able to move on its own.

D/R is the common abbreviation for dual rate. What dual rate means is that you have one rate or total distance the servo/surface will travel...lets say it is 1/2" on an elevator. A 50% dual rate would mean that when you throw the switch, the servo moves exactly half as far per stick position as it did on the first rate. So the elevator stick all the way up is now on 1/4" travel instead of 1/2". Similarly, at half stick it is now 1/8" instead of 1/4".

Triple rates is just an extension of dual rates where 3 separate travels are available in flight. Triple rates are normally only used by top level aerobatic competitive pilots to have one setting, say, for take off/landing, one for normal flight, and one for complex aerobatics.

AFR is a very specific function in the 9Z which is basically the same as "high rate" on most dual rate setups. It is a second adjustment for how far the servos move when given normal stick commands (as opposed to commands from mixes, etc) separate from the ATV. The 9Z separates dual rates into AFR and DR to allow more flexible setup of all 8 channels' high rate travels. For details: http://www.futabarc.com/faq/faq-9z-q111.html

ATL: ATL is actually a trim function. What it means is that the throttle trim affects only the bottom half of the throttle stick. This way adjusting your idle does not affect your wide open engine performance.

For more details on these and other specific terms, please see:
http://www.futabarc.com/glossary.html


Sincerely,
Mrs. AnnMarie Cross
Senior Manager, Proprietary Services and Support
Great Planes Model Distributors
[email protected]
www.greatplanes.com
www.bestrc.com
NO AUTORESPONDER

Thank you for a fine job. You are always helpful and informative.
When you think about it, a person like you on our or any board is a wonderful and tremendous asset. It is definitely a link between end user and manufacturer. Service is the name of the game in this hobby. After all, it's not a necessity, it's discretionary!
I remember the days of old calling across country to the Futaba center in Ca. and waiting endlessly on hold after going through various phone menu choices. Yuck. Thanks Ann Marie and take care_Bob

Great Idea. Thank-you for spending your time and effort to help all of us.

By the way, I'll be out of town for a few weeks. Could you post the next 6 months of tips now so I won't miss any?

Hi ronald! they'll just be here when you get back.

in the mean time you can visit www.bestrc.com and read all the FAQs off all the sites, and hopefully you'll catch most of them right there! :-)))


Thanks for the kind words!!

Sincerely,
Mrs. AnnMarie Cross
Senior Manager, Proprietary Services and Support
Great Planes Model Distributors
[email protected]
www.greatplanes.com
www.bestrc.com
NO AUTORESPONDER

PS ron don't forget to give me feedback on every one you read, ok?

Sincerely,
Mrs. AnnMarie Cross
Senior Manager, Proprietary Services and Support
Great Planes Model Distributors
[email protected]
www.greatplanes.com
www.bestrc.com
NO AUTORESPONDER

Y'know, if you aren't careful AMC, Ron may just do that

Nuker

Thanks for the tips and links! Good stuff.......but......
My Hitec Focus 4, NOT a computer radio, has ATV, and their new Laser series has, in addition, EPA for the throttle. A Futaba radio I have has dual rates. Also not a computer.

Don't mean to be picky! But some newbie might think they can't get these without a computer radio.

I know of an inexpensive add-on servo mixer available that has exponential adjustments also.

flianbrian

Ron, consider it a challenge!!! :-)~~

Flian, thanks so much! I've adjusted the post per your suggestion.

Sincerely,
Mrs. AnnMarie Cross
Senior Manager, Proprietary Services and Support
Great Planes Model Distributors
[email protected]
www.greatplanes.com
www.bestrc.com
NO AUTORESPONDER

AnnMarie


Mr. Nit-pick back again! Those I mentioned are all electrical functions adjusted with potentiometers (POTs), not mechanical, though there are cumbersome (so I hear) mechanical servo mixers to be had.

A thousand thanks, flianbrian! this is JUST the type of feedback i want...where things are confusing, unclear, incomplete, over-detailed or under-detailed, etc. THANKS!!!!

AMC

AnnMarie,
I just want to personally thank you for the great job you are doing at GPMD, I had a couple of incidents with defective parts and you came through to help 100%. I want everyone to know about one situation in particular. I just bought a Futaba 6AX and built a Sig 4 Star ( sorry AnnMarie) and installed a OS 60FX in it. I was flying along beautifully when suddenly my plane went nuts and it crashed. I brought the pieces home and sure enough there was a radio glitch that caused the ailerons to move violently. I wrote to AnnMarie and she asked me to send the radio in and the engine to see if it was damaged also. 2 weeks later my radio returned with several new parts replaced and a NEW OS61!!! AnnMarie my hat is off to you, you are a fine lady.
Robert
PS The OS is presently flying in my Shoestring

Thanks Robert! so happy we could help.

Well, for several reasons i wont get into now, i've missed a few weeks of this, but i'll try to get back to it now!!

Aircraft tip of the week:

I have lost/misplaced/spilled glue on the manual for my aircraft kit. How can i replace it?

Are you looking for manuals for our aircraft? Please visit our manuals web pages. Please note that if the manual is not shown in PDF then it is not available yet in PDF but information is provided for how to purchase same at the top of the listings page:

http://www.greatplanes.com/manuals
http://www.top-flite.com/manuals
http://www.dynaflite.com/manuals
http://www.hobbico.com/manuals
http://www.usaircore.com/manuals


I need to know the control throws on my model X that i haven't flown in a while and am setting up on a new radio.


Are you looking for the center of gravity, control throws, incidence angles, or engine thrust angles for a particular aircraft? Please visit the proper manufacturer's page and click on the control throws chart. For example:
http://www.greatplanes.com/techsupport/technotes.html
http://www.top-flite.com/techsupport/technotes.html
http://www.dynaflite.com/techsupport/technotes.html
http://www.hobbico.com/techsupport/technotes.html
http://www.usaircore.com/techsupport/technotes.html




Want ot know how to get this info if you forget it or this thread gets too old?

try emailing my friend Mr. Auto Responder at

[email protected]

and ask

how do i replace my manual

or

what is the CG of my aircraft


Happy flying!

And the tips of the week are.....

I have questions on frequencies...what can I change? can i change transmitter crystals to change transmitter frequency? what is a module? why would i want a modular radio? ca i change my receiver channel? what does high band/low band mean? can i use an airplane radio to control a boat? a robot? etc?

http://www.futabarc.com/faq/faq-freq.html

Mrs. Cross..
First off thank you for being here and representing your company in a very positive way. Your presence shows how dedicated you
are to your company but even more so to the hobby itself... Where many people may scream about the 'corporate giants' taking over the hobby it is people like you who can show the corporate giant really isn't bad..
I appreciate your going more than necessary with a minor problem I had in where I had asked a question and you not only answered but also came thru with an upscale product..
Mrs. Cross, THANK YOU

Robby

I want to second what Robby said, I just received my new GP PT-19 and I have to say it is really well put together and I can't believe how light it is!!

Only compliant I have I wish the landing gear was 1/4 rather than 3/16 , to fit the Robarts Struts, but not to big of a deal, made a bushing to fit the strut and all's well. Sure glad it wasn't metric, thanks for using American components.

Thanks, guys! Happy to make you all happy! :-)

Helpful hint of the week....

some basics on servo operation...with or without radio control. Great for learning how what we use works, or thinking about computer operated, robotics, battling robots and more!
http://www.futabarc.com/faq/faq-bots.html#q572

For more info on battling robots and other robotic uses of Futaba equipment, please email to

[email protected]

with
robot information

in the BODY of the message.

You can also visit:
http://www.futabarc.com/faq/faq-bots.html

for more helpful info!

And the tip of the week is ....

Where to get information for doing scale documentation for your airplane...finding real pictures, 3 views and more to make your plane look like a real, specific aircraft!

An excellent resource for scale documentation for your project is:

Bob Banka's Scale Model Research
3114 Yukon Avenue
Costa Mesa, CA 92626
(714) 979-8058

http://imt.net/~ims/scale.html

This is Bob Banka's Scale Model Research, a huge scale modeling resource who sells photopacks and other documentation which is enormously helpful.