Well I did need to be higher. I was at around 100'. It was not a wrong control input problem. My number 2 turn was similar and that was not a problem. I have been practicing for the plane flying at you situation.

As the plane turned towards me I was ready to raise the down wing. I never got to that point. It just abruptly went into the spiral down. Made a nice thud when it hit the ground. I am pretty sure it was a low speed stall during the turn. With the wing banked, the stall speed goes up. I think I was just too slow for the turn, plus too low in altitude. I will have to remember this.

Anyway, starting on a new plane today. Using the tail feathers fron the old and may build a new wing.

Well I hope to hear you have more success with Debonair #2. I really enjoyed the one I had but have to admit, I had a few crackups with mine as well. Once you're in the "groove" with it, its remarkable how good it does fly. Sure it is not a svelt aerobat, but it is an honest flyer capable of really mild aerobatics. Hope you get #2 built and better success to you.

Yeah, they keep telling me SPADs "bounce" but I haven't been that lucky. :) I had similar results with my Deb MKI. I had an old K&B 65 on it that I never could get tuned right. She cut out on me, but I couldn't really hear it because I was a good ways away. When it went down, out of ALLLLLLL that grass out there, I clipped the edge of the asphalt walking track. DANG! The wing survived though and I put that on Deb MKII and she's still flying sweet 5 years later with an OS46FX on it.


http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/atta...mentid=2069604

All white airplanes are hard to see and difficult to orientate. Do yourself a favour and put a big band of contrasting colour on one wing.panel.

My first 3D plane was all flouro orange. Big mistake.

Number two looked like this.

http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/atta...mentid=2069615http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/atta...mentid=2069616

At least I had some contrast on the *bottom* of the wing. :)

http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/atta...mentid=2069618

Crashing is just a part of this hobby. I did have some contrast. The top of the wing had a large red wingtip band. Plain white on the bottom. Many years ago my Ugly Stik got too far from me. I could only see the contrast in colors. That helped me bring it back home and save the plane.

Debonair II is well along in the build. I have the fuselage cut, the ole tail feathers on, the tail wheel and the elevator-rudders servos on. I need to install the pushrods and I can move to the mid- section.

Success is just one plane away. But I did cut 2 fuselage sections just in case.

I don't know about other pilots, but I can't see colors on the bottom of the wing. They all look dark to me.

I place my color contrasts on the top of the wing. To me, the bottom is unimportant, as far as visability enhancement is concerned.

Hi!
Agree!
The colours should be on top of the wing!

http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/atta...mentid=2069689http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/atta...mentid=2069690Disagree, as color blind as I am I can spot the contrast on the bottom. I tend to look up and see the bottom of the plane a lot more then the top. Doesn't mater a lot as long as you know top from bottom though. With any type of stunt plane I contrast the bottom so I know instantly what attitude the plane is in during a spin.

Hi Greybeard. That's an Uproar and I just started a kit. Curious, what tank were you able to squeeze into it? Brand?

6 ounce Dubro I think?? Go start reading Ricks Tower Up-Roar 40 thread here in building. Lot of pages and lots of Roars. On the last page or two Rick posted up most of the roars and dazzler photos people posted.
I used the roar exclusively during my fun fly days then moved on. Then Rick and Cliff, {daddyoh57} came out for a visit and brought a bunch of roars with them. Rick also brought me a set of plans for the plane and a roll of the Hobby King covering to try out. The covering is great and after all the roar flying I went ahead and built another one. I think it is number 9?? It puts the fun back into flying!!

OK, thanks Gray Beard, will check the thread. I apologize to ETpilot, didn't mean to hijack the thread.

ET, you have a good attitude towards the crashing part of the hobby. my first kit build never made it off the ground and got blown into a million pieces. ( too small of an engine, not enough speed and ran into the curb at the edge of the parking lot.) i was pretty discouraged to say the least. But like you, i went home and rebuilt it, and flew it for many years. lost it to a bad NIMH battery. leads me to ask, what are you using for a RX pack. I prefer LIFE packs. if you havent already, read about em, there great. and trust worthy.Good luck and soft landings.

stevegauth30, I read a lot about batteries and went with the Life also. When I had the plane finished, I set it up in my living room and went thru the motions of flying for an hour. Just checking things and the battery power. I do like the battery.

Just an an update on the plane. I made good progress on the fuselage. I just have to install the engine and tank and do the throttle setup. It was a good RC work day. I still need to see about the wing, reuse or build new. I should be flying soon. Or at least make another attempt.

Of all the SPAD crashes I've had, I've never had to replace a wing. (Knock on wood) :) I did punch a hole in one that I just covered with duct tape that pretty well matched and I've ripped an aileron hinge pretty good on one. That one I think I'm just going to cut the ailerons off and put them back on with pin hinges gorilla glued in. Looking forward to Deb #2. :)

The old wing could not be reused. The 2 spars broke in 2 and the Coro ripped top and bottom down one of the flutes. I have a new wing just about finished. I've been busy building my storage building and welding a log splitter table. The storage building is taking priority right now.

When I examined the engine, I found that the screw holding the throttle arm was lose. I don't know if this was impact damage or vibration in flight. I found a couple of YouTube videos where this type plane crashed just as mine did. Both stalled and augered in. Both on maiden flights; one experienced and one newbie pilot. This airplane appears to have a bad stall to it. Hope to fly #2 in a week or so. Got more rain today and more to come.

The screw wasn't impact damage. If it's a screw going into metal, you must use loctite on it. Don't get loctite on anything plastic though as it will weaken it.

And yes, if your Debonair was built according to the original plan it does have bad stall characteristics. The leading edge is too sharp and the top of the airfoil isn't rounded so you are going to get a snappy plane. Switching to the "RNAF" wing design will help some, but the sharp leading edge will still keep it from flying as gently as a standard balsa trainer.

This is or was a new engine. Never thought I'd have to locktite the screw. The screw holds the throttle arm to the carburetor barrel. That may explain why I stalled. I was doing a nice flight until then. Now I know better. I've started using locktite on a few things.

The top of my wing has a nice rounded airfoil shape to it. I did not do the bend that I have seen others do. Bottom is flat with front end slightly raised. I thought it was a good airfoil shape. Any way, I have the wing done. Decided it needs contrast paint then mate it to the fuselage. I'm going to give the Deb one more try. Next I will build a Sig Kadet. That may be better for me.

Hope you do a build for us on the Kadet or at least a pic thread. I've got a Kadet myself in my pile of kits. I'll probably always have a Debonair or a Spadet in my hangar though just to bash around. I've been working on a low-wing Spadet for about 3 years now.... well, you know how that goes. I've probably got 4 or 5 hours in it over the last 3 years. :) No matter what I progress to flying, I'll always have a couple trainers to bash around and slow-fly with on Sunday.

Well it took a while but I got Deb II built. I hope it flies more than 4 turns. This one allowed me to reposition a couple of things that I did not like on the first model. Now if this Texas weather would cooperate. I've had rain, yesterday sleet n ice and tonight to tomorrow maybe snow. I have to recondition the runway, let it dry off and mow it short.

Today i froze reinstalling the starter I had repaired for my tractor. I had to use a heater to thaw the ice encased tractor in order to do the work. Tomorrow is a bad weather day so I will work on my next build; a scratch build Sig Kadet LT-40. It should be fun. Patrick this is not a kit plane so not sure if there will be any interest. I will start drawing it out tomorrow. Looking at 72" WS.

A picture of the new Deb and the airfoil that will keep it aloft.

Have you checked the balance of the new ship, The nose appears to be rather long:)

John, the long nose on these airplanes appears to be a standard thing. I've seen it on other builds n has been discussed. As my plane sits it is just a bit nose heavy. I will definitely check it again before flight. Thanks for the heads up.

That's the typical Debonair airfoil I was talking about. The sharp leading edge is going to be your problem as it will stall very suddenly instead of gently like a Clark Y airfoil or the typical blunt leading edge airfoils used on trainers. There's a good reason why the spad guys go on and on about how much their planes can take a beating; it's because they crash so much usually due to bad aerodynamics and being overweight. It's actually quite difficult to get a proper leading edge with coroplast, but the planes can be a lot of fun anyway. Best of luck to you on the first flights.

I have to disagree. My Deb floats like a dream and doesn't have a sharp stall. The only spad I've built that had a bad snap was the Dominator and I think it's the tail design and I probably had too much travel on my elevator. I was going to build another one and redesign the tail to look more like the Deb tail, but I haven't gotten around to that. If that's been your experience with them, that's your experience and I certainly can't disagree with that, but to me, the spads I have built have flown well and had decent flight characteristics. It's not hard to get a rounded leading edge either, but I do it more for looks than anything else. Not trying to argue because I'm sure you have a lot more flying experience than me, but I just haven't had a lot of bad luck with mine.

Awe, that'd be even better! :)

Whether this plane will fly is being limited now by the weather. I've had rain, sleet, ice and today snow. Everything is soggy as can be. It will be a long while before things dry up. Forecast is for more rain in a few days. Oh well, I can try to build instead of try to fly.

Patrick, I am just getting back into the hobby. I'm just trying to relearn the skills. I am not a builder like some of the excelent builders who post build threads. I may post some pictures in the Kadet thread. I managed to draw the stabilizer, rudder n fuselage today. I'm working from a 8 1/2x11 print but it seems to be looking pretty good. If it resembles an LT40 I'll be happy.

Patrick, I made my comments comparing the spad to a traditional balsa trainer like the Nextar or the Tower Trainer that I used to instruct with. Compared to them, the Debonair I started with had a harsher stall and was not as easy to land nor as smooth to fly. It worked, but the balsa planes worked better. But as RC planes go, it was not particularly snappy. I have a little park flyer Edge 540 with a way too thin wing and too sharp leading edge. It's also a little overweight. Now that's a snappy plane. If I pull a little too hard coming out of a dive I'll be inverted before I even know what's happening. And when it stalls on a landing approach, it falls straight down with no real warning. But it spins like a dream and tracks well even in the wind, so those are the compromises you make.

Well, I'm not the best of pilots, so I probably wouldn't even notice the difference. :o If I can get up and down with the occasional loop or roll without cracking one up, I'm happy. My Dominator snapped like that. The first time I took off with it, I pulled up on the elevator and it corkscrewed and hit the ground so fast I didn't even know what was happening! :)

I hear ya on the build thread Pilot. Some of them are labors of love as much as the build itself with the documentation!