RE: Nexstar or NOT
 

I didn't say that the engine wouldn't fit the airplane -- from your description of events I understood that the engine didn't fit in the mount. I assumed that the mount for the BB engine, which is NOT the same width, nor has the same bolt-hole spacing. That LA engine will fly the plane if mounted correctly & everything else is OK. I see from the pic, that the universal the clamp-mount was what you had -- it can accomodate a wide variety of engines. The offset & right thrust are correct.

At this point I don't fully understand your problems, other than the C-of-G issue -- which the manual does address -- it tells you in no uncertain terms where the balance point is, & that you should ensure that it is balanced correctly. I'm going to go back over your description of events & see if I can figure out what you did or didn't do.

The plane seems to have been as per specs.

RE: Nexstar or NOT
 

I went back & re-read the post about the crash -- you didn't say which way it was trying to roll, or turn, but I am going to assume that it was to the right.

I immediately see two possible causes for the crash.

1) you may have inadvertantly increased the right thrust by having the engine rotated slightly in the universal clamp mount. If this is the case that extra right thrust aded to the already existing right thrust would have made anything other than right turns difficult to accomplish. It fits with the scenario of thje plane refusing to turn (presumably left) but capable of fallig into a spin (presumably to the right). I say "right" because it wouldn't have mattered at all if it had been rotated left, because that would have compensated for the built-in right thrust & left offset.

2) The C-of-G was too far aft due to the use of the LA engine without correcting balast. This could be fatal in itself, & if added to a right-thrust problem, would certainly be a very difficult problem to deal with.

If your fuselage is not destroyed completely -- say if it is bashed back to the main-gear location, the plane should be repairable. I have fixed Nexstars with that kind of damage. If you decide to repair it, dont put in any right thrust at all, but keep something like the original down thrust.

From your descriptions & pics I don't think that there was anything incorrect in the ARF itself -- just set-up.

RE: Nexstar or NOT
 

Britbrat, Took off the idiot-proof on the needle valve leaned her out to a scream then backed her off a bit to get a nice stream of smoke, put on the APC 11X5 & that alone darn near doubled my power. Didn't even need to mess with the low speed valve yet. It was a good thing too (the extra power) because we started out in an 8 to 10 mph wind & by the last flight around noon it was up to 23mph winds according to the local weather station & the sock was howling. I needed every bit of that extra power to get down in that head-wind, It wasn't real pretty, certainly not a greaser but I did get her down safely.;)

RE: Nexstar or NOT
 

This is EXACTLY what happened. It would not turn to the left; only laid on her side. When I managed to get her around using a little rudder, She got squirrely and I cut to the right to try and get her back flat again. This is when she snap rolled over the right and into a complete nose down dive. Once the spin was started, it only took about a half second to slam into the pavement.

The plane is gone back to about 1/2 inch behind the firewall position and the main gear tore a big hole in the fuselage. I may try to repair her using light weight fiberglass cloth. I don't know yet. If I do, I will take your advice on the firewall angle. Thanks for all the advice.

RE: Nexstar or NOT
 

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You don't need the original OS .46FXI, anyone of those less expensive engines will fly the snot out of any 46 size Trainer ARF, now all the soapbox prophets will jump in & tell you or this cheap one or that cheap one is junk, & this & that, yada, yada, yada, but the fact is I've seen everyone of these engines at our field & once broken in & tuned right, they all put out good power & sceam right along. They'd lap a .46LA in no time! Don't give up. Buy a cheaper motor & another ARF. So you can keep on flying;)

RE: Nexstar or NOT
 

Rather than use fiberglass, I suggest that you do the repair with balsa sheet. I typically use a combination of 1/4" & 3/32" sheet for that repair.

Use the 3/32 for the fuse sides, & the 1/4 for the top & bottom & the cabin windshield.

Make a new firewall from 1/4" ply (2-thicknesses), or a 1/4 balsa core, capped with 1/8 ply front & back -- pin the firewall through the sides with #4 scews.

Do the sides first, then the 1/4" top & bottom in a 3-sheet semi-rounded structure (~ 135 deg angle -- like in a hexagon), then file & sand the contours round -- it will look good

Close in the nose as well.

The student's bird in the pics was gone all the way back to the main gear. I figured that it was easier to convert it to a dragger at that point in its history than to wait until later. You can do the main gear like I did, & still leave it as a trike.

Good luck

RE: Nexstar or NOT
 

Nice going Grump. You only have to back off the NV until you "just" hear a drop in RPM's. I presume that you didn't get to try the other props, or any of the airframe mods.

RE: Nexstar or NOT
 

No I didn't the wind like I said had really came up strong at the end there, since I allready got so much more power just retuning & going to the 11X5, I didn't want to waste any of my last flying time before going back into the Hosp. On Thur. messing with the plane. I just wanted to see if I could fly & land it successfully in that kind of wind. Plus I kinda wanna keep it in somewhat of a Trainer mode still for any of my friends that might wanna learn to fly. I think I wanna turn the Tower into a float plane. We have a club not to far away that a buddy of mine is in that hosts an annual float fly, so that might be kind of fun to try.:D

RE: Nexstar or NOT
 

Ok I like my nexstar well enough but I didn't buy th rtf I bought the arf and bought the evolution trainer power system and a jr 6 chanel radio and saved big and got a nicer radio that I can use for years to come the only thing that I didn't get was the software for the flight sim. but I don't think it is best for the beginner the software works best for a pilot with a little experence because the biggest problem I had was orentation wich way the plane was flying level or not distance so-forth... once you master that in real flight the sim would be good
for more advance flight manovers and just practice anyhow I think cutting your teeth with a good instructor and a buddy cord is the way to go if you want to save money go with the arf also if you put it together you will know your plane a little better.
Anyhow thats my 2 cents worth but I'm not a vetern pilot so check around.

Happy Days