papajeff

I'm sure that you can ,and do, fly better than I do! You see, when you get to be our age ( I mean Air Flow and me) your reflexes get a little slower than they used to be.............and your eye sight is not as good.................and.......you get the message, right????? Now, Air Flow is totally correct with his recommendation about the Easy Star, so give it a try and we ( the old guys ) know that you will be happy with it.

papajeff

Hey Dave,

I like your hangar of War-Birds! Oh yeah, I also like your K-9 Security Guard. Tell him that Captain Chaos would be pleased to serve with him any day! Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh........................Yeahh hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!

brownlab

this is what 2 years worth of crashing leaves you with and a lab

Hunter850

My Feedback: (1)

Received a nice package on Friday from Fedex. A bit of damage on the fuse, but not to bad. Looks like a nice kit. I will be using some of the mods by papajeff to complete it. ( nice name by the way, I am known as papakevin). My 6 year old grandson who I am hoping to get into RC as well. He already has a air hogs heli and a RC atv which I had to buy him. He has a sharp eye and never misses anything new on my shelf.

Nice pics War-bird Dave. I was curious as to what the fellow at the field said after you flew the predator.

Kevin

Pappy-86

My Feedback: (6)

Hello Kevin you will enjoy flying the Predator I have 22 flight ready warbirds and I rotate them take 5 or 6 at a time to the field to fly I had 1 plane that never got left behind and that is my Corsair well now I have 2 that always goes with me. And for the guy that told me "Those planes dont fly" well he stood there and watched the full flight but when my son landed I walked out to pick up the plane and when I turned around he was gone I asked my son if he said any thing and he didn't just walked away and I just left it at that. And for your 6 year old grandson flying well I have a 7 and 10 year old grandson and I have them flying the gws slow stick they love to fly but not rdy to move up just yet. All my airplanes are electric 3 years ago I got my first electric plane and after the first day flying electric I knew I was going to make the switch from nitro I have enjoyed the hobby so much more since I made the switch nothing wrong with nitro planes it's just I like electric alot better.
Jeff I went to the store and got 4 suckers and 1 was just the right size I was happy and so were the grand sons . Thanks for the info on the radome And Baron says hi (My security guard dog ) My son flew my Ultrafly FW-190 Sunday and if any one thinking about getting that plane it is an easy build great looking and very easy to fly 46 inch wing span and with battery 2100 mah weight in at 37 onces. Next plane im working on it the Lanier U2 free flight going to add rudder and elevator and A motor up front. 74" wing span should make a nice glider.

georgee

Hi Folks,

Let me join to the club.I"ve bought last week this bird.I"m very excited how its gonna fly.I"d like to build the plane with removeable main wings.Do you have any idea how to make it?

George

papajeff

Welcome aboard! I think that you will have a good time building and flying the Predator. I sure did! Take a look through this build thread and you will find a lot of ideas and suggestions that should make your build very interesting. There are a few different suggestions as to making the main wings removeable and I think that it is a good idea to do so. If you have any questions, just post them and I'm sure that you will get a prompt reply. Take care and have fun with your Predator.

papajeff

Grandpa Dave & Papa Kevin,

Take a look at us three "OLD DOG DINOSAURS"!!!!!!! Are we having FUN or what????? You guys have sure contributed a great dimention to this thread and I'm sure that it is appreciated by everyone. Remember our motto is: Innovate....Adapt....& Overcome and for sure.........

GRANDPA'S RULE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hunter850

My Feedback: (1)

Especially in the eyes of our little up and coming flyers.

CloudNineAviation

Ah-Ha ....arrived today..clear all the other stuff out the way and lets have a look...postmark says 7 days from CA to the Heart of england...No Tax...Just fantastic

only had time to have a quick look tonite..more tomorrow..

papajeff

Ohhhhhhhhhhhh.....................Yeahhhhhhhhhhhhh hhh!!!!!! Your Predator has arrived, so let the fun begin!!!! I am glad that Nitro finally got their shipment of Predators after three months of no stock. Also, I got a kick out of their Predator page with all the flying photos from the build thread.
I was complimented that they did that and I like the NITRO GUYS (Tommy, John & Shawn). Let us know how your build goes.

CloudNineAviation

Righty ho ! ..Tidying the workshop out but made enough space in the spare room to swing a cat...or Predator as the case maybee.....Kit in super condition concidering its come nearly 6,000 mles...

Couple of questions ....the carbon tube is a REAL tight fit in the wing(s)..is this norm and are you suppoed to make it less of a tight fit ?..Are you supposed to run a second carbon rod down the centre of the wing tube ?.....looks like 4mm is the exact right fit here.. a 4mm drill is a good snug fit.

Any one hopped up to Carbon U/C..? the stock ally weighs in at 34g...the carbon is 12.5g...here's a link..

http://www.unitedhobbies.com/UNITEDH...idProduct=4503

Got some new bigger ultra light wheels in sizes to keep the pred level on the ground...

More L8r

chrishornby

One of the first things I did was replace the (glass fibre) wing tube with a carbon one. It slides through the fuselage inside a cardboard tube which does not appear to be structural, so greasing the rod with a bit of vaseline shouldnt affect anything. Oh yes the other first thing I did was put bigger wheels on!

Have fun
Chris

papajeff

Cloud Nine,

I can tell already from your photos, you got the disease! Look at the planes, nice! Chris has the right idea about the wing tube, yet I have just run a solid carbon fiber rod inside the supplied one and have not had a problem. Part of the reason is that I did modify the wings so that they are removeable, see post # 116 which is the prefered method. Previously, I thought that rare earth magnets would do the trick, but the nylon bolt fix works much better.

brownlab

i have some foam build plans, very good ones too. only 1 problem, aint got no foam or the brushless motors and lipos i need. one uses 3 servos and the other uses 2.

Pappy-86

My Feedback: (6)

I also used the rod that came with the Predator and used nylon bolts to attach the wings and have had no problem. I also used the stock wheels I take off on asphalt and they do just fine.

Ron720

I have one of these Nitromodels Predators. I havent flown it yet. I'm going to test fly in the next few days.
My Predator is weighing in at 40 Oz (AUW). I have no camera or anything extra installed. I've kept it all stock except for the main spar tube. I replaced this with a carbon fiber one. Other than that its all stock. We added a total of about 3 oz of lead to get it to balance about 1/2 oz of that 3 oz was added to the left wing for lateral blance.
The motor is a A20-22L 225 watts maybe 250.
The battery pack is a 3s1pq2100.
I would like to know what weights AUW are you guys getting with your Predators?

Thanks for the info.

CloudNineAviation

Were just about to start istalling the gear on ours...any photo's of your setup ?

Brg

Pappy-86

My Feedback: (6)

My Predator with axi 2212-20 and Hecell 2100mah battery comes in at 37oz and with camera 38oz

papajeff

Ron,

You asked, "I would like to know what weights AUW are you guys getting with your Predators?" I see that Dave has informed you of his flying weight and mine came in at 30oz. Now, I have been using the Flight Power 3S 1800mAh pack and I only needed 1oz. of weight in the nose. I used the Nitro 200w outrunner, which is not a heavy motor, so I did not need a lot of weight in the nose to counter a heavy motor in the rear of the fuselage. I gotta tell you that I am getting about 10 to 15 min. of very nice flying with the EVO 25 Flight Power pack.

papajeff

Remember that I am an "OLD GRANDPA" and I just can't remember on which page of this build thread the electronics install started, but take a look at these photos which may help.

CloudNineAviation

Thx guys.....PPJ...how long are those standoffs ...?...

papajeff

Ron & Cloud 9,

I found the section that I was looking for [page 2 - post #50] which should give you some
info about AUW and placement of electronics. It's certainly not etched in granite, but this sure worked for my Predator.

As I recall, my motor standoff's were slightly less than 1" long. Each motor is a little different in size, so just take your time and slowly fit and re-fit the rear cowl and you will get it right. Remember that as a pusher motor, you do not have to worry about any right thrust incidence.

Ron720

I just did my first test flight with the my Predator.

It flew really good nice and stable and I have more than enogh power. I was able to cruise around a about half throttle with no porblems. I did not even have to trim much I think a about 2 clicks of up elevator trim. All my control throws are set to factory specs. Also that is all I get out of the throws the control surfaces are at there max movements.
No control was too sensitve or mushy.

A couple of things I did seem to notice is. Make your turns shallow do not bank and yank this plane. I think with it being a short coupled as it is this effects its tight turning. The Predator seems to stall in a tight turn. I would say make your turns no more that 30 dagrees. If you do make tight turns make sure you don't pull much elevator in the turn and you have lots of altitude in case it stalls. Also in flight the rudder seems to have no real effect at all. I think this is due to the wing being so flat.

All in all I really like this Predator model and it flys good. I would just say this is not an aerobatic sport model. And it's not a simple beginner 2 meter glider. I think where piltos could get into trouble is this model is that it is some what deceiving. You will get into trouble if you go ripping around the airfield making really hard back turns. It seems you should fly this model like a real Predator.

Last bit of info here. My Predator is all stock no camera no steerable nose gear etc. And my AUW weight is right at 40 oz.

papajeff

Ron,

Hey, you did good! You are so right about making nice gentle turns with the Predator and try to fly it "scale like" just it was the real thing. I've found that the "ruddervators"
(the "V" tails) do a good job of turning the Predator, but I did mix in some opposite aileron and the turns are real smooth. With those long narrow wings, you don't want to be doing any of those pylon-type-looking aileron only turns, or the Predator just might go into the famous "Lawn Dart" manuever, right????

Take a look at the video on post #187 because I think that there are some nice turns and just plain nice flying by my pal, Greg Kessel. Oh, don't pay any attention to that Captain Kaos guy, he's just some army recruiter that I know.