flyingplumber68

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evening all! anyone here own a stryker? and if so has anyone ever hopped it up? lost my first one in the reeds and never found it. it just cut out completely. got a replacement for x mas and just waiting for our aerodrome to open back up to give it its maiden flight. they fly great but i would love to give it a little more ooommmpphhhhaaa! any advice or just leave it as is.

simmo8

g-day

i own a f-27c and i want to do the same thing but i asked at my local hobby shop and they said that when you put a faster motor on it they start to fall apart because the airframe cant handle the extra stress and the next step up is high performance brushless ducted fan jet but i am sure that it can be done. They are an awsum plane to fly but they are very easy to get disorientated with ..i love mine..
happy flying

simmo

jmir

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Search for postings under "Stryker Dark Side".
There are a bunch of flyers there that dedicate themselves to high speed flying with the Stryker.
I personally clocked my friend's modified Stryker at 125 mph level flight, no wind.
I clocked my stock Stryker at 81 mph, but I cheated by starting with a steep dive with about 5mph wind pushing the Stryker.
Level flight, no wind, I clocked the stock Stryker at 65 mph which is not bad at all.

flyingplumber68

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thank you for that bit of info i'm going to ck it out right now!

sengli

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A friend of mine at the flying field has one these and he did use a larger brushless motor and ESC in his and it was noticably faster, and had even more vertical than it did stock. Several other guys at the field also were flying stock strykers and they would get left in the dust, whenever he throttled up at all. He was afraid of totally destroying it so he did put it back stock as a precaution.

TallDoode

The only hop up I have done is one I had to :-)... Metal Gear Servos FTW! I kept stripping servos and after going thru all the servors in my "spares" box I went ahead and ponied up the dough for the MG's. Havent flown it with them yet due to a radio issue but I have my radio back and should fly it this weekend.

The servos strip on landing btw not during flight.

I love the stryker. Lots of fun to fly.

Cheers,

dave

flyingplumber68

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as far as stripping the gears i solved that problem using 4 wing tip protectors the stock one that comes on the stryker usually gets ripped off with the first landing. i also have to finish an idea that i use on my .40 size big stick . my fun fly plane , instead of the allen key they give as a tail guard i used an extra rod i had from one of my "spare parts" drawers and made a half circle so i can do a bouncy touch and go and not worry about messing up the tail section. figure 3 half circles of the thinnest rod you can use and make sure they are a "red one" longer than the prop so you can basically use it as landing gear on a hard surface. i havent had time to figure out the details on the attachment to the f 27 c but i figure a small block of balsa for each end of the "gear" cut into the foam of the stryker should do it. Oh by the way if you practice your landing techniques you should be able to make a light stop and drop right in front of you landing, providing the winds are in your favor. happy flying!

flyingplumber68

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tell your friend not to be afraid of speed ! it is the only way to fly the stryker! i have gone to a site someone else told me about stryker the dark side and i am going to order a more powerful motor and esc. gotta try it out! i like to use it as my limbo plane at our fun fly s it s a lot easier to glue foam back together and be flying again in 5 minutes instead of picking up balsa splinters and monocote and calling it a day. happy flying!

Mayday!Mayday!

This comment is hog wash! As stated above look in the Darker Side threads, and you can see the mods done to it and the speeds that people have put it through.
A few of mine, all over 3 years old and still going strong.
One is covered with ultracote, the other fiberglassed.

flyingplumber68

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did you glass top and bottom or just bottom. did you ever have either of them cut out completely mid flight? controls and all? and i m diggin the stars and stripes !

Mayday!Mayday!

The Red, White and blue one is fully glassed with balsa elevons. An Align 400lf 2500kv brushless motor and runs on a 3 cell 2100 to 2500mah lipo.

The American flag is Ultracote. Has a Mega 16/15/4 motor, runs on a 3 cell and sometimes 4 cell lipo. This one really scoots. I would guesstimate around 100+mph

I never had these cut out in any way, I gave up on the Parkzone electronics a long time ago. There not worth the hassle of stripped servos, bad range, wall chargers with false peaks and so on.

TallDoode

Hey Plumber,

I am intrigued by what you have done to protect your servos but totally confused (sort of my normal state). Any chance you can post a picture? Our landing field is carpet over dirt so and it is very seldom dead calm so I have to use aileron/elevators when I come in - i.e. I cant glide in with my hands off the sticks which is what is stripping my servos. Would love to see some ideas for protecting the flaps.

Thanks,

dave

flyingplumber68

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evening doode, not exactly up to comp technology for pics yet, friend gave me his ten year old computer and i haven t purchased a printer with a mem card slot but i m workin 'on it. so no pics yet. i spend all my "spare" $ on go 'head take a guess. anyway as far as gear goes forget balsa use basswood instead and strong rod about as thick as a wire hanger hell if you can get descent wire hanger that doesn t bend too easily you could probably use that as well. i think the stick of basswood i just picked up is 3/16" x 1/4" i might pick up a thinner stick just to be safe as far as the thickness goes. by my calculations i m gonna put a 3.5 inch piece of bass right after the nose and cut it into the fuse on the underside of course and probably for the wings cut 4 pieces at 1 1/2 " 2 pieces for each side i'm not sure how far apart or what the placement is going to be , gonna guess at 4.5 to 5 inches apart . make a half circle and make 1" long 90 degree bends on each end . oh yeah and notch the bass to accept the rod. use wire hangers as practice pieces i know i m not going to get it on the first shot. there should not be too much weight added by doing this and besides with an upgraded motor there probably won t be any noticable difference and the rodshould nt create any real drag either. that s my plan anyway. or there might be someone out there with a better idea. i already tried landing gear i had from a plane by gws and for me it didnt work. i think the wire "sled gear" will work well. i don t know if this clarifies my thoughts at all and if not i am going to try to do what i have thought of and try to get pics onto the puter soon rember you only want the gear to be a little taller than the prop so if you do an asphalt landing the prop doesnt get chewed up.

flyingplumber68

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mayday , do you have any type of landing gear? ck out my thoughts on sled gear that i posted for talldooode. what do you think? a little too much? and i like the idea of balsa flaperons!

TallDoode

Does anyone have any tips on launching these things? I have to admit I am a "take off from the ground" kinda guy and this hand launch, get your hand down to the elevator before you eat dirt thing, is killing me.

I have tried throwing it hard, and soft, flat out and at an up incline, motor off and motor on and it still seems like getting it in the air is a crapshoot.

What are the rest of you doing? one thing I havent tried is throwing it really hard to get some airspeed built up (because the manual says not to do this) but doing it like the manual suggests, with the motor off, is a complete waste of time for me - it always hits the ground before I can get the motor on and the elevator down.

Help!

dave

Mayday!Mayday!

This is not my video, but this is how I launch mine. After years of flying the stryker, I have seen some people have issues, some not with this. I launch at around 3/4 throttle with a slight up angle in the throw. It just takes off and goes. The only time I ever had a problem, was my first 2 flights.

It does make it alot easier if someone else could launch it for you.

As far as landing gear- never done it. Too much drag, would have to add weight to support the landing gear (so it doesn't rip through the foam), and I mainly fly over grass, so it would need large wheels (even more drag).



Oopps, forgot the video.
Here's the link


http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=866914

TallDoode

Cool. thanks for the video, that really helps. I think what I am doing wrong is not enough throttle before I throw it. There simply isnt enough airspeed to keep it in the air while I reposition my hands so a bit more throttle should work.

Thanks again, the video helped me understand I am on the right track just need to work at it a bit more. Tired of replacing the nose :-)

Cheers,

dave

flyingplumber68

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talldoode, do you think the landing skids would work for you?

TallDoode

Skids might help for landing, but actually now that i replaced the stock servos with Metal Gear servos I have not had any issues in the last few flights. That was the only reason I was thinking of landing gear/skids.

Going to fly a few more times and see if my landings are doing better but if not, I may try your suggestion.

Thanks!

dave

flyingplumber68

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do you fly any indoor aircraft at all? i am trying to get some of my club members together to start up a sub division of the club, most likely some blade cx2 s and some foamies. just trying to find a place that will let us fly is a little annoying one place wants to charge 250.00 per hour and that s after 9 pm. it s a nice space 130x80 with 30 ft. ceilings. but there has got to be a cheaper alternative. actually going to take my second stryker out for it s maiden flight over the weekend and then upgrade with the most extreme motor and esc that is used from the dark side site. should be fun . i might also look into the hitec mg servos and finalize the skids so i save the paint job also.

TallDoode

I dont fly indoors at all (except my home) but there are times I would love to. We get a lot of wind here in Vegas.

I tried the 3/4 throttle and it worked like a charm. I also added in a couple clicks of up elevator on my radio. I threw the Stryker and it stayed about the same height as I threw it - sort of glided a bit allowing me time to get my hands to the controls. The third time I didnt have enough throttle on (about 1/2) and it was about 2" from the deck before I was able to get it pulled up.

All in all the secret seems to be the throttle - and ignoring the instructions in the manual. I guess from ParkZone's perspective telling flyers to NOT use throttle is a good way to save lawsuits from chopped up arms but it is pretty hard to get these things in the air if you follow thier instructions.

Landing is still not much fun on the hard ground. I may need to take your suggestions for some type of skids.

Cheers,

dave

flyingplumber68

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hi doode, i don t know if you use a radio strap but that is also a key factor in the hand launch scenario along with the 3/4 plus on the throttle this way you can use your right thumb for the elevator without adding it on the trim so the stryker will be level instead of always nosing up. give that a shot it works well. happy flying![sm=tongue_smile.gif]

jmir

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I always use full throttle when hand launching the Stryker 27C. It almost flies off my hand, so I don't have to throw it hard. I just throw it at an angle and gives me plenty of time to get a hold of the controls. It hardly ever dips on launch.

flyingplumber68

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you ever get bit from the prop? that s always fun. only twice for me in 3 years .

jmir

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No, never got bit by the prop on the Stryker. However, I did get bit once trying another wing which I could never get to fly. I guess I never did get it balanced properly and it always crashed on me. The Stryker has the CG spot clearly marked, so I don't have the problem with it.