darticus

Hey Tim
Did you check out the Cox RTF F4U CORSAIR, P-40 WARHAWK, P-47 THUNDERBOLT 3 CHANNEL 20 inch wing span $89.00 each. Maybe this is the Poor mans Cessna 210. Ron
www.coxmodels.com
http://www.coxmodels.com/products.asp?dept=80

FERNDALE AIR FORCE

Ron if you have the radio gear etc, the body kit is $25. I might buy another, I had a P-51 that was unflyable, and has since been withdrawn from the market. That looks like a great deal for a second plane. Mine was a bit fragile, but hopefully that's been fixed.

Tim

darticus

Thanks Tim -disregard the email
Wow! I thought maybe they were a good thing. For 25 dollars you still need a radio and 2 servos. Maybe I'll pass.

FERNDALE AIR FORCE

Ron, the $90 version has everything you need. The cheaper one is just a plane kit. Most only come with the motor. For a starter kit $90 isn't too bad.

Tim

darticus

You said they were not very good. Are they made of like air hogs foam? Maybe more like a Cessna 210? Did you say they don't fly very good. Just trying to get some insider info. Will they fly in the same area a 210 does?Wasted enough money lately. Ron

FERNDALE AIR FORCE

Ron the one I had, the P-51, was terrible. Cox has since removed that plane from the market. There is at least one thread on the cox warbirds, and I'm thinking about buying the P-47. The radio gear is theoretically worth the $90 alone. As for range on the plane I don't know.

Tim

Dave ESPI

There is a huge thread on COX warbirds around elsewhere on this forum

I wonder if the micro cessna will soon be followed by a micro warbird with alerons. THat would be completely awesome and I'd buy one in a heartbeat.

trroadster

Hi Guys/Gals?

I just bought one of these. Haven't flown it yet as I am concerned with an imbalance in the motor / prop. Mine seems to be quite out of balance. Anyone else have a similar experience? What did you do?
TIA

darticus

The prop is normally pitch down. Its normal.Ron

trroadster

Hi Ron
Understood. That was not the issue. I was concerned about what I would term excessive vibration as in the prop being out of balance and the effect that would have on the "gearbox" prop shaft etc.

Moot point for me now as in my first session after 5 or 6 minutes of flying and trimming, I had a nose in from about 3 ft and the prop-shaft snapped inside the propeller. Didn't bend, just snapped off.

Anyone know the spares situation?

FERNDALE AIR FORCE

TR, you have to buy both the motor/gearbox assy and a prop. You can email PZ but I got a really snippy answer from them, basically saying that it was my problem. I've gone through 3 of these gearbox shearing incidences. Also a burned up servo. I may call park zone monday, I think I've cooled off sufficiently. I will no longer recommend the plane however. And may not buy anything by Parkzone or horizon hobby again.

Tim

mtbrider

I got the micro cessna 2 or 3 months ago, and it was great at first but it slowly started to deteroriate, It is a good plane but It lasted me only maybe 50 flights? I dont know if this how it is supposed to be . its now in pieces after I lost connection 30 feet away from it and it flew onto someone's roof

ratherfly

So, on friday I decided to stop into the hobby shop to see if the had the 210. They sure did! I brought it home and loked everything over, all ok. Then Saturday I took it over to the elementary school field and got some great flights. A kid that lived in the neighborhood saw what was going on and wanted to watch. I was almost ready to pack it in for the day. My brother had left, and my wife was done walking the trail with the dog. But, I figured, one more flight for the kid. Well, all was going well until I got picked up by the wind and the 210 shot 70 yards away[X(]. I almost had it turned around, until one final gust of wind put her in the trees [:@]. Sadly the plane would have been intact if I hadn't had to beat it up to get it out of the tree 20 ft up. Of course the whole tree line was surrounded by briars and I was wearing shorts[&o]. I never really felt the cuts on my legs until I got the plane down and I was on the way home.

ratherfly

Oh, I am trying to decide if I want to get a new wing and tail, or if I want to make a pusher jet. Do I need to be concerned with the angle of the prop if I turn it into a pusher. There sure is a lot of down and right angle. Do I need to make that up and left angle? I might go with the original configuration and make a Lancair.

ILoveMinis

hmm it doesnt seem like parkzone thinks there stuff over before they market. they always have new things rolling out but has anyone noticed that they have a "new and improved" version of everything?

typhoon 2
the german fighter had faults fixed from the mustang.
and now the piper cub.

i think ill just sit this one out until they make a new and improved version of this little guy.

pupuslinger

i have had the plane for over a month, fly two batteries or more a day at work in the where house. the only problem i have had is the gear moving on the shaft, which i just slide it back. i beat the hell out of this thing, you would never know it was this durable at first site. i have hit plent of things, she dont look pretty, but still flies like a dream. i have noticed a little loss in performance, might need a new motor, but i havent had one faulty part since i got it, and it sees a boatload of airtime. i will buy another one so i have a nice clean new one, i would have no problem recomending this plane. we do dogfights with them so they do seem some pretty rough impacts. i have reglued the motor to the body twice, and glued the ruder. but considering what she has been through, i cant complain.

Ched

Six of seven planes I fly with have broken the shaft. No one bought a new gearbox. They just put a new prop on the broken shaft. It is only an 1/8 inch shorter. Some times there is still a thread or two and the new prop screws right on. If there are no threads, drill the new prop and glue it on. I have even pressed the broken shaft out of the prop and used the prop again. I have never seen a shaft break twice.

rmh

I was given two of the Cessnas--in pieces -
after soldering on a motor lead (tricky) and checking out and fixing a fouled motor spur gear -I ended up with -- two, good, working complete assy's.

so -I am going to try doing a ultra light indoor 3D flat foam model - ailerons and elevator -

looks like maybe 50% moe wing and stab areas than th stock Cessna and a very careful workup of thin flat foam and some thread will do the trick - paper hinging using bits of Micropore tape -
should be different -just a fun project.

FERNDALE AIR FORCE

Ched, I think they thinned the diameter of the propshaft then threaded it. The result is sheared shafts. This seems only to occur on the new gear box. On the new gearbox you don't have to worry as much about reseating the shaft bearings. I'll pop a broken shaft end out of a prop and test drive it. I was so irate after my last shearing incident that I parked the plane. The original geabbox was great, I bonked it into all kinds of stuff and would just straighten out the shaft. I had something like 8 hours on that gearbox. The new ones are good for the first hard landing, much less a wreck. I promised PZ a review after I flew a couple of them. I don't think they will like the review.

Tim

Ched

Tim, the shaft is only .039" diameter. I think they cut the threads too deep and maybe twisted the shaft, weakening it more. They always break on the threaded part. I have seen them break on the first few crashes or like mine after a thousand crashes. I don't think it is a big deal if you can put a new prop on the remaining shaft in a minute or two.

keithhs

I am new to RC and the 210 is my first plane other than Air Hogs. Overall I am pleased with mine. Pleased enough that I just bought another one. I have learned a lot since I got it.

The first problem that I had was that the rudder servo wouldn't center. I suspect that it was this way when I got it, but since I didn't know anything I didn't detect it at first or I would have returned it. Eventually I tinkered with it and got it better, but not perfect.

The next thing that happened is that one of the retainers came off the servo shaft. It of course disappeared so I had to make new ones. Pretty small item to turn on a 12 inch lathe. Replaced both of them and CA glued it no more problems with them.

I have never broken or bent a prop shaft even though it has hit pretty hard on the nose numerous times. Probably it helped that I made a foam rubber spinner that was a little deeper and softer than the original and also the gear slid on the shaft fairly easy. It happened so many times that I made a tool to push the gear back on with minimal risk, It eventually got so loose that I reluctantly CA' ed it on.

One of the Z bends broke and I had to make another one. (Note: an old guitar string is the same size. I don't remember which string it was, maybe the core of a wound string. Good source for small music wire)

I was not too happy to read about the motor wires being hard to solder to the board. I just bought another receiver and motor/gear to install in a scratch built plane of some kind. I have probably been soldering for 20 or 30 years more than most of you have been around, but I never soldered anything to a PC board. Hints and Tips please. Iron type, solder,flux, and technique.

Other than the fact that the plane is terribly beat up it is still going strong.

FERNDALE AIR FORCE

Kieth, I use Radio shack #64-013E. It Is 0.022 dia. High tech silver bearing rosin core. Also, I spliced a sub-micro connector to mine so that I don't have to solder on the board anymore.

Ched, I agree with your assessment on the prop spur.


Tim

FERNDALE AIR FORCE

Hi all, while still annoyed with PZ over the prop shearing thing, and still waiting for my other plane to come back, I have a flight report of sorts. I flew out the battery I charged on my triton jr. The esc cut off is 3.7v. That means that the stock charger is peak charging to 4.2v most likely. I'm not an E.E. but that is interesting given the lack of "stuff" on the board. The aeroaces have many more regulating chips on their gear.

OK, flight report, I flew the pane around the yard and realized it was a bit heavy, I cut the TE cf off and flew around. The plane flew perfectly as a scale model, if a little undepowered.

I plan on working on the underpowered part tonight.

Tim

Update, I put together a 100 mah 12-20c battery for the plane. The rpm increase seems to be only 300rpm, but The performance difference is yet to be seen. Tim

FERNDALE AIR FORCE

Hi All, I sent an e-mail to pz and was told that they think they sent me a replacement airplane on 8/29. Since I have not recieved the plane they are sending out a replacement via Fed Ex. That is great customer service. And some mailman has a free plane that he will need parts for, poor cs from the USPS.

I have flown 6 batteries in the last 2 days. 2 of those flights were with the 100 mah battery, the return is nominal on that upgrade. I plan on just using the PZ 70's for now. My flight times seem to be around 6 minutes, I can fly out the final 2 minutes but my ability to climb is hampered. I think the plane is a bit nose heavy, I'll try a mod from my ace experience to solve this. I have installed 0.040 CF on the LE, so I will couneract this weight.

Here is a pic of my motor/gearbox with the submicro plug. And a pic of the interior of my plane.

Tim

akron

Soldering motor wires isn't hard if you cut the old wires, rather than remove them at the board level.
Soldering the board isn't hard if you use a grounded micro tipped soldering iron of 27 watts, or so, and thin .025", or less solder. I haven't used Radioshack solder in a couple decades, so I can't comment on what they have today. There's a reason why I haven't used Radioshack solder in a couple decades, too.
I like to remove the existing solder with solder wick first, mainly to clean the board with the flux in the wick. Be careful soldering one side of a SMT part; the other side may unsolder. Get a good magnifying loupe, or something like that. If you can spare $2300, get a stereo microscope. Ya, loupes work fine.

-Andy