cato47

With the confidence instilled by some of the Aerobird fliers in this forum, my youngest and I headed out to fly today. It warmed up a bit and the winds started out calm. Prep was easy. Kept the sun at our backs (which was unfortunately upwind). First toss was weak and it headed for the ground. Lesson learned! Second toss was 'robust' and off I went. Gained some altitude, cut throttle to fly level and started some turns. WAY COOL! It was trimmed out nicely and flew fairly easily. I wanted to practice getting to the ground so did not stay aloft long. Next flight got off OK. Did a few turns and then misjudged the distance to some trees. Turned in, instead of away, and caught one about a dozen feet up. Recovered and reset the wing.
Next my 13 year old tried. After one bad takeoff, he flew pretty well, and seemed to get a feel for it quickly. He actually made one really nice save remembering that power would pull it out.
I took over again as he was concerned about keeping clear of some folks in the field. I learned what a spiral dive is on this flight. Not sure if the breeze was stiffer and I turned with too little power. I know I held the stick over too long [:@]. Spiraled in and hit fairly hard (not sure if this is when I snapped the wing). Did some quick wing repairs and tried again...same result, turning out of the downwind leg it spiraled right and hit hard. Damaged the V-tail. As we were leaving there was a kid flying a T-Hawk very successfully on day 3.
So where can I get inexpensive replacement parts? I think this will be a blast with some more practice.

Cato47

kevjud

You should be able to find them at your local hobby store, if not, just buy them online, preferably from a vendor that supports and advertises on this forum.

cato47

Just got a wing and tail from the local shop. His price is the same as the web. I am making repairs/improvements. I'm doing the 1/8" zip tie tricks I've seen in few places for the motor mount and the tail boom. Also discovered a small silver screw under the battery when I was taking it apart. It turns out that the forward, lower corner mount screw from the control board came off. The whole board was pivoting on the aft screw. Lucky thing I found it. I wonder if that's why it flew so weird the last go around? It would have lost control line tension. So I'm going to replace the screw and zip tie though the two holes in one of the top rails direct to the side of the fuselage.
I would love to find a way to split the fuselage and make it a two half screw together arrangement. Anyone ever tried that?

Cato47

DFalpha

My Feedback: (3)

I have never had problem with the spiral dive... I can al,ost do circles around my self.... and I feel I merley let go and it take to the sky. I will have my video up on on my aerobird page soon. Hvae you tried Pro mode? easiere to turn... I have also moved control throws down one notch.

kevjud

I have had my Challenger for a week and thought I was getting pretty good, at least for a beginner. That is until today. I'm not sure what happened, but it went into a spiral dive that I could not recover from. I only had a few seconds to attempt to recover it, but it didn't respond. The crash did some pretty major damage to the tail, I tried the glue and tape repair as a temporary fix until the local hobby shop gets in some new tails. I would readily accept any advice from you experienced flyers as to what you think causes this type of dive and what I can do to recover from them. It is amazing what you can learn in a week. Just the same, the more you fly, the more you realize how much you still need to learn. All in all, I think this hobby is going to be a blast.

DFalpha

My Feedback: (3)

ahhhh the spiral dive... Since the aerobird is a high wing airplane it has more stable level flight characteristic.. when you turn too sharply the wing loses lift because of the wings high position. the easisest way to recover is to pull back on the control stick and give full rudder in the other direction... As far as a broken tail gos.. I have found some packing tape around the broken spot helps alot... Although I have never had a spiral dive with my aerobird I have seeen many posts about them..

cato47

Hey Kevjud,
Your post sounds exactly like my last go around. I fixed the tail with good glue and packing tape. Got the main wing taped up so it looked pretty good. Next time I flew it, tried a right turn and guess what? It went way over, nose down and out of control to the ground (ouch). Not sure how much more of a beating this thing can take. Hoping we get some good weather for my boys to try theirs. Maybe an old fart like me can't get the knack of this. But I'll keep rebuilding and plugging away.

kevjud

I tried a few launches after repairing the tail, but I don't think I still have it right yet. It climbs too steeply when I launch it. I am waiting for the wind to die down so I can comtinue to make adjustments. My best bet will be to replace the tail when the local hobby shop gets some more of them in. I noticed that the angle is slightly different on both the the tail pieces, this may explain why it doesn't want to fly straight without a lot of correction. It really took a beating on the last crash. Oh well, I'm glad they sell replacement parts for newbies like me!

foreverNight

After a rocky start I'm on my fifth succesfull flight. My first try i flew in a small area cuz i was used to the firebird outlaw thought i could handle it. I ran out of space and i panicked and forced a nose dive into a tree trunk. I dented the nose and snapped the tail boom out of place and broke the tail. I put a new tail on and fixed with the ziptie repair. I flew in a much larger field and nothing but succes! this thing is fun

Solcat

I bought an Aerobird. First time out I lost in the wind. It left the park I was in. I wandered near the closest houses turning the engine on and off and found it up a tree. I asked the owner to let me in his back yard and fished it out. Second time I did fine. I also bought a couple of second hand sky scooter pro's with radio that I have not tried yet. I also bought a ready to fly zagi with a new 5 channel FM radio. that has not arrived. I am going to just fly from now on. I admit that there is so much great stuff out there. But I don't want to get too far ahead of my self. The Zagi is probably too advanced for me, but it will be able to handle wind better. I bought one of thoses keyfinders to attach to whatever plane I am flying.

edmspecialist

Try E-BAY always seem to have some one selling parts

cato47

Hi ForeverNight,
I'm interested in how your getting succesful flights. Are you keeping the power up so your turns are clean?

Cato47

foreverNight

I launch at about 2/3 throttle. What i do is work the throttle and stick together this helps alot. when i turn i usually throttle down a bit. If it starts going down i give about half throttle with slight up on the stick. If it starts to plunge i cut off the throttle and try to steer out of it. I'm on my 10th flight no crashes yet just a few rough landings. I got the drop module for it which is cool. I did the parachute drop yesterday but all i could do was drop it and then control the plane and glance over to the chute to see where it was going to land! Just dont give youll catch on!

jatoo

I fly an Aerobird (not the chalenger unfortunatley). I was terrible when I first started flying. I didn't have any spiral dives of anything but I was truely terrile. I think it was becaus I didn't try to fly properly, I just kept it low and didn't go far. It ended up in the creek and I got a new fueselage for it. If there's one big tip I an give a new flyer apart from keep trying, its to expect to pay a lot more than the price of the plane! Every beginner I have read on here have a hundreds of replacement parts.

kevjud

The tails for the Aerobird Challengers are still on back order, so I decided to buy the X pack upgrade. It comes with the stock tail for a challenger, and a 7 cell 8.4 volt battery back. I wanted to get the extra battery anyway, so I figured $26 for a new tail and upgraded battery was a pretty good deal. Anyway, the bird flies good again with the new tail. Even though I tried to repair the old one, it had flattened out compared to a new one which made the flight very unstable. I ended up using two rubber bands for the tail instead of just one because I could not get flaps to move full stroke. I was afraid the extra rubber band may over stress the servos, but they seem to move just fine.

foreverNight

I saw some guy out at my flying field today with his kids flying an aerobird. I was happy to see someone else out there for a change! I went over to find out what channel he was on, and he was on the same channel as me so i waited for him to finish. He was a newbie he flew circles then crashed behind some house. He went and got his plane and took off again. this time he got quite high only to watch him nose dive at about 80 degrees with full throttle from about 75 feet! It slammed into the ground about 15 feet from me. He destroyed his wing, tail wing, tore the canopy dented the nose and the motor completely dislodged from its mount disforming it badly! oh and he snapped the boom from its slot! He was pissed! i told him all he had to do was cut of the throttle and pull up! he said he panicked. oh well. i showed him my aerobird with all the zip tie mods! He was amazed! he wanted to know where i got the ideas from so i told him about this website. He watched in dismay as i launched my plane and flew around doing loops and dropping parachutes and bombs. i felt bad for the guy but, i was happy that i havent had a really bad crash like that! 15 flights! no crashes! well maybe one after i launched because the trims were all off! tore the canopy but, fixed it with black duck tape under the canopy and inside the fuse. works perfect! AEROBIRD IS GREAT

jamy3