josephantonfernando

Hi,
Yer i'm brand new to rc flying but the guy recommended this plane, and i can't fly it!!!!
This is what i mean.....

I hand launch the plane and it falls to the ground, it dosen't even fly!!! Before you ask: No im not chucking it ''up'' in the air or down, im chuking it straight ahead! the [plane is not falty at all (already asked and they done a full cheak) the motor is on full power as well. theres only one thing i may have done to make this problem happen, the long black bar which connects to the tail came lose and made all the threads connected to the tail flaps go all floppy, so i turned those little screws on the tail holding the threads round to make it tense again, then i realised the balck bar had come out, so i put it back in and reinforced it so it wont come out again. i put the screws back so it all is even again. But the problem still happens!!!!!!!

PLease please please help me, i really wnat to get into this thing. please!

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steve ypsi mi

they fly well, Make sure you charge the battery's just before you try, a lot of new people think that if they charged the battery yesterday it is charged, they go down quite a lot in a few hours and a slight toss upwords does help instead of dead level, also they have a beginner and a expert mode, read the instructions, the beginer mode is crappy, to slow to respond, my friend owns one and its got some thing to do with the radio or transmitter and setting it to the expert mode , you should make sure the eleavator is slightly up trim to take off, if its the least bit down it ain't gonna fly, we didn't have trouble getting it to fly, the problem we had was crashing because we were new, be sure and give it a healthy toss, it needs air speed to get going but if you are new get ready to shut the throttle down because this plane is fast for a beginer, about 2/3 speed is more managable

josephantonfernando

Oh, thanks! yer that is exactle what i thought, i had left it for about a week, but i tested it and it seemed just as powerful?. (until i tryed to fly).

When you say ''eleavator is slightly up trim to take off'' what do you mean. wasn't kidding when i said im new.

Thanks. for a moment i thought no one was going to reply.

Matt Kirsch

My Feedback: (21)

As some more generic advice, you need to observe what the plane is doing, and correct it. Repeatedly tossing the plane over and over hoping something different will happen the next time you throw it, but never taking any corrective action after failed attempts, will only serve to dash your plane to pieces on the ground.

The reason you aren't getting many responses is because you aren't describing the problem. "It just falls to the ground" doesn't help; there is little in the way of suggestions anyone can make. HOW does it fall to the ground? That's extremely important. If it just wallows to the ground like it doesn't have enough power, and someone gives you advice on how to correct if the plane dives straight at the ground, they've given you bad advice, and only made the problem worse!

On your next launch attempt, get a friend to be your "runway." Have them hold the plane over their head and run into the wind while you stay at the controls and give the plane full throttle. Your friend will easily be able to feel whether the plane will fly or not, and can make the decision to let go. This will give you a chance to correct the plane's trajectory right after launch, and trim it out. Trimming, by the way, is the term for adjusting the plane for certain flight behaviors. Normally we trim for straight and level flight. Your transmitter has trim tabs, those sliders next to the stick, to trim the plane while it's in flight.

steve ypsi mi

josephantonfernando
You should find some one to show you how the trims work, you can do it your self by placeing it the plane on a table with the tail toward you, then with the battery plugged in move the trim slides on both up and left and right trim to see how they work, you can not fly this plane until you figure out how these work, if the trim is set to climb all the time it can't fly, if the left and right are set to much either way it will always pull the direction that it is set for, the trims move the tail elevators up and down and left and right.
you should have a person that knows how to fly get it up and check it out for you, this is a fairly fast plane and takes some good skills to fly, do not attempt to fly it in 5 or 10 acre's by your self, this plane can do some damage to house's or cars or people, sounds like you need some one to help you learn in a safe area, a better plane for beginers is the GWS Tiger Moth or Slow stick, they are really slow and give you time to learn the controls, they both can fly from 4 MPH to 9 MPH

josephantonfernando

Hi,
thanks, i went to my local model shop (SMC) and they have showed me alot! how much is the GWS TIGER MOTH? Any way, im going to try and do another flight soon,

p.s i no this great HUGE field to fly it in.

dribbe

You probably popped the tailboom out of the notch in the bottom of the body in a crash. This causes the plane to pitch down immediately upon launch. Do a search, and you can find out how to re-glue it, or secure it with a zip tie... with a couple of holes at the top of the notch. The Aerobird flies well, and many have trained on it, but it is Z2. HBZ reccomends Z1 planes to Newbies. David

Rat1

I personally would recomend getting another ready to fly model to start out. If you think you need a better plane then something like a hobby zone firebird or something similar then try getting one of the slow flyers. I recomend the ParkZone Slow V for this as the kit comes with everything needed to fly for around $150.00 us funds including tax. Most any of the GWS stuff will run you over 200.00 to close to 300.00 depending on the radio system and gear you choose. None of the gws products come with any radio gear at all.

If your tail section is bent down in any way shape or form the plane will not fly. It will just nose into the ground. Also check your manual as there might be some adjustment to the tail section of your plane.

dmsdude

I just bought an Aerobird Challenger and tried to fly it this last weekend. My previous RC flying experience (such as it was) was with glow powered. I found that flying a light electric in any wind over 5 mph will result in problems. Although I hand launched (my first time doing this) successfully, the Aerobird gained elevation quickly and got up into the wind. Nothing I could do would bring it back. And I tried full power and everything. Battery was fully charged as well. Then I got nervous and a bit flustered and eventually, the Aerobird went down in a residential neighborhood. A retirement community to boot. I had the presence of mind to cut power as it disappeared behind a roofline. I dropped everything and went to go find it. After much looking with no luck, I stumbled upon it in someone's front yard. Unbelievably, with the exception of a scraped pod, dented nose and a bend in the wing, it was in great shape. I am ready to fly again. I guess this is just a long winded way of saying that electric planes (particularly park flyers) are much lighter and therefore more susceptable to wind and strong breezes. Beware. But I really like the plane and can't wait for a day here in Tucson when the wind isn't blowing when I'm not working.

Kickflipkid687

wow... thats wierd.. it flew away that easily? My Thawk can glide in like 5 mph winds pretty decently at like 150 feet high. Sometimes it gets a little outta control, so i give it some power and fix it. I love this plane so far. I never flew b4, and I taught myself to fly it. I can do han launches, ROG's, and do loops and w/e. I was looking at the aerobird, but the Thawk surpassed it by alot of things, so I got the Thawk.

Matt Kirsch

My Feedback: (21)

I would suspect that the plane was flying on the verge of a stall the entire time. You have virtually no control authority in a nose-high, near-stall condition. Even with full power, the Aerobird doesn't have enough guts to pull itself out of these situations like a typically overpowered glow plane.

Your first priority in these situations is to get the nose DOWN, and get some air moving over the control surfaces. That means down elevator, or in the case of Firebirds, power OFF. I've seen too many planes fall victim to the "Magic Up Stick" syndrome in the relatively short time I've been flying. The elevator is not the Magic Up Stick.

dmsdude

Matt, you could be right. Unfortunately, it wasn't in the air long enough (or I should say under control long enough) for me to figure out what to do. I launched into the original light breeze and it took off very nicely. I had a slight nose up attitude so I tried to trim it a little. But as it climbed, it got into a stronger breeze. I'm guessing the wind picked up to 10 or a little more with gusts. The Aerobird just seemed to get caught up in the wind like a kite. To solve this "little" dilemma, I turned downwind to try and gain some control. That is when things went rapidly downhill. Everytime I tried to turn back into the wind to fly back toward me, the Aerobird seemed to blow farther downwind. I remember throttling down and trying to get some nose down, but I gave it too much nose down and it wanted to crash. So I gave it more throttle and some up elevator and the problems repeated themselves. At this point I probably went into panic mode. My hands started shaking a little bit and I didn't know what to do. I happened really fast. Next thing I know, it was heading toward the ground from about 50 - 60 feet and I couldn't recover. I shut down the power and went to find it. What I am now waiting for is a calmer day. I had thought twice about trying my maiden flight in that much breeze, but I had missed the great flying day the day before due to family obligations. I was bound and determined to fly no matter what. Well, I found out the no matter what. My gut feel is that it will fly pretty well and it seemed to be well balanced right out of the box. After launching at full throttle, cutting back the power a little should keep it flying straight. As far as left-to-right trim, I didn't have a chance to find out because it got away from me. A quick examination of the elevators and eye balling the plane from nose to tail looked like everything is fine. I'll let you know more about the planes manners and my lack of skill when I fly next. Hopefully today if the weather permits.

BobbyGee

My Feedback: (3)

Here's likely the issue.

In turning from heading into a 10 mph breeze to downwind you immediately lost 10 mph of airspeed. Actually, almost double that because you went from a 10mph headwind to a 10 mph tailwind, so that the sum of the two is the difference in airflow speed over the airfoil. That will have a lot to do with why you lost control authority.

You get going downwind and the eye thinks the plane has enough speed because it's covering a lot of ground, while the airplane is actually at an airspeed where control is compromised.

I've experienced the same thing with my ABC and have learned to avoid getting into a downwind situation unless I have a LOT of room to maneuver back around.

The ABC isn't a good performer in anything but a mild breeze, unless one is at a VERY large field where airspeed can develop on the downwind into what is needed for maneuvering while the plane covers a bunch of ground quickly. It's seeing a plane run out of space that gets one to want to maneuver too soon and that's where the trouble starts.

BobbyG

dmsdude

Bobby,

You pretty much nailed it on the head I think. You must have been hiding out at the school field where this happened. As soon as I turned downwind, that SOB took off quick and I did indeed run out of room a lot faster than I thought I would have. That is probably why I started to panic and all hell broke loose. I will keep in mind what you said about the room. I have another spot picked out to try the next flight and I'll make sure I have little to no wind.

gravityrules

dmsdude,

The ABC is pretty tricky to fly in a good breeze. Like BobbyGee says, once it turns out the wind, it's hard to control and moves fast. My brother and I were flying a few weekends ago in a good breeze. He's a beginner flier and I was pre-occupied with my own plane. When he asked for help, I could barely make out the plane in the sky and couldn't tell if it was coming or going. I live in a very rural area with lots of open space, fortunately. I tried to just dive the plane into the ground, but it was so far away I couldn't see where it ended up. Needless to say, we never found it.

Moral of this story is - fly on calm days until you get familiar with the plane, write your name and phone # on the fuselage, get the larger aerobatic tail, move the control lines to the lowest hole in the control horns, make sure you get the plane well trimmed, and re-trim it after every crash or hard landing. Finally, after you get proficient on the ABC consider "graduating" to the next level of electric plane. Oh, what a difference ailerons make!

dmsdude

Gravity,

Thanks for the advice. The ABC did get away pretty quick in a strong breeze and it was hard to tell which way it was going from a distance. It is considerably smaller than my old glow trainer. I am waiting for a calm day so I can try it again and get it properly trimmed out. Unfortunately, this time of year in southern AZ is monsoon season. Most afternoons have thunderstorms in the area and the resulting winds. Again, I appreciate the advice and comments from all who responded to my posts. That is why I came to RC Universe in the first place.

dmsdude

Well, yesterday I found an afternoon with little to no breeze. It was hot, but worth it because I could get out and try to fly my ABC again. I even took my two young daughters with me so that they could either witness a few decent flights or laugh at me when I crash. Actually, both took place. I was able to get flying after some adjustments to elevator trim. I have it trimmed out to fly level at 1/2 power. Increases in throttle will cause it to climb and vice-versa when throttle is dropped below 1/2. Overall, things went pretty well. It flew well although not very responsive. I realize this is due to the "sport mode" versus the "pro mode" that Hobby Zone has on their Park Zone airplanes. I got used to it though and as soon as I have a few more flights, I will change over to "pro mode". I did find out that landing this baby is kinda tricky. Part of it was that I was flying at a little league field and didn't have all that much room to line up a landing nor lose sufficient altitude without running into a fence. After a few "rough" landings, the final landing broke the ABC's tail. I cartwheeled (causing much laughter with my 8 and 4 year olds) and broke the tail. This morning, I am off to the lcal hobby shop where I bought the plane to get a replacement tail. They stock all sorts of Hobby Zone replacement parts for flyers like me. I need to find a more wide open area to practice my landings. It had nothing to do with the landing gear because I had removed that before hand. Just lack of flying experience on my part. Thanks to all for the advice given so far.

BobbyGee

My Feedback: (3)

Go to pro mode. It's actually easier. You sound ready for it.

And yes, you're right about finding enough room to have a good glide slope to land. It's a floater.

The keys to the Aerobird are 1) no wind and 2) give it room.

Enjoy!

BobbyG

dmsdude

BobbyG,

It does float, that is for certain. I just returned from the hobby shop with a new tail and for good measure, a new wing just in case. The original seems to be fine, but it has taken a beating so far. Maybe I will try "pro mode" here pretty soon. I want to get a better feel for landing the contraption before I get too far ahead of myself.

BobbyGee

My Feedback: (3)

I hear you.

For what it's worth, I tried pro mode one day because I was tired of dings and near dings and finally figured that if I was going to ding it one more time it was going to be a GOOD ding.

Boy, what an eye opener! The plane started doing what I wanted a bit sooner than before and it just seemed easier. I didn't feel ready, but I hit that point where I felt that I was either going to handle the next step or at least start tripping at a higher level and at least not feel so bad ....

When I landed without incident from that first pro mode flight, my only thought was, "Why didn't I try this sooner?"

On subsequent flights I learned that, even in pro mode, you need very little breeze and lots of room.

BobbyG

jameschen0702

I used to have one of those things..now it's somewhere in the dump..I throw it slightly up and it turns to the left.."flys" inverted and crashes.....