Thanks for replying Ed!

There is no deformation in the plastic around the motor, and the supporting rod and tail section are solid with no drooping or vectoring. If I could compare it with a new one perhaps it would give me some clues. I'll take some pics and post them.

The previous accident that left the plane in this condition was a wing shear off in a dive through a tree. Several nose dives into the ground after replacing the wing have left the plane nose slightly dented but the motor area looks fine. Is it possible to replace the motor on one of these planes successfully?

Thanks,
George

Unless you think you damaged the motor, there is no reason to replace it.

I presume you have already checked the trim on the elevator to be sure it is even with the h-stab.

Is the circut board solid in its mount? If it has broken lose, when you move the sticks, you will move the board rather than the surfaces.

Was the battery thrown out of the plane? If so, there may be a partial break of the wire that connects the battery to the control board and motor which would inhibit current flow, giving you a lack of power.

Is the prop tight on the motor shaft?


Just brainstorming here.

"Unless you think you damaged the motor, there is no reason to replace it."
Yep, you are right. I was thinking more about the alignment adjustments if necessary.

"I presume you have already checked the trim on the elevator to be sure it is even with the h-stab."
Yep, its cool too.

"Is the circut board solid in its mount? If it has broken lose, when you move the sticks, you will move the board rather than the surfaces. "
No problems here either

"Was the battery thrown out of the plane?"
Nope
"If so, there may be a partial break of the wire that connects the battery to the control board and motor which would inhibit current flow, giving you a lack of power."
Plenty of power that I can tell

"Is the prop tight on the motor shaft?"
Yes, first thing I checked when I looked at the prop alignment. The motor has plenty of thrust which Is why I suspected alignment first. With the prop at an angle forward at the bottom, perhaps a couple of degrees, perhaps this is normal??

I appreciate your help!
George

did the prop come off? Can it be put on backwards?

If the plane had plenty of take-off before and not now, something has changed.

Try running the battery pack down then recharge, but at a lower charge rate, if you an adjust it. I don't recall if you can.
If you have a second battery pack, does it give similar results?

I'm going to try the recharge method you recommended. The plane sat for about 2 weeks between charges and I didn't discharge it completely. I'll let you know how this works out. The prop never came off and can only go on one way, push-on. I purchased a Sky Pilot electric and it doesn't exhibit these problems, and glides beautifully even with power off in flight. Another problem might be my throwing technique, I have much better luck with taxied take offs.

After reading about the SkyFly this forum, I was surprised to hear about the 500 ft. radio restriction since this plane is capable of getting out of this area quickly. In fact I lost control of the plane about this distance from the radio when I crashed the first time. What would you consider an acceptable distance for electric park flyers? 1,000 ft., 1,500 ft. etc. Eventually I would like to get into powered soaring, but the first thing I thought about was the radio distance being a limiting factor. I guess it pretty hard to see a small plane at a quarter of a mile though isn't it?

If you let the battery sit for 2 weeks without charging and then tried to take off, THAT's your problem. Never ever do that with rechargeable NiCd or NiMh. They lose charge just sitting. Lithium batteries, by contrast, do not.

I think, if you recharge your battery, your plane will be fine. Always top up your packs before you fly. Night before at the latest, then I top them off just before I fly them, even if I charged them last night. Warm off the charger gives you the best results.

As for how much range you need, that depends on the plane. Lots of people fly lots of planes on 500 foot receivers. For slow flyers or planes under 36 in wing spans, in my opinion, that is probably fine. But for a plane like the Sky fly, about the same size as my Aerobird, you can easily get this plane out 1000 feet comfortably. I fly my Aerobird out 1500 feet often, but I am a glider pilot so I am very accostumed to flying my planes way out there.

I would say 1000 feet is my minimum for planes of this class, and over 40" wing span I would prefer 1500 to 2000 feet for range.

Once you leave the world of RTFs, this will not be a problem. Virtually all 72 mhz radios can fly a plane further out than you can see. The sensativity of the receiver determines the range, so you pick what you want. Even the DX6 2.4 GHz radio, perfect for small electrics or small gliders, has a working range in the 1500 to 2000 foot range and is capeable of more.

If you have done two RTFs, time to go for a hobby class radio and switch to receiver ready planes, ARFs and kits. RTFs are fine for rank beginners, but once you become good on these two, it is time to get serious.

When you are ready to invest, let me know and I can give you plenty of info on radios based on your budget and your goals, but if you plan to stay in the small electric area, say 60" wing span and below, the Spektrum DX6 is an excellent choice. Not channel conflict issues.

Ifyou want to get into RC soaring, then you will be getting into planes that need more range. I fly 1-4 meter sailplanes with receiver that have 1 mile+ ranges, and you CAN fly a 4M plan at 1 mile. I have had 3M planes out past 3/4 mile.

As you know, my posts have been based on flying my Nephew's Sky Fly when I visited him in Texas. Well I finally got one of my own. He is comeing to visit his Uncle Eddy for some flying lessons, so I though it would be best to teach him on the plane he has.

I was testing it out and I noticed something that I wanted to bring to everyone's attention. It is on the radio.

Next to the throttle stick is a trim tab, similar to what is on the rudder and elevator. Now, normally that would change the idle setting on a glow plane but we really don't use it much on electrics. Mine was set all the wan down. Just for the heck of it I moved it up. Guess what! The speed of the motor went up about 25%

I tried it several times with the same results.

If you have not moved this tab, push it all the way up and leave it there. It seems to be limiting the top speed of the motor.

:-)

If your Sky Fly seems to be a bit under powered, this may be the reason. I don't know if this is unique to how this one arrived or if they all come set like this, so check yours. If you get a different result, let us know!


Edit: Re the throttle trim tab. If you have not moved this tab, push it so it stands straight up, but not all the way forward. If you push it all the way forward,and leave it there the ESC does not recognize that the throttle is at zero when you attach the battery. The safety then won't allow you to start the motor. This is a good safety feature that prevents the motor from coming on if you forget to
pull the throttle to zero. So set the tab so it stands straight up and leave it there and you should get full throttle AND the throttle safety should continue to work properly.

Try setting the CG.I had no controll and checked the CG and found out it was very nose heavy..
\thomas

Thanks Thomas,

I put up the Skyfly for a while and got an Aerobird Extreme, excellent, powerful, fun to fly. I buried it in a tree about 75 ft. up and tried everything to get it down, had to wait 2 months for a bad thuinderstorm and down it came. I really have to hand it to the MFG's they designed this thing like a tank. The only thing broken was the tail. The motor and all controls worked like a champ!! Now that's a plane! Now the skyfly I decided to give another try over the weekend. The motor spins up the prop just fine with plenty of power. When I hand toss it level/high it heads for the ground gaining speed. It has to be a CG thing, I haven't tried to rebalance yet but I like the Skyfly for small fields. It does have one quirk, the servos chatter but are otherwise controllable. The chatter isn't enough to move the control surfaces but it exists. Since I bought the Skyfly I have also gotten into heli's, man what fun, different world and I enjoy them both.

Regards,
George

I quote myself here because I have highlighted that the MFG suggested to me that the range on the plane was around 500 feet. I find that a bit short but workable if you are careful.

I now own a Sky Fly. I purchased it to help my nephew learn. He has a Sky Fly too. He came for a visit from Texas so I could train him, but he brought his, so we had two at the field.

We had them both in the sky today and I can say with confidence we had them out over 800 feet and I believe we hit 1000 and we had no problems with glitches or other indications of range problems. The open part of my field is over 700 feet wide, where we were flying, and we were out well over the trees, maybe another 200 feet. I tend to fly high, due to may sailplane orientation, so I think we probably hit 1000 feet at some point.

I spoke to the local hobby store, Willis Hobbies in Mineola, NY. He advised that Hobbico claimes to have the same radio/receiver range as the HobbyZone planes, like the Aerobird, but that they are being very conservative.

The Aerobird is rated at 2500 feet and I can say, with confidence, that I have had the Aerobird out at least 1500 feet with no problems

Based on our expereince with Two Sky Flys, which were purchased 2 months apart in different parts of the country, that this plane has a solid 1000 foot range and perhaps further. I have no indication that it is less. And that is about the limit of how far you would want to fly this plane anyway.

Hope that is helpful.

BTW, we made some changes to the how the strings are run on my Nephew's plane and he can now loop the plane! It is not a big sweeping loop, and requires a big dive, but he gets it to fly over the top. Mine is completely stock and I can not "really" loop it. I can barely manage an ugly flip.

Hmm, glad to see someone else got the Sky Fly "up there" besides me. If you remember I mentioned how I got my Sky Fly up high to where I almost lost track of it if I looked away for a few seconds? Well, if with your r/c flight experience you are estimating that you flew it "out" to 1000 ft, then you are probably right, and I can say with confidence that I must have flown mine probably past 300ft high as I previously guesstimated. I knew there was something wrong with just 500ft of reception if my Sky Fly looked like it was waaay far out and still under control

A welcome little surprise eh?

The problem i have is the very little control movments or throws on the Elevator and rudder.I set the center of gravity clear to the rear,it helped alot but I would not get the Skyfly again!!Theres just not enouf control
Iem forced into getting into the electric power cuss of my handycap, Iem In a wheelchiar and can not get anyone to start the engines for me..So electric power is the ticket for me ,I hope.This is why I tryed the skyfly..Its rugged but very little control and very little throws on the servos..
happy flying!
Thomas(ka0hyz)

Look at the control horns on the tail. You will note that the line goes through the hole on the outside of the control horn. This will give you the mildest throws, good to keep new pilots from over controlling.

If you restring the line so it goes through the inner hole, you get a little more throw. Not a huge amount but a little more. That might be enough.

Now, as far as other things you can do - Assumes you are flying in expert mode.

1) Are you applying up elevator in your turns? Do this and you can get much faster turns, but be careful you don't turn so sharply that you stall and drop. Careful use of the elevator can really make a difference. Apply rudder, and as the plane starts to bank over, apply some up elevator and the plane will turn tighter and will have less tendancy to drop the nose.

2) Remove the landing gear. We were flying without the landing gear. Since we fly over grass, the wheels just get stuck and flip the plane. I think the landing gear is one of the best features of the plane IFF you have a runway, but I don't. By removing the landing gear you make the plane lighter and more responsive. Also, I believe it shifts the CG back a little making the plane more responsive.

3) you can extend the surfaces. Take a piece of thin plastic, thin cardboard or some 1/32 or 1/64 plywood and tape it onto the surfaces such that it extends past the end by about 1/4 inch. This will increase your effective control surface. Try it.

We did 1 & 2 and the plane now loops after a dive.

Since I also have an Aerobird Challenger I thought I would make these observations

The Sky Fly is more stable than the Aerobird in respect to turns. The response is so mild it is hard to put the plane into a spiral based on stock settings. However this does limit its aerobatic response. Most people can not get the stock Sky fly to loop.


The Aerobird in Sport mode is similarly mild in its response but it will give you tighter turns and can loop in sport/beginner mode on the standard 6 cell battery. On the Standard 6 cell pack, the Aerobird Challenger feels more lively than the Sky Fly. There is a 7 cell option for the Challenger, not for the Sky fly.

Note that the foam in the front of the Sky Fly is cut for a 7 cell pack. The 7 cell Challenger pack will likely fit with a little effort, but I don't know if the Speed control can take it.

The Aerobird Challenger has an expert mode which really makes the plane responsive. You can really bank and crank and whip the plane around. This really comes in handy in air to air combat when you want to come around to get behind the other pilot.

However you can also push it into a death spiral, so with responseiveness comes responsibility. The Sky Fly, even after I moved the control wires, is no where as responsive as the Challenger.

So, this stability is both good and bad. Good in that it helps prevent new flyers from getting in trouble. Bad in that it reduces the aerobatic responsiveness of the plane once you have mastered the basic performance.

Both planes make good first planes.

I find the Skyfly to be a little heavy for its power, which is why you took of the landing gear?? Anyway, I'm going to change the center of gravity by putting in a 800mah 7.2v lipo pack I have as a spare for a heli I have. Its 1/2 the weight or less of the 6 cell pack that comes with the Skyfly. I will give you all a report of how it goes and minus the nose gear... and thanks for the altitude/distance info, maybe now if I get the Skyfly aloft I won't worry so much about taking it out a distance over the trees. I have a small area behind my house about 500ft long by 300ft clearing that I fly in surrounded by trees in all directions.

Have fun flying!

Question for you... Of course you always launch into the wind, but what about dead air in all directions?? I know its probably a stupid question but how would the Skyfly respond on a hand launch with no wind. Nose down like I've observed? Shifting the CG should fix this, but mine matches the manual exactly but does the nose down routine. No choice but to shift CG I think. Thoughts...

Have fun flying!

I'm thinking of getting into this RC stuff. Finances are the only thing that would hold me back. I already have an aeroace.

These are 2 planes that I would also be interested in as they are both around $100. My question is with the electronics, mainly radio. Is there any thought to which one is better (disregarding range). I think the throttle on the T-Hawk is a slide if I'm not mistaken and the Sky Fly is an actual dual stick. Or am I mistaken? I like the idea of starting right off the bat with the dual sticks of the Sky Fly.

So, that said... Thanks for the info in this thread. Unless I can get the cash up for an Easy Star, the Sky Fly I think is my choice. I just like the idea of normal tailfeathers rather than the V-tail. Don't know why? Just do.

Unless I can pick up a used radio/reciever from a coworker cheap. Then I'll go with a reciever ready Easy Star or build something from FFF. Problem with that will be cheap to a poor hourly employee will probably be far far less than cheap to the 4X-my-salary plant manager, LOL.

Anyone want to buy a 1983 Honda Nighthawk CB550SC so I can get flying? LOL.

I'd go for the EasyStar they have an RFT version as well which is actually lees expensive than the ARF kit. The difference is the components. Looking back I would have chosen the EasyStar over the Skyfly. You are correct about the throtttle controls. I'm not sure I prefer one over the other, but this difference is the slider doesn't spring back. When it comes to RC planes I think you get what you pay for. I have a an Aero Bird Extreme that is about $199.00 RFT and is 3 times the plane the the Skyfly is. They say it isn't for beginners, but if you have done sims and you have a little nerve its great, at least for me.

I took the landing gear off my Skyfly and it made a huge difference in the way it flew! Thanks for the tip Haven't tried lightening it up by changing the battery out yet, but had fun flying this bird most of Sunday afternoon. You know I think the Skyfly would be just about perfect minus a few ounces.

Have fun flying!
GEOS

New to rcuniverse, and fairly new to RC planes. I've had the SkyFly for a couple months now and love it. First few flights were just crash and burns but flights are pretty good now and good landings too. Due to the first few crashes though, the boom is not aligned properly, and the body is slightly split open. Still flies okay, but not as good as it should.

Anyways, I've got a new fuselage and boom and want to swap everything over but not sure exactly how to. Does anyone have a link or anything on how exactly to take everything out of the old fuselage and put it in the new one? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Also, I know about adjusting both the sliders up on the control to get the fullest throttle possible, but can I put in a bigger motor or something to make this plane go faster?

Thanks in advance,
James

I wonder why many show up in Towers Scratch and Dent section

Ryan

Hi fellas, this is my first post in these forums. I have a Sky Fly as well, owned it for about a month now, and flown it semi religiosly every few days as the weather has permitted. I notice all the forums I've read on the SkyFly say it's range is limited to 500 feet. While this may be the specs, I suspect either it's inaccurate or I've just got a really good radio/reciever set in my plane. I went out this morning with my girlfriend before class and paced off 350 yards before I lost signal. We live in Boise ID, and our area is not laden with radio signals, so this may be an affecting factor. I have to say that at 350 yards the plane is so tiny you would not be able to really tell if it were coming or going very well. I can say that I routinely fly it out to about 200 yards (600 feet) and have not yet had a single loss of signal. Also at this range you are pushing your limits on visual ability since the plane is not very big. I have taken it sailing on thermals off in the desert and gotten it higher than I'm comfortable taking it without wanting to and had to put her in a dive to bring her down... even that was quite a challenge in a good strong thermal because of the lack of motion in the elevon.

Overall I would say this plane is an excellent trainer for basic flight. I have put her in loops using a bit of a dive to get the speed up to make it happen, and once you get it going you can make it look like it's riding on a half pipe. While it's a little tricky, the plane does it well from about 80 feet without loosing much altitude.

The one thing I will say about wind is that this plane doesn't like it much. It sails ok in it, and it can fly in it, but it's just too light to really do well. I saw the suggestion of adding a second battery pack just for weight, and I haven't tried that yet, but I will when the breezes start picking up but don't get too big.

The landing gear I've heard is good, but I can't taxi well, or land well on it. It settles in just fine into the grass w/o landing gear, and the bottom of the body is durable enough that even dirt/rough dirt landings don't beat it up.

Beginners should avoid flying anywhere near trees as I can just about guarantee you will hit them till you get better. I have flown my plane into about 6 trees, a light post, and dove it into the ground from a seriously stupid low loop. I have yet to break anything from doing this. I took it out yesterday evening just after the sun went down and after practicing landings I brought it down a little too rough and dipped a wing the wrong way and snapped it. Good thing it's only 12 bucks to replace the wing!

I bought a second battery pack for 18 bucks at hobbytown, it's a 1000maH 7.2 that powers the motor the same as the original 900 maH battery, but it lasts about 5 minutes longer. Flight times vary because different situations call for different prop speeds, but I average 20 - 35 minutes per battery back. They call for 10 minutes of flight time at full throttle, and that may be true, but I have never had a need to run it full throttle for for than a few seconds at a time or during launch to get some altitude.

Overall I'm very pleased with this little $99 treasure. Sure the range may not be what seems like a whole lot, but considering the planes size, it's plenty. It will teach you the basics of flight, take off and landing, and still have room for a little play time. You can not get this plane inverted because of the wing design, it would flip back over on it's own if you managed to get it there. The wings have plenty of lift and it's not bad for sailing in thermals once you figure out how to caress them once you've found them. I've flown only a little over a month and I'm feeling confident in moving up to a trainer with ailerons. I've considered going gas, but it's pretty spendy.

My ideas on upgrading are the Hanger 9 P-51 PTS. Which has everything needed but fuel and a glow plug warmer.
And for electric I havn't yet found a plane that really catches my eye as special. There are a few biplanes , and a P-3, but I really want to go 4 channel and a little larger in size so I can go higher and still see it, and still have full functionality. Any suggestions? I like the idea of electric over gas just because it's cheaper on power, and less mechanical know how required.

Well I'll throw in my 2 cents I guess. I'm fairly new at this and been trying to fly the Easystar with not much luck. I also have a Scout and a slo-v and no luck with those either so far. Mostly due to stick control and over doing it.

I bought a T-Hawk 2 weeks ago and today on the 3rd outing SUCCESS!!!!

Here's today's story:

Man oh man I think I've finally got it!!! Went flying today and met a friend at our favorite park at 9am. He had his Laird biplane, I had my T-Hawk with it's new motor. NO WIND at all. Seemed to make ALL the difference as on the first launch I was able to keep her up for a good 4 minutes!!!! What a BLAST! I finally got the feel for controlling it, short "blips" (taps) of the stick to turn and then let go then short blip(s) to level her out if needed. I wore down 1 battery eventually and no real crashes! I was even able to land her fairly smoothly although I do need to work on that a bit more. I am SO stoked!

Can't wait to go again, maybe tomorrow. I have the next 2 weeks off so guess where I'LL be often! My friend did get video and will be giving me a cd copy in the next day or so so I'll try to photobucket it.

The T-Hawk is a REALLY awesome plane!

I got my SkyFly a few weeks ago and have already had quite a few flight sessions with it; may I also add crashes and alot of fixing to it. Luckily parts on it are cheap. My question is, when would it be a right time for me to upgrade to a gas powered plane? I really think the SkyFly is great for learning, but actually more difficult to fly than heavier and more powerful planes.
In any case, if I can take off and land my skyfly perfectly the majority of the time, would upgrading to something new after a year be not a bad idea?
If so, what would be a good gas plane for someone who is upgrading from an electric RTF?

I was wondering, for those of you who have flown the SKYFLY, should it take more than 2.5 oz to balance the plane? Thanks for the help!