I just got an AA and love it! I put landing gear on and hope to fly it when it stops raining here.[&o] I was just wondering if anyone else's does this: if I leave the plane "on" but the TX is off, every five to ten minutes, the right side engine will run for about two seconds. Is that normal? It's not a big deal to me, really, just thought it was interesting. Also, do the rechargeable batteries in the plane go bad after a time? I thought I'd heard that somewhere. []
This is the about the third Air Hog I've used, so far it's the best, but they are all very impressive for the price.

cant wait to get one. I wanna try to put floats on it. any body done this yet? It would be fun to fly at this water park lake I go to in the summer

The engine spurt is probably caused by a cell phone or some other 27mhz radio interference. It's common, many people have reported it in this thread and I've experienced it a couple times. I just switch the plane and TX off as soon as I quit flying. If the bird ends up in a tree and needs a retrieve (a common experience whenever the wind picks up above a breath), I always switch off the TX just to save the batteries. Keeps me in the habit of conserving power.

Re the batteries, microbuilder and others in this thread have discovered it's a little lipo battery. They'll last a long time, but like any rechargeable, they'll wear out in time. Someone suggested recharging your plane if you've run it more than a minute and a half, just to keep the battery in good shape. I don't know much about lipos, though I have a few for various models I'm building, so I can't say from personal experience.

Doing a search in the right forum will I'm sure give you more info than you ever thought possible on that and any other subject...this is such a great website. Also, RC Groups (rcgroups.com) has a wonderful, extensive forum, in case you don't know that one, with a wealth of information.

Thanks Skypix.


I was flying my AA today, and it hit a barn roof, and the props both chewed into the lower wings and the right side motor detached from the upper wing. Has this happened to anyone else? I thought I might put some tape on the lower wing to cover the damage and prevent any recurrences. Any suggestions are welcome.

Thanks

Same thing happened to me more than once...I finally glued my motors to the wing with goop, they haven't budged since.

I put some light colored packing tape over the dings. I also removed the struts entirely and covered the gaps in underside of the top and top of the bottom wings with tape. It flies even better.

Has anyone figured out how to get more than three of them in the air at the same time? They are still only making them with 27 A, B, and C right? Has anyone figured out a mod to change the frequencies in the plane and receiver to allow more to fly together. I am trying to get 12 of us in the air at the same time. Any suggestions would be great.

if i remember correctly, all the AAs are on the 27mhz frequency, so its not possible to get more frequencies at the moment (someone emailed spinmasters and they said they were working on getting more though, who knows when though). there is however, a way to change what frequency you're on (A, B, or C) with the flip of a switch. each TX and RX are capeable of using A B or C channel, its just a matter of soldering in a micro switch to change between the three. i attatched a couple pictures to show what i'm talking about. this wont allow you to fly with more than 3 people, but it will let you change which channel you're on if you need to.

a side note to the channels: channel B is the best in my opinion. the frequency changes are created by the frame rate of which the TX sends its signal to the RX. this means that one channel has a slower frame rate and one has a higher. a slower frame rate will result in that pause between giving throttle on the TX and the motors responding. channel B has the highest frame rate, A has the 2nd highest, and C is the lowest. i cant remember off hand, but i read somewhere that bridging all the 3 channels will basically combine all frame rates together to give an overall faster response time between sending and recieving signals. i havent done this myself, so there may be more to it. i'll try to find more info on it.

nick

nick, what kind of switch are you using? great pics, and I could solder that but I'd need to know what switch would fit...


rcbif: get 2 identical plastic spoons and cut the handles off. glue (with something really strong: super glue, gorilla, epoxy...) these spoons to straightened out paper clips. you can then poke them into the styrofoam to create landing gear for snow, grass, and water. for water, just be sure to put something on the stern of the plane where the tail peice is. keep that antenna dry!


PB_2

PB,

sorry, but the pics arent mine, i borrowed them. i dont really fly with anyone, so i dont need to use differant channels. any 3 position micro switch should do though. for the TX, it doesnt have to be a micro switch really, but the plane needs something light weight. check radio shack, they've probably got something that'll work.

nick

You can get it at a target somewhere in murphesburoh(sorry about the crappy spelling)for like 30 dollars but it isn't in the online target store. 30 bucks at thjat target but i got the last one in stock about a week ago so i don't know if there is any right now.

On my AA i have a few little problems and i wanted to see if you have any suggestions to help. My first problem is that it is always turning to the left a little even though i adjusted the tail of it. it's not to bad but it is a little irritating having it always turn to the right or left a little and sometimes if im lucky have it go straight for a while.but when it goes straight when it flies for a little it starts turning again when it's over my house.Any suggestions?Another problem is starting to worry me because real bad stuff could happen when i fly like 50 feet away. The problem is that after i get about 2 or 3 houses away from mine or like 50 feet it totaly screws up. The plane signals don't reach the plane right even though the box says it has a 300 foot range. I mean i could stand where i am with it sitting on the ground because the signals screwed up and i will hit the throttle on full and nothing happens until 2 seconds later. It's sorta like a sattlite tv signal compared to a cable tv where the picture is like 2 seconds later than the cable tv. If i tried to solve this would an unbent metal coat hanger wraped around the antenna do anything to help? Please help people.


will


_______________________



We are all just bugs on the
winshield of the car of life.

I had the same problem with mine. When it was flying straight and it would turn to the left or right ive created an immunity to it just bringing it back to straight. Also when i turn the right plane dives, and when i turn left it a slow not as sharp turn. but besides that my plane is fine. im gonna see if my 2 other friends can fly if its not to windy. they have bot AA a B channel And C, i have an A. I was just wondering when my friend's channel b wouldnt climb. it would stay level for a couple of seconds and then dive. also sometimes the right engine would start and the left one wouldnt. Any suggestions? And finall i wanted to point something out. My friend who had the channel C flew his and lost it the first day(to windy). So he called the number on the box and sent him a new one free! Well thats all i got. Happy Flying

[8D]

for plane that just turn on their own, even after adjusting the tail wing flaps, there's a few things you can check to try to fix it.

check the main wings, make sure they're square with eachother. the leading edges and trailing edges should straight, no bends or dips anywhere. the upper and lower wings should be an equal amount of distance away from eachother, check to see if one wing is angled up or down more than the others. also look at the plane from the back, make sure the tail wings are in line with the main wing and that they're not bent out of shape. it only takes a little bend here or there to cause an unwanted turn. check the angle of the motors. they should both be pointing straight back. if one is pointing in or out (towards or away from the tail), it'll cause it to turn. and really, if both motors point in a bit (props pointing towards the tail a little) it should help the responsiveness in the turns.

the C channel will be more suseptable to having a lag between giving throttle/turn inputs on the TX and the RX recieving the signal. its always a good idea, either way, to fly close. as many have learned, a little bit of wind will make these birds just fly away. when i'm flying, i'm always within 50 yards of the plane, and i'm usually around head level or lower (flying close to the ground can be more interesting than flying up high, and more safe too).

just about any plane that is mass produced like the AAs is, will need a bit of tweaking here and there. the people who assemble them probably dont fly, so they dont realize that if one of the wings is bent a little, it'll cause the plane to turn on its own. before every flight, just give the plane a look-over. if its turning one way, or diving in a turn, start giving little bends in the wings untill the plane is flying straight again. it doesnt take much to knock a plane out of alignment, but it also doesnt take much to knock it back it. dont be afraid to give a little bend

nick

Thx for the advice. Ill be sure to check my AA.

[8D]

Hey turtlepee you say it turns left or right when you are over your house that could be wind current over the roof of your house . These little guys are very sensitive to any kind of wind . I have not only had mine turned right and left by the wind but up and down and even blown into the ground a few times . Even if it dosn't seem that windy flying around and over houses can cause some wind currents that will toss your plane around . I only fly mine up to only about 15 ft high or even lower if there is wind and not over houses but I am lucky and have about 1/2 acre to fly in right in my back yard . I just wish the wind would calm down for awhile I only got to fly 1 time this week for 1 flight before it got dark after work . Already this morning the winds are 15 mph and could get to 25 mph .

i'm going to get mine monday. darn money didn't make it into my bank from paypal yet. they had 2 of them at wal mart today. the orange and black one. hopefully the black one is still there.

At a Walmart in Austin,tx, they're charging $40 for them now. On the other hand they have about 15 of them in stock.

At the Target across the street they're still $30 and they had 6 of them yesterday minus the one I picked up.

-tychoc

If I were you, I would look for a Channel B. The FPS is the fastest on that channel and will give you the quickest response time, so says nick. Go to http://www.aeroacemods.com/aam/aeroace/ and buy a B from them.


PB_2

I just got mine and I took off the lower wings and put them on the top one and boy it has a bunch of lift now and it faster to.

If you are having trouble with the AA turning all by itsself, be sure to adjust the trim knob on the transmitter before trying anything else. And be aware that the trim dial can be a little fidgety. For instance, on mine, if I turn the dial all the way to the right, the plane oddly turns left. Back it off a little and the plane turns right, just as it should. And sometimes I can get it trimmed out perfectly and sometimes it just seems less stable and tends to turn a bit. I think the weather has an effect as well as everything else. And maybe the motors' relative output can vary a bit from flight to flight, possibly due to temperature or whatever. If the trim dial does not solve the problem, remember that there is a trim tab on the vertical tail surface. You cut it lose with scissors and bend it right or left and hold it in place with one of the little aluminum stickers that work like hinges. And of course any gusting or turbulence will turn the plane.

As for range problems, remember that if you are holding the transmitter antenna pointing toward the plane, which is a very natural thing to do, this is the worst orientation for that antenna. The best situation is to have the transmitter antenna pointing up (or 90 degrees from the airplane). The radio signal radiates out from the side of the antenna rather than out the tip. I find that I get plenty of range if I keep this in mind - enough so that my ability to see the orientation of the plane is the limiting factor. The plane will also receive better with it's side toward you, but you can't really do all your flying that way.

And as for delay, yes that is a characteristic of this plane to some extent. I have flow an A channel and a couple of B channel planes and I find the delay noticeably worse on the A channel. Fortunately, the turning response is better than the throttle response and it is still pretty flyable if you keep that in mind by throttling up early. But in a $30 kit, you have to accept a little delayed response, unfortunately.

Does anybody know what all the bumps are for that are all over the fuselage and wing surfaces? Is this just an artifact of the molding process or is there some aerodynamic purpose?

They seem to be in a very deliberate pattern. Just curious.

They are bumps of the molding process.

I didn't decorate my first couple AAs with the colored design tape, instead cutting off some of the bumps until I gave it up for tedious. I'm traveling, and bought an AA to fly here. I did put the design thingy on the flying surfaces this time and noticed it does of course smooth up all those little bumps quite a bit. I don't think there's much performance penalty from the weight, not that I can notice. Look back a couple pages in this thread and you'll see that I took out the interbay wing struts, just removed them and taped over the holes. then added an extra bit of wing to the top wing. not as stable as the stock AA longitudinally (yaws around a bit) but man, what a bonus in lift. I can thermal in my little backyard a bit! And the extra weight of the wing sections more than made up for themselves in weight, the AA motors handle it just fine.

This is great! I just put 3 on hold at Target...$29

Can someone tell me how to lengthen the antenna and how much range is it possible to get out of them after the mod??

That information is in this thread somewhere. I know the thread is so long that it is impractical to read through at this point. If I recall, you get some fine wire from a magnet coil and add it to the end of the plane's stock antenna wire which ends on the vertical tail fin. Some add 3 inches. Some double the length. There is also a way to tune the transmitter's antenna coil, but I really don't know much about that.

diggs

A longer antenna doesn't neccessarily mean a better range. What's important is that the antenna is at a resonant frequency of the wavelength transmitted.

If I remember correctly, then the formula is as follows: lambda(wavelength) = C (speed of light)/f (frequency)

Using the metric system (of course) you get. lambda = 3.0(10^8)/27(10^6) = 11.1 meters.

The simple antenna used is a dipole, thus ideally it should be at 1/4 times the wavelength for a length of: 2.78 meters (109 inches!!)

Divide this down further an the closest reasonable length is 11.1/16 = 0.69 meters or 69 cm or 27 in.

-tycho