t-28 trojan, am i the idiot?
03-20-2009, 07:24 PM
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t-28 trojan, am i the idiot?
ok so i took the trojan out today. no snow on the ground, nice sunny day, only issue was a bit of spotty heavy winds. after deciding to remove the landing gear and trying my first ever hand launch, i launched it. skyward she went with a vengance, did take more than 30 seconds for her to climb to 200' range into the head winds. but i noticed it was constantly climbing, and the only way to fight it was either ruduce throttle so that it was just gonna stall or to hold constant down elevator. so i flew it around for about 5 minutes and came in with a nice belly landing. i then adjusted the linkage so that it had a bit more down elevator so that i didnt need to keep giving it constant down elevator. i then re launched it, and tragedy hit. she climbed for about 15 feet and went nose down hard. the cowl cracked, wing popped off, the prop sliced into the wing and severed the servo wire for the aileron, and the wings screw mount piece broke. im confident that i can fix it but does this sound like user error, or does i sound like a possible technical glitch. the amount of down eevator added was roughly 1/8th of an inch. thanks guys, chris
03-20-2009, 08:07 PM
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RE: t-28 trojan, am i the idiot?
[
] chris, a lot of us out here feel your pain. Your painful experience and that of others as well as some close calls of my own demonstrates why so many of us are using Spektrum equipment. It sounds like you might have run into interference like many of us have since you have already demonstrated your ability to control the plane even under adverse trim conditions.
Don't give up, we are pulling for you. If you go with Spektrum please use the capacitor that is discussed on the Corsair thread. I now enjoy totally "concern free" flying with all of my fighters.
Keep us informed of your adventures.
madwebtvscientist [sm=lol.gif]
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] chris, a lot of us out here feel your pain. Your painful experience and that of others as well as some close calls of my own demonstrates why so many of us are using Spektrum equipment. It sounds like you might have run into interference like many of us have since you have already demonstrated your ability to control the plane even under adverse trim conditions. Don't give up, we are pulling for you. If you go with Spektrum please use the capacitor that is discussed on the Corsair thread. I now enjoy totally "concern free" flying with all of my fighters.
Keep us informed of your adventures.
madwebtvscientist [sm=lol.gif]
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Modeling's rendezvous with destiny will surely be unstoppable when something greater than the narcissistic pleasure of an esoteric chosen few is adopted in modeling.
03-21-2009, 02:41 PM
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RE: t-28 trojan, am i the idiot?
CC, An idiot? I doubt it. Inexperienced ? Maybe.
Couple of things come to mind from your post, so some questions and some advice.
Did you reset the CG (center of gravity) after removing the landing gear? Removal will change the CG slightly and effect flight characteristics. More then likely it became tail heavy, which makes it more twitchy and harder to control. Also being tail heavy would make it want to climb.
Flying the Trojan in gusty winds is not the best to trim one out in. You should have been able to trim out for fairly level flight with just the TX trim functions. Your manual adjustment more then likely led to additional problems.
Your second launch almost sounds like a text book stall. Too much elevator, not enough speed, and she rolls over on her wing and noses in. The manual adj to the elevator probably didn't help.
We've all been there. And sometimes in the rush to get out and fly we forget the most basic and important rules of flying, like checking CG after altering the plane.
Heck I've been flying for years, just recently moved back to Florida so I could fly even more. And what did I do on my very first flight after getting here? Didn't chek the aileron throws on my plane. And yep they were reversed. Made for a really ugly flight and landing.
Couple of things come to mind from your post, so some questions and some advice.
Did you reset the CG (center of gravity) after removing the landing gear? Removal will change the CG slightly and effect flight characteristics. More then likely it became tail heavy, which makes it more twitchy and harder to control. Also being tail heavy would make it want to climb.
Flying the Trojan in gusty winds is not the best to trim one out in. You should have been able to trim out for fairly level flight with just the TX trim functions. Your manual adjustment more then likely led to additional problems.
Your second launch almost sounds like a text book stall. Too much elevator, not enough speed, and she rolls over on her wing and noses in. The manual adj to the elevator probably didn't help.
We've all been there. And sometimes in the rush to get out and fly we forget the most basic and important rules of flying, like checking CG after altering the plane.
Heck I've been flying for years, just recently moved back to Florida so I could fly even more. And what did I do on my very first flight after getting here? Didn't chek the aileron throws on my plane. And yep they were reversed. Made for a really ugly flight and landing.
03-27-2009, 12:30 PM
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RE: t-28 trojan, am i the idiot?
[8D] chris, it dawned on me yesterday as I was driving home from a five (5) hour fighter flying session why Glacier Girl may be right in his Trojan crash analysis of your plane. I might be the only right handed RC'er on the planet who launches left handed in order to enjoy absolute total control from the instant of launch with my right thumb firmly on the stick at the most critical point of flight. I made the possibly incorrect assumption that both of your hand launches were identically controlled.
One of the things about flight that makes it so intriguing is the subtitle complexities that often requires sometimes dangerous experimentation to verify or falsify our theories. My beautiful Spektrum radio system virtually eliminates the interference possibility, for example. While flying my non-Spektrum equipped airplane yesterday I should have realized that with all the joyously wonderful thermals that were allowing me to effortlessly soar around dead stick at around 600 feet that there could be some frightening down drafts as well. When the ship suddenly went into a violent seemingly uncontrollable tail spin I shouldn't have immediately assumed RF interference. I am not absolutely sure it wasn't so I will continue flying my obsolete equipment until I become convinced that discretion is the better part of valor.
Another experiment that succeeded yesterday was to use my Spektrum transmitter all day long with the voltage indicator on the second light down from the top full charge transmitter batteries indication with all three fighters - no problems at all. There were a few instances that I turned the transmitter off then back on to get the RF link established on start up which may be a deliberately designed in characteristic to warn that it is about time to install fresh transmitter batteries. Yes, even though I know from past experiments that I probably have a few more safe hours of flying left on my present batteries, I will be installing fresh batteries before I fly again.
AIRPLANES CAN BE A FABULOUSLY FUN HOBBY!
madwebtvscientist [sm=lol.gif]
[sm=cry_smile.gif]
____________________________________________
Modeling Promoting Blog:
http://www.rcuniverse.com/community/...g&memid=266748
Modeling's rendezvous with destiny will surely be unstoppable when something greater than the narcissistic pleasure of an esoteric chosen few is adopted in modeling.
One of the things about flight that makes it so intriguing is the subtitle complexities that often requires sometimes dangerous experimentation to verify or falsify our theories. My beautiful Spektrum radio system virtually eliminates the interference possibility, for example. While flying my non-Spektrum equipped airplane yesterday I should have realized that with all the joyously wonderful thermals that were allowing me to effortlessly soar around dead stick at around 600 feet that there could be some frightening down drafts as well. When the ship suddenly went into a violent seemingly uncontrollable tail spin I shouldn't have immediately assumed RF interference. I am not absolutely sure it wasn't so I will continue flying my obsolete equipment until I become convinced that discretion is the better part of valor.
Another experiment that succeeded yesterday was to use my Spektrum transmitter all day long with the voltage indicator on the second light down from the top full charge transmitter batteries indication with all three fighters - no problems at all. There were a few instances that I turned the transmitter off then back on to get the RF link established on start up which may be a deliberately designed in characteristic to warn that it is about time to install fresh transmitter batteries. Yes, even though I know from past experiments that I probably have a few more safe hours of flying left on my present batteries, I will be installing fresh batteries before I fly again.
AIRPLANES CAN BE A FABULOUSLY FUN HOBBY!
madwebtvscientist [sm=lol.gif]
[sm=cry_smile.gif]
____________________________________________
Modeling Promoting Blog:
http://www.rcuniverse.com/community/...g&memid=266748
Modeling's rendezvous with destiny will surely be unstoppable when something greater than the narcissistic pleasure of an esoteric chosen few is adopted in modeling.
03-27-2009, 03:42 PM
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RE: t-28 trojan, am i the idiot?
im glad to report back that since that mishap ive gotten my trojan repaired and have had 4 very fun and successful flights with it. i also took some time to fix up my slo-v and convert it to use a t-tail setup. i must admit tha with the wind we have been having, roughly 10 mph with some heavy gust, im more comfortable flying the slo-v in it than the trojan. im curious if any of you could tell me what the highest winds the trojan can handle are? thanks chris
03-28-2009, 10:53 AM
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RE: t-28 trojan, am i the idiot?
Chris, i have flown mine in 15 m.p.h. wind with no problems, it's a little bumpy, but it handles it ok for me. i also have been flying these things for over 25 years now, it is a real solid plane and it handles wind rather well, not sure what max wind would be for it, but 15 is fairly strong, and i personally would not go much higher than that... good luck R/C FLYR
04-09-2009, 04:11 AM
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RE: t-28 trojan, am i the idiot?
no im flying using bone stock setup. hasnt seemed to be to glitchy in the new area im flying. id love to get a 2.4 ghz etup but cant afford it unless someone wants to donate one . as of now im currently upgrading the trojan to a tail dragger setup. reason being is the nose gear setup on mine seems to be super cheaply constructed. and from inspecting it after my most recent mishap its obvious the nose wheel caught and ripped the nose off. so its either gonna be a tail dragger or a belly lander. i like having gear cause peoples attention gets caught easily when im taxing out onto the field. i even had a girl come up and ask if she could try. i replied its a bit tricky to fly it, and she said well dont you just push a button to make it go? lol i let her hold the controller for a minute and she lost inrest in trying it. but stuck around for the show. i gotta get you guys some footage of my flights. im getting pretty darn good and piloting this bird. im thinking of picking up a second trojan or maybe the f-4u corsair from parkzone. till undecided. chris
. as of now im currently upgrading the trojan to a tail dragger setup. reason being is the nose gear setup on mine seems to be super cheaply constructed. and from inspecting it after my most recent mishap its obvious the nose wheel caught and ripped the nose off. so its either gonna be a tail dragger or a belly lander. i like having gear cause peoples attention gets caught easily when im taxing out onto the field. i even had a girl come up and ask if she could try. i replied its a bit tricky to fly it, and she said well dont you just push a button to make it go? lol i let her hold the controller for a minute and she lost inrest in trying it. but stuck around for the show. i gotta get you guys some footage of my flights. im getting pretty darn good and piloting this bird. im thinking of picking up a second trojan or maybe the f-4u corsair from parkzone. till undecided. chris
