Pilot Dolphin Review and Build
07-09-2015, 01:50 PM
#277
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Per he continuing saga of my Dolphin....still don't have replacement parts, and, quite frankly, working with Chief has been less than good. I'm not going to get into it here, but I don't think I'm going to be getting my jet back in the air......if anyone needs them, I have a set of wings, ( big wing), vertical and horizontal stab, and exhaust pipe . They are done in Thunderbird scheme. To share some thoughts...if you are going to buy one of these, set it up nose heavy if you have the standard wing. Fly it with LOW rate elevator with at least 35% expo. Flap/elevator mix does NOT require up elevator in the mix. None, or a little down. Full flaps for landing with the bigger wing seems to be about 30 degrees down....may be time for me to move on and get an Élan!
07-11-2015, 06:07 AM
#280
Kim
Sorry to hear you are having problems. I must agree that my purchasing experience with Chief was not great either. Perhaps some of it was as a foreign purchaser ( Canada). What was most problematic was the lack of communication or miscommunication during my dealings with them. They are new to the jet world and will either quickly learn how to work with jet modelers or will drop jets. Time will tell. As for the aircraft itself, I have built many, many jets over the years and the Dolphin is ranked up there in engineering, flight performance and general maintainability. I am happy with mine BUT....it is sensitive to CG and the elevator is very powerful. I could see how a guy could unknowingly get into trouble. I really do like how it flys except it has that annoying tail wiggle. A 3 axis gyro helped sort that out. There are no perfect flying birds but this one does everything quite well. I would not give up on it as it sounds to me that your crash was the result of an aft CG. The Dolphin clearly is not tolerant of that ( neither is the L39 which is similar looking ). I sincerely hope that you can get things worked out with Chief. I know guys up here are interested in getting them but at this point they are not comfortable with the supply chain. I hope that will change.
Dean W.
Sorry to hear you are having problems. I must agree that my purchasing experience with Chief was not great either. Perhaps some of it was as a foreign purchaser ( Canada). What was most problematic was the lack of communication or miscommunication during my dealings with them. They are new to the jet world and will either quickly learn how to work with jet modelers or will drop jets. Time will tell. As for the aircraft itself, I have built many, many jets over the years and the Dolphin is ranked up there in engineering, flight performance and general maintainability. I am happy with mine BUT....it is sensitive to CG and the elevator is very powerful. I could see how a guy could unknowingly get into trouble. I really do like how it flys except it has that annoying tail wiggle. A 3 axis gyro helped sort that out. There are no perfect flying birds but this one does everything quite well. I would not give up on it as it sounds to me that your crash was the result of an aft CG. The Dolphin clearly is not tolerant of that ( neither is the L39 which is similar looking ). I sincerely hope that you can get things worked out with Chief. I know guys up here are interested in getting them but at this point they are not comfortable with the supply chain. I hope that will change.
Dean W.
07-11-2015, 03:12 PM
#281
My purchase experience with Chief was not great either. I've bought a lot of stuff from chief over the years and up until this purchase I've been very satisfied with them. I hope they figure out the customer service issues because it would be hard for me to recommend them at this point. I also hope that Tony at Pilot has a plan to make parts available soon, e.g. Pilot touts the two inter changeable wing options but do you have to buy a whole kit just to get the other wings?
07-11-2015, 04:15 PM
#282
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The sad part, is that I was going to get my parts direct from Pilot....that got shut down by the Chief rep. The issues with " the powerful elevator" should have been communicated to buyers. Jordan has done a great job trying to educate people in regard to what he's seen....but......
07-13-2015, 08:19 PM
#284
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There will be a new manual and all info will be posted here as soon as the collected data is available. We flew all wing types at KJ and took measurements of flight controls and cg's with the CG machine from Xicoy. I have done the best I can with the info I have and the set ups I have used. The plane is sensitive to CG. This has come to my attention with time, which all jets go through. I spent all week with Tony from pilot, as he stayed in my motor home during KJ. We spent many nights up until 3am going over design and such things that you will all see the result of soon.
The new manuals for Pilot will all be written by me personally in ENGLISH and have about 150-200 pictures along with a very accurate CG and throws. We have reduced the Flaps to about an average of 22.5- 25 degrees with about 2.5 up and take off at 15 degrees and 1.5 up. The CG will probably change a little as I have posted that I fly mine slightly nose heavy. This will be adjusted in the manual as well. These jets are very good flying jets and Tony and I and Terry have spent countless hours in design, not only on this plane but the soon to be released 71". The reason the 71 had not been released yet is because it is not ready for the public and Tony will not release a jet that is not as close to perfect as possible. I have never met a manufacturer that is as commuted to his customers as Tony and I have met quite a few. So please stay tuned to this thread and I will post some exact numbers and CG points of how I have been successfully flying this plane with. I just got home literally from KJ and as soon as I have more than 5 min I will again post pictures of my CG and throws from the Xicoy machine.
J.Morse
The new manuals for Pilot will all be written by me personally in ENGLISH and have about 150-200 pictures along with a very accurate CG and throws. We have reduced the Flaps to about an average of 22.5- 25 degrees with about 2.5 up and take off at 15 degrees and 1.5 up. The CG will probably change a little as I have posted that I fly mine slightly nose heavy. This will be adjusted in the manual as well. These jets are very good flying jets and Tony and I and Terry have spent countless hours in design, not only on this plane but the soon to be released 71". The reason the 71 had not been released yet is because it is not ready for the public and Tony will not release a jet that is not as close to perfect as possible. I have never met a manufacturer that is as commuted to his customers as Tony and I have met quite a few. So please stay tuned to this thread and I will post some exact numbers and CG points of how I have been successfully flying this plane with. I just got home literally from KJ and as soon as I have more than 5 min I will again post pictures of my CG and throws from the Xicoy machine.
J.Morse
Last edited by MorseAircraftDevelopment; 07-13-2015 at 08:28 PM.
07-13-2015, 09:55 PM
#285
Jordan
Your dedication to this design is exemplary and we thank you for all the effort you have put into it. I have a number of flights on mine now and the more I fly it, the more I enjoy its clean, no nonsense characteristics. Pilot R/C has a good thing here but they need to hear what CUSTOMERS are saying. Hopefully, with your guidance they will make the right business decisions to continue this little gem.
Regards
Dean W.
Canada
Your dedication to this design is exemplary and we thank you for all the effort you have put into it. I have a number of flights on mine now and the more I fly it, the more I enjoy its clean, no nonsense characteristics. Pilot R/C has a good thing here but they need to hear what CUSTOMERS are saying. Hopefully, with your guidance they will make the right business decisions to continue this little gem.
Regards
Dean W.
Canada
07-13-2015, 11:52 PM
#286
Just make the tail bigger, its too small. Its why its called a stabiliser, big lifting canopy and nose and huge wing area needs something to work against. Why does something like a CARF Viper fly so well? Big stab. I've test flown a few of these and they all get pitch sensitive if you push the balance back to where it should be and run larger movements. Adding a gyro does sort out some of this, but like the Wizzard its an elastoplast to basic design flaws.
Dave
Dave
07-14-2015, 10:16 AM
#288
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I have my Dolphin balanced at recommended cg, and i dont find it pitch sensitiv at all? I bought this as a replacement for my sprint, and think its no more difficult too fly and land.
I bought it turbine-ready, the only thing i dont like is the struts ( way too soft) and the airline connections between wing and fuselage.
I like it a lot.
I bought it turbine-ready, the only thing i dont like is the struts ( way too soft) and the airline connections between wing and fuselage.
I like it a lot.
07-23-2015, 06:03 AM
#289
I've got 28 flights on mine, I have it setup slightly nose heavy at take off and very close to CG marked on the wing (trainer wing), I typically fly mid rates (between) min and max as outlined in the manual. On landing with 22 degrees of flap I do find the pitch to be somewhat sensitive but not overly sensitive.
08-03-2015, 06:28 AM
#290
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Kim, I live near Pilot RC and if Tony would box a fuselage up (He is great for making custom cardboard boxes) I have no problem bringing one back. I go back and forth to China to the mid-west ~ 6 times a year. I have a sport and trainer version and looking at the fuselage transporting the boxed item should meet the airline I use dimension limitations. It feels to me the trainer wing is harder to fly than the sport wing and requires more nose heavy settings. I am not sure if the CG for this wing should be located more forward, the wing is definetly more swept and that might create issues. For sure don't use as much flaps the manual recommends. If you get yours flying again try using recommended flaps (At a decent altitude) and you will see that anything over 35% and the airframe stops flying even at 30% throttle (I am using a Cheetah with linear throttle settings) Slow flight is almost impossile to maintain. Set up correctly and the airframe flys great. Even with the gyro off I don't have any tail waggle as reported. If anyone is thinking about ordering one I am pretty sure you can go direct to Pilot for the airframe. Low rate I keep the elevator range limited and landing pretty much have almost full up right before touchdown. (I find that if that is not enough my landing speed is to slow so a good indicator for me) The soft struts even on grass are not an issue. Jordan is a great resource for this model.
08-03-2015, 10:16 AM
#291
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I am ordering custom wing, rudder and stab covers from Europe and I needed to make a few measurements. (Lots) To give you an idea of the taper the trainer wing has a chord length at the wing root of 58.5 cm and the sport wing 49.5 cm but the trainer has a wing tip cord of 24 cm and and the sport has 30 cm. That is 15 cm more taper or ~ 6 inches. I am trying to find something to protect the oracoat in the sun besides throwing a thermal sheet over it. I will send the pricing when I get them. Trim nose heavy and lots of speed on final for the "trainer" wing. The sport wing is a very nice flying airframe !!
08-05-2015, 01:12 PM
#292
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Could you please email direct at [email protected]. Would really like to talk to you about your offer....or call me 231-929-2315. Thank you so much for the offer to help!
09-15-2015, 07:42 PM
#298
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As nice as dmattmul was to offer to bring a dolphin kit to the U.S. for me, won't be done. Tony won't respond to my emails, and I've given up on this whole mess.....to any of you thinking about a Dolphin, be sure to spend some time talking to Jordan. The jet has some "tendencies" you really need to know about to have a good experience with the "big wing" version. He really is the best.....final thought about Chief.....don't do or say anything to or about them that can tick them off......my whole problem with them started with one simple email that their sales rep took out of context.....I have been flying RC for almost 30 years, and have never been treated so poorly.....ordered a new Élan from Larry Roper....class act!
09-15-2015, 08:34 PM
#299
Sorry to hear the news. I still really like the Dolphin big wing version. It does have a few odd quirks but EVERY jet I have flown over the years has something and trust me....I have flown a lot of different ones!
As I have mentioned in previous posts..Chief is the new kid in town when it comes to jets. They have some experience with the big plane stuff but little when it comes to jets. It will be a steep learning curve for them and they WILL lose some customers along the way. The east coast/west coast communication line is something they need to work on but hey.....its not my business.
Anyway...going to attend a jet rally this weekend and plan to fly the snot out of my Kingtech 140 powered Dolphin big wing version!
Cheers
Dean W.
Canada
As I have mentioned in previous posts..Chief is the new kid in town when it comes to jets. They have some experience with the big plane stuff but little when it comes to jets. It will be a steep learning curve for them and they WILL lose some customers along the way. The east coast/west coast communication line is something they need to work on but hey.....its not my business.
Anyway...going to attend a jet rally this weekend and plan to fly the snot out of my Kingtech 140 powered Dolphin big wing version!
Cheers
Dean W.
Canada