Byron AT - 6
 

I am about to test fly my Byron AT - 6 with G62. I have flown Byron Pitts and Christian Eagles a lot as well as their Ryan. Any advice on what to do and not to do on the first flight would be sincerely appreciated. Does this bird have any strange habits? Any advice on landing set up etc would be really appreciated. Thanks, fellow RC'ers.

AT6
 

I have flown one quite a few times, and other than the obvious item of having plenty of speed before liftoff. Be prepared to use PLENTY of right rudder, again pretty normal for a warbird. The most important thing is the landing speed. If you are too fast, it will bouce all the way down the runway, too slow, and we all know what happens then...stall-snap-spin. The ailerons become pretty soft at low speeds, so use the rudder for heading correction once line up on final. If you have flaps, you will be OK. The flaps make it easy to hit that proper landing speed. If you dont have flaps, practice landing approaches early in your flight. Even as big and heavy as it is, without flaps, that thing will sail right on past you carrying a great deal of momentum.

Good luck

AT-6
 

Pipercub: Jeff hits this one right on the head. The AT-6 with the G-62 will have plenty of power but with the narrow landing gear it will turn all of that torque into a ground loop to the left very quickly. Come up on the throttle slowly and add enough right rudder to just keep it straight. As the takeoff speed comes up the rudder authority will increase and you will be able to reduce the input on the rudder. Let it run on the mains until you have good speed before you lift off. Just a hint of up elevator will get it airborne once you have enough takeoff speed. Guys that have problems with the AT-6 want to jerk it off the ground and with this airplane that is often a fatal mistake for the plane. Once you get it cleaned up I think you will find the AT-6 a very nice airplane to fly. It is very a very responsive aircraft and goes exactly where you tell it to.
Landing is much easier with flaps as it lets you reduce the landing airspeed considerably without loosing stability. With full flaps the T-6 will slow down very quickly and make your aproach adjustments with the throttle. I'd recommend three pointing the landing on grass fields and do a main gear touchdown on pavement. It is easy to get a T-6 into the bouncing condition that Jeff mentioned if your landing speed is too high. That can be real tough on the retracts so practice your approach and figure out your stall speed at a safe altitude before you attempt to land. I think you will find that once you learn the plane you will really enjoy it. Good luck!!
Jack Devine

Byron T6
 

Wow, these guys hit it right on the head. Cant really add much more. I do want to ask whether you built with the single sport flap or have all flaps (including outers). This is important as I have flown with both. The sport flap, to me, has some ground affects which make it a little tricky to get a nice smooth flair. Dont get me wrong, it lands slow and graceful, but I beleive you get a little turbulence compared to having the addition of the outer flaps. The G62 is a great match, I have this setup in mine. Yes, lots of rudder for take off but she is off in a hurry. In the air it flies as great as any sport plane. But as all has stated above, beware the texan bounce! It can be ugly. Not always damaging, just to the EGO.

Landing the AT-6
 

I was having touble with the dreaded AT-6 bounce when a friend of mine and fellow AT-6 pilot advised me to get off of the elevator as soon as the wheels touched the ground. We all tend to hold back on that elevator stick even after the wheels touch. This can be a real problem with the Texan because when the wheels touch, the nose is pushed back up in the air and the positive angle of attack on the wings now lifts the aircraft back off of the ground. This is caused by the wheels being farther in front of the CG than most aircraft. When the wheels touch, the tail sinks, the wing angle of attack is increased, and the aircraft comes off of the ground again, and so on and on and on until it either stops or you've ripped the gear out of your wing.
Just try coming off of the elevator as soon as the mains touch the ground and watch you landings smooth out. Mine did. :D