Matt Watts

Wish I had your lift - a lot of the time I have to use my Easyglider's motor to get back to altitude. Are there any recommended models that can fly on sparrow flatulence? Hang on, did I just hijack this thread?

Must be hard, launching a new site and finding the many things are still needing some polish. Speaking of polish, the new site should be plenty more colourful. All this grey is rather depressing.

Right, rifling thru brain... I agree with something not ARTF'd beyond belief. 1. Bristol Beaufighter 2. Medium-scale (around 1.5m span) Gloster Meteor 3. Focke-Wulf FW-190 (preferably earlier versions before -d variant)

By the way, does anyone have any experience with replacing servos in the Easyglider? I just recieved the Tiny-S through the post, and could cut a slice out of the side, but I don't want to destroy the fuselage.

Noted. I have the same servo controlling the elevator, and will replace that one too. You certainly get what you pay for with servos, although apparently BRC Hobbies is the exception according to RCME. Thanks for the advice, don't want the same thing happening all over again!

Curses. I wondered what the clicking was. That's going to take ages to replace. Oh well, thanks for the help!

Before I start, merry newyearmas to everyone on the forum! The rudder servo on my Easyglider is... not working. It will turn right, but leave it at neutral and it immediately starts jittering. Begin to turn it left, and the motor can be heard freely moving in it's own little world, oblivious to the gears it is supposed to be driving. If anyone else has an Easyglider, they will know that the servo is going to be a right (derogatory word) to remove. http://robotbirds.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=85_71_17&products_id=413 That's the product link. Odd, Robotbirds are usually brilliant with this sort of stuff. Anyway, can  anybody say whether the gears are stripped, and will hitting it help? I don't want the same thing to happen to the elevator, which is driven by an identical servo. I had an unfortunate incident with my Magister (RIP) involving loss of elevator control, and it was neither pretty nor... good. THanks in advance!

I already have an Easyglider flying and a Jr.60 in the works (to become a larger, far more powerful replacement for the aging Aerobird). About the wing... you're joking with the loops?

Air brakes? The Cularis only has flaps. Tell him to reverse one of the flap servos, fiddle around and see what happens. It could also be a programming thingamajig. By the way, did he have any trouble with the wing joiner/servo plug mechanism? Oh, and www.modelspot.com seem to stock most spares of Multiplex kits. If they're anywhere, they'll be there. He should probably order by phone though, as I've had some trouble ordering from them online

I learned how to fly on two-channel 'toys' when I was 9, and the last one I had was the original Firebird Commander (RIP, radio was tripping). To fill the gap between 'proper' models and these toys, I bought an Aerobird 3. Now it's a great plane for moving on, but it's potential is severely limited by tip-stalling (on a beginner's model??) and almost total lack of power - roughly 10-12 minutes into the flight it struggles to climb parallel to the slope, which can't be more than 20degrees! With no headwind, you have to be flying in the first minute of the 15-20 it's capable of to loop from level flight, and even then it becomes more of a hammerhead. It is a fantastic model for just flying around lazily when the mood takes you, but marketing it as an Aerobird is at best misleading. Was the Aerobird Extreme any better, and now that it has been discontinued, are there any Hobbyzone planes without these dodgy bits? I'm not wanting to buy anything, but I am curious. Sorry about the huge rant!

Already done (lesson learned from last time)

Thank you very much Peter, but I've just recieved a replacement prop from the very kind Richard Bond. Aeromodellers sure are a good bunch! And by the way, now I'm extremely glad i used kicker on the model.

Thanks for the advice, but I didn't know the ball-bearing wasn't supposed to go in...

I assure you, the spoilerons are functioning perfectly now (thanks to me realizing my stupid mistake with the positioning of the servo arms - I believe when I centred them glued them in my transmitter had flap dialled in, but not sure)! I believe the primary cause of the assembly leaving the airframe was due to my poor timing. I tried to do a hammerhead (there was no wind at all, and I was kind of bored), but it ended up flipping over the top like a 2D loop. To compensate for the lag between giving power to the motor via the transmitter and the motor actually running, I gave it power just as it was falling over the top, resulting in a very strange noise, which I now attribute to rather dangerous vibration. I decided to ignore this and proceeded to do some fast (well, fairly with the Easyglider) passes, where the assembly shot forwards, and down. Tracking two moving objects whilst trying to land one of them is impossible. I went to collect the glider, and realized how stupid I had been - I might have found it had I left the glider and gone straight for the approximate location of the prop assembly. Oh well, you live and learn! Thinking on it, this might call for going brushless - although since I'm flying the standard Easyglider Electric, I need something compatible with a gearbox. Any cheap ideas?

I've just gone flying with the Easyglider, but now the whole prop unit (spinner, adapter&folding prop) is now sitting somewhere out of sight in between the thorns and long grass of the slope. Do Multiplex stock replacements, or do I have to find an alternative? My problem is that I have no idea of the dimensions of the original spinner or prop, as Multiplex include the whole assembly in the kit and therefore don't bother stating them. My only other model is an Aerobird, which flies like powered lard! Please help!

This could prove very useful for taking on the equipment from my DT project. Do you think it would matter if my fan is 5mm bigger?

Yes, I was going to cut slots in the wing panels, but didn't feel like it yesterday. Just to check, having a control surface move further one way than the other - should I dial in some exponential to smoothen the result out, or will it behave more or less as normal?

Having already glued the servos in the wings, I now find myself in the situation where I realize that I should have installed the horns quite a lot further backwards than at current (pointing out at right angles). Dammit I can be stupid! This is why the sevos were complainng.

...and hope it doesn't land on a dog-walker...

Or download FMS!

Ah yes - I had fogotten I have the RC Plane Master Extreme 64 simulator downstairs. Thanks for the reminder! I'm afraid I live in Surrey by the way.

Just out of curiosity, how do you 'soar' over a flat field? I mean ovbiously you can get it to height with the motor and just glide, but how else? Also, will having the motor on near-minimum revs help slow it down?

Just make sure the prop isnt spinning... The ailerons have an active hinge (moulded in) that seem to be fine and are perfectly free. I've already had a thread on the servos, and that I believe was because I dialled in too much spoileron and then got the servo to go full travel, which it didn't like. Will try adjusting linkages tomorrow when I have time

Thanks Peter, I'm still fiddling with spoilerons, and it looks like I'll have to adjust the control linkages to get any decent amount of travel in. I know how to set them up in my 6EXA, but I can't really be bothered to reprogram the radio - also when I dialled in too much the servos started protesting, so linkage fiddling is probably required anyway. There's two sides to my hill - one is a field facing diagonal (a complete nightmare to bring anything in, let alone a large foam glider) which generally has the wind blowing uphill, so I fly there most of the time. Unfortunately, being a field it has no flat bits. The other side is a fairly large hill, with a very thin strip of flat, and a steep hill. This would be great if the wind ever actually went up it!

Hi all, I was flying the easyglider yesterday in a stiff breeze (first time proper gliding!) and found that I had no adequate way of figuring out how to get the machine down again! With hindsight I have needed to adjust the aileron linkages for a while now, and I was standing too far up the slope to bring it in downhill. Thankfully it didn't end in tears! Anyways, has anyone got any tips on landing a glider in a strong, steady wind when they just don't want to come down?