Andy Gates

Shame to see it like that David but as others have said it is repairable. Sarik has the plans available.

I do the drape or fold technique, but for formers and ribs I fold the plan and use our household scanner / printer to copy the relevant sections

I think Peter has hit the nail on the head, it is the preparation which creates a good / poor maiden. I check my machines over more than once at home, away from the field where there will be no pressure to fly. I am very careful to check everything slowly and thoroughly. This means not only correct travel and direction but reliable centring of surfaces and smooth movement. I also check all the mixes at each one of the settings and operate all surfaces to ensure no errors in programming affecting something unexpected. Range check also done at home away from the field. Then the machine is off to the field. I am now in the position that I am being asked to maiden other peoples planes. This means that I have to go through the above process at the field. I have now got to the stage where if there is something I don't like in the set up, I don't fly it but I say why to the owner. Favourite example being a coupled rudder to the ailerons - I want everything separate for a maiden so I can work out what is going wrong or needs adjustment.

Pufferman, I feel sorry for you and the reaction you are getting from the club you are trying to get in contact with. As club secretary for our club, it is my job to ensure a timely response to all applications or contacts. Roughly which bit of the country are you in? Maybe someone like me who uses this site, and has similar responsibilities for a club in your area might contact you. Worth a try. A distorted machine is not going to help you get used to flying, you really need the help of an experienced modeller to help sort your machine so it does fly correctly. I hope you get the help you need.

All the training aircraft I have are fitted with gyros, like others here the FrSky S6R / S8R units. These are really handy to off load the work required by the students to fight the wind and turbulence that affects our fairly closed in field. It also opens up times where the wind would make the day unsuitable for training. As others have said, the auto levelling mode is awful to fly requiring a completely different technique to normal flying so this is not used. Cuban8, yes a gyro certainly can help with a squirrelly machine on the ground or in the air, but it does not mitigate setting the machine up properly in the first place. I was given a very squirrelly Cub to fly, it was a real fight on the ground every single time. Discovered the UC had been fitted the wrong way round giving toe out on the wheels rather than a bit of toe in. Switching it around transformed the plane, still have to be careful but immeasurably improved.

I am with Ron, Leccy & GG. My packs only get discharged in the models flown. I generally fly at the weekend so charging my packs takes place on Thursday / Friday / Saturday. If I don't fly then the packs stay as is until the next time. My only changes to this pattern are if I am not going to fly for 6 -8 weeks or more, then I may consider taking the packs down to storage.

No real sense in going bigger, it will just make it more expensive. Can you clarify the modes you have been flying in please? As I understand there are 3 modes, beginner, intermediate and fully manual. If you have learned to fly under beginner mode, then there is a degree of relearning how to fly when stepping up to other modes. Beginner mode you let go of the sticks and the plane automatically levels itself. It also limits how much the plane can roll and dive and climb. Intermediate mode requires you to level the plane out of corners yourself and generally control the plane all the time. The gyro in intermediate level will help with things like wind gusts. Manual mode you deal with everything yourself. As a club instructor I hate beginner modes as you learn a completely different way of flying. To switch to the next or normal type modes you need to completely re-learn the techniques of flying.

Beautiful machine you have there Cymaz, quite envious but I am in an electric only club so this would need huge batteries so I will let you keep it. Fingers crossed for the maiden.....

I do not normally get involved with stuff like this as it normally leads to more confusion but this time I will. Normally I fly my stuff light - I have a Ripmax WOT Trainer which I stripped the covering off of, built a new mainly balsa fuselage and recovered the whole thing with laminating film. It went from 6lbs to 4lbs - so worth the effort for me and is now in heavy use as our club trainer. Flies really slowly & is very predictable - with flaps it can stop in mid air and go backwards in a breeze. However I acquired a Cub from another club member which is obviously an IC based machine. I have electrified it to suit my purposes. Now the bit you will be interested in... 70" wingspan 7lb in weight including battery - for me - heavy. I run this on a 4S pack (I use 5000mAH packs as it needs loads of nose weight otherwise). Prop APC 12x6 E Motor Thumper 4250/06 800Kv This plane is no slouch and I am using it to practice and work towards my B test. Unlimited verticals? I don't know as I have no need for them. Loops & bunts from straight & level flight - no issues. Stall turns & spins - no issues. Handles rough weather easily. What is not to like?

I would check this first as I don't use Taranis, but I believe if you update your Tx you will not have to update all of your other receivers to V2 as I think V1 is still available.

I had this one too today - straight in the bin.

Toto, Use the wire UC provided rather than change to an aluminium one. Wire UC will have some spring to it which will help prevent / reduce damage in a slightly heavy landing. A solid UC will transfer all the loading to the wooden fuselage probably resulting in breakage. Have fun.

+1 on the above comments. I can see you ending up with a shed full of trainers after you have gone solo wondering what you are going to do with them all. Try and stick with 1 plane and learn to fly it well. Then you can decide what you want to do and where your interest is going to drive you so you can buy and build accordingly. You may want to fly gliders, sport models, aerobatics, high speed, ducted fans or war birds, who can tell? Building one plane from a kit or plan sounds fine to learn the techniques and requirements of construction, but please go one at a time. I heard of a mention that to learn to fly you have to crash at least 13 models. This horrified me, proper training will have incidents and damage to a model which ought to be repairable but 13 models - no.

The plans I used were free, I downloaded them, put the files on a stick and too them to a local printer. I discussed with him how much I wanted them expanded by and then he printed them off at the size I wanted. My down load was from Aerofred.

Congratulations Roy, your final reaction to your flights really sums up why we still build our models. I have been watching this as it developed for 2 reasons, Bowmans was one of the 3 model shops in Ipswich which I used to frequent as a teenager, the other reason is I built a Magister too. Mine is a much modified build from a David Platt plan with me trying to loose quite a bit of its weight, being 78" in wingspan and just under 5lbs in weight. Flies quite sedately but quite aerobatic when opened up on its 4S 500mAH battery. My landing do tend to a bit like your 3 pointers, 2 wheels & a nose and the UC on mine is way too springy Link to my build is here.

I suggest you get a spare stock of these batteries as I have lost count of the number of times I have had to change them for exactly the same reason.

Sorry Alec but I believe you are incorrect. With the laser unit at the front of the wing and the target at the back, if meter was zeroed on the tail plane first in the same orientation then if the laser unit is higher than the target as in your photo then the wing has positive incidence in relation to the tailplane. I know because I have one and use it extensively, and I have just been out to my build shed to replicate what you have. Not too sure that 3/4 of a degree is sufficient on a model like that though, I would have expected something like double that.

I think you may find that your incidence in the photo using the incidence meter is positive not negative. But more importantly, what is the relationship between the wing and the tailplane in terms of incidences? Superb build and finish - well done.

There are many bearing suppliers who can probably source the bearings for you once you have them out so they can be measured. However, if the motor is quiet and smooth on the bench, it sounds like the source is elsewhere. Loose mount, off centre prop adaptor, unbalanced prop? Harmonics with the length of the motor stand offs? I would search the set up first rather than change bearings.

We have a member who has a fairly large wingspan glider with a similar set up. A pair of tapered wooden pins are inserted from the top of the fuselage going through a pair of tongues which stick out of each wing root. The pins have never moved yet as I guess the tongues exert a pulling force in flight which prevents them moving. He does fly his glider in a spirited fashion so seems a fair system to use.

Sorry Pat but you need to be careful about statements like the one above. You seem to have forgotten about the BEC which also has its limits as I have experienced. I have used a 4S ESC in a plane but the BEC on board had a lower current limit at 4S than it did on 3S and I missed it causing the loss of control resulting in a rekitting of the model.

Keith, Give me a shout next time you are at the field and I can bring a multitude along for you to see. I fly OpenTx on a 4 in 1 module so no different to what you are considering.

Sounds very familiar to me Joss. I am sure that plans exist if you wanted to build another.

Wings on my sleeve = excellent read. Assuming you sleep on the right of the bed as we see in the photo, where does your wife sleep? Is there much that needs done to the model?

Closed loop every time for me where I can make it work