Piper Cub

Anyone flying one of these beasties?   Any thoughts on the flying characteristics especially on take off and landing? Seen a few you tube vids where people have had problems with snap rolls on take off but that may be because they didnt have enough air speed?   Also, are the main wheels big enough for grassy flying fields or is this really best suited to a tarmac strip?   TIA. Edited By David Ashby - RCME Admin on 27/01/2012 06:36:34

Posted by Barry Vernon on 14/01/2012 16:02:13: thought the xg8 was supplied with LiFe battery. this was part of the initial interest for me All adverts ive seen for this combi includes the battery so i am surprised it was nit supplied. how much did you pay for it and who was the supplier if you dont mind me asking?  The Tx is supplied with the LiFe battery. It is not supplied with an Rx battery. I guess this is because they assume you may be using the radio for electric flight which will normally use the flight pack to power the Rx!?  I bought it from Slough RC. Price wise I think it was around the £340 mark. But, before the new year McGregor had an offer on of a free RG831 Rx with telemetry module. This is worth about £76. So for the price of around £340, I got the Tx and 2 Rx's, LiFe and charger. The set came without servos at that price.  HTH.

Posted by ntsmith on 16/09/2011 09:02:53: Since O.S. produce some nice, but rather expensive, multi-cylinder engines, then they could carry on and produce some contra rotating electric motors - like Sebart tried. I would love to try one but cant currently see a brand that manufactures them. Perhaps, its the usual money dominated reasons, that O.S. are producing these motors and are only filling the void created by the lessening sales of i.c. engines rather than anything else. Its not as if there are not enough brands out there. O.S., if you are listening, there are very few contra-rotating electric motors so when are yours coming out   Contra rotating leccie motors here http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbycity/store/uh_listCategoriesAndProducts.asp?idCategory=523  Let HK be your friend

Well, sent my card off to MacGregors and received my 2nd RG831B with telemetry module FREE!

Most causes of 'interference' on 27meg, 35meg and 2.4gig, are down to the pilot or pilots not following simple rules. 35meg made flying safer ompared to 27meg as there was not interference from CB radio. But, there were still problems with 35 meg when two people tried to fly on the same frequency at the same time or, interference from adjacent channels etc. When 2.4gig came out, nearly every crash was put down to interf in reality, it was pilots not charging flight packs properly, not siting RX aerials properly or not positioning the TX aerial correctly.  One would think the banning of any activity in a club was democratic and a majority decision. But, having been active in both flight and car RC clubs, I know that one or two bully boys \ loudmouths frequently force their way on others. 

Recently bought this radio. Wanted the black version but the UK importer apparently has no plans to bring it in so I was told. The look and feel of this radio is very impressive imo. It fits neatly in the hands although I intend to use a tray with it. The manual is very comprehensive but in places the printing is hard to read even with my reading glasses on. Perhaps I should take another trip to the opticians!?  Lots of switches and a couple of sliders on each side are all to hand nicely. The radio comes with a tiny 8 channel receiver and telemetary module. And, if you send off the enclosed card before the end of the year, you get another receiver absolutely free (although Im not sure if another telemetary module is included).  That's a great deal and goes a little way to capping the disappointment of no rx battery or switch harness being provided. There is another MacGregor booklet with the radio which says these items are included in the basic set up but when i spoke to them recently, they said no they dont include the rx battery and harness as standard.  Im looking forward to usin this radio but first, I need to study the manual!

Cheers David. Apparently just seen earlier tonight that SMC will be selling this under the cover of Max Thrust. Not available yet according to their website but orders being taken.  Cheers.

Posted by Thomas Barwick on 27/09/2011 21:33:24: Usually the blitzrcworks are re branded Starmax kits. And if I am not mistaken this is a starmax kit as-well. So i would have thought that Ripmax will distribute this. (other company's may put there name on it tho)  Thanks!

Does anyone know of a UK importer for the Large, 63" wingspan A1 SkyRaider by BlitzRCWorks sold in the US by Bananahobby.com? Surely someone in the UK will be shipping this foamie?  This looks and sounds a great plane from the vid. TIA

Posted by Alan 4 on 06/07/2011 21:23:22: just 2 weeks ago, i but these clips under the noses of my mates at the crossgates shop in leeds, no-one bought any, with the excuse, i only have ailerons to plug in, i mentioned the battery pack, but still no purchase, there problem,  i commiserate, we have all done such things, learning from our mistakes, but damn, its painfull, hope you have better luck with the YT spit, Er, wot clips are these!?

Thanks all for the replies. Must have had a brain f*rt thinking the rudder stick movement was restricted at bottom stick!

There's a guy near me who has a full size Lightening cockpit outside his front window! Dont think it moves up down and sideways though, LOL!

I used to have an aero fly sim (well still have!) but the lappie didnt have the right connector on it. So I bought RealFlight G4.5 a while ago and have recently got it out again to get more practice. Only I now remember why I put it away in the first place! The thing has a couple of issues that I cant seem to resolve, anyone help, please?  First is when flying any plane after take off. The thing soon gets too small when doing circuits. The zoom is not very good. Even if set to max on auto, manual or ground always in view, when flying a circuit its easy to lose orientation! The aero fly was never like that as auto zoom always kept the plane \ heli \ glider a good size.  If you make the plane bigger, it slows down the flying speed so as to be unrealistic  Any suggestions? The second issue I have is rates. There doesnt seem to be any way to set these other than high \ low with the interlink controller. Is plugging your own tx into the interlink the only way to adjust rates? I cannot find anything in the settings menu to adjust them.  At this rate, I think I may buy the new version of aero fly or, buy a parallel to usb cable and use my old version!    Edited By Piper Cub on 19/07/2011 22:53:56 Edited By Piper Cub on 19/07/2011 22:55:10

Not sure where to put this as it could probably go in a number of different places. I've always loved glider especially scale but the big problem was getting them into the air from a flat field. Brushless and leccie have certainly helped in that respect.  So, lots of gliders on the market now come with folding props (OK, I know they're not new) so when you cut the power the prop folds back to reduce air resistance.  But, stopped throttle is normally bottom stick and throttle stick (mode 2) also has rudder. Now at bottom throttle stick there's not a lot of waggle room for rudder movement. The obvious position for stopped motor and folded prop is middle stick, this gives plenty of movement for rudder without banging against the stops compared to bottom stick.  However how many people fly like this (stopped motor at middle stick, throttle operating above this point)? Is it common to always set throttle off at bottom stick on a powered glider?  For leccie, is it easy to set the motor to only start above half stick?

I came across a multiplex product called antiflash 70 that you can use between the battery pack and esc. This will prevent arcing when connecting batteries to the esc. Obviously the bigger the pack voltage, the bigger the arc! Not only will this start to wear the connectors but if you're joining a couple of lipo packs to give a 6S, 8S or above, it can be a bit of a surprise even when you are ready for it.  Are there any other products out there that you can use to prevent the arcing mainly to stop the surprise element? Or is there any other way of connecting pack without the arc? Edited By Piper Cub on 17/07/2011 20:34:51

Im really taken with these 'foamies' now. Must admit, I was a bit of a 'snob' when foamies first came on the scene but, they are now coming on leaps and bounds. The panel lines are crisp, they are a lot stronger now they have carbon spars in the wing and becoming a realistic size instead of the tiny, ungainly things when they first appeared. Now, FMS amongst others, are really cranking up the standard with these warbirds. The Messerschmitt and soon to be released zero look very scale in outline, slow retracts and functions.  But, they are also well, were, the 'enemy'.  The messerschmitt is one Im tempted with after the P51 but it represents the nazi war machine. The zero is another good one especially with the slow flaps etc.   I guess some members of the public may not be too thrilled with that and a model in full nazi or imperial japanese insignia buzzing around the sky.  Anyone come across opposition to flying such a model? We all like favourable comments about our kit but the last thing I want is to get earache from people asking why Im flying 'that thing' and not the spifire! Thoughts?

Posted by Colin Bernard on 17/07/2011 13:45:28: Hi - I picked one up at the Weston show and am very pleased with it. I have not really used it in anger yet as my current models are OK with their 35MHx gear and I work on the principle of 'If it works ...'   However I have been using it extensively in setting up a Cherokee kit in the process of being built and have been doing a lot of playing and can confirm that the battery life on standard NiMhs supplied is excellent, with the option of swapping those to a 7.2v LiPo if I want.   Software updates have gone through without any problem using the PC interface.   In terms of battery telemetry as standard you get the Rx voltage passed back to the Tx so you are presented with both Rx and Tx voltages on screen, with alarms on both when they dip below a certain value.   Even better if you are a leccy flyer like myself is that you can plug your main LiPo (up to 35v) into a special port on the Rx and it will then be the Lipo voltage that is sent back to trigger the alarms, so set it a few points above the BEC cutoff and you will not get that situation where either you land and find you could have flown for another few minutes, or else end up landing at the other end of the field because the BEC has cut off power to the motor. (Done both, got the T-shirt!)   So far it's a big tick in the box from me for the Aurora ! @import url(http://www.modelflying.co.uk/CuteEditor_Files/Style/SyntaxHighlighter.css);@import url(/CuteEditor_Files/public_forums.css); Once again, thanks very much for this (and everyone else who has posted).  Im in the process of switching over to leccie flying and have a Trex 600E just waiting to get built so, the battery voltage telemetry is something Im interested in. This radio looks very good value but its only when you get people's feedback that you can see whether it is or not.  Done a search of the net and the best price I have seen so far is the 270 mark so, looks like its on the phone tomorrow and see if I can negotiate this down to 260 with P&P (dont ask, dont get!).   

Thanks all. As I said, I've always been a futaba man but the hi tec does seem to tick all the right boxes.

I've always been a futaba man well, except for a time when Sanwa were very good and Im now in the market for a new 2.4ghz radio. I was going to buy the new Futaba 6J but on another thread found out this is a lower spec system than Futaba's FASST. I've been looking at spektrum 7 and 8 channel 2.4G sets and they appear to be good products.  But, I see that Hi Tec are now shipping the Aurora 9 2.4G sets in numbers to meet demand. Hi Tec were a budget radio when they first came out and I guess they are trying to throw off that tag. The aurora looks well spec'd for the price (there's that budget tag again!) but what are people's thoughts? Is it reliable with no glitches? Is the 2.4G system it employs similar to futaba or spektrum? What is the tx battery life on it like, good average poor?  Some radio's eat the tx battery that mean you dont get a lot of flying out of them before needing to recharge (my Futaba FF7 used to last about an hour before the battery alarm went off!) Finally, as all my servos are futaba, do the wires need re arranging in the plug to work with Hi Tec or is it a shoe in and no changes needed?  Thoughts on this radio would be appreciated. TIA  Edited By Piper Cub on 17/07/2011 11:48:11

Ah, cheers for the clarification! I was leaning to the FHSS 6J but only because I thought it was the newer, better technology!

OK, Im thinking of buying the Futaba 6J FHSS transmitter and rx. But, Im confused whether these FHSS systems are going to be Futaba's next generation 2.4ghz systems or not.  They seem to have far more FASST radio systems on sale than FHSS and the Futaba website seems to suggest FHSS is the newer one of the two.  So, what's the advantages of FHSS over FASST and is it worth getting the 6J or one of the FASST systems?  Thoughts?

Would be good news if HK opened a UK warehouse that you can buy direct from. If they do, I hope they dont fall into the trap of pitching their prices at UK level ie meaning there's no discount! I've ordered the 1400mm Cub which is sold in the UK by Top Gun. With 2 2200 lipos and the HK 6 channel 2.4ghz radio, the deal is still cheaper than buying it from UK model shops who sell it with a 4 ch 2.4ghz radio and 1 lipo. HK get their supplies direct from the likes of ShenZen RC Hobby so I guess they have to compete with other retailers to get their stock.  It is frustrating that lots of HK stuff is on backorder but how many UK LMS actually have stuff they advertise? I know one UK retailer who has been advertising the FMS P51D in yellow as being 'on order' for going on 3 months now. Oh really?

Posted by Tony Smith 7 on 15/07/2011 10:00:15: RM == Royal Mail? I dont know. NigelH mentioned RM. That's why Im curious as to what was said.

Posted by NigelH on 13/07/2011 19:07:35: That's pretty decent. Didn't RM have something to say about it ?    Im curious, what did RM say? Was it something like 'dont buy abroad and save money, pay the (exhorbitant) UK price.'?  Im expecting delivery any day now of what is sold in the UK as the TOP Gun Park Flite 1400mm Cub. Only its coming from HK with a 6 channel 2.4Ghz radio and two 2200 4S lipos and Im still paying less than if I bought in the UK. The kits are exactly the same as you'd buy in the UK or via Germany so dont really understand the comment that there may be something 'different' about it. Edited By Piper Cub on 14/07/2011 22:57:22

Posted by tony bennett on 07/07/2011 13:45:10: very nice, but surely it will take all the skill out of model building.why bother to build if you can just buy one ready to go.  Who has time to build models nowadays never mind manage to get a great finish on something they have invested a lot of time building?  It takes me ages to build anything nowadays as time is so precious, there's a thousand and one other things I have to do. I used to laugh at foamies but, recently looking at the large foam warbirds by airfield \ fms etc, I've been converted.  Im now waiting for my 1400mm foamie J 3 Cub to arrive from Hong Kong. The P51D looks great and its a toss up whether the next foamie will be the larger 1600mm P51D or the Mitchell bomber.  I just dont get the snobbery regarding 'you must build it yourself' that seems quite prevalent today. Edited By Piper Cub on 08/07/2011 23:54:16