Seagull Arising Star

[Richard Duvall]

I'm just starting out on flying and had more or less decided to get a Seagull Arising Star as my first trainer. I was going to buy new until I spotted a full set up (plane, engine, radio, starter etc) on Ebay and bunged in a tentative bid and won!  Having got the plane etc I find that the nose wheel has the wrong steering arm so it does not turn and the pushrod has been removed.

 Whilst I suspect that the plane will operate fine without a steerable nose wheel it will obviously not taxi.

 I've been looking around for a source for the necessary parts but drawn a blank so far - any suggestions?

[Tim Mackey]

Could you not just make one up from some ply or something ? Alternatively, lock it in place, and use the rudder.

[Richard Duvall]

Timbo,

 Thanks for the advice. I didn't realise that the rudder would turn it sufficiently when taxiing. I'm not sure if my modelling skills would run to "just making one up" but I'll give it some thought.

[David Ashby - Moderator]

Hi Richard

The steerable rudder can be a weak link that fails at the patch and prevents more flying for the day - as Timbo says I would just lock it in place.  

[flytilbroke]

David Ashby - RCM&E wrote (see)

Hi Richard

The steerable rudder can be a weak link that fails at the patch and prevents more flying for the day - as Timbo says I would just lock it in place.  

A slip of the typing skill here perhaps? In lieu of steerable nose wheel a  working rudder is pretty essential to control the direction of the model taking off.

A tail dragger setup is also quite common Richard, and for learning to fly the ability to "taxi" is I believe very low priority. Anyway the guys at your club will be able to advise directly.

[David Ashby - Moderator]

Yes I meant nosewheel, rudder essential but steerable nosewheel a lot less so. Fix it in place Richard - you'll impose some heavy landings on the model during training (everyone does) and the last thing you want is a nosewheel that can't be fixed till you get home and thus curtailing your flying for the day - I've seen this happen so many times. You can enable the steering later on when skills improve.

[David Whitehouse]

I Had the same plane and removed the stearable nose wheel because it caused problems on heavy ground.

you dont need it, the plane will taxi just fine on the rudder only.

Heavy landings can also strip your servo.

[Gaz Elliott]

Why not just move the two wheels forward and convert to tail dragger . Or my local hobby shop sells the nose wheel , arm and bracket to fix to the fire wall the arm is easy enough but as the guys say fix it in place. I am still learning and constantly bend mine on landing hence i converted to tail dragger. Getting better now though.  

[Former Member]

[This posting has been removed]

[rob red]

Hi you can buy all the spare for the arising star...have a look here £3.95

arising star spares

I got one last christmas and it's still going well. I've now added another 4 planes to my collection mostly 3d stuff but still fly the arising star and it taught me how to fly within just a couple of hours. To be honest I've been very impressed with the star and how they make them for the money I'll never know. Only draw back is dont try inverted flight..but all the rest it can do fine. I can even prop hang it and hover it in the right conditions. Hope you found this helpfull

Good luck

Rob 

[Richard Duvall]

Rob,

Thanks for the information. Unfortunately that company's website has big red message saying "Sorry we can no longer accept any new orders all previous orders will be honoured".

I had actually got hold an appropriate steering arm from a kind member of this forum and had fitted it before others here advised not to bother. After much delay in getting together with my club instructor, I finally met him at the flying field only yesterday for my first flight. After checking the plane all over and making sure it was all set up OK, the instructor took it up (it taxied nicely with the steerable nosewheel). He flew it around and trimmed it and then got another experienced flyer to trim the buddy box. All was OK and ready for me to have a go when distaster struck!  The wing decided to separate itself into it's two parts leaving the fuselage to power itself straight down burying itself 6 inches in the ground. The engine case was split but the radio gear was all salvageable.

Examination of the wing showed that it had not been assembled correctly with insufficient glue joining the wing sections together. Obviously this was not visible in its assembled state. So the job lot that I bought on Ebay did not turn out to be the good deal I thought it was.

I'd been warned to expect the write a plane of sooner or later, but did not expect it would be before I'd even had a go myself!

I've ordered myself a new Arising Star and a new engine and I will be ultra careful when I glue the wing together. Hope to be ready for my first flight pretty soon. 

[Bruce Richards]

Richard

Sorry to hear of you bad luck with the wing.

[rob red]

Hi Richard..sorry about the link..it's one I had bookmarked ages ago. Even more sorry to hear about your plane! When I built mine I followed the instructions and used loads of glue on the joints then wiped the exess off with a paper towel rather too much than not enough!!

I flew it with the std elastic bands to start with but have now been given some much stronger ones from a club member and I'm throwing it about with tight flat out loops and the like..so if I were you I'd use the spare set from the crashed plane as well as the new ones with the kit just to be safe there as well. On the plus point I have had flights of 23 mins when it was decided I needed to practice some dead stick landing..I thought it was never going to run out as I'd been landing at 15 mins and thinking that was pushing it !! Thats with an SC46 motor by the way..which has been superb..so with even longer flight times possible you'll soon get the hang of this flying lark. the only final point I'll make is the arising star is just about unstalable It'l fly even on just a high tick over...this means you usually have to take quite a long final and glide it down gently but again..thats ideal for learning!!

Good luck and keep us informed on how you get on 

[Alex Hasell]

just incase you want to know Galaxy Models also sell spares for airising star and other seagull models i just brought some myself obviously other suppliers are availiable!

[Max Leicester]

Page 4 of the Arising Star instruction manual shows a diagram of the wings being glued together. I don't understand what the two pieces of white painted wood with the corner cut off are for. They are shown on the diagram where it says Glue attached. I keep reading it but I just dont get it. Can anyone help please. And what are the root ribs.

[Bruce Richards]

The root ribs are the two ends of the wing closest to the centre where you apply the glue. You should also have a dihedral brace that slots into each wing to set the dihedral angle. Not sure about the tow pieces of wood you refer to.

[Tim Mackey]

Dont know about the white painted wood ? - root ribs are the "first" ribs of each wing half at the errr... root

EG the bit that joins the fuselage as it were.

[Tim Mackey]

snap !

[Bruce Richards]

Beat you this time Timbo

[Tim Mackey]

[i12fly]

If I remember right, the white bits with the cut off corners help support the trailing edge where the rubber bands pass over it.

Its an excellent trainer, very stable. You can fly it inverted OK with a fair bit of down elevator, but I never managed to get mine to spin -just right for a trainer. Mine survived all my training, it is such a kind trainer, but unfortunately the next owner tried to fly it through a tree that popped out into his flight path and it was no more....

[Phil Winks]

your dead rite i12fly those little pieces of wood are to reinforce the trailing edge for the bands. earlier someone said that this one won't fly inverted when I had mine it did nice stall turns can be made to spin just never tried an ouside loop (bunt) but would do both axial and barrell rolls use lots of bands though and yes the sc46 is a very underrated motor mine gave great service and still is to the guy in newport that I sold the star too when I went all electric its prob clocked close on a hundred flights in 2 and a bit years and sat in my shed unused for 9 months then started 2nd kick when I dragged it out to sell

[rob red]

When i said dont fly inverted..I guess it's more as I'm used to 3d stuff now and the small aeilerons on the star make it feel rather SLOW in doing so!! It's the getting inverted and back that makes be cringe hehe. Still flying it by the way and the little sc46 aint missed a beat yet!! Great little combo thats still fun to fly and I decided to run it out of fuel to see how long it takes...23 mins at pretty much full chat for the last 15 mins!!!