Starting up

Robbie, I'm a Hobbyking aficionado, thanks to you pointing me in their direction two years ago. However after over 30 successful orders with them, my latest order appeared to be taking a lot longer than normal. I found out why on Tuesday last when I received a letter from Customs & Excise to say they'd held my parcel pending proof of what I'd paid. I sent the invoice to them and got charged €23 VAT plus a €6 post office fee.

I don't know if I was just unlucky (I'd had over 30 orders up to now without getting caught for customs) or if they are cracking down on parcels from outside the EU in the ongoing efforts to screw every last cent out of us to pay banker's debts.

I'm going to hold off ordering anything else from Hobbyking for a while.

I've had some good and bad experiences with that model shop in Capel Street. It usually depends on what sort of humour the guy who runs it is in:rolleyes:. While he has started branching out into electric models lately, he mainly caters for the nitro/petrol model side of the hobby.

When you charged your battery, did you set the charge rate a "1"? Any higher and you risk either damaging the battery and shortening its life or a fire if it overheats and goes pop.

As for the quick charging time you had last night, this is because these brand new batteries come from the factory with a "storage charge" in them, i.e. they are charged up to half their capacity. Therefore you only had to half charge the battery to bring it up to full. When you have your first flight and go to recharge, it will take longer to bring it back to full.

You're getting there though. Almost time for that first flight:). First time flying is an exciting and nerve wracking experience. Its great to see this big plane flying at your control, but (unless you are flush with money), it will make your heart pound too as you know that a mistake might write the plane off and there goes a sizable chunk of money. The wind is due to die down this evening and be light Monday and Tuesday too which would be good for your maiden flight.

Welcome to the world of rc flying, where nothing goes as planned:D

That model shop on Capel Street sells "Clevis's" which are an alternative (and more widely used form) of attaching the control rod to the control horn on the rudder/elevator. I bought some from him a few weeks back as the supplied plastic ones on my planes were starting to crack from wear and tear. I bought metal ones from him that are a lot sturdier. The only thing to watch is that they are the correct size for your control rods, i.e. not too big or they won't screw on. Buy some fuel line too so you can slide it over the clevis and hold it together.

If you go for it tomorrow at your club, make sure that the guy teaching you has flown a glider before as they are a different beast to faster moving and aerobatic planes. Gliders need a gentle hand and their reaction times are slow but that will suit you while learning. The golden rules are:

1. Fly upwind of you at all times, i.e. the wind is in your face. If you let a glider get behind you with a following wind, it is hard to get her back to you.

2. Get the plane up high as altitude is your friend. If you make a mistake, then you will have time to recover. If you fly too low, you won't. I'd recommend a minimum of 100 feet up, or say two fully grown trees on top of one another. The higher the better though, but not so she's a speck in the sky;).

3. Stay well away from trees and powerlines.

4. The Radian needs a very long approach to land so allow for this.

5. Keep all control inputs slow and smooth. No need to jerk the sticks as she is not a responsive plane. Start with slow circles to get the feel of her and then extend into figures of 8.

6. If you get into trouble, do not use the motor as this will just speed you into more trouble. Let go of the sticks and she will right herself, providing she isn't too low of course - see '2' above!

7. If she starts roller coastering, i.e. pitching up and down, wait until she is on the "downward slope" and then put her nose down a little until she regains airspeed and then level her off.

Look it might seem like there's a lot to remember, but its like learning to drive a car. At first, its a lot to take in but before you know it, it'll be second nature.

Nice one Miami. I must get over to radio control shop some day to see what they have in stock (I presume its ok to drop in?). The guys who run that also ran my local flying club but it appears to have been kicked off its flying field and is thereby defunct.

The Phoenix sim is quite good for practice but flying in the real world is a different kettle of fish as the wind, the sun in your eyes, people/dogs distracting you etc affect you. Saying that however, my daughter learned to fly on the Phoenix sim and when it came time to fly my supercub, it was pretty easy for her.

The WOT4 is a great plane and one I've been tempted to buy myself but leave her be for the moment as she will be a big step up from flying the Radian, and you've yet to do that;). One step at a time, eh, or you could let me "mind it" for you:D.

David

Very windy here in Kildare at the moment.

Miami, I know you're itching to fly but trust me, it would be a handful flying for Robbie and myself in gusting winds, never mind a guy starting out.

Just hold off until the winds are calm-ish. You'll have enough on your plate flying the Rad for the first time without having the wind causing you bother by throwing the Rad around the sky.

I'm under the weather at the moment with a lousy cold, shivers, headache etc and I wouldn't be up to flying as I can hardly talk and my ears are blocked. Therefore I wouldn't be much of a teacher today:D

Hi Miami

I don't think you messed anything up with the radio. It probably came that way and the channels for the elevator/rudder had to be reversed anyway. This is normal. On some of my planes, they came with the control surfaces operating the way they should while others had to have one or all channels reversed. This is part of the set up routine for any new plane. While it's simple to do, it can be easily overlooked even by those who think they are experienced flyers like me. I had a brand new Mustang last year and after a cursory check, I thought all was well. So I launched her and pulled back to climb, except I hadn't checked the elevators direction of movement. It should have been reversed but I didn't do it and so instead of climbing away at full throttle, it dived into the ground. Luckily, damage wasn't to bad but it stopped me getting too complacent.

As for dual rates, this is the method of setting how much you want your control surfaces to move. There is a low and a high setting. I usually set my low rate at 70% and high at 100%. When launching, keep her on low rates so you won't pull her up into a loop over you and into the ground behind you. The Radian is not an agile plane and so she turns fairly slowly but she can climb and dive quite quickly. Have a look at your DX6i manual and see if you can set the dual rates. Then try and fix the dual rates to the one switch so you'll have the same low and high rate on your rudder/elevator.

I have Daddy duties Saturday morning bringing my kids to horse riding and swimming lessons. I plan on going to the Dublin mountains in the afternoon to try slope soaring my Radian. I'm free Sunday though.

I use the nano tech batteries as they are ligther than other equivalent batteries but give more power and longevity in my experience.