Prop NEXSTAR MINI EP in the house! it looks great! :)

[coolgabsi]

Hey guys.. its here!! the nexstar mini EP. I am taking as detailed as i can pics to do a little review on this site too... I am happy and very excited about it!



Now I know how monokote and balsa feel like. I wanna know though.. if something tears / breaks how do i fix it on this plane. sure as heck the superglue wont work right? ..... right??? lol


apart from being extremely light, everything has come almost installed. I will probably set it up tonite.. Will post some pics soon

 

[breeze400]

Nice thing about these if you crash and break something, you can replace the part cheep. Lol. Everything on that plane. Wings, rudder, and even the fuse can be replaced. The momecote, all you have to do is. Heat it up and lay it back down. It's like a shrink rap.

 

[coolgabsi]

Ohh... The wings and fuse are 44 bucks each... That's kinda expensive... Lol to me... Heehee

What about balsa?

 

[breeze400]

You can get balsa anywhere. www.balsas.com for one place. Don't forget you have to get tools plans glue epoxy. Time and everything eltz. Just order the replacement parts you will be better off in the long run. Balsa is for scratch building a plane.

 

[Tony]

If you break the balsa or ply, you can CA it back together. If the MonoKote comes loose, you can lay it back down with a covering iron. You need one that can get up to about 350*F, but it will lay at 250*F and stick. You will need a heat gun to shrink the monokote when it starts to wrinkle, and it will.

If you tear the monokote, and you will at some point (like runnign it into a barbed wire fence, or dropping a circuit board on the wing *ahem*), you can use clear packing tape to patch it. It's the lightest, and sticks well. My elevator is done this way, and the small holes in the wing of my plane are patched with scotch tape. You just need something to take up the space and keep the airflow out of the inside area.

Other than that, you need to practice, and have fun. This will be a slow flyer with the flaps installed, and yes, leave them installed until you konw what the plane is going to do. Set up all of the servos with teh throws they specify in the manual, and use the low rates. On my plane, I didn't think the low rates would be enough, but it was. Now, I have new servo arms, and I'm going to try the high rates, and 3D rates. I will fly in high rates, but doubt that I will fly in 3D rates. But you never know.

Y NOT...

 

[coolgabsi]

Ok some things. I didn't know it didn't cone with a battery. Lol. I thought the rxr should really be rxr... But apparently not..

There is a hardware price missing. I think I will be able to find it at lhs pretty easy but still it's just frustrating. Lol (it's just a screw but still)


There is a part where the screws need to be holding the vertical stabilizer, but they are not tightening up, just rotating... I am not sure how that's supposed to be. I can still after putting those screws in, see that my vertical stabilizer moves a bit.

I am really not sure what to do with that. Again, I wish it came with a stupid battery and all the screws.. I might wrote to towering Hobbies about this..

I was hoping to maiden this puppy tomorrow. But hey, things are never simple with me! Hahahahaahaa

 

[breeze400]

Lol come on GABA you know life alleys got to be difficult!

 

[Tony]

sounds to me like you stripped out the hole. And no, in the discription is states that a battery and radio gear are required.

 

[Jolly-Swagman]

Where's the build pics Gabba

 

[RandyDSok]

Actually... this wouldn't be classified as a build per se... it is better called an assembly at most and being a RxR is almost isn't that.

First up for a balsa build, and the most challenging, is the scratch build. This is where you purchase all of the balsa and ply and cut out all of the parts needed. The hardware needed can be purchased or created from scratch as well if you are up to the task.

The next hardest would be a build from what is called a short kit. This is typically a kit of just the wood that is precut for you along with the build plans. Sometimes a short kit will include some hardware such as a cowl and/or canopy... but usually they don't. They almost never contain other hardware such as landing gear, linkages or servo rods etc.

Next after the short kit... is called just a kit. These again contains what the short kit will include as well as most of the hardware. It isn't unusual for the kit to require that you purchase separately the wheels, gas tank ( if gas or nitro ), engine/motor mounts etc. The added requirements are typically listed on the kit if anything else is needed or not.

Then there is the ARF kit, almost ready to fly. The build itself has already been done for you and all they require is the final assembly of the major components. These have no other electronics or engine/motor, spinner etc as a rule of thumb but they will contain the hardware needed such as hinges, push rods and control horns. On occasion, they will be missing some minor items such as screws but these are easily found in you LHS or hardware store in most cases. If some parts are found to be missing, a good company will usually take care of it in most cases... myself I find I can't wait and just pick up the parts locally.

RxR ( reciever ready ) and PnP ( plug and play ) are the same thing. They include everything the ARF kit plus all of the electronics ( servos, motor controllers etc ) with the exception of receiver, battery and charger. The amount of assembly needed on these varies with some needing almost the same amount as the ARF needs to ones that need almost no assembly.

Finally there is the RTF ( ready to fly ). These come with everything you need to fly the plane including the transmitter/receiver... often little or no assembly required.

You will also find that in all except the top of the line systems... the hardware such as any plastic components are just barely good enough to do the job. If they included electronics, they may or may not work as you would expect.

While just starting out the radio equipment found in a RTF will get you going, I'd almost never trust the what is included and I would recommend that you get a good one with as many channels as you can possibly afford as soon as you can once you know you are going to stay in the hobby... Which brings up another tip... it isn't the number of channels that you are after, although having a lot is nice... it's the other features that the radio has that drive up the cost and make the difference between just a good radio and a great one.

Randy

 

[coolgabsi]

hey thanks rdsok.. I kinda figured i was over reacting too.. just cause I wanted to get in the air the next day or atleast power it up and taxi it around to get the feel for it..

It is an assembly.. and honestly, It all take not more than 30 mins .. may be an hour... but thats all its worth..

I am happy the way it looks.. the screw holes tony.. that you say I might have stripped.. Well.. in reality there were'nt any. Those screws were gonna sit throw on layer of balsa into the monokote of the vertical stab... well.. I figured This is not stable / steady enough. I need more than just those two monokote supported screws.. Which wont hold very well if i crash.. and as my name suggests i am a crash master. lol

but anywaz.. I am gonna use some hot glue to stick that vertical stab in the provided slots to give a bit more rigidity to it.. The plane to me looks beautiful!! It seems like very well designed and will fly! (cause i didnt make it )

The prop it came with is 9x6.. I was pretty bummed after i trashed the foamie trainer, because I had 12 props lying around and nothing really to do with them.. and here came the answer.. I realized, that i bought 9x5 props from grayson hobby.. And they will work perfectly with this.. The plane might be a bit faster (if i am ot wrong,... going off what lhs guy told me, does make sense less pitch to give higher speed, but anywaz..) but it will definately fly..


Now another question. I found a walkera 1200mah battery 3S.. lying around.. I had forgotten about it. (i had bought it thinking it would fit my HBFP lol.. it didnt) so now... I need to know if hobbico "recommends" 1350mah... will this 1200 work? I will see if it fits inside the fuse battery hole. but if it does..

I also have a 900 mah battery i think (gens ace.. the one RCD sold to me), will it work ? I am not hopeful about it too much... but will it?

I will buy another battery from LHS if you say the second wont work.. I just wanna ask y'all with much more experience in this.

Well, apart from that, I am excited to see this in the air.

 

[breeze400]

Be careful of what and how you glue things together on that plane. Some things are ment to fall apart easy incase you do crash. So that parts don't break! A few drops of glue ok. But don't glue things solid. The battery might work. At reduced flight time. I my self would not use anything less than what they call for.

 

[Tony]

The most important thing here is CG. If you add hot glue, check your CG. If you change size of battery used, check your CG. If the CG is a little nose heavy, you will have to have more ground speed to take off and land. If it's tail heavy, it will be very twitchy in the air (or pitchy I should say) and the only thing you will be thinking when it leaves the ground is "I have to get this back on the ground". It will be a fight too lol. When you fly a plane that is perfect, you should be able to climb out to about 100' up, cut the throttle, and it should decend in a slightly nose down configuration. If the tail drops, you need to move your battery forward. If it tries to lawn dart, you need to move it backwards. Takes a while to get it setup, but you can do it.

 

[RandyDSok]

Prop...

Using the 9x5 prop instead of the 9x6, you will see a decrease in overall speed... not an increase. The only time that a decrease in the pitch of a prop will show an increase in speed is when the larger pitch prop is too much prop for the motor in question... in otherwords, when there is too much load being placed on the motor.

Rules of thumb when using a prop that doesn't overload a motor...

Increasing the diameter of the prop will provide more thrust and your control surfaces ( ie the ailerons, elevator and rudder ) will have more authority since more air is moving across them.

Increasing the pitch will also increase the speed a plane flies at.

Increasing the diameter or pitch beyond what the motor can handle will likely burn out the electronics or at the least, slow down the rpm resulting in a slower speed and/or less thrust.

Batteries...

Base what batteries are acceptable by the required voltage ( 3S aka 11.1v in your case here ) and their weight and size. You will also need to consider which connectors a battery may use but solding on new connectors isn't too hard once you get the hang of it and if you have a good enough soldering gun.

The recommended 3S 1250mah 15c batteries weigh in at 124g ... You can typically use a lighter or heavier battery IF there is enough room in the battery tray so you can move them forward or backward enough to allow your CoG to stay the same.

You will also want to get a good enough battery charger so you know how many MAH you charge back into the battery pack after a flight. This will allow you to judge how long your flights can be using a particular size ( MAH ) battery. It is also a good idea to get a charger that allows you to balance charge the batteries so each cell is at the same voltage. You will also not want to charge your battery faster that the recommended C rating for charging... the Safe C charge rate is at 1C but many of the good batteries will now allow you to charge them faster ( 2C and up ). For the 1250mah battery, a 1C charge rate is 1.25 amps.

Do not fly longer than 80% of the total MAH capacity that your battery provides so your batteries will live longer and not get puffy too fast. For a 1250mah battery, that means you don't want to use more then 1000mah of the total capacity.

Randy

 

[RandyDSok]

Almost forgot this tip...

When using a screw into balsa or plywood... Screw it all of the way in and then remove it... then in the hole it creates, place a drop of thin CA and let it dry completely... Then reinstall the screw. This should keep you from stripping out the hole as long as you don't torque the screws down too much.

Randy

 

[coolgabsi]

Hey Randy thanks a lot for the very detailed advice... I have been into helis so I do have the right charger and know a bit about battery charging and maintaining (doesnt necessarily mean I do a good job at it lol).

The ca idea is good...

Prop I THOUGHT THE EXACT SAME THING... but the lhs guy kept convincing me otherwise.. I am ok with a bit slow... Just till the point I have the right amount of thrust to pick it off the ground and gain enough air speed..

I will definately cg it Tony. I like one thing about if, they have two dots on both wings on the underside, and thats where I put my fingers to see if plane suspends right. I thought that was brilliant idea ESP for the beginner.. As you know I had awfully hard Time cg'ing the foamie..

As far as the battery connectors Randy.. I am definately going to go deans.. That's what I have on all my helis.. And yes I am an electrical engineer, so soldering gun is kinda my bread and butter.. Lol

I will be posting pics soon

 

[coolgabsi]

I lawn darted it.... Fly's beautiful though.. Just saying.. Lolz... I hold my name right!!! Lol..

Nothing left of the motor mount block... Little bits of repair needed around the wing. Rest if fuse ok... New prop needed. Let mr know if yall have ideas...

 

[RandyDSok]

You asking for help to repair it but didn't provide any pictures to base that help from... sounds like a recipe for disaster already. Therefore the following is generic only.


A motor mount block like the one that uses is just a simple box made of plywood...

If you gathered up all of the parts as you should have, you can either piece it back together, puzzle fashion, using thin CA and the strengthen it with some epoxy. Or use the pieces to help trace out the layout onto new plywood ( available at your LHS ) and cut out a new one.

There is only one technical issue you have to answer first... did the motor box have a built in down and right thrust angle or not. More than likely it did but there isn't a standard here.

Randy

 

[RandyDSok]

I'm going to go OT for a bit so I can cover what I consider a pretty important topic at this point... It is called training, something many beginning fliers overlook. Because of it, many will quit the hobby out of frustration.

Pick up a good RC flight simulator. Both Realflight and Phoenix are good top rated ones to select from. They run between $175 to about $200 for the full versions. You can safely practice take off's, landings and other maneuvers without risking any additional planes. If you crash, and you will... you simply reset and go again. These will easily pay for themselves in no time. I taught myself using Realflight but either are good choices from what I understand.

You should also find a good RC pilot to also help you. Find a local club and just go to visit so you can see what the members are like, I visited the one I ended up joining for over a month ( I wasn't flying, just chatting with everyone I met). You can probably find several in the location you are in. Be respectful of the crusty ole farts also... while they may be a bit cranky at first like many old men are, they are also the ones with all of the experience that you are looking for and usually they are just being cantankerous and not really as rude as they may appear, they will often warm up as they get to know you. Once you've found the one you like the most, join it and ask for help, if they are like most pilots I know, they will enjoy helping you almost as much as they do flying itself. PS... several will also help you learn how to repair your aircraft as well.

Randy

 

[Keith]

I was mounting a servo in a ply tray yesterday and gave one of the screws just a bit too much... Took it out, got a toothpick, dipped it in CA and pushed it in the hole... Five minutes later cut it off and gave it a quick sand... Screw went in no problems...