HZ Champ RTF

[wolfewinde]

Just picked up one of these. Ran a search but did not find a thread on it. Anyone else flying this plane?

Am hoping it is tame enough that I can use it to start teaching grandkids to fly with it - ages 7 - 11.

Any opinions or tips on this plane?

Wolfe

[kenchiroalpha]

Hi Wolfe
Excellent plan
Start on a very calm day
Get a few mistakes high before inputing any directional changes allowing you time to correct
Use light and steady inputs
Limit flights to 5 to 10 minutes at a time and allow time between to let the lesson sink in and be aborbed
Practice fig 8's and turns keeping the plane at a constant altitude and smoothly executing the move
And the most important thing imho
HAVE LOTS OF FUN
Take care
Yours Hank

[megajon]

I love my Champ. Super great fun. Too much fun - I couldn't not fly when it was way too windy. You definately want calm. Very calm. It will handle some wind once you're used to it but you want dead calm to start out.

[tr4252]

It's a great little plane; future classic, maybe. There are a lot of discussions on the Champ, look in the Micro RTF forum here.

Good choice, I don't think you'll regret it.

Tom

[SHADY]

The Champ is one of my faves, I have 3 now, all in different stages of modification.
In the middle of doing a brushless set up on one of them.

[NJSwede]

Do you have anything apart from the stock transmitter (such as DX5e, 6i, 7 or 8)? If so, get an additional DX5e (you can probably get one for 50 bucks or less on eBay) and a buddy box cable. That allows you to bring the kids up to a "safe" altitude and hand over control.

[wolfewinde]

Ty for the responses guys.

Glad to hear everyone likes the plane.

I just got Spectrum DX61 - so I guess I could do the buddy cord - sounds like a good idea - I will look into that. Thanks

Hope the wind dies enough to maziden her tonight.

Wolfe

[kenchiroalpha]

Originally Posted by wolfewinde

Ty for the responses guys.

Glad to hear everyone likes the plane.

I just got Spectrum DX61 - so I guess I could do the buddy cord - sounds like a good idea - I will look into that. Thanks

Hope the wind dies enough to maziden her tonight.

Wolfe

Hi
Your most welcome
Best of luck with the maiden
Take care
Yours Hank

[wolfewinde]

Well I just got back from the maiden on the champ. She did pretty well - prob a bit too much wind - around 8 mph with gusts and tree eddies.

I think the CoG was just a touch too far back - need to add another velcro strip so I can move the battery forward some.

She bounced around lot in the tree eddies - a true beginner would not have been able to fly in that - but on a calm day I think she is a winner.

Considering how light she is, I thought whe did quite well in some wind.

Wolfe

[kenchiroalpha]

Hi wolfe
Congratulations on the maiden
Take care
Yours Hank

[wolfewinde]

TY Hank,

I am eager to fly her still air. I hand launched her - which I never do - and she flew beatifully out of my hand in a steady climb at about 3/4 throttle.

I did let her get up too high and the wind caught her and nearly carried her away she is so light - and hard to see if she isn't close. I kept her in tight after that and at about 30 ft most of the time.

I was reallly impressed with that little radio - preset dual rates and digital trims. Pretty amazing for the price.

Wolfe

[ggunners]

The unmodified Champ will fly around at 1/4 throttle without losing altitude. Full throttle, it climbs pretty fast or you can carve up the sky with tight turns without losing altitude. It is a fun and relaxing flyer in low wind or no wind but it sure can climb until it is out of site very easily.

Happy Champ Flying! -- ggunners

[RightFly]

Wolfe

The other thing about the Champ as they are tough and when broken easy to fix. I have snapped both wings of at different times and did a water landing. After all that it still flies. I picked up 8 extra batteries from Value Hobby for a reasonable price and now can fly a lot longer on those rare still days.

I am hoping to get into 4 ch soon but I bet I will still pull out the Champ for some good old fashion fun when that happens.

All Good Flights,

Roger

[wolfewinde]

Well you were right Ggunner. She does fly pretty well at about 1/4 throttle. Got her out tonight for a couple batteries just before dark - wind was down to 2 or 3 mph. She flew very well indeed.

You can really see the effects of the tree swirls, even in that low a wind, on such a light airplane - very interesting. She would just drop about a foot when she hit some of those.

Ran pretty much eye level figure eights tonight - was fun.

Also, Roger, I did see there seems to be a lot of replacement parts available for this plane if you need them. That was one of the reasons I got this one. Picked up a couple extra props when I got the plane - just in case. But she looks like she really isn't all that fragile.

I am just finishing a build on a Multiplex Easy Cub. I am really impressed with the quality of that kit. You might think about one of their high wing 4 channels when you step up, Roger. This one looks like a good park flyer that could be turned inot a 4 channel pretty easlily once you got tused to her.

http://www.multiplexusa.com/model-kits/minimag.html

I am thinking about getting this one myself I liked the Easy Cub Kit so much.

Ty for the responses , guys.

Wolfe

[HobbyJumper]

Ever since I put 1 inch light foam wheels on mine, it not only looks better, it's more fun.

[tr4252]

Yes, larger wheels are a definite plus.

Tom

[wolfewinde]

Just an update guys.

Have a lot of flights on the Champ now. I fly it out in front of my house at dusk a lot when the winds always seem to die down. and use it as a trainer for the grandkids when the winds are low enough. Got a second DX6i so I could buddy box the kids, that has worked very well.

Ian - 6 yr old - soloed his Champ this week very successfully - amazing how fast the grandkids are learning this, His Dad seems to be having alot of fun with it too LOL.

The more I fly this plane the more I like it. Decided to keep one for myself, so Ian got a brand new one to take home after visiting here.

Wolfe

[RightFly]

Originally Posted by wolfewinde

Just an update guys.

Have a lot of flights on the Champ now. I fly it out in front of my house at dusk a lot when the winds always seem to die down. and use it as a trainer for the grandkids when the winds are low enough. Got a second DX6i so I could buddy box the kids, that has worked very well.

Ian - 6 yr old - soloed his Champ this week very successfully - amazing how fast the grandkids are learning this, His Dad seems to be having alot of fun with it too LOL.

The more I fly this plane the more I like it. Decided to keep one for myself, so Ian got a brand new one to take home after visiting here.

Wolfe

Hey Wolfe, thats great. You have to be proud of what your grandkids accomplished. Getting the dad hooked, you have nearly the whole family.

We will have our two boys mid August and looking to get them flying. I went a different route as I started out last fall buying a Futaba 7c Tx. Getting it linked to a Spectrum was really clunky requiring a conversion box etc., so I did the next - best thing I bought another plane - a GP Flylite.

I now have two flights with it and it is going to be as fun to fly as the Champ. I got it receiver ready so I can put a Fasst compatible rcvr it it using a Futaba trainer Tx on ebay for $10 with the 7c. So I am looking forward to our grandkids visit in August to fly co-pilot and maybe solo.

Did your grand kids do some Sim work?

Roger

[wolfewinde]

Hey Roger,

I see you are from Michigan - I grew up in Haslett, near East Lansing.

It has been fun to teach the grandkids, and they learn fast.

I do have a basic realflight sim now - they play on that when they are here some - but when we started they had no sim time.

So far, all four of the grandkids that have tried this have been doing most of the flying by their 3rd battery - two 6 yr olds, an 8 yr old, and an 11 yr old. Ian flew his Champ maiden solo after only about 10 batteries of flight time total on the buddy box

I would think your grandkids should do just as well - let me know how it goes

I have been looking at that Flylite plane myself - it looks like a good one for buddy boxing.

Wolfe

[RightFly]

Originally Posted by wolfewinde

Hey Roger,

I see you are from Michigan - I grew up in Haslett, near East Lansing.

It has been fun to teach the grandkids, and they learn fast.

I do have a basic realflight sim now - they play on that when they are here some - but when we started they had no sim time.

So far, all four of the grandkids that have tried this have been doing most of the flying by their 3rd battery - two 6 yr olds, an 8 yr old, and an 11 yr old. Ian flew his Champ maiden solo after only about 10 batteries of flight time total on the buddy box

I would think your grandkids should do just as well - let me know how it goes

I have been looking at that Flylite plane myself - it looks like a good one for buddy boxing.

Wolfe

I have been in Haslett and also take Haslett Road to visit my sister in Williamston. Nice area. I am hoping my grand kids do as well as yours. I bought them both a copy of the Clearview sim last Christmas. Hope they have some hours logged - it does help.

You might like the Flylite except for a couple things. The landing gear wire slips into a pocket and is not held very well so it could fall out in flight - almost did once. The fix was simple, just wrapped tape around the top part of the gear wire and the wooden slot frame inside the fuse. Easy to do. The second thing is wheel size. I fly of grass so I replaced the original wheels with a 2.5 inch diameter wheel. Makes a huge difference on the grass and I probably will go to the 3 inch wheel. Other than that it is great - well almost. I removed the Fasst receivers and tried the plane with a Tactic 404 controller and for that I can not find a logical reason. It got away from me - bad! These cheap controllers are really bad news.

Attached are a couple pictures. I flew it again this morning with my Futaba 7C and it was all the difference in the world. Nothing but smooth easy control. You would get the same results with your Spektrum I am sure. I also found that balancing closer to the nose was better. They gave a spec of 2 1/8 to 5/8 inches from leading edge of the wing for CG. I am about 2 3/16 and the plane flew really well.

Best of luck,

Roger

[wolfewinde]

I mostly fly off grass, so I put 3" wheels on almost everything. The LG sounds simple enough to fix. I would probably just run a rubber band under the LG on each side and attach it to the wing anchor

I use the Spectrum system and have had very good luck with the "orange" recievers for about 8 bucks apiece. Will probably get one of these planes before too long to try it out as a another plane for the grandkids to fly. I think I already have most of the electronics I would need

Thanks for the tips. Interesting that you would know where Haslett is - pretty small town

Wolfe

[wolfewinde]

Been getting a lot of Champ time this week out in front of the house - haven't had time to get to the field to fly anything bigger. Was flying just before dark last night against a 1/2 moon - was extremely relaxing just sitting on the tailgate in my driveway and flying out over the neighborhood.

Been out a couple times today in between the rain drops just doing some easy cruising to see how a long a flight I could get out af a 160 mah. Getting 15 - 20 min at around 1/2 throttle. Very relaxing plane to fly.

Wolfe