Parkzone Stinson Reliant SR-10 Suggestion

[reef_rc]

So I've maiden flight and flown 2 additional flights with the PZ Stinson this past weekend in slightly windy conditions and was wondering the following for those PZ Stinson's owners out there:

1. Best battery placement for a balance CG?
   • I've tried multiple placements (rear, forward, and somewhere in the middle) but I didn't seem to have much luck without some trim and on/off elevator control now and then.
   • The first flight (with battery all the way back) she seems tail heavy. I had a heck of time getting her trimmed so it was manageable. I believe I used 50% trimmed. I am sure wind condition wasn't helping.
   • Second flight (battery all the way forward). She seems nose heavy. Again I had to re-trimmed.
   • Third flight somewhere in the between and she was reasonable given the conditions.
   • My next flight I plan to place it directly in the middle.
2. Can she handle 10+ mph winds?
   • It wasn't the best conditions to maiden her but given our windy conditions lately it was slow enough where I felt I can handle it and so can the plane.
   • Turns with only aileron was slow.
3. I've heard mix of aileron and some rudder is best on this plane. Any % mix suggestion?
   • I plan to do this manually initially once I get an opportunity to get her back up but was curious what the best ratio is relative to aileron.
   • How do I do this with DX8? I've never tried mixing before. I like to start simple if that could be done.
4. Landing in high grass. Suggestions?
   • My first maiden flight landing started in high grass eventually ended in gravel after a few hops.
   • 2nd & 3rd landing were in high grass with nose down. No scratches or anything just looks odd.
   • Should I take off the plastic covers on the wheels so they don't get damage in future flights and just leave the metal gear on? It doesn't look great but it might save her from scratches and potential landing gear crack.
5. I heard rattling sounds during flights and verified a few times. Initially thought something was loose but I read somewhere it might be due to the wheels rattling. Any issues or fix for this?

Overall I am fond of this bird as she's slightly different than my other planes. After a quick wipe down she's looks like new and ready to go next for next time.

Thanks for your help.

[Wrongway-Feldman]

That's a lot of questions. Ill answer those I can.
I use several different batteries in mine. They have slightly different size and weight differences but they all seem to balance out nicely when I place them about a 3/4 inch back from the front of the compartment.
I fly mine with no mixing. She does well with coordinated turns.
She can handle a bit of a wind, but if you are not comfortable flying in windy conditions then I don't recommend it.
I don't have an answer for the high grass however. My club field has very short grass and she handles that with no issues.
Enjoy the reliant. It has become my favorite plane to fly. She looks terrific doing scale takeoffs and landings. Coordinated turns are a breeze.
Its a great introduction to scale flying.

[wolfewinde]

Hey Reef,

One of the guys I fly with has one of these - looks like a good airplane.

I usually start out with a mix of about 20% rudder which is slaved to the ailerons. On the DX6i you select one of the mixes and make it active, then select the master (aileron) and then the slave (rudder) then dial in a positive percentage. I would think it would be similar on the 8.

Wolfe

[reef_rc]

Thanks guys. I know it's a lot of questions but I thought I put it out there since it was on my mind as this bird does fly differently then those I already have. 2nd - I don't see too many PZ Stinson threads out there.

I'll check my battery placement and see how my current settings compare.

I occasionally fly coordinated aileron and rudder on the T-28 but I have noticed my speed typically changes to too fast or too slow when I do that manually so I thought maybe I give mixing a try. 2nd- since aileron works so well, I don't do coordinated turns like I know I should try on my planes. I guess with this plane I'll have to pay more attend to it.

[wolfewinde]

I honestly don't think it matters if you try to make coordinated turns or not once you dial in some slave rudder.

It does matter if you learn to ad manual rudder in rolls and other aerobatic manuevres

Wolfe

[wolfewinde]

Hey
Reef,

I might have a chance to pick up one of the for a good price - barely used and never crashed. Is it good enough to go for that?

Wolfe

[reef_rc]

Originally Posted by wolfewinde

Hey
Reef,

I might have a chance to pick up one of the for a good price - barely used and never crashed. Is it good enough to go for that?

Wolfe

If you budget allows it, why not? Good for upcoming July 4th weekend. I was hoping to add a new plane to my fleet this coming weekend but decided to hold since my fleet seems to be growing faster than my chances of flying outside due to windy conditions.

I've only flown it 3 times but I like the look, scale flight and is really different than many planes out there. I got mine for $185 (PNP) with free shipping and no sale taxes. It's also a plus when you add in the fact that many of the components are shared with the Trojan T-28. This is my first plane with optional flaps. Given it's not new, chances are the owner already has it installed. If not, this would be one I would recommend you installed one before your first flight; just add one servo. It'll save you run way space on takeoff and landing.

There are a few bad flaws I should point out I've noticed so far. Both are very minor.

• top rudder is rather weak. Needs to be reinforced for strength. Foam is weak on top.
• left and right elevator tips are also weak. This needs to be reinforced for strength.

I plan to take her back out this evening if wind holds to semi tolerable.

[reef_rc]

After 12 battery packs later I can safely say she's trimmed and flies like silk. I did have to readjust the flaps slightly, battery placement and minor trimming but beyond that she's awesome. I have to say she's one of the few planes I have that I can land smoothly and consistently regardless how fast she comes in on landing. Maybe it was the windy condition during her maiden flight that put me on a little edge. I am confident she can handle winds 10-12 MPH but anything higher would be a little difficult since she is a little large, difficult to cut through air with and does require more room and height on turns. The only bad thing I can think of is the fact I got the plane weeks before Parkzone lowered the price..... Not good timing on my part but I don't regret it.

[CrimzonRider]

Originally Posted by reef_rc

After 12 battery packs later I can safely say she's trimmed and flies like silk. I did have to readjust the flaps slightly, battery placement and minor trimming but beyond that she's awesome. I have to say she's one of the few planes I have that I can land smoothly and consistently regardless how fast she comes in on landing. Maybe it was the windy condition during her maiden flight that put me on a little edge. I am confident she can handle winds 10-12 MPH but anything higher would be a little difficult since she is a little large, difficult to cut through air with and does require more room and height on turns. The only bad thing I can think of is the fact I got the plane weeks before Parkzone lowered the price..... Not good timing on my part but I don't regret it.

That awesome that you got her trimmed, Man I want one! Why did it take 12 packs to get her trimmed? I'm still a "inter-beginner", but I really like the Stinson. Any other tips I should know before I get one.

thanks have a good one
cr

[reef_rc]

Hey CrimzonRider

If I were to compare this to others in my parkflyer fleet, I would say she's a little harder than PZ Trojan T-28 (she's heavier, doesn't glide without power as smooth, her turns and rolls take time and room) but not has hard as TH P-51D Mustang if this makes any sense. But mostly because her flying characteristics are slightly different than what I have been flying and I wasn't comfortable. I used 12 or so packs over the long weekend, typically 3-4 at a time and used the other half for the Mustang or T-28.

Suggestions:

• get the extra servo and wire for the flaps. It'll help on landing. She tends on come in fast (for me anyway). I only use 1/2 flap on landing. I tried full flap but I am not ready for the abrupt lift and slow down when you do that just yet.
• I believe my flap setup was impacting how much elevator trimmed I had to used. I may have apparently put them a little too low or high and was causing her to lift or nose dive slightly.
• I would not suggest using flag on her maiden flight. This will impact how she feels on takeoff and landing. If you're like me, nervous on every maiden flight, forget to reset the flaps and start trimming, you're screwed. Since this was my first plane with flags, I had to get a feel for how a plane react to one. You can use flag on landing but if you can land the maiden flight without having to use one, that'll be better; one less thing to worry or get nervous about. Play with the flaps once you get her high so you'll know if you want to use it on landing.
• Landing gears do rattle and does get loose over time. I had to use lockit glue to ensure the screw stays on and occassionally check them just to be sure.
• Turns, rolls and inverted flight does go slower than other planes I have so you'll need more height until you're used to that. I believe besides the look, the flight characteristic is another reason the Stinson looks like and feels like she flies like silk.
• Don't fly in windy conditions or maiden flight her in windy conditions as I did. Since I've been flying warbirds and sport plane lately, I was getting used to flying in windy conditions with 10+ mph winds since the past month has been windy and had no other option except not fly. The Stinson doesn't cut wind like butter like the others.

I've attached a pic of her hanging around with the others in my current parkflyer fleet.

Let us know how yours goes once you get an opportunity to grab one that's now $40 cheaper....for the PNP anyway.

[CrimzonRider]

Originally Posted by reef_rc

Hey CrimzonRider

If I were to compare this to others in my parkflyer fleet, I would say she's a little harder than PZ Trojan T-28 (she's heavier, doesn't glide without power as smooth, her turns and rolls take time and room) but not has hard as TH P-51D Mustang if this makes any sense. But mostly because her flying characteristics are slightly different than what I have been flying and I wasn't comfortable. I used 12 or so packs over the long weekend, typically 3-4 at a time and used the other half for the Mustang or T-28.

Suggestions:

• get the extra servo and wire for the flaps. It'll help on landing. She tends on come in fast (for me anyway). I only use 1/2 flap on landing. I tried full flap but I am not ready for the abrupt lift and slow down when you do that just yet.
• I believe my flap setup was impacting how much elevator trimmed I had to used. I may have apparently put them a little too low or high and was causing her to lift or nose dive slightly.
• I would not suggest using flag on her maiden flight. This will impact how she feels on takeoff and landing. If you're like me, nervous on every maiden flight, forget to reset the flaps and start trimming, you're screwed. Since this was my first plane with flags, I had to get a feel for how a plane react to one. You can use flag on landing but if you can land the maiden flight without having to use one, that'll be better; one less thing to worry or get nervous about. Play with the flaps once you get her high so you'll know if you want to use it on landing.
• Landing gears do rattle and does get loose over time. I had to use lockit glue to ensure the screw stays on and occassionally check them just to be sure.
• Turns, rolls and inverted flight does go slower than other planes I have so you'll need more height until you're used to that. I believe besides the look, the flight characteristic is another reason the Stinson looks like and feels like she flies like silk.
• Don't fly in windy conditions or maiden flight her in windy conditions as I did. Since I've been flying warbirds and sport plane lately, I was getting used to flying in windy conditions with 10+ mph winds since the past month has been windy and had no other option except not fly. The Stinson doesn't cut wind like butter like the others.

I've attached a pic of her hanging around with the others in my current parkflyer fleet.

Let us know how yours goes once you get an opportunity to grab one that's now $40 cheaper....for the PNP anyway.

Cool Thanks for the info. IMHO I think flaps are little overrated, but I do use them and they do help, especially in zero wind conditions. Of what you have described it is similar to my Airfield 55" Cessna 182 SS, pretty slippery in the turns and pretty fast landing (18oz. wing loading) But as you know flaps can get you in a heap of trouble quickly. But now that I know how to mix elevs and flaps on my dsx7 its not so bad. But she looks awesome in your pic, something about that a/c that just demands authority!! Kind of like the Spirit of St. Louis!

You also said rolls are a little slow, in your opinion, you think the control surfaces are too small or just not enough throw?

have a good one
cr

[TLyttle]

In the interest of realism, has anyone ever seen a Stinson being rolled? I would think that with an aircraft that size that any roll would be ponderous at best. Just curious...

[CrimzonRider]

Originally Posted by TLyttle

In the interest of realism, has anyone ever seen a Stinson being rolled? I would think that with an aircraft that size that any roll would be ponderous at best. Just curious...

I agree. But if I get one, you will probably see it at my house. As I do usually fly semi-scale, but sometimes I get the irresistible urge for speed and semi-aerobatics. Of course, that is what gets me into trouble sometimes too. Just the way I fly and its just too much fun to be realistic all the time.

have a good one
cr

[TLyttle]

yes, I've had those urges as well, and succumbed to them with the same results. However, I have had some semi-scale models that looked so good in the air that I forgot I was flying it!

Watching a super-scale, detailed to the nines, museum piece being able to do snap-rolls in a sewerpipe leaves me cold. I kinda do one or the other...

[reef_rc]

I think if you decide to get one, you have to understand it's flight characteristics. It's the one of the main reason I decided to go with a Stinson instead of another warbird for the time being. It has a unique flight characteristic...smooth and graceful (even on rolls, loops and inverted flight). The only thing I could think that might make it better is a faster motor but the power is sufficient. It's a great lazy sunday graceful flier.

[Wrongway-Feldman]

After flying mine for several weeks now I only have two beefs with this plane.
The battery compartments is a pain in the but with those three velcro straps. Swapping batteries is a real chore.
And the tips of the elevator are as soft and floppy as wet toast. I'm reinforcing mine with some thin carbon fibre strips.
Other than that I can't really fault this plane.

[reef_rc]

i agree on both accounts. I've noticed the weak tips on both elevator and rudder day one but didn't paid much attention to them since then. Reinforcement would be a must long term i agree.

[Wrongway-Feldman]

Originally Posted by reef_rc

i agree on both accounts. I've noticed the weak tips on both elevator and rudder day one but didn't paid much attention to them since then. Reinforcement would be a must long term i agree.

I'm leaning towards reinforcement out of the box. After a few flight they start fluttering and make the plane twitch in the air like it has a pilot with parkensons.
I'm disappointed that parkzone did such a lousy job with the tail feathers on this model as normally they don't make this kind of mistake. I hope its not a sign of things to come.

[tehlump]

My father is a beginner pilot, he's still working on mastering the HZ supercub I gave him. However, when he saw the Stinson he had to buy it! He's had me fly it for him so far, but is spooked because I've had problems with it.

I'm a relative newcomer as well, but have picked up RC flight much faster than he has. I primarily fly PZ warbirds (P47 and F4U) as well as a kit built L4 and others. I am a decent pilot, but his Stinson has given me fits!

Firstly, his Stinson seems monstrously nose heavy. When I put the battery in the compartment I ended up sliding it completely to the rear to get close to the desired CoG. Even then upon take off I had to dial in max up elevator trim and even then had to fly with constant up elevator. I made a circle, landed and checked and the elevator seems to be correctly positioned. Has anyone had problems with it being nose heavy?

Question #2

As I said earlier, I'm a new pilot so please take that into consideration when reading this question...

Bank and yank didn't turn the plane gracefully, I've read you need to fly it with some rudder, so when I applied rudder for the turn (a small amt, maybe 1/8-1/4 stick) the plane immediately rolled and fell. I ended up getting the most graceful looking turns by using opposite aileron! For example, if I wanted to turn left I would apply 1/4 left rudder and 1/4 or so right aileron...then the plane would turn nicely. Is this common or a weird mess?

I use the rudder on my other planes including the L4 I built, this is the only plane I've had that does this. Any ideas?

[Wrongway-Feldman]

Originally Posted by tehlump

My father is a beginner pilot, he's still working on mastering the HZ supercub I gave him. However, when he saw the Stinson he had to buy it! He's had me fly it for him so far, but is spooked because I've had problems with it.

I'm a relative newcomer as well, but have picked up RC flight much faster than he has. I primarily fly PZ warbirds (P47 and F4U) as well as a kit built L4 and others. I am a decent pilot, but his Stinson has given me fits!

Firstly, his Stinson seems monstrously nose heavy. When I put the battery in the compartment I ended up sliding it completely to the rear to get close to the desired CoG. Even then upon take off I had to dial in max up elevator trim and even then had to fly with constant up elevator. I made a circle, landed and checked and the elevator seems to be correctly positioned. Has anyone had problems with it being nose heavy?

Question #2

As I said earlier, I'm a new pilot so please take that into consideration when reading this question...

Bank and yank didn't turn the plane gracefully, I've read you need to fly it with some rudder, so when I applied rudder for the turn (a small amt, maybe 1/8-1/4 stick) the plane immediately rolled and fell. I ended up getting the most graceful looking turns by using opposite aileron! For example, if I wanted to turn left I would apply 1/4 left rudder and 1/4 or so right aileron...then the plane would turn nicely. Is this common or a weird mess?

I use the rudder on my other planes including the L4 I built, this is the only plane I've had that does this. Any ideas?

what you have discover is a coordinated turn. When you attempt a turn with only rudder you find that the plane want to nose over and roll into the direction of the turn.
If you induce opposite aileron you will keep the roll to a minimum and you end up with a very nice scale turn. The stinson turn very nicely this way and looks great doing it.

[reef_rc]

hey tehlump -

I feel your pain and the puzzlement/frustration since I've just gotten over a similar predicament recently. I can only offer advice based on my own situation. Initially mine was nose heavy on the first 3 flights. Right now, mine's flying like silk.

CG / Elevator

• battery placement. I use 2200 mAH. Mine's about 1" from the front.
• I also had to readjust the optional flap slightly since it may have been slight off and may have effected my elevator trim. Not sure if you did the optional flap or not so I thought I mentioned this.
• I recalled having to manually adjust the elevator slightly to get it just right and to ensure my trim settings started in the middle since my first/maiden flight I had to trim 2/3 - 3/4 to just keep her nose up and manageable. I also recalled checking the elevator and it also looked right but readjusted it anyway. I believe my elevator tips made the illusion it looked correct. Once trimmed, it looks fine, although I know one of the tip is slight off. I attributed this to weak tips....and they are weak.

Go luck...let us know how it goes.

[tehlump]

Originally Posted by reef_rc

hey tehlump -

I feel your pain and the puzzlement/frustration since I've just gotten over a similar predicament recently. I can only offer advice based on my own situation. Initially mine was nose heavy on the first 3 flights. Right now, mine's flying like silk.

CG / Elevator

• battery placement. I use 2200 mAH. Mine's about 1" from the front.
• I also had to readjust the optional flap slightly since it may have been slight off and may have effected my elevator trim. Not sure if you did the optional flap or not so I thought I mentioned this.
• I recalled having to manually adjust the elevator slightly to get it just right and to ensure my trim settings started in the middle since my first/maiden flight I had to trim 2/3 - 3/4 to just keep her nose up and manageable. I also recalled checking the elevator and it also looked right but readjusted it anyway. I believe my elevator tips made the illusion it looked correct. Once trimmed, it looks fine, although I know one of the tip is slight off. I attributed this to weak tips....and they are weak.

Go luck...let us know how it goes.

that's great advice! thank you, my father just sent the reliant home with me and told me to 'work it out'

I'll try adjusting the elevator and see if that makes a difference

[dkrhardy]

Adjusting the elevator is a band-aid fix. You may be better off adding a bit of weight to the tail/back part of the fuselage. If you do elevator "trim", you may be adding drag due to a up or down trim that is disrupting the air over the surface!

[reef_rc]

hey tehlump -

I double checked mybattery placement just be sure I was providing accurate information earlier. As as you can see in the pics attached, it's actually 2 inches from the front instead of the 1" i mentioned earlier. It's a little tricky since some of the extra room is hidden. I just used a stick to confirmed.

If you also noticed from my DX8 settings, mine only use slight trim.

I've also include pics of what I meant earlier by the illusion that the elevator might look correct but elevator tip may be off since it's weak and bend easy and can could affect what you see and how you adjust the elevator. One pic I've attached showed one tip is off (as noted in green circle). The other pic showed how it's now even out once I bend the tip slightly. I've also include pic of the elevator movement @ 100% for mine for your comparison. Looks like mine move a little over 1/2" up and down as shown in the pic. This seems to be in-line with what PZ list for the elevator throws of 15 mm

Hope this helps. let us know now it goes. Hopefully your dad will be enjoying this graceful beauty as I've have.

[CrimzonRider]

Great looking A/C, reef, but man is that battery compartment small, that is a 2200 right. Might have a little better CoG attainability with a 2000mah, or even a 1800. I really do not like adding weight to the rear on any plane, as dkhardy said. Just my two cents. I really wanted one of these, but I think I might buy something else. (Maybe I will just get it and look at it!...lol....jk Like WrongwayF said, the tail feathers look to be a problematic area from the getgo.

Guess I am kinda spoiled, I have been lucky enough to find several planes that already have CF installed at known weak points. Dang, it is still one of my top five fav a/c.

have a good one
cr