paco

Hi Folks,
This is my first post but I have read 1000's of threads. Great site and thanks to all for the info and opinions.
I bought my 12 year old son a Skyfly for his second plane after reading many posts on this and other forums. We both started off with aero aces and have had a blast flying and modifying them. The Skyfly is inexpensive at less than $100.00 Cdn, and suprisingly well built. The wings and contols surfaces are the weak link and benefit from some well placed packing tape. I use "TUCK" tape as it is very strong and sticks like mad. It is the red tape used to seal plastic vapor barrier in house construction.

My son has been having contol problems as do most first timers and even a few of use with a little more experience(yours truly).Has anyone thought of puting a larger wing on it to decrease the wing load and slow it down a bit. The T-Hawk has a new training wing for new flyers. It is 54" long and should make the T-hawk a little more user friendly.

If anyone has any input or suggestions on slowing down the Skyfly I would be very interested to hear it.

I have read the manual many times , checked the adjustment of the wings and control surfaces, the CG and all the basics.
I'm just looking for a bit less speed and easier control.

Thanks again.

Don Sims

Paco, welcome to the site and forum. That's an intriguing idea, would you add length to the wings?

paco

Hi Don,
Thats my best idea so far is to go from a 40" wing which is stock to something longer. I have been thinking about the T-Hawk trainer at 54" but there may be better candidates out there. I suppose a wider wing would also have the desired effect, but you still have to elastic it onto the pod.Do you have any suggestions on how to slow her down a bit. Lowering the wing load is the best I can think of. I dont know that trying a different prop would work because the stock length is close to the boom now.
Paco

Wind Shear

I am a newbie myself so take this with a grain of salt but the Skyfly if a bit of a glider itself with the stock wing. The wing tips flare up (camber?) to give stability and for the weight flies what I consider to be fairly slow. Even slight flairs on approach to cut speed and she wants to climb. I have posted in other treads as have others on modificaitons that you could find under the search function by using "Skyfly". I agree that the control surfaces are the weakest link. By attaching the control strings to the control horn closer to the stabilizer you can get a little more movement (primarily the elevator from my experience) which significantly increases control IF AND ONLY IF you have a slightly used stabilizer where the foam hinge is worn and loose. A new tail section (or one that has been reinforced with tape) is to stiff for the strings to move and the string actually stretches some instead of giving you full control to the surface. By chance I moved the strings when I had a very "used" elevator and the control was amazing. I went from flying plain circles and landings to full loops and stalls in one launch. When I brought her down for that last time that day I noticed that the center foam hinge was broke clean through so I replaced with a new stabilizer. I could not get the same movement of the elevator.

Once I experienced the full range of control I had temporarly, it was almost boring to go back up with the new tail section. I have never done any building or modifying to to planes (except the disfigurement caused by crashes ) but I am going to try to attached the control surfaces with real hinges to get the full range of motion the stock components will allow. There is enough movement there if you can transfer it all to the control surface without any loss from the string stretching or the foam compressing that this bird will fly. From other posts I will want to make sure that I have a fairly new main wing on board as other have noted the realitively low G that will fold a main wing. When I had full control for a short time(six or seven flights one day) I was really stressing the wing comming out of full over loops and didn't have a problem but I did have a "clean" wing on board.

That got way off topic (I have never been known to type the readers digest to anything) but I do love this plane. I belive the configuration set up is very nice. It would be cool if you could just order some other plane's wing for $8 to say $15 and you could significantly slow it down some more but more likely you would have to cough up the bucks for lipos and a brushless motor to drop weight... but again... I am a newbie so if you find a wing that works.... be sure to post it.

paco

Hi Wind Shear,
I find you have to work in the hinges by hand then carefully apply tape on one side as a precaution against failure.I moved the adjustment drum (for lack of better terms) up to the top hole on the rudder and the line through the middle hole which does give a bit more travel. Still looking for a bigger wing to try it out. Will post the results.
Paco

Leo L

I doubt that you could significantly slow down the SkyFly without making major alterations. Although it may seem to be a fast plane for a beginner, the reality is that it is a fairly slow plane to begin with. The only planes that are significantly slower are the SloStick and Slow-V. I have seen SloSticks modified with smaller wings to make them faster and lessen the impact of wind, so the opposite could work. You could try putting a SloStick wing on the SkyFly, but remember that slower speed will require a larger surface on your horizontal and vertical stabilizer and their control surfaces. So you could replace the SkyFly's tail with the SloStick tail, but by the time that you complete all of the modifications, your cost will approach the cost of buying a slow flyer. Why not set the SkyFly aside for now and have your son start with the Slow-V (RTF) or SloStick (ARF).

paco

Hi Leo,
Thats probably good advise.The slower you go the more surface area you need on the control surfaces. Every change you make produces other changes which need to be considered.
Paco

Parafly9

Could someone post pictures of the screwpost modifications? Curious to see it.

CreativeRC

I slowed the skyfly by taking two wings cutting them and making a longer wing using epoxy glue. Reinforced the wing with strips of thin plywood top and bottom of wing in the middle section, also glued with epoxy, but sanded the wing surface lightly first where plywood strip is installed for better adhesion. For more control, especially for slow speeds, added width to the elevator and rudder and this worked great. Eventually replaced electronics with a 72 mhz receiver, speed control, and micro servos for even more precise control. The original electronics fried when I crashed in sea water. The motor survived the salt, but seems less fast. Thinking of replacing the fish lines with lightweight control rods as seen in a photo here. With the longer and slow wing, the sky fly turns into a glider and have had long and very high flights lasting 20 minutes to over half an hour depending on rising air conditions. Toyed with the wing to the point of making a 74 inch wing. See it on U Tube under: Sky Fly Giant 74 Inch Wingspan. Love to fly this plane to see how high and how long I can keep it airborne, and love the slowww lsmooth landings. Have a great day.

CreativeRC

Modified swept wing which requires no added weight to balance with lipo batteries.