RC India

Sky Surfer from RCBazzar (click for product link) (http://www.rcbazaar.com/products/1063-sky-surfer-with-motor-esc-servos.aspx)


Overview

1. It is same as Easy Star with Ailerons (54''x36''), dimensions and weight, looks like made out of same diecast as easy star
2. Foam quality, density is not as good as easy star though
3. Easy Star comes with a Permax Brushed Motor, this one comes with a Good BLDC.
4. RCDhamaka Cost for Easy Star is 4514 :Rs: Sky Surfer for 4200 :Rs: , so price point is similar too.
5. Plus points, (a) BLDC Motor (b) Aileron (c) Good Canopy (Locks easily and has a scale pilot too)
5. Minus Points, NOT AS GOOD A FOAM QUALITY  as easy star

Build is easy, points to bear in mind are:-
(a) Be careful of attaching emphanage, wing tip to tail tip and getting tailplane parallel, there is a possibility of making a mistake here

(b) Wing servo extension will require a slot to be cut on the under wing foam joiner (See image)

(c) Push Rod sleeves will require couple of oil drops

(d) Like the easy star, the underside will require some fibre tape reinforcement

(e) CG is perfect at 60 MM, RX at CG, 3S 1300 mah up front in the front compartment, no nose/tail weight needed

Fly Log

All controls were put to neutral, after take off did not need any trim at all, she flew hands off, (though did not let Sky Surfer relax at all  ;D ), here are some images

Full throw Elevator ±12mm Rudder ±10mm aileron ± 12mm) be advised manual does not give throwsI set triple DR/Expo, it was set on switch 'E'(Futaba). as follows

Position 1 Aile 60% Expo -45 Elev 38% expo -50 Rudder 60% No Expo
Position 2 Aile 75% Expo -60 Elev 55% Expo -60 Rudder 80% Expo -60
Position 3 Aile 100% Expo -70 elev 100% Expo -70 Rudder 100% No Expo


Flying
She flew extremely well, Took off and after a trim run straight away i pulled her up for a Hammer Stall (Minor Yaw right, Mix required for Hammer stall), Did couple of Loops, Inverted, Stall Turns, High Speed turns at max throw, Low speed turns etc she handled all of them pretty well, behaved exactly like easy star with ailerons and i wish easy star had ailerons.

Great glider to fly

Some eye candies from my pupil

Some more are here

http://photobucket.com/SkySurf

PS

Sujju Bhai Good Job and thanks for bringing this exceptional beginners model to India

Here is the new entrant to my Free RC School. he will be flying this model for most of the time

PS
With Vineet and his Easy Star

Thanks n nice review. Really helpful for me as a beginner.

I wanted to start with one of these but cant find an 20A Brushless ESC.

How different is it compared to easystar in flying characteristic? How big is the canopy compared to Easystar?

With the intro of aileron she flies extremely well, like i said , Flying Characteristics is exactly same as easy star.

Canopy is exact fit, better design, magnetic lock unlike easy star which has a click lock, remove the pilot and you have a cam on

So it was maidened afterall   :giggle: :giggle: Gusty you know what I mean.

Looks beautiful.

PS: So this was also part of the  exercise.  ;)

This was at the cost of lunch, MK was yelling for us   :giggle:

Niks had his heart in his mouth, His best statement was "Sir, Kya Kya Karva rahe ho"

Ha.. Ha... Ha...!!!!    Of late this is happening to most of us in the field

Sir i happen to have the same setup but as a beginner dont know exactly what DR/EXPO setting is used for can u please elaborate on it a bit as i am using Futaba T7C and sky surfer  :headscratch:

See this video , if you still cant make out gimme a PM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0DyQ-DzRbQo

Also read this thread and the subsequent one in conjunction with this video

http://www.rcindia.org/electric-planes/sky-surfer-from-rc-bazaar-build-and-fly-log/msg122456/#msg122456

Sujju bhai

why don't you bring the weekly discount on this product? say under 4000 rs, lot of beginners will benefit.

Gusty sir,
In fact we just did this after you spoke to my colleague Dilip. Sky surfer is on promo from tomorrow till 2nd march at Rs 3995/-

Thanks for your suggestion again and to the fantastic review on this model. I am sure this will help a lot of beginners here

Regards
Sujju

Nice review, this is going on our fields facebook page :thanks:

Fantastic review. One of the fliers on our field has this bird. I flew it personally and found it to be just as gentle as the easy star. Its certainly a very good alternative to the easy star.

I dont want to be a spoiled sport or bad mouth this beauty but I did notice a problem with the bird. The wings of the aircraft dont lock well and are come off. This has happened on our field and I know another person who has complained of this. The quick fix to this is to put velco stickers on the wing joints and that will solve the problem.

Anyone else faced this problem?

Edit
Spelling and grammar

prady
you are right about it, in fact the same problem exists with easy star too, both their locks are identical, what i have done on the sky surfer is, put hot glue locks, glue locks come off only when i am travelling long distance, otherwise it stays on, velcro is not a bad idea at all.

putting four rare earth magnets on either 1/2 of the wing, flushed, should do good, let me try it out and let you know

Hi Augustinev, I have been flying the ez* for a very very long time and not once have the wings come off. the locking mechanism with ez* is better than the sky surfer i guess. Yes the magnets should work but i would think the velcro is an easy thing to do considering the availability of magnets.

can you share your hot glue lock idea that would be interesting to see.

my ezee wings nudged out in the third flight (see the video here http://www.rcindia.org/electric-planes/easy-star-fan-club-photos-videos-share-your-experience/) when i was trying to go between the trees

hot glue lock is a dash of glue at the wing root in front and at the trailing edge, touching the fuse and the wing, she doesn't budge after that

Having bad times with skysurfer...
Crashed it twice in past 2 days... :(
Crash 1 : Nose broken/cracked heavily, Rudder gone & trailing edge of wing gone - Repaired using hot water and epoxy with carbon rods.
Crash 2 : Nose broken/Cracked and fuselage broken close to tail end -repaired using epoxy.

Cronical problem...wings loosening mid air... Wings don't fit in completely...tried using rare earth magnets and double tape too but to no help...

Seems the lock mechanism used is not good...

Vl try Velcro next week or maybe some other method... :(

Fix the wing permanently

Try this mod
http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showpost.php?p=14001995&postcount=306

Didn't get how to do it???
Can someone pls explain

Its pretty straight forward, there is a hook on each wing and a rubber band on the hooks keep the wings pulled together.

Wat about the balsa pieces???

Balsa pieces form hook for the rubber band.

Got it...
Just a small thing.. wat is the dowel on the fuselage for...
The balsa pieces are to be glued to each wing and joined together using rubber bands...Got it!
Should the rubber bands be mounted through the fuselage mounting dowel!

The dowel is just to hold the rubber band while you are mounting the wing. What you do is first you put the rubber band on the dowel through the wing saddle, the rubber band now stretches from dowel on one side to other. Now you mount your wings and move the rubber band from the dowel to the wing-hook, one side at a time. You see its just to make the process simpler, other wise you'll have to fish the rubber band through the wing saddle after you mount one wing :)

Hats off 2 u sir   :salute: :salute: :salute: :salute: :salute:
Thx a ton  :bow:

Any ideas where i can get solid carbon fibre rod for skysurfer.
The original rod gave away pretty soon... :(

Try rcdhamaka
http://www.rcdhamaka.com/index.php?main_page=advanced_search_result&search_in_description=1&keyword=carbon%20fiber

see my basic aerodynamics thread, conventional thrust drag line is a nose up couple, ( http://www.rcindia.org/rc-general-topics/basic-aerodynamics-for-rc-flying/msg58078/#msg58078 ) whereas Sky Surfer/easy star/easy star II/ Shikra like aeroplane which has high mounted engine has a reversed thrust drag couple, i.e on opening power they will go nose down, at take off this couple could be more than what elevator can handle owing to low forward speed, at launch , therefore power should be just enough for launch and slowly open power, if you launch with full power she might slam the ground.

Now I understand why my EasyStar 2 pitches down when full-throttle is opened. However, this was not the case in Sky Surfer. Could it be because the motor in Sky Surfer was not powerful enough or the propeller was not big enough. In Easy Star, the propeller is 7x6 whereas in Sky Surfer it's 5x5.

If you notice engine pod to boom distance of a Easy Star II is more which means, for a given thrust and drag he couple of nose down force will be more. bottom line is toss should be at power just enough or slightly less at the time of toss, slowly increasing power as the speed increases

Thank you Augustine sir!

Is it a short coming of Easy Star II or does it have any benefits?

Here's what I had done to secure the wings... In addition, as extra precaution, I also used to tape each wing to the fuselage using a piece of fiber glass tape. Why take risk? That way, I never encountered any episode of wing coming of in the flight.

You could put a longer prop without hitting the boom 6in prop in easy star I clears the boom by cats whiskers. easystar II i heard takes a 7" prop

Does any 1 has a spare prop of sky surfer as i happened to break it today and rcbazaar doesn't have the spare props available with them anymore .Checked in some LHS but i guess none of them stock 5x5 prop

hi chintu.. if you could wait for another week or so as we expect the customs to clear our shipment by this time ......................... hopefully

regards
sujju

break a 5X5 pusher prop....?? on a plane  like skysurfer...?? please tell us  how did u manage to do that ..??


just curious,  was it a crash or manhandled...??
or may be  on some other plane..  :thumbsup:

 :thumbsup:

u can put 6x4 also

Well vishwa its strange but true while taking of my sky surfer the canopy came out all of a sudden( the reason might be overstuffing of the fueslage) hitting the propeller and breaking it.I guess everyday is a new learning experience in Rcfield learnt now to keep spare props even for a pusher plane

akky & Chintu
you cant and shouldn't put 6x4 prop with the stock motor for a 3S lipo

Wouldn't a slight change in thrustline help?

theoretically it will compensate only for one throttle setting, above and below that there will pitch variation. in fact when flying these aeroplanes, it is clearly noticeable, the moment you cut throttle she attains a nose down attitude and two jabs of up trim is required

     I happened to receive PM from RCDhamaka for availability of the required 5 x 5 prop with them and they were quite quick to send me 1 immediately, again hats off to Rcdhamaka for showing such promptness and not making my flying suffer

can you please explain how did you know expo rates etc, are those supposed to be 3 sets of settings?

here is the video for DR and Expo for Futaba 7C , it will differ for your radio

www.youtube.com/watch?v=0DyQ-DzRbQo

the problem i find is there is no way to put 3 sets of expos dualrates to 3 position switch i got 3 2 position switch for each channel.

Thats why i wouldnt recomend this model for beginners !

For someone who has never flown an rc pplane, but has a good hand with cars, is it a good buy?

i am not having good experience with this plane. i crashed it 3 times and last time the damage is major. the material of new model is not epo. it looks like cheap Styrofoam. the plane does to right continuously. at this crash the battery was damaged,one flap snapped, and big hole in nose, and motor out of plane. except motor i know how to repair other things, now i am going to fly with i86 board for stabilization.

No, both are two different worlds altogether, you will have to learn it from someone who knows hot to fly and more importantly..who also knows how to teach.

Picking up three four RTF  Sky Surfer on steroids  (http://www.rcindia.org/electric-planes/sky-surfer-on-steroids/) from Sai Krishna for my pupils will put up my review of these Anabolics

Why would anyone put +15 expo on Futaba ?  It makes the center more aggressive.  Was he doing this on purpose ?  It seems counter productive that he  reduced rates and then added quick response around center stick !  It should have been "-15".

+1 should be minus value, unless one is correcting for a over bearing Gyro on a DR expo switch

PS
Added a link of post above to that video to keep it in context

He did mention that it is the opposite of Spektrum !  Yet did not seem to have changed the value to negative, while he was on a Futaba.