Skyraider flight tips?

[dfrank47]

I have just taken my 900 series Skyraider out for its first round of test flights. After a little tweeking I was able to get her to do two complete left hand loops and land smoothly. I was putting 100 turns on a three foot piece of rubber from an old Guillow Thunderbolt kit, would new rubber help with flight time? What do you guys use to lube the rubber? What is the max amount of turns possible? Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks, Dan

[supercruiser]

First, if it's landing smoothly, then it's probably trimmed correctly. Thats good. More rubber almost always helps with flight times. With the gray rubber that comes with the kits, my guess is the best you can do is 300 winds.


To answer your question and of great importance is lube.
Most folks use Armor-All. It's easily available. Some online sources sell lube specifically for rubber powered models. And there are homemade kinds too.

I personally would buy some Tan II or similar rubber that is for contest airplane models. You could keep the 36" length, use 3/16 inch width.
Double it up, to make four strands in the airplane. Stretch wind it,
I think you can safely get 800 turns from it.

Two more things:
1. With that much extra power, the wooden motor peg may break. Many folks use 1/8" diameter aluminum tube.
2. With all that power, you could try a bigger propeller. The propeller from the Guillow Fairchild 24 or the Fokker DrI ought to work better.

[dfrank47]

So far I used the new rubber, Armorall, and the bigger prop, and with 200 turns, I'm getting 3-4 nice left turn loops. Thanks for the tips