I took mine out today for the first time. It flew great but I think the weak link is still the foam. On landing, I slid in fine, but when I picked it up I notice the tail section had actually come unglued at the curved joint on one side of the tail. Super easy fix, but it points to what is basically still a fairly fragile airframe. After watching this video, I may 3D print a bit of a protector for the tail. And oh, my 2200 4 cells will never fit as long as they have wires. I have some 1350 4cells that will be fine because after flying for at least 25 minutes today on a 2200 3 cell, I only used about 1/3rd of the battery's capacity. It is a glider after all!
Still have mine and still in one piece. (With minor surgery from time to time). So it still holds up despite the weaknesses. Yeah, a 1500 4s is perfect for my type of flying. I have seen people use a 2200 4s but I'm sure they hogged it the foam to fit it
I've replaced my hub with the AL turbo hub with carbon fiber blades since I do hot-foot it on 4S (Smart pack, 2200mAhr) a lot. Works great. I also added ailerons plastic protectors for the servo arms to help with that. I also trimmed off the extra rudder/elevator control arms to help keep from snagging anything. I do fly at a grass field so that helps a good bit. With my 3S 1800mA/h Smart pack I can fly for over 30 minutes.
I’ve been dying to hear something about the thermal capabilities of this glider, among others. I’ve been out of the hobby for over a decade. Fascinated with the vario and altimeter telemetry systems now!
It thermals pretty well. Not quite as good as something like my old Goldberg Electra but it is very nice to thermal for a bit then have a screamer in the same flight. The stock receiver on the concsendo does not have a vario. I run Frsky gear and they do have a receiver with a built in vario. Works very well and the same sensor can do altitude and vario functions. The stock spektrum receiver in the concsendo does have a ton of telemetry including G Force, current draw and battery voltage level.
great review! thanks for the all info especially focus on landing. As you said, it took for me like 5 rounds around to find the speed and position to land...
Love your videos, just came across your channel. I've heard stories about the elevator tape slipping on the night radian, look out for that. I live in the LA area, been flying for a few years but haven't been out to an airflield. Might have to check out Apollo XI
Thanks! Yep tape to hold a control surface doesn't sound like a great idea but it does work.... just do a preflight and double check before you fly and you should be ok. The good thing about tape is repairing it is really easy.
If you use rudder to get 'slip' on your final turn before landing, you can land this model on the spot. Takes some practice, but no need for flaperons. :)
I'm trying to remember my setup but I believe I had ailerons and flap mix both set to 50٪ so I would have some aileron throw even at full flaps. Yes, I did some down elevator on flaps. I used about 10%. When full flaps are deployed, your aileron authority is markedly lessened. So you'll need to add more rudder than normal to turn. But that's pretty normal for a flapperon setup.
i built a coupe of kits just like this...i ended up destroying my first one...but second one is still crash free... excellent flying ..very easy,never used any gyro's...just need good eyes and always know what position its in... perfect for beginners and advanced pilots...
I used a different receiver. However, I have heard of people using the stock receiver in the consendo, putting the second aileron on an aux channel, and seeing up their mix. The as3x and safe do not affect the added aileron but to no ill effects. I assume you can use forward programming to set up that aux channel so you can have as3x and safe on that as well but I do not use spectrum radios so I am not sure of the actual process.
Yeah.. it's pretty thin when it is head on. People have put florescent vinyl on the leading edge to help. I have tried before and it does help a bit. Motion RC has some real bright landing lights on some of their edf planes they normally attach to the landing gear. I have seen people put them on other planes to help with visibility when it's coming right at you. Led lights help but they need to be super bright to do any good.
Knowing the rules here, I find unbelievable that they let you guys fly there, so close to a road. My club field is literally in the forest, few kilometers from a road. Anyways...love my Conscendo. Got it yesterday and I did test fly it today on 2200mah 3s (grass field), it was great fun. I did train a little bit with the Conscendo Advanced on RealFlight 9.5S simulator the last week. A complain I have is the velcro strap, it broke at the 2nd battery swap. They should use better stuff even if they have to charge 2€ for it, so i don't need to toss it and replace it with a thicker one. I have some 2200mh 4s but didn't feel to try with those yet, I am quite new to rc airplanes, started in the middle of august with a sky king trainer (that is a lot easier to land). I got a 2nd hand glued up Multiplex FunRay for a bargain, I'll put some receiver in it next month hopefully. Btw, could you recomend an aluminum rotor for the conscendo? I would love to go 2200mah 4s full throttle in the future, so it seems a wise upgrade to do. I need to dig into the flaperons setup too, that I didn't know exist. I found hard to land this thing today...birdie wants to glide forever.
I haven't looked into which spinner and prop yet. I'm planning on swapping it out the next time I start seeing the spinner fracture. However, a quick internet search on the forums shows that people are using a BB Spinner size 38/4/8 and a 10x8 prop from espritmodel.com Personally, I'd size it by measuring but if that internet post is correct, a 38mm spinner that accepts a 4mm motor shaft would work. You can try espritmodel.com or aloft hobbies both are great glider sites. As for the flapperon mix, I assume you have the Bind and Fly version. If so, when you separate the ailerons to two channels (a must for setting up flaperons) you will only have Safe and AS3X functionality on one of the ailerons. Shouldn't be a big deal, especially if you do not fly on Safe. There might be a way to reprogram your receiver to have aileron gyro control on two channels but I don't run Spektrum transmitters so I an not versed in forward programming.
@@all_rc That's the spinner I use on my Conscendo and it is a very easy replacement and works great! I as well added carbon fiber flat stock from the tail all the way up to the motor on both sides so there is absolutely no flex in the tail now. As far as your Rudder and elevator Clevises just cut a skid out of light ply or fiberglass plate and glue it into the bottom of the fuselage. It is an extremely fun plane to fly but yeah the landings take some practice! Enjoyed your video well done.
I didnt since i ran a different receiver without safe. But i do know others have done it. Since you put one aileron on a different channel, then the gyro only acts on one aileron. From i i heard, still works fine. You might be able to program the receiver for safe to function on both aileron channels but i dont run spektrum tx so i am not sure.
This will be my next one. Going to do exactly what you did. No AS3X or SAFE. Then Flaperons of course. Question. How well does it land in windy conditions. @@all_rc
That plane was originally a bnf. I flew it with the radiomaster TX16S. But in that video, i had already pulled the receiver and put in a Frsky Receiver. I did that to play with telemetry. I had a vario and gps hooked up. The vario was great for detecting thermals and the gps for max speed readings. It worked very well. The radiomaster had no issues running the original spektrum receiver. I switched over to the Frsky receiver so i can use Frsky's S.Port to add the telemetry sensors I wanted. I've moved on since that video was posted. I now run a Frsky Tandem XE. The Tandem has the power of that Radiomaster but with a much more streamlined interface. Ethos, in my opinion, is a far better OS than EdgeTX. But the Radiomaster TX16s on EdgeTX is a very powerful system.
I have been flying Spektrum but I purchased a TX16S and updated the software to 2.9. I'm not using yet but will be getting a few models set up. I like the idea of using a receiver with the vario.
Its super powerful. Like i said i dont really use the TX16S anymore since I got the Tandem XE but the TX16s is so much more powerful and flexible than Spektrum. You can still use your Spektrum receivers and only change those that you want additional features. By the way. You would be surprised at the amount of telemtry info you spektrum receivers have. When you have time to play around with it, bind a spectrum receiver to your TX16s and go to Telemtry and press the Discover new sensors. Built in to most Spektrum receivers is G-force X,Y and Z, RPM, voltage etc. On that Conscedo, it had a ton but not Vario...
You already mentioned that kind of weak, flexible tail. it has a two section connections that come badly glued. Once I land i grass, a bit to one side, then the elevator that touch the grass first just flew away. Those little piece of tape holding elevators are.not enough strong. A weak spot for a plane that can reach 100 mph.
Yeah. They use tape to hold the tail on a few other planes. But on the Conscendo its a much bigger weakness because it has no landing gear. I do believe that eflite is learning. Newer plane designs seem to have better fastening systems while still keeping it light. Probably the next generation will be better (hopefully). Still is a great plane though
Yes. I've run 800mah in that plane. 1300 shouldn't be a problem. If you are running 3s, remember that gliders usually like a more aft cg in order to glide better. When running an 800, you may be pretty aft on the cg. It may tend to rise on power but just trim it for glide and control it when on power. But with a 1300, you should have no problems balancing it to recommended.
My night raiden was in a crash.. fixed it up but doesnt fly the same... very propusey... lots of up and done. Not sure hot to fix. Its balanced so i dont get it
Does it pitch up on power but smooth with power is turned off? Your motor might be angled wrong. Airplane motors should be pointed a couple of degrees down and to the right. If the propeller is dead straight to the fuselage or slightly up, it's not right. That may have changed if you needed to glue the nose on.
@ALL RC not sure 😕....best i can describe it does the phugoid cycle. I could be gliding and does a sharp downward slope. Give it throttle and pitched up...into a stall feeling im feeling i need to put a gyro on it
Yeah, I'd try some down thrust. If you glued your nose together, try breaking that joint and re glue it with a bit of down angle. The propeller should have a bit of down angle and right thrust. Or you could space the motor mount with washers or something to achieve the same thing.
The esc on your plane has a function called esc brake. This allows your propeller to stop rotating when off throttle so the propellers will fold. There usually are a few levels of braking.... none, soft, medium and hard. Im not sure what level it comes set from factory but maybe it got inadvertently set to hard. I couldn't find the manual for the esc built into the conscendo but you can try the programming method described in this manual from eflite for a similar esc. It may work.... you probably only need soft or maybe medium braking. www.horizonhobby.com/on/demandware.static/Sites-horizon-us-Site/Sites-horizon-master/default/Manuals/EFL30AProBrushlessESCInstSheet.pdf
