FB Commander 3 (Predator) [Archive]

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Dooleyzone

12-04-2005, 12:49 AM

I have a plane I call Frank'n Bird Commander 3 Predator. What's this you ask? Well, like the Frankenstein monster, this bird is build from parts of dead planes... Basic fuse is an old Commander 2 (died from crash damage when motor pulled through and smacked the electronics... FRIED), Electroni Guts, 10v niMh and servo from a Park Zone P51 Mustange (died from several high-speed crashes due to basic pilot error...new to RC & Zone 3 plane), 480 motor and servo stolen from a living donor F27 Striker (ok purchased from HobbyTown USA, but stolen from living donor sounds better), a custom tail wing (Commander 2 Pro-Wing).

Anyway you get the picture, not stock, no ACT and very fast and very quick to respond (please read quick (too quick) to crash...

I love it! It actually flies very well, I cant stand the style of the 3 channel transmitter used by Park Zone/Hobby Zone. I just cant get the feel for the speed control. It messes me up, but I guess I just need more stick time with this plane.

At any rate, like I said I've had a great time with the Predator... It's better than I am if you catch my drift, but a very wierd thing happend to me and my buddy the other day. We were fly'n (he has a FB Freedom) and I ended up dumping it in the field, when I found it it hadn't crashed hard, it wasn't even on the ground, it was suspended in some weeds, but it was totally dead. No sounds of life... The real strange part is when I got back out of the weeds my buddy had landed his plane while I was look'n for mine, he went to fly some more but his plane was totally dead! no sounds of life either... Anyone hear of anything that can pulse the electronics on RC planes causing them to break? We've inspected the boards and nothing looks out of place, and if it were not for his landing (versus crashing), well it's just wierd. We are not flying near power or anything. The closest thing we can come up with is condensation from flying early in the am, but I've done that a 100 times or more?

I'm pretty new to RC fly'n and will probabally just go by the mustang electronics, set the jumper for vtail mix and stuff everything back into the Commander fuse (except I just orderd a Commander 1 body, FB Freedom pushrods and challenger tail (will modify for Pro-Tail) and get back to flying, but it'd be nice if someone could give some sort of explanation...

Later -Crash

Dooleyzone

12-09-2005, 01:30 AM

Not that anyone cares (based upon the number of replies) but we found out the problems with our two planes. The electronics on the Firebird Freedom had a blob of solder which moved and caused the plane to short out. Cleaning the blob restored the circuit path to working order, all is well with the plane now. My Franken Bird plane with the P51 electronics was also fixed. It had a solder joint that came loose. Our co-worker found both problems (and fixed them) within 5 minutes using a jewler's loop and a $5 soldering iron.

Weird that they both had similar problems at the same time but cool that they are fixed and flying again.

Leo L

12-09-2005, 10:07 AM

Dooleyzone

12-09-2005, 11:19 PM

Glad that you found the problems and got your planes flying again. Your FrankenBird sounds like a home-made version of the Aerobird Challenger. There are a number of threads here and on RCGroups and RCUniverse that discuss various modifications to the Aeorbird. You might want to check them out and see if you can incorporate them into your plane.

What do you think of the Firebird Freedom? I bought one for my son for Christmas because he wanted a beginner plane that he won't grow out of too soon.

FrankenBird is pretty much the same as the Challenger, just amp'd up a bit. It's a screamer I tell you! I'm new to the RC Flight deal and I don't think I built a trainer if you know what I mean... It's just so fast and turns on a dime. It's great!

The Freedom is my friends. It fly's real well and bigger so the wind does not knock it around like the smaller Commander. It's a Zone one plane that will work well, just remember that if you keep away from the eleron controls it'll fly alot like a 2 channel. Which allows you to get the feel of it. My friend flew the Commander2 alot before getting the Freedom, but he was doing loops and dives on the first flight. It's a nice one to begin with.

Leo L

12-10-2005, 07:44 PM

Thanks for the info on the Freedom; I'm glad i picked that plane for my son.

I started with the FireBird Commander this past spring; then went to the Aerobird Challenger and now the J3 Cub. The Cub, in stock form, is a vast improvement over the Aerobird, so you may want to consider getting one. There are many mods being done to the Cub, including adding aelerons, lipos, brushless, etc. Mine is still mostly stock, i only added a tail wheel to make ground take-offs better and just now replaced the wheels with skis for snow flying.