e-Trinty flight report

[Curtis Miller]

Well I finally got my Trinity out on a day with some lift for the first time. I had been worried that it would not thermal well but all those worries are gone now. It was really only an average day here for the upper midwest but the Trinity soared for about an hour on just one 4900 mAh battery. Mine is configured with the Neu 1509/1.5 motor and Neu 3s2p battery. It's plenty of power for my taste. Will go almost vertical but works better if you push it over a few degrees and keep the airspeed up. A 4s battery would be ballistic. Total battery run is almost exactly 3 minutes and uses about 4000 mAhs before it starts cutting out. Typical climb to 500+ feet is probably 10 to 15 seconds.

It performed very well with the flaps in the neutral position. Didn't really seem to like the flaps drooped much though I could stand to experiment more. Maybe it needed more down elevator with the flaps drooped. It just seemed to do well with good airspeed no flaps and not too much elevator. Caught some little thermals at only 20 or 30 feet and gained a couple of hundred feet. It was fantastic at 500 feet, just moving from one pocket of lift to another. I was able to feel around and center one thermal after another.

Landing has not been a problem. She slows down beautifully with the flaps dropped. I have left the ailerons neutral for good control. With the ailerons up it would drop like a stone. It actually seems almost hard to stall when landing but of course I haven't wanted to test that too far.

I could not be happier! What a day!

[infopimp]

Great report! I know it is probably the same as any other Trinity, but if you could post photos of your plane and the setup, I (and others?) would appreciate it!

[RicVaughn]

Hope this doesn't happen to yours, but we had an e-triny explode on climb out at SEFF. If you can, look at the wing for a dry layup.


Ric

[Curtis Miller]

Infopimp, It's pretty hard to see much of the setup. The motor, speed control, and battery all get stuffed up into the nose cone (speed control is a Castle 125). Behind that I put a receiver pack and then the receiver. I used a Multiplex 6-pin connector at the wing root. It sticks down pretty far into the fuse but it's reasonably convenient. The antennae I have run down inside a pushrod tube with the antennae glued to a piece of thin pushrod wire in order to get it to fish down into the tube. It sticks out the back of the plane a couple of inches when the nose is fully installed.

With 3 minute motor runs using about 4,000 mAhs, the motor is drawing just under 20C from the battery. Oh yeah, the prop is a 17 x 13.

[Bro]

Curtis;
great news on the E trinity.... enjoy...
Go for the 4900 4S, mine really goes!

There are many Trinities out there, with many smiling faces! The wings have been good to 11# in the ISR Davenport, dives from speck height to full yank and bank turns..
I have talked with the owner of the plane from SEFF, and he says that he is not sure what caused the failure, as the plane was out of his sight.
He did say there was a repair 6" behind the wing on the fuse from a prior incident. Hard to say for sure what the problem was.
However, it was the first, and hopefully the last!
I can tell you this, he is purchasing another Trinity! :p

Regards,
Bob Breaux
Another happy Trinity pilot for 3 years!

[redietz]

Wouldn't this thread be more appropriate in the electric sailplanes forum?

I'm not complaining about it being here, but maybe more people would read it over there.

[Ralph Weaver]

:D If he puts in 4S, then he can come over to the electric sailplane section.

[JeffD]

:D If he puts in 4S, then he can come over to the electric sailplane section.

Put in 5S and it can move over to the high performance forum...

[Curtis Miller]

Well, they are electric powered but I use mine for thermalling and that's what I was writing about. I don't get off on the motor (okay, maybe a little bit) but I'm excited about it catching thermals and flying so beautifully. For me, the motor just gets me up there without all the hassle of winching.

[Andy W]

Here's what's left of Fred's.

What baffles me is the diagonal tear on the left side near the root ahead of the spar, which on close inspection looks to be along a join between two pieces of carbon cloth; and how the right side tore away cleany along the front of the spar. It appears that on the right, the entire section behind the tear just peeled away. I've never seen a composite wing fail in this fashion..
..a

[jofo1]

Here's what's left of Fred's.

What baffles me is the diagonal tear on the left side near the root ahead of the spar, which on close inspection looks to be along a join between two pieces of carbon cloth; and how the right side tore away cleany along the front of the spar. It appears that on the right, the entire section behind the tear just peeled away. I've never seen a composite wing fail in this fashion..
..a
ouch...i didnt want to see that.

[glderguy]

Ive flown my carbon Trinity at 11lbs many times, pulled hard on turns in big lift, no issues with the wings. The Trinity isnt on my list of favorite planes but not because of wing strength issues, I always felt the plane was pretty bullet proof, never gave a second thought to wing failure, even at 11lbs. Its one tough bird.
Walter