First time electric controline

[knowles1939]

Hello
Bear with me guys. I am going to knock together a flying testbed using a Goldberg can motor fom the electra kit. The reason being I dont want to invest until i get my feet wet. I am an experience modeler. How about some guidance as to ship size,batteries,line length etc.
Ken Knowles
Victoria BC Canada

[steve lewin]

As I'm sure you realise it's not exactly ideal to start out by choosing a heavy, inefficient, low powered motor, especially for C/L. But if that's what you've got....

If you're going for a stunt type model I'd suggest something around 30" span, profile fus but built as light as you can manage. You'll probably want 8 cells but fairly small to keep the weight down, say something like 800ARs. That will give you fairly short flights but with luck it should fly. Probably around 35-40ft lines, as light as possible for least drag, say .012 at most. There's a fair chance it won't do much more than just fly round in circles but if you like it you can always fit a decent motor later and get some aerobatics out of it.

Do you have some sort of cut-off planned ? If you don't fit one what tends to happen is that the plane turns into a tethered car for the last half of the "flight" as the battery runs down. There are several simple ideas around using relays, see further down the forum.

HTH - Steve

[Mike Palko]

If you want to up the power of that motor w/o spending alot of money invest in a master airscrew gearbox, say 2.5 to 1. Use an 11x9 or 12x8 master airscrew electric prop. I would say you are looking at $25-$30 or so for both. If i remember right the goldberg motor you are talking about is just an 05 can motor and the gear box should bolt right up. Otherwise you will have to use a 7x6 or 8x4 prop.

My first electric cl plane had an 05 can motor, master airscrew gear box, 12x8 master airscrew prop, and 7 1200mah cells. The plane was a scratch built sig twister (wingspan 48") and all up weight was about 30-32oz. I flew it on 45' x .012" lines. It would do loop's, fly inverted and lazy eights. Your setup will be very low on power and w/o a gear box i wouldn't expect much other than level flight. The biggest enemy will be weight. Give it a try and let us know how it works out.:D

[knowles1939]

Hey Mike
Thanx for the info. I have been using the master airscrew setup on a couple of rc oldtimers and it seems to work real well. I'll give yor suggestions a try an let you know what happens.
Ken Knowles
Nanaimo BC

[robertc]

Ken , I have yet to try a gearbox with basic can motor in c/l but it is something I wish to try myself just to be able to say I have done it. Given the motor you are planning to use I would combine the advise and make it geared with 8 cells and the larger wing for a lower wing loading. I think you will be dissapointed using this motor direct drive. There is always the possibility of destroying a gearbox as well as a motor when learning but as in the r/c case trying to use these motors direct drive is a waste of time in my opinion. I think you are more assured of success with the torque available from a geared setup. Let us know how you go. I am looking forward to building something similar and hope to have similar flying results to Mike. By the way Mike are you able to let us know the all up weight of your plane?
regards
Bob

[Mike Palko]

The plane, motor, battery, and esc ready to fly is 39oz. The motor i am using is a model motors axi 2820/10, the battery cell's i am using are 10 cp1700's and the esc is a castle creations pheonix 35.

I am so far dissapointed with the motor and controller. The motor doesn't spin the props at the rpm that i have seen in reviews and i can't figure out how to program the esc by using the directions. I will have to e-mail CC. I wanted to change the timing using the esc to see if i could get any more power out of the motor. The weather has been pretty bad where i live and with the holidays i haven't gotten out to fly it yet. I will post how it goes as soon as i fly it.

My previous setup was an astro geared 15 (sport) with a 12x8 master airscrew electric wooden prop. When i originally put the astro 15 on the plane i flew it with the old sanyo 1400's. They were bigger and heavier than the 1700's. With the 1700's it weighed about 42oz?