Originally Posted by Mooney_Driver

I think the Icon A5 is a very neat looking bird. Does anyone know of any scratch building plans and articles out there for the Icon A5?

Here ya go...
http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1606211

Received my Icon this AM and everything was in good shape with nothing missing and instructions (sort of!) included. Started dry assembly and ran into a question of where to put the BESC. Got a 45A Turnigy which has only 3" long leads. The motor has 4" long leads. Thus the leads are too short to bring BESC fully into the cockpit. Do I let it hang in the tunnel under the motor mount? Do I tape it there? Will it not get enough cooling there? Did you guys extend the leads to move the BESC into the cockpit or is it bad to have the leads too long? Newby here - please advise. Thanks

Forget it!! Figured it out myself!!

Took her up tp the field today for the maiden flight. Couldn't get it off the ground!! I have a G25 870KV Turnigy motor with a 70 amp BESC and using a Master 3 blade pusher 11x7 prop. There are two 3000MaH 4SP1 lipos in the nose and the balance was spot on to the instructions. I used only one battery at a time as they are to be joined in parallel when I get the plugs made. Tried three times, the last time with 1/4 flaps.
Now the field was a little wet (not wet enough to take off with whjeels retracted!)but the grass was fairly short and should not have slowed things down much, but she just wouldn't rotate. I will try hand launching next time if I can find someone with the guts to do it for me! Surely I don't need a bigger motor!! Don't know if a 12x7 would do more. Trouble is finding one!!

SuperCub, I removed my front landing gear and epoxy the hole. Now I always hand launch it with my right hand, and left hand control the TX. Since it has big wings, so the hand lunch is very easy and smooth. Just at first apply a little bit up elevator trim and 80% power then throw it.

Here are some shots of my large Icon A5 at a recent float fly at Lake Lewisville...was a GREAT day at the lake and the big Icon was performing well!

Nice. It is always a presure to fly the A5 in the water. Thomas, do you have problem with turning in the water? I have to enlarged my water rudder after a few flight.

Originally Posted by lrplin

Nice. It is always a presure to fly the A5 in the water. Thomas, do you have problem with turning in the water? I have to enlarged my water rudder after a few flight.

I have not had any trouble turning as needed with the stock water rudder. I do tend to sail it a little make the wind work for me to some extent when not on the step. Also, I step taxi when possible and will touch the wingtip in the water a little if I need to turn a little sharper.

Got a 12x6 tractor prop from Horizon Hobby. Mounted it as a tractor and she took off on the first try yesterday although it almost took the whole length of the field to get her off! I gave it 1/4 flap but forgot to take the flaps off once I was airborn. Normally this would lift the nose but she seemed very nose heavy so I just landed it and of course screwed up the nose gear! I had replaced the stock nose gear with the suggested Robarts #601 and the gear itself stood up quite well. It was the stock wheel that I used that came apart. These wheels are very tiny for a grass field but ours is kept quite smooth so I'm hoping they will work. On inspection I found that the stock wheel rim was in two parts force fit together and had simply come apart. I CA'd them together and we'll try again with it - if every the wind eases up for a few hours!!! I had no trouble with it in the air. Control was good.
Has everyone kept the C of G at 75mm?

Originally Posted by SuperCub Man

Got a 12x6 tractor prop from Horizon Hobby. Mounted it as a tractor and she took off on the first try yesterday although it almost took the whole length of the field to get her off! I gave it 1/4 flap but forgot to take the flaps off once I was airborn. Normally this would lift the nose but she seemed very nose heavy so I just landed it and of course screwed up the nose gear! I had replaced the stock nose gear with the suggested Robarts #601 and the gear itself stood up quite well. It was the stock wheel that I used that came apart. These wheels are very tiny for a grass field but ours is kept quite smooth so I'm hoping they will work. On inspection I found that the stock wheel rim was in two parts force fit together and had simply come apart. I CA'd them together and we'll try again with it - if every the wind eases up for a few hours!!! I had no trouble with it in the air. Control was good.
Has everyone kept the C of G at 75mm?

The terms "tractor prop" and "pusher prop" really have no meaning these days in electric flight. I assume you mounted a normal rotation 12x6 on the motor with the top of the prop surface to the front of the model, just like it would be if the motor was on the front of the model and made the outrunner rotate so the prop spins correctly.

My model leaps off the ground pretty quickly with the Power 32 clone setup and 4S 4400 cells. What motor and cell count are you using that requires the model to run a long ways on the ground? Or was it he grass that prevented the model lifting off in a timely fashion?

My CG is right at 75mm, as I recall.

Mine is 6s 3300mah 3 blades prop from a hobby zone BF 109, it just takes off very easy on water/grass/runway with short runway. Yours sounds like under power.

Originally Posted by Thomas B

Here are some shots of my large Icon A5 at a recent float fly at Lake Lewisville...was a GREAT day at the lake and the big Icon was performing well!

Hi Thomas B
Great flying your large ICON-A5!
Mine is now inproving about fuselage hull shape.
Because it's sticky on the flat surface water.

I got mine from KMP via the LHS about 3weeks ago. Due to the weather here now I'm in no rush to get to it done..it will sit idle for awhile.

I am using a Turnigy G25 - 870KV with a Zippy 3000 MaH 4S1P 20C for power. I have two of these batteries in the nose for balance and intend to parallel them for 6000Mah but have run out of connectors to make up the yoke. Naturally I mounted the prop correctly and reversed the motor. The grass has been a problem but I am trying again today so we'll see how it goes. I'm told to ease off on the throttle after I get up to speed, to take the pressure off the nose created by the high prop mounting. I've seen this on other aircraft on the water and will try it.

Frustrated!! Tried three times today and couldn't get off the ground - and then the new Robarts nose gear ripped loose!! Lousy foam broke. Now I'm really frustrated. I have a G46 but the can dia. is too big at 50mm. Looking at the G32 but it comes in three flavors.530KV 600KV and 770KV. The 530KV takes a 12" prop, but to be honest I don't know what these numbers really mean other than revs per volt. Is the 530KV stronger than the 770KV? It has a 42mm dia. can so it may fit the motor mount. Just flailing around here! May just put it on the shelf. The little Seawind flys great but the Ventus is a pig! I'm thinking these foamys may not be my bag after 50 years of working with wood. Perhaps I should look at some wood plane kits that will take a little more abuse as I convert to E-Power.

The motor seems a little small. I have run a fair number of motors on my thrust meter. They seem to have a sweet spot for power to thrust. If you try to squeze more, then they just burn a lot more power with only a little more thrust. Do you have RPM or static thrust or at least watts for your current setup?? the bigger motor will definetly pull harder, I would try the G32 in 770 since you have a limited dia prop you can spin.