Does anyone see a reason I can't put a speed 400 in my wattage corsair? The person I got the corsair from had upgraded the ESC to take 8 cells and I'll only be running 7. The stock motor barely gets the plane rolling. Any problems I should be aware of, or has anyone tried this?

The 380 can motor in the Wattage Corsair is a high performance version of the Mabuchi 400. 380, 400, whatever, they are all the same can. Don't be confused by the numbers, as 400 sounds bigger than 380, as it doesn't tell you anything about the motor. I doubt that any of the commonly available GWS, Graupner, etc (Mabuchi) 400's are better than your motor. The only low cost brushed one I know of that may be more powerful, is the Multiplex, as it is a different motor. This was my first plane. I am not too thrilled with it now, but I do know how to get it flying. YOU MUST USE 8 CELLS. That is the major problem, as 7 doesn't get it.
I know you may not take my advice on this, but just trying to save you the hassle. Also, their is a plastic motor support bracket, with 2 screws under the checkerboard sticker. It must be properly installed, of the motor will break the front of the fuse, due to lack of support. It is a bit tricky, as you can't get your fingers in there, and you may not want to mess with it.
To sum it up, leave the motor in and use 8 cells. No offense, but you won't be flying with 7.

You didn't mention what prop you were using. I have numerous speed 400's
on direct drive and they run fine with 7 cells. Generally, I run 5.5x4's and 6x3's and 5x5's. Mostly though, I run 8 cell kan's and 8 cell GP 1100's.
You can also try a gearbox with that motor and swing a bigger prop.
Not all 380-400 motors are the same. Some are 6 volt, 7.2 volt etc.
I've found the Permax 6 volt motors to be of a good quality and also the
Hyper 400 from Aircraft World. The best however would be a brushless.
Say a Park 400 by Eflite. I've had many Wattage planes and all of them have had crappy power systems included.

Scratch, I see your from Grove City. The Hubbard Wingsnappers are having an all electric fly-in at the end of this month. I believe on the 31st. Just about all of our membership fly electric as well as glow. We are giving away a complete electric model thats RTF. To fly, you'll need your AMA. Go to www.wingsnappers.com for more info. The Wingsnappers field is actually in West Middlesex which makes it nice for me as I live less than 2 miles from the field.

Dave...

The original 'Wattage' RTF Corsair came with a 7 cell pack. The newer versions come with a 8 cell pack, but it uses smaller cells to keep the weight down. Those smaller cells have a hard time providing the current on the included prop.

Try a 6x3E prop (with 8 cells) and it should have enough power to fly.

Unfortunately I can chime in on this as well.

I switched out the motor for the GWS 400 and a 5.5X4.5 APC
prop. Definately 8 nimh cells on this one. I have tried flying with
a 2S lipo and had her going until I had to deal with the wind and
WOW what a tipstall.

I think this one has been retired to the airframe hanger in the
sky!

fb

2S lipos only give you 7.4 volts. You can do it but the punch isn't gonna be there. You could do 3S lipos but you'd have to prop it down a little because you'd be pushing 11.1 volts thru.

Dave...

Yep Dave, no matter how you cut it it's just not a well thought out
plane on a brushed motor. Too heavy, stock prop is worthless,
kinda skittish TX, on the upside global will provide you all the replacement
parts you may ever want.

I've only heard reports of somewhat decent flight on a brushless and
3S which is 11.1V.

The reason I used a 2S is because I didn't want to overcurrent the motor,
alas this is a lost cause.

much luck,
fb

Well I put in a speed 400 i had and ran it with 7 cells and it worked great. The only problem was it needed a little more downforce so I had to shim the wing a little. I'd also like to share how tough this little plane is. It's had a few crashes in it with the stock motor that couldn't keep in the air and one crash today before I shimmed the wing and all it has is a couple scratches. I like the plane a lot.

Want to buy another???

I'm getting 3 of these for $40 at the LHS I work at. They are in various conditions, but there are enough good parts to make at least one good plane with plenty of spare parts.

WHY, you may ask? Because this plane looks really cool, has a VERY bad reputation and I've got plenty of S-400 experience to get this baby to fly.

My plans are to first try the plane stock but with an 8 cell pack and 6x4 prop. Failing that, I will replace the stock ESC and fly it with one of my 3S-LiPos.

I am certain that it will fly, just not sure how well. I'll report back later with the results.

This gives me a great idea.

I'm going to add a fuse to the end of the tail, liberally splash some gasoline to the rear of the fuse, light the fuse, take off and make a low rated B movie of Pappy Boingtons last hurahh!!!

Originally Posted by fly_boy99

This gives me a great idea.

I'm going to add a fuse to the end of the tail, liberally splash some gasoline to the rear of the fuse, light the fuse, take off and make a low rated B movie of Pappy Boingtons last hurahh!!!

I'll consider your idea AFTER I've totaled them all.

The melting plastic should show some impressive black smoke I would think.....

And to think all this time we've been telling customers that the smoke was an added feature of their Corsairs.

Got the Corsairs and had enough parts for 1 working plane.

Observations:

1) I immediately noticed there is nothing in the manual about CG location. Ok, it's an RTF and the battery can only go one way. We'll see in the air.

2) The prop was severely out of balance. A little scotch tape made things smoother.

Flight report:

I wanted to try and fly it completely stock, to see if it was do-able.

Static thrust seemed very low, even with a fully charged and cycled 7 cell NiCd pack, but I'll try it anyways.
At the park, there was not enough power to move the plane on the short grass so a hand launch was in order. Three different attempts at hand launching resulted in tip stalls at the first flight correction. I'm pretty sure this was from the lack of power (airspeed) and most likely to rearward CG.

Next day:

I removed the foam in the nose so I could mount the pack sideways for a more forward CG. Bought the upgraded 8 cell NiMh pack, but it had been sitting too long on the store shelf and I am currently trying to revive it.

Temporary solution was to use a spare 3S-1350 LiPo pack, which now provided exceptable power. On the hard surface of a parking lot, the plane took to the air easily. A slight amount of triming was needed fo level flight. I set the control throws at maximum, but it took so little stick movement to fly that I will re-set them to the recommended minimum.

Flew around for about 10 minutes at full throttle, then decided to reduce power and see how well she glided. OH BOY!! As soon as I reduced power to about 1/2, she tip stalled and spiraled in from about 30 feet up. Other than one of the foam tires popping off the wheel on the gear, there was absolutely zero damage falling 30' onto blacktop.

If I can get the 8 cell pack alive, it should move the CG forward slightly more and hopefully provide a little better glide charactoristics.