mutski,

haha - nice to have caught it on video. The black box (808 #16) provides the crash commission with priceless information to be analyzed afterwards

I have noted in some of your previous videos that you tend to fly quite slowly, and close the stall speed, as far as I can see. Almost dropped you a warning about it a few weeks ago...

And great visibility - you can see forever. Do you get many days like that in the winter?

EDIT: This is how slow I can make my ES 1 fly. Stall limit most of the time

Multiplex EasyStar very low. Chopping plant stems at 3:17 (4 min 42 sec)

I agree with Mike_O. You to tend to fly too slow while up in the air and too fast when you land.
You should try to find it's lower speed limit, at which it flies stable without the need of elevator, then apply a little of up elevator until it stalls.

Then use this knowledge applied to landing: slow it, bring it near the ground, make it fly leveled and when it slows further apply the last flare. Note: I can't do that in my backyard because I have to land on a steep slope...

I leave you with this video: I started to play with iMovie but I'm quite far from being Ridley Scott...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ljjGhw-7UBQ

I see a lot of people here talking about wing tip stalling their Easystar, which should be almost impossible with a plane as predictable as this one.

Some tips:
1. Balance your plane. Not only Longitudinally (CoG), but also Laterally (between tail and nose and see which wing drops). The latter means the difference between a (nasty) tip stall and a full wing stall, which is very gentle in the Easystar.
2. Know your plane's stall behaviour at any speed, test this high up ofcourse. If well balanced, an Easystar should show the same -soft- full wing stall at any speed.
3. Always take the wind in consideration; you are standing on the ground while your airplane flies in a box of moving air, therefore it should fly faster downwind than upwind, think of the needed wind flow over the wing.
4. When close to stall speed, never bank over 30 degrees, 45 degrees for a second only.
5. When at full speed, banking at 90 degrees is possible for a few seconds, but you'll lose all lift once the speed bleeds off.
6. Never, ever bank over 90 degrees unless you want to play Stuka dive bomber; any plane would dive in that position (see Mutski's video).
7. Reduce your rudder/elevator/aileron throws. When balanced and trimmed out, and there is not too much wind, the Easystar pretty much flies and lands itself. You are only disturbing the laws of nature with your inputs.




edit: I might have repeated things people said before, including myself...

EZII low flying practice (3 min 54 sec)

Colonel Blink - what are all the little volcanos at 32 seconds into your video? Is the UK a geologically active site ? Or is this an archeological site? Very curious landscape! I often do flybies with my ESII, and think of it as "playing chicken with myself." I see you are a bit bolder than I am - I haven't actually had to leap aside yet .

Mike-O ... yup, good visibility here most of the time, often in summer too but especially on cold winter days. On clear nights when it gets really cold, e.g. -35 or -40C, you can see the moisture freezing out of the air in the form of tiny frost crystals drifting down. On clear days, I can see Mount Susitna near Anchorage (420 km) from hilltops near Fairbanks. In the winter, I can almost always see Mount McKinley, 260 km from my house. Interior Alaska is a desert climate, although cold, with an average of just 25 cm of rain per year, about the same as Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Thanks all for the warnings about flying slowly! I've been catching onto the idea that steep banks at slow speeds are a bad idea. I've got to say though, I really enjoy slow cruising, somewhere between a quarter and a third throttle. It just looks so cool floating by!

My latest battle is trying to warp the tail boom back into its original configuration so that neutral trim produces level flight. I've broken it three times now, and I finally realized that it wasn't quite straight anymore, complicating my flying! I've finally gotten the rudder about centered, but I keep overcompensating when I heat and bend for the elevator. Another try today. I'm making primary corrections with a hair drier at home, then fine-tuning with the defroster in my car in the field .

The weather is getting cooler! I've been flying down to -25C with no particular problems. It's easier with fleece gloves than leather mittens! The main trouble now is the low sun. Even on relatively bright days, the ES is much harder to see. I'm adding some flourescent orange spray paint today (pretested on scrap elapor). Thats one thing that ought to be easier with FPV if I can just avoid piling into the ground when I launch! Video tx/rx are coming, not sure how long I'll take to get it assembled and work up the courage to try it.

I got bold today and tried some loops! They weren't all perfect, but I turned a few good ones. It was sufficient to bring back some adrenalin, though in truth, I was easily high enough to recover from any mistakes (it's a good thing too!). This clearly opens another door for fun and growth

EasyStar II loops (2 min 37 sec)

Originally Posted by mutski

......what are all the little volcanos at 32 seconds into your video? Is the UK a geologically active site ? Or is this an archeological site? Very curious landscape!

Actually they are called 'bell pits' and are the remains of 14th century mining for coal and iron ore.....

I had to run mainly due to misjudgement!!!

It's been awfully quiet here lately... I guess everyone else has packed it up for the winter? I brightened up my ESII, immediately landed in a tree and ripped the tail off getting it down. Wonders of Elapor - had it glued in an afternoon, paint retouched and chasing ravens today. I couldn't quite get close enough to make them impressive through the keychain camera. The new colors make it easier to see from the ground, especially the black bars. It looks remarkably good considering how many times its been crashed, smashed, boiled and glued.

Originally Posted by mutski

It's been awfully quiet here lately... I guess everyone else has packed it up for the winter?

Not packing up really, just changing flight mode due to lack of daylight..
Nice color scheme, BTW.

Originally Posted by mutski

It's been awfully quiet here lately... I guess everyone else has packed it up for the winter? I brightened up my ESII, immediately landed in a tree and ripped the tail off getting it down. Wonders of Elapor - had it glued in an afternoon, paint retouched and chasing ravens today. I couldn't quite get close enough to make them impressive through the keychain camera. The new colors make it easier to see from the ground, especially the black bars. It looks remarkably good considering how many times its been crashed, smashed, boiled and glued.

Wait... this is still your original Easystar?? Looks great to me!

And what is this winter thing you are talking about we should pack up to?

I got the RR EZ*2 so the motor and esc were already built into my model. Can anyone suggest a battery upgrade for me so i can get a little more grunt out of it? nothing so powerful that it burns out the motor or esc mind.

Thanks in advance

Edit: currently using the standard 3s 2000mah multiplex battery.

Cmdr Clumbsy - yup, still the original ESII, now more
Gorilla glue than elapor but nothing a little paint won't hide - bright colors to distract.

Originally Posted by Jono87

I got the RR EZ*2 so the motor and esc were already built into my model. Can anyone suggest a battery upgrade for me so i can get a little more grunt out of it? nothing so powerful that it burns out the motor or esc mind.

Thanks in advance

Edit: currently using the standard 3s 2000mah multiplex battery.

You won't get anymore grunt out of changing the battery. A larger capacity (more mAh) would increase the weight and flight time, but not the performance, and a 4S battery (higher voltage) would probably fry either your motor or ESC before you get the Easy airborne.

You may get away with replacing the stock 1000KV (?) 2830mm motor with a 1300KV 2830mm, but that might fry the ESC (don't know the rating of the RR MPX set up). Safe method is replacing motor and ESC at the same time and perhaps switch to a fixed prop to cope with higher rmps and power.

But why do you want more grunt in the ES ll? For me, the ES ll is not about aerobatics or crazy fast low passes, it's more about learning to fly and having a solid, reliable allrounder. Maybe you are after another model?

Originally Posted by mike_o

You won't get anymore grunt out of changing the battery. A larger capacity (more mAh) would increase the weight and flight time, but not the performance, and a 4S battery (higher voltage) would probably fry either your motor or ESC before you get the Easy airborne.

You may get away with replacing the stock 1000KV (?) 2830mm motor with a 1300KV 2830mm, but that might fry the ESC (don't know the rating of the RR MPX set up). Safe method is replacing motor and ESC at the same time and perhaps switch to a fixed prop to cope with higher rmps and power.

But why do you want more grunt in the ES ll? For me, the ES ll is not about aerobatics or crazy fast low passes, it's more about learning to fly and having a solid, reliable allrounder. Maybe you are after another model?

Thanks for the reply =)

Im after a little more power as i want to add 5.8ghz video tx gear into the ez*. I already have a FlyCamOne camera on it which doesnt add much weight but im thinking if i put much more on it then il need to give it more power.

I am not amazing at DIY so having to pull apart a perfectly working model, motor and ESC seems risky if i could simply add a more powerful battery. This now looks like a risk im gonna have to take.

can you suggest a specific esc, motor & prop to get?

Should probably buy myself a soldering iron too!

Jono,

I have used my ES ll for FPV with absolutely no power problems. It's even "suffering" from a smaller, less powerful motor than the MPX recommendation ( I run a $6, 2826mm, 1000kv outrunner instead of the recommended 2830mm ditto). And I still get very good climb rate of that motor on the stock folding prop.

The video camera and Tx doesn't add much weight, perhaps 60gr, and with a little luck (or filtering) you can run it off the main battery. Or get a tiny 370mAh 3S from HK to separate things. Biggest issue will be increased drag if you are not careful with the video cam position.

Unless, of course, if you plan on filling the plane with OSD, GPS, Autopilot etc, but it sounds as if you're not quite there yet