A couple of us here in NZ are looking at ordering two of these EPP slopers, anyone flown one ? Please tell me what you think of this model.
Apparently the "Element" will handle up to 40oz of ballast, any comments on this and how does the model perform in tight turns with this amount of Pb on board ?

We are not DS'ers but pretty serious slope heads.

Cheers dudes.
Paul
New Zealand.

Hi Paul, That's 40 oz all up weight.

I see, I see. Is the Element restricted to 3 oz ballast because of limited space in the EPP fuse, or more to do with wing strength ?
In other words... how would 8 oz go ( or more), if I could get that much inside the fuse ? would the wings handle it in pylon turns ?
Paul.

Paul,
I just finished my Element build with a lot of advice from Larry at Magnum Models, who now distributes the Eaton air products. There are a couple fairly minor things about the layout of the gear in the model, but overall a very easy build. I was moving things around the receiver bay and casting lead ballast to fit the available space last night. A couple of observations:
1. It took around 5-6 oz. of lead in the nose to balance this on the recommended CG.
2. One of the design goals was to have the receiver available under the wing. Unfortunately, the receiver bay is located right at the CG. I decided to use a Berg 4 instead of the Electron 6 Rx. this allowed me to bury the Rx under the rear wing bolt plate and preserve most of the receiver bay for placing lead ballast. I was able to protect the electronics and wires with a couple pieces of scrap EPP, leave enough room to stuff the servo wires from the ailerons when the wing is screwed on the fuse, and still have enough room for 7 OZ. of cast lead ballast to go into that space.
3. You could add still more weight if you buried your receiver forward of the receiver compartment. You might be able to do this (with a little better planning than me) so that you could still slide the Rx back and change crystals as needed. One of the first things I would do if I had it to do over again would be to mark the cg on the fuse ASAP and take that into consideration when carving out the spaces for everything.

Overall a very nice kit. Parts were all there and the wings and fuse were well made.

Good luck with it. I can't wait. Larry can be reached on his cell # this week while he is in kansas for the competition. See the Magnum Models website for his number. He is actually maidening his new one this weekend. he is a great guy to talk to and very happy to discuss any questions you might have.

tony

Howdy

Mine is the one pictured in the first post. It should handle whatever ballast within reason that you want to install. Mine flies real well, its tough and is great for unimproved landings.

Lucky dog,

Are you using either flapperons or spoilerons to help slow down for landings?

any tips on CG adjustments?

tony

Tony, any possibility of a pic of your ballast bay/Rx compartment ?

Lucky Dog: thanks. I would guess at wanting to put approx. 10-20 oz ballast in the model, if I could get it all to fit. This without having ever seen an Element Does that sound at all feasible ? any pics you might care to post or PM me would be most appreciated.
Paul.

Paul,
I will try to get some picures posted tonight.

Although I am not sure that the plane is designed for that much ballast, you could easily get that in the plane by moving the receiver away from the receiver bay and having the "ballast bay" centered on the cg and extending from under the wing all the way down to the carbon rod fuse reinforcement.

Tony

I use small receivers and tuck them under the front of the wing saddle .You can make any change to gain more room by hollowing out a little more space toward the nose . You should have no issues getting 8 to 10 oz in her . That sounds kinda tacky.!

Thanks gents. And Tony, no drama if you dont manage a photo, the reason It would be good though, is that I'm a little undecided whether to order an Element, purely because of the ballast set up. However these comments are very encouraging.
I have an EPP model currently called a Fusion, which I have 17 oz ballast inside in three separate compartments. I can run with just one, or two, or all three. The holes are quite simply equally spaced around the CoG from below the wing LE, then right on the CoG and the third is below the wing TE. Very simple with this model because it is quite chunky.
I did a 1' 05 F3F time a couple weeks ago with this foamie and came second behind a fully ballasted Corracho.
Cheers, Paul.

paul,
finally got around to taking some pics of my ballast compartment. Keep in mind that part of my Rx and some wires ended up in my ballast area right by the CG. Because I had to protect these items and also leave space for stuffing the aileron extensions, I limited my weight possibilities. Still had room for 7.5 oz. of cast lead. If I had it to do over again, I could make room for 30 oz. or more.

anyway...hope this is of some help.

Tony

very helpful Tony, thanks for taking the time to do so. Cheers.
Paul.

Gents-

Please keep this thread up! I just purchased an Element...I have never built a foamie before...only built-ups. This is very helpful! Any and all hints greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

Tyler
tbat770

Tyler,
I know that larry from Magnum took a bunch of pictures while he built one last month. He might be persuaded to post some of those pictures here.

One tip I will pass along is routing the antenna wire. There is not much room for the wire the be buried in the foam next to the CF rod and elevator control rod housing... especially at the back of the fuse. I also preferred not to run the antenna on the outside of the plane. Rather than trying to run it down the side with everything already buried in it, I buried another control rod housing in the side of the fuse without all the markings and stuff buried in it. Make sure that it is routed so that you will have access to one end of it in the main radio cavity. I also tried to run it so that it would not end up right next to the CF rod in the fuse. It can be run back so that it exits the fuse right next to the CF rod, but in the other half of the fuse.

Range test seems OK.

Tony

I will talk to larry and see if he can post a few pics.It should give youa good idea on the lay out .On the antenna I run it down the fuse in a shallow cut in the fuse before i spackel and tape leave a bit of it in the space under the wing with a plug on the end ,if i need to change rec i can unplug it and put what i need.