I have forgotten to update the old BLOG section, since Christmas, but I am VERY pleased with the new plane my wife bought me, the Eflite Beast UMX from Horizon Hobby! It's the latest Ultra Micro (Xtreme) form HH and is an absolute BLAST to fly. I have only put about 5 flights through it, on the stock 120 mah battery, as it's tough finding suitable landing spaces in the 4 foot snow banks we have right now. That said, it's an amazing bit of engineering to say the least. It will go straight up vertical, no problem, and on high rates rolls so fast you are into the second roll before you release the sticks if you are not ready for it!

Harriers are great, rock solid with the bi-plane wings! Inverted and knife edge or non-issues, very predictable. Easy to land, just keep a bit of power on right to the ground. If you want an even more fun way to do it, try a slow harrier at eye level, rudder turning circle right in front of you then slowly reduce thrust as you descend and plop it on the ground in about 1 foot right in front of you! It's amazing, it really is! It even makes me look good!

Pics and vid to follow.

Also soldering up my own 2 cell Hyperion Lipos for this baby, 180mah, based on the instructions from Joel (turboparker on RCGroups) which were very helpfull. Come in at 2 grams heavier than the stock pack but according to Joel they are giving it 16% more thrust (RPM's) and of course longer flying times. I can't wait to try the first one I made out.

Pics and vid to follow. (PICS, VIDEO and how I did it now detailed in the thread! Also a short Flight Vid in some serious wind no the street in front of my house!)

Man this is a fun plane, it's going to be GREAT in the summer. I find it even easier to fly and control in tight than the Su 26xp, and yet it has more outright power and speed, more capable acrobatics envelope, and believe me, it's even BETTER looking! (It's a real killer to look at!)

Very happy with it so far!

Marlin

Well, I've been busy putting together new 2 cell, Hyperion 180 mah lipo packs. I ordered the following items

2 Cell mini JST Connectors - RC-Connectors

Single Cell 180 mah lipo - Allerc x 2

And I followed directions found on Joel's (turboparker) blog

Joel's Blog

And was able to make up (2) new 180 mah, 2 cell, Hyperion lipos. According to the data Joel has from testing these should give me a 16% performance boost, and from my scale I went from 9.5 grams on the stock 120 mah Eflite lipo to 11.7 grams with the new packs, so only about 2 grams more weight, 50% more battery reserve, and 16% more power! Good deal. Can't wait to try them out.

Build Vid and pictures to follow!

Marlin

So here is a step by step with some pictures, vid to follow of what I DID!

What I had to purchase:

2 single cell Hyperion G3 CX 25C lipos, 1 Beast Male connector with three wires, a bit of plastic from a margarine lid for a tab and some dual sided window insullation tape. (Double sided scotch tape!)

What I then needed in supplies to make the packs:

Some liquid electrical tape, a nice sharp set of side cutters, a soldering iron that has a fine enough tip for detailed soldering along with electrical wiring solder, a hot glue gun, a sharp utility knife (to strip the ends of the wires on the connector) and a bit of shrink warp to put on the three wires on the connector. It also helps to have a soldering helper / stand.

!!!! Before I go any further CAUTION!!!!!!!!!

I provide this information for ENTERTAINMENT PURPOSES ONLY! This is to show you what I DID, not to tell you what to do. I have absolutely NO qualifications in this area, and am NOT advocating you do this. Soldering lipo batteries can be dangerous and can lead to fires or injury if you are not sure of what you are doing! Seriously! I used safety goggles and had a metal fire bin and rubber handled pipe plyers handy to grab the lipo in case I shorted them out and started a fire, and I did this in my garage.

Next I placed both batteries on the bench so I could see the + and - signs facing up. I made sure the piece of shrink tubing was on the - sign on one, and + sign on the other and bent the connecting tabs out a bit, away from the side with the + - on it!

I used a piece of the double sided tape and stuck them together with the + - signs facing inward. What you end up is with a + and - pole that is UN-SHIELDED facing each other, and the same with the tubing shields facing each other on the other side.

What I did was cut / trimmed the un-shielded tabs to about 1/8 of an inch and solder the white balancing wire from the connector together with the two un-shielded tabs.

USE CAUTION not to short these to the other two tabs which are covered by the shrink tubing!

Once soldered, I covered it with liquid elec tape and let that dry.

I then removed the tubing off the NEGATIVE pole and CAREFULLY trimmed it to about 1/8 inch as well, then soldered the black wire to it. It was also covered in liquid elec tape and let that dry.

Next did the same with the last remaining POSITIVE pole and the RED wire. I was VERY CAREFULL not to short the lipo poles! More elec. tape. Once dry, gooped the whole thing with liquid elec tape, then pulled down the shrink tube I had put the three wires through and heated it in place.

Finally I put hot glue in the crack/space between the lipos and over each of the three solder joints, then across basically the entire top of the pack, to aid in protecting the wiring from being pulled from the solder joints during use.

Another bit of double sided tape to attach the plastic strip under the lipo, and then secured a velcro DOT on the underside, to keep the battery in place in the plane, and the pack was finished!

I weighed the Stock 120 mah Eflite lipo at 9.5 grams. My first pack weighed in at 11.6 grams, the second 11.7 grams. They are very close in size as well. Should be a great addition to my beast!

Marlin

Took out the beast and flew all three packs one after the other to compare and contrast. I immediately noticed the extra RPM/Power of the Hyperion 180 packs as it climbed better, took off faster and had more torque in hover. (Was able to do a couple torque rolls in hover when I could not before with the stock 120 mah.) It was not HUGE but certainly a very noticeable improvement.

What struck me most however was the performace towards the end of the flight. With the stock 120 I have been carefull to come down at about minute 5 and for the last couple minutes I notice a degradation in power for vertical maneuvers, etc. You can tell the battery is getting low. NOT AT ALL with the 180 Hyperions! I went past minute 6 and it still felt like it was a fresh pack, no noticeable drop in power or vertical performance. I landed both packs at about the end of 6 mins, approaching 7, but never came close to running out of juice.

I really like these new packs! Many thanks again to Joel (turboparker on RC Groups) for all the help in making these up.

It was a lot of fun tonight, wind was up a bit, but this plane handles it great. I was doing knife edges, inverted flying and harriers, regular harriers, snap rolls, spins and even flat spins, just TOO FUN! I even got some nice slow rolls and a couple attempts at hesitation rolls in! (Have to work on both those yet!)

This is an awesome plane!

Marlin

Here is a video of the build from my Youtube site.

Marlin

Eflite Beast - Hyperion 180 mah 2 cell Lipo Build Video (10 min 37 sec)

I fly my Beast on the 180mah eflite battery which costs about $14 from my hobby store. I have 4 batteries and can fly all day!
I love this little beast!

It sure is a great plane isn't it! I haven't been able to get out for a while as the weather has been either very windy, or so warm the snow is all melting and my normal runway spots (parking lots at various places) have been full of water and slush from melting snow. It's killing me!

Great price on the lipo as well, wish they were that cheap at the LHS up here, but not even close. We can pick up servos cheap, the planes at about the same cost as in the states, but man lipos and motors are crazy expensive! I buy all my bats and any hop up motors online.

Marlin

Well, I have rigged up a HAT CAM to take videos and thought I would be using this weekend to get LOADS of good video but the wind is NOT cooperating. 30 km / hr winds today! I just had to try SOMETHING so took the beast out front and flew it from the driveway. BIG MISTAKE, way too windy. I kept it in the air and MOSTLY undercontrol. I kinda CRASH LANDED it the first time, as the gusty winds died off just above touch down.

Of course nothing like getting lucky to make you think you should push it, so up it went again ... again WAY too windy, and I almost hit the light post 2 or 3 times. Again, managed to kinda land / flop it down with not damage and this time decided to leave well enough along.

Hope you enjoy the flight.

Marlin

Eflite Beast Windy Day Flight (2 min 12 sec)

Here is a little longer flight, on the Stock 120 mah lipo, right off the driveway on a reasonably calmer day. The Beast is a TON of fun, very agile yet controllable. Had a blast dodging light posts and parked cars while doing some stunt flying. Even managed a couple knife edges ON THE BLOCK!

This thing is a LOT of fun to fly.

Marlin

Beast On The Block Part 1 (5 min 21 sec)

Clear box tape, thinner the better. The weight of it will not hurt the plane at all.
This is my 2nd set of wings, due to folding (no tape on em')
What I did..

Tape wings / Flaps / All tail / Nose / Whole Body (pics)

Carbon rods on wing connectors / Rudder

Lowered Battery try inside 1/4" +or-

5043 prop

Still Jams and can take a hit w/out FOLDING

Making a pair of 180mah HYPO's thanks to "Fish99" for all the info

Eflite Beast - Hyperion 180 mah 2 cell Lipo Build Video (10 min 37 sec)

"RemE" Mods Prob next



My beast












Ruben

Looks like you have some soldering to do Ruben! :> I sure enjoy flying mine on the Hyperion 180's, they really bring this plane to life and from all accounts appear to be the "sweet spot" in terms of battery size.

Good luck with the soldering!

Marlin

Thanks you,
looking for a good charger before I call it a night =)
Can't wait!

Here's an old video on my YouTube account of the Beast flying on a very windy day in the winter in front of the house! Loads of fun.

Marlin

Eflite Beast Windy Day Flight (2 min 12 sec)