Originally Posted by Paul-RC

Well got a call from a buddy yesterday and he lost his A5 from a cooked ESC.
He lost all power and it went down hard in the water.
HE will repair it but I told him to install a separate BEC even if he doesn't add Flaps at least if the ESC fails he will have power to glide in.
He said no water went to the ESC before this happed and he has been using the 2200 3 cell lipo's and flying 8min not pushing it so the ESC wasn't working hard from what I can see.

That's a bummer. But from what I have read and heard an esc is working the hardest when it isn't at full throttle or off. Full and off are the easiest on it.

I flew mine yesterday on a 4S 2650 Zippy It was more agile and powerful of course.According the specs, the esc is ok with 3-4S....Yes, I know it must be changed to a 60A esc Do you know guys the specs of the motor?On the HH site I only see the Kv....
The CG wasn't affected with the heavier accu,it was a tad bit nose heavy
One thing is mportant if you fly it on 4S.No WOT all the time

Great flying plane, my first 2 flights had radio issues, new receiver for 3rd flight and had an issue to where the fairing between the wings in front of the motor came off in flight. Landed in the water and was able to recover (Images attached). It appears that they painted the air red, and then glued the fairing down with little glue. Highly recommend removing and re-gluing. This is needed to cover wiring for aileron servos and keeping water out of the fuselage. Not sure yet what glue I am going to use, as I may need to remove it for maintenance later, but I don't want it to come off either.

Overall Great flyer... Probably the best to learn how to fly off the water.

See images and video.

Parkzone ICON-A5 Maiden (5 min 23 sec)

Originally Posted by sparkie624

Great flying plane, my first 2 flights had radio issues, new receiver for 3rd flight and had an issue to where the fairing between the wings in front of the motor came off in flight. Landed in the water and was able to recover (Images attached). It appears that they painted the air red, and then glued the fairing down with little glue. Highly recommend removing and re-gluing. This is needed to cover wiring for aileron servos and keeping water out of the fuselage. Not sure yet what glue I am going to use, as I may need to remove it for maintenance later, but I don't want it to come off either.

Overall Great flyer... Probably the best to learn how to fly off the water.

See images and video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sow-OIc5uFo

I just use clear adhesive silicone. Sticks really well and can be remove f needed.

Originally Posted by Paul-RC

I just use clear adhesive silicone. Sticks really well and can be remove f needed.

Great idea... I actually have some of that.. and it won't degrade in water.

Originally Posted by sparkie624

Great idea... I actually have some of that.. and it won't degrade in water.

I use it a lot, men second best friend afer duck tape

Bought my A5 Tuesday evening and put it together. It was a BNF even though I wanted a PNP. No one had one. Put it together. Very easy assembly. Tried to bind it to a DX6i I had laying around, but I couldn't get it to bind. We had our club's monthly meeting Wed. night. So I took it with me to seek some Spectrum user's advice ( I normally fly Futaba 2.4 ). After the meeting and after 2 attempts, my good friend "Buzzed" was able to get it to bind and set up the radio. We had a problem! Elevator servo was frozen/locked up and would not move. So I took it home. Removed the elevator servo, removed the top and found two slivers of brass locking the gears!!! Removed the slivers, inspected/checked closely, cleaned it up, re-lubed the gears and wal-lah...servo worked fine! So our OEAF Scale Group was doing a float fly at Bartlett Lake on Thursday. Didn't get any video this time but will. Had an uneventful take-off, 7 minute flight with touch and go's and a couple of full stops. Great flying...even with the occasional Dutch roll (which was immediately stopped by applying some right rudder. The Dutch roll was indeed happening most of the time when power was back to 1/4 throttle and turning/descending for approaches, base to final. Was real happy with the aircraft. Been flying RC since 1964...but can you believe it...I never flew off of water even with being born and raised in Central Fla!!! It took flying in AZ to "get my feet wet..RC float flying"!!! ;-) (full-scale pilot including float plane) Wind came up and I had to leave. Flew once for 8 minutes just after dawn this morning flying from the dock at my restaurant on Canyon Lake. Was a hoot!!! Great flight with little Dutch Roll, except as mentioned above. Love to fly scale and IMO you can do this with this close-to-scale A5! Looking to mount a GoPro or Contour GPS camera on this baby! I might add the flaps as well. Have protected the undercarriage on the hull, wingtips, etc. Will post photos when I have more time! Thanks Marty for your help, my friend!

Sorry...saved before putting in quote...see #804

Originally Posted by Paul-RC

Here is my small video from this morning.

I wish I had a friend with a good video camera to film good with a zoom too.
This is all I can do for now with my Contour GPS camera
http://youtu.be/z2vSq0nIpRE

Paul....GREAT video and editing!!! Thanks!!!

KJ

Originally Posted by FlyN Ace

Bought my A5 Tuesday evening and put it together. It was a BNF even though I wanted a PNP. No one had one. Put it together. Very easy assembly. Tried to bind it to a DX6i I had laying around, but I couldn't get it to bind. We had our club's monthly meeting Wed. night. So I took it with me to seek some Spectrum user's advice ( I normally fly Futaba 2.4 ). After the meeting and after 2 attempts, my good friend "Buzzed" was able to get it to bind and set up the radio. We had a problem! Elevator servo was frozen/locked up and would not move. So I took it home. Removed the elevator servo, removed the top and found two slivers of brass locking the gears!!! Removed the slivers, inspected/checked closely, cleaned it up, re-lubed the gears and wal-lah...servo worked fine! So our OEAF Scale Group was doing a float fly at Bartlett Lake on Thursday. Didn't get any video this time but will. Had an uneventful take-off, 7 minute flight with touch and go's and a couple of full stops. Great flying...even with the occasional Dutch roll (which was immediately stopped by applying some right rudder. The Dutch roll was indeed happening most of the time when power was back to 1/4 throttle and turning/descending for approaches, base to final. Was real happy with the aircraft. Been flying RC since 1964...but can you believe it...I never flew off of water even with being born and raised in Central Fla!!! It took flying in AZ to "get my feet wet..RC float flying"!!! ;-) (full-scale pilot including float plane) Wind came up and I had to leave. Flew once for 8 minutes just after dawn this morning flying from the dock at my restaurant on Canyon Lake. Was a hoot!!! Great flight with little Dutch Roll, except as mentioned above. Love to fly scale and IMO you can do this with this close-to-scale A5! Looking to mount a GoPro or Contour GPS camera on this baby! I might add the flaps as well. Have protected the undercarriage on the hull, wingtips, etc. Will post photos when I have more time! Thanks Marty for your help, my friend!

Excellent flight report!

Thanks for sharing the pics too.

Happy float flyin my friend,

-Buzzed

Originally Posted by Buzzed

Excellent flight report!

Thanks for sharing the pics too.

Happy float flyin my friend,

-Buzzed

Thanks! I am thinking of putting the landing gear on the A5 to fly a few times at our field....but in reality, since it fits so nicely in my Jeep GC and I have to go to Canyon Lake so often...well, I think I should just keep "float flyin her", don't you think?! Got enough "land-based" aircraft to fly! Well, there are probably never "enough"! Wife probably doesn't agree!!! If it has wings...I want and like to fly it or watch it!!! We need to get together and fly all 4 of these A5s someday, my friend!

Hopefully some video to come soon...and more pics! Enjoy your vacation...see you at the field! Let me know when you are going.

- FlyNACE

Originally Posted by Paul-RC

I use a software called Dashware, it reads the GPS datas from my Contour GPS camera.
I edit the video first with dashware to select and overlay the gauges and then I can do a final edit on my video software.

Again, nice job Paul! Can you elaborate on the "dashware" and your video software that you used? I also "private message" you regarding this. Is the "dashware" part of the software from Contour or is it separate. You fly really nice and have done a terrific job of sharing what you have done with the A5 here on RCGroups. We all really appreciate it! Looking forward to some more great videos from you! Thanks for sharing!

- FlyNAce

Originally Posted by FlyN Ace

Again, nice job Paul! Can you elaborate on the "dashware" and your video software that you used? I also "private message" you regarding this. Is the "dashware" part of the software from Contour or is it separate. You fly really nice and have done a terrific job of sharing what you have done with the A5 here on RCGroups. We all really appreciate it! Looking forward to some more great videos from you! Thanks for sharing!

- FlyNAce

Hi Ken

Thank you very much for your kind comments.
We need to share as much as we can to really enjoy our hobby.

Ok here it goes.
I film my video using the Contour GPS camera first.

Then I upload the videos on my PC and edit them all using DASHWARE from dashware.com

This lets you ad gauges of your choice form a list and even create some or edit some to your liking.
You need to do this first because if you edit the video with another software you will loose the GPS data's from the Contour Video.

Once all my video's are edited with the DASHWARE software I then create my final video using Magix Movie Edit Pro 16 Plus HD

I find this lots of fun with the Dashware gauges.

Hope this was clear enough, please to be shy to ask If I did forget any infos.
Paul

Originally Posted by Paul-RC

Hi Ken

Thank you very much for your kind comments.
We need to share as much as we can to really enjoy our hobby.

Ok here it goes.
I film my video using the Contour GPS camera first.

Then I upload the videos on my PC and edit them all using DASHWARE from dashware.com

This lets you ad gauges of your choice form a list and even create some or edit some to your liking.
You need to do this first because if you edit the video with another software you will loose the GPS data's from the Contour Video.

Once all my video's are edited with the DASHWARE software I then create my final video using Magix Movie Edit Pro 16 Plus HD

I find this lots of fun with the Dashware gauges.

Hope this was clear enough, please to be shy to ask If I did forget any infos.
Paul

Hi Paul, Thanks so much for your reply...and the great detail that you provided! That is much appreciated!!! I ordered a Contour GPS today from Amazon. I will have it tomorrow (Tue). I will check out the software from Dashware to preserve the GPS info and then Magix Movie. I have a video editor that I have used with my NHRA video footage...it might work well too. I will let you know. Thanks again...and my "kind words" were well deserved Sir! I will stay in touch! Happy Float Flyng!

- FlyNAce

I just picked up the A5 and was wondering if anyone went to a larger wheel set to help taxi and takeoffs on grass fields? I figure I can go to 1 1/2" front and 2" rear to keep them dimensionally the same and still clear the nose gear spring coil.