 |
 |
|
 |
 |
 |
|
|
|
HobbyKing FPV-UAV Composite 1660mm Electric Airplane ARF Review
The HobbyKing FPV (First Person View) is a large plane built to hold the video camera and transmitting gear needed to send video back to the pilot. This review is from the combined efforts of Jeffrey Hunter and Michael Heer.
Introduction
|
|
| Wingspan: | 1660mm |
| Length: | 1190mm |
| Weight: | 3600 grams listed |
| Motor Mount: | 58mm |
| Servos: | 5 MG14 Hextronik metal gear servos |
| Transmitter: | Jr 6308 FM |
| Receiver: | Jr FM |
| Battery: | Turnigy 3-cell 5,000mAh |
| Motor: | HobbyKing's 35 Series brushless |
| ESC: | 60A |
| Available From: | HobbyKing |
| Price: | $119.28 |
|
What is big and gray and mission-specific designed for carrying a camera and transmission gear into the air? HobbyKing's FPV! For this review you get the combined efforts of two people; my friend Jeff Hunter and myself. This is the first of what we hope will be two reviews. In this review we have been supplied with HobbyKing's FPV composite kit, a series 35 brushless motor, five 14MG Hextronik servos, a Turnigy 60 Amp battery pack, a Turnigy 3-cell 5,000 mAh battery pack, a prop and no instructions. Our mission is to see if we can figure out what to put where and if it will fly when we are finished. Jeff won the coin toss to be the primary builder of the FPV and the right to fly the maiden flight. I get to be the primary writer. We will both take pictures and share thoughts on this plane.
Kit Contents
The Kit Contains:
- Fiberglass Fuselage
- Plastic canopy
- Three piece built up wing sections
- Horizontal stabilizer and elevator
- Rudder
- Landing Gear and wheels
- Assorted hardware
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Supplied Items:
- Five MG14 Hextronik metal geared servos
- HobbyKing's 35 series brushless motor
- Turnigy Plush 60A ESC
- Turnigy Nano-Tech 3-cell 5,000 mAh high discharge battery pack
|
|
|
|
Assembly
Wing
The wing arrived in three fully assembled sub-sections. A flat center section and two wing tip sections. Additionally there were two servo cover plates packaged separate along with hardware. Locating the space for the aileron servo in the right wing tip panel the covering was cut away. The servo was mounted to the servo covering plate. A servo extension wire was connected to the servo wire and was fed through the wing panel to the panel's wing root. The servo cover was secured in place with four screws, and the aileron was secured to the wing panel with the supplied hinges using CA glue. A control horn was mounted to the aileron and connected to the servo with a control rod. The process was repeated on the other wing panel.
-
The aileron servos were mounted on the servo covers as shown here.
-
The servo covers installed, the ailerons hinged and attached with the control horn installed and connected to the servo.
A hole was cut in the covering at the center bottom of the flat center wing section and the servo wires were pulled through that hole using string. Plywood bent wing rods were glued into the center wing panel and the outer wing panels joining the three sections into one wing.
-
Servo extensions were installed to run from the outer wing panel to the middle of the center wing panel.
-
Strings were used to run the two servo wires out the hole in the middle bottom of the center wing panel.
Tail
The back end of the tail was cut out to allow easy access to move the servo wires from the vertical stabilizer where the servos will be mounted and to reduce the weight at the tail of the plane. The rudder and elevator servos were mounted into the fuselage in the holes supplied for the servos. However, servo extension wires were secured to them first and those were run up to the front of the fuselage to connect with the receiver. Rather than cut and mount hinges in the rudder and the fuselage Jeff decided to make a strong tape hinge since he had two nice smooth surfaces to work with on the fuselage and rudder. The rudder was on quick and easy. The Horizontal stabilizer was secured in place after the elevator had been attached with hinges and CA glue and the control horn mounted on the aileron. Rather than use the supplied metal bolts Jeff thought it would be best to go with nylon bolts that would be lighter to help keep down the tail weight. With everything mounted it was a simple matter to connect the servos to the control surfaces using the supplied control rods. The tail assembly was complete.
-
Opening up the back of the fuselage helped lighten it and made it much easier to get servo extensions for the elevator and rudder servos forward to the receiver.
-
The rudder and elevator servos mounted into the holes molded for them in the fuselage.
Fuselage
Even without any instructions mounting the motor was an easy decision. The motor mount is on the top back side of the wing pylon making the plane a pusher powered plane and having the propeller out of the way from the front camera cockpit area. Lining up the X motor mount with the hole centered over the hole in the pylon motor mount it was just a matter of using the motor mount to mark the spaces for drilling the holes for the mounting bolts. Securing the motor to the X mount and mounting them onto the back of the pylon. Additionally, the center hole was drilled out and a slot was cut underneath the motor mount for the motor wires to enter the fuselage.
-
The motor mount location on the back of the wing pylon.
-
Jeff drilling out the center hole for the motor.
-
The motor mount ready for the motor. Four holes for the mounting bolts and space for the motor wires underneath.
-
The motor mounted in place.
-
The motor mounted with the FPV ready to fly.
The front wheel is steered and has its own servo and a supplied steerable landing gear mount.
-
The servo for steering the front wheel connected to the steering linkage supplied with the plane.
-
The front wheel as it exits the fuselage.
NOTE: While installing the front wheel it was obvious to Jeff that the plane should initially touch down on the main gear before lowering down the front of the plane onto the nose gear. The nose gear most likely will not hold up to nose gear touching down first. It is holding up well by landing initially on the main gear first.
The assembled wing is secured to the fuselage on the wing pylon saddle. Jeff confirmed that the saddle was level as shown in the picture below. The front of the wing is secured in place with a pin into the front of the wing pylon as well as a lip over the front of the wing. The back of the wing is secured with two bolts and Jeff drilled those spaces out.
-
The front of the wing is secured with a pin into the mount and a lip over the wing.
-
The back of the wing was secured to the motor pylon area with two bolts.
Radio Installation
The receiver was installed in the front section of the fuselage about even with front wheel. The radio is powered by the flight pack battery through the battery elimination circuitry (BEC) in the ESC. The battery was mounted as far forward as it could go along the side of the compartment out of the way of the steering mechanism for the wheel front gear. Jeff is using an FM receiver and has its antenna mounted like a prop forward and outside of the fuselage for clear reception.
Completion
The plane had to be balanced from front to back on the Center of Gravity and from side to side do the length of the wing span of the plane. The left side of the wing was heavier then the right side of the wing. This required the addition of weight to the right wing tip to balance the plane laterally. A screw and a nail provided the necessary weight for the right wing tip and were secured in place to balance the wing.
-
The nail and the screw needed to balance the right side of the wing with the heavier left side of the wing.
-
The nail and screw secured into the right wing tip.
To balance the plane on the C/G it was a question of trial and error by adding weight until the desired point of balance was achieved. The initial balance point was 25% back from the wings leading edge at the fuselage. The plane is designed to haul a camera and transmission gear up into the air and without that gear ballast was needed to supply the weight. Jeff added 540 grams of lead ballast to the front "cockpit" area for the fuselage to obtain his desired C/G balance point for the initial flights. We will remove some ballast and see how she flies with the C/G at a point 28% of the wing back from the leading edge.
Jeff also started working on a camera mounting platform to be used without the planes plastic canopy to obtain pictures from the air and possible future FPV use as well. the pictures below show the start of his camera mounting system. These were not used in this review but give an idea of what the plane will be used for in the future.
-
Platform for future camera mount.
-
Trial fitting a camera and its controller onto the camera mount Jeff is making.
Flying
Basics
The plane is a four channel plane with throttle, ailerons, elevator and rudder/steering (Two different servos harnessed together for those functions. Jeff programmed in some Crow on his transmitter so he can raise both ailerons together as a partial air brake. The plane is designed as an aerial transport to haul cameras and transmission gear up into the air and with proper gear can be flown First Person Viewing- flying from the view from the cockpit and seeing that view real time on a monitor or special monitor equipped glasses as the view is transmitted from the plane and viewed on the ground. (For safety sake it is highly recommended that the pilot have a ground based spotter with him who watches the plane with his eyes in the traditional fashion. This way if anything goes wrong with the camera or transmission gear he can direct the pilot or take over the transmitter if need be and bring the plane back to the field and land it in the traditional fashion of watching it in person.)
This review is about the plane and not about FPV equipment. However, the plane is designed to have that extra equipment mounted in it, and lacking that equipment, extra ballast was required as discussed above. This ballast is removable to be replaced by camera and transmission gear in the future. We started with a Turnigy 3-cell 5,000 mAh battery pack Lipo in the nose and there was still lots of space beneath the cockpit. To that was added 580 grams of lead or approximately a pound of lead. Thus it can easily take a pound of cargo by way of camera and transmission gear.
In the early morning we decided to fly from asphalt rather then the adjacent dirt runway. We had the dirt runway if needed. So we flew in the early morning from one of the parking lots at the sport complex where we were flying and had no traffic at all during our flight. As can be seen in the video she used a bit of the runway for taking off and even more of the runway for landing in the roll out.
In the air she handled fine. A bit of right aileron was needed for the maiden flight to balance the wing weight and that was since corrected by adding a nail and screw as discussed above to the right wing tip to laterally balance the plane. Turns are best performed using both aileron and rudder but because of the polyhedral in the wing she can turn using just rudder in a slow wide arch. She was responsive to elevator and all in all handled fine once she was laterally trimmed. The Crow did help slow her down in the air and for landing. However with a model with flaps now available both Jeff and I would recommend consideration of the flap version for slowing down in the air for video purposes as well as for landing.
Taking Off and Landing
As seen in the pictures the kit came with landing gear which is optional. If hand launching the plane I recommend doing it with a short running start and a very hard forward and ground level throw. Have the throttle running at three quarters and go to full throttle when you get your hand back on the transmitter. Under no circumstances would I recommend throwing this plane up for the launch. Throw it level!
As shown in the video the plane takes off and climbs well off of a runway but does best with some space to get up some speed. For landing it needs as much or more runway then when taking off because due to her weight she lands fast and has a reasonably long roll out. Landing should always be done as one would with a real plane by flaring a bit and touching down on the mains and then slightly later bringing the front wheel down. Keep the front wheel straight and it is very important to land into the wind. Steer with the front wheel too soon and the plane will wobble at a minimum or worse. For tall grass landings the plane can be landed without gear by sliding her in like a glider.
Considering her size and weight the performance for take off and landings has really been very acceptable and nothing unexpected. The main landing gear has worked well so far but if the plane was landed power off or dropped to hard to hit a spot due to a short runway I can see possible problems with the softness of the metal gear. For landing on a reasonable size runway the supplied gear has worked fine.
Aerobatics/Special Flight Performance
The series 35 motor supplies plenty of power for the plane and as described above her handling has been fine. This plane has a purpose design and it is not for aerobatics. A pylon mounted wing and a heavily ballasted bottom of the fuselage is not an ideal design for aerobatics. We tested not for aerobatics but with picture taking in mind. With that consideration we looked for how she handled and turned and at what speed she flew with low power or power off; with ailerons in neutral or in crow. She flew well and seemed to be a reasonable platform for a camera ship. We have some concerns about videotaping through the supplied canopy but that has not been put to the test yet. Jeff has made a separate front wooden mount to serve as a camera mount without any plastic canopy. While the supplied canopy is secured with magnets and has worked well, Jeff will have the camera mount he built locked onto the plane but that is still in the design stage.
She has proven she can take a pound of ballast or camera/transmission gear in the nose of the plane and there is lots of space for more gear and power to take more weight under the wing pylon if needed. Other then the curves in the clear plastic canopy she appears to be well built for hauling gear. Discussing videotaping will have to wait until we have tried it.
Is This For a Beginner?
NO! This plane is for the experienced pilot who has mastered flying and is ready to go aloft to fly a photography mission. If you have to think to control your plane your not ready for this plane because controlling the plane should be automatic as you are thinking about how to get her positioned to get the desired shot.
Flight Video/Photo Gallery
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Downloads
Conclusion
While I believe that instructions should be included in every kit my partner on this project, Jeff, had no trouble with assembly without instructions and I knew what to do as well, but it is nice to have instructions to read or plans before you start drilling into a fiberglass fuselage. Hopefully our pictures will help anyone assembling this plane in the future. As discussed above we have flown her as a mission designed plane. Just like an R/C B-17 should not be rolled or looped but rather should be flown scale; we have flown the FPV with camera work in mind. So far we have stuck to that and she has as described above flown well. If your budget can afford it we recommend considering the new version of this plane with flaps. Especially if you anticipate any small field landings. We are fine where we fly but we may want to take some pictures in interesting places in the future with only a small landing field available. Now that she has proven air worthy we are hoping to try her sometime as a true FPV.
Pluses
- Designed as a transport for camera and transmission gear and can handle the weight
- Appears to have reasonable space for a camera and gear in the cockpit (Yet to be tested).
- Handles well in normal flight
- Recommend motor system worked well and supplied plenty of power with 3-cell battery pack
Minuses
- No instructions come with the kit
- Consider the new flaps included version of this plane.
It has been fun working with Jeff on this review. He did a very nice job of assembly and was responsible for most of the construction pictures posted above. We hope to get an accurate weight of her ready to fly and will post that in the future. She is listed at 3600 grams but she was to heavy for our scales to confirm her all up weight.
Last edited by Angela H; Sep 18, 2011 at 04:02 PM..Discussion
|
| Thread Tools |
Sep 16, 2011, 12:10 PM
|
|
United States, GA, Sandy Springs
Joined Jul 2009
3,777 Posts
|
Nice review. I've contemplated buying this bird but went with the Skywalker V4 only because I read of balancing woes. Looks like they were non-existent huh?
 She balanced out well?If you're going to go FPV, might I suggest the Readymaderc RMRC-540 camera, Dragonlink LRS, Lawmate 1.2g 1w tx/rx combo with IBCrazy cloverleaf on the plane and Skew Planar Wheel on the rx, and an RVOSD5 autopilot. That combination has made my FPV experience very enjoyable to say the least.  Matt |
 |
Latest blog entry: Triggering a Canon camera via usb
|
|
Sep 16, 2011, 05:32 PM
|
|
Coogee, Sydney
Joined Jan 2008
1,693 Posts
|
Cool
|
|
|
|
Sep 16, 2011, 05:33 PM
|
|
Stockton, Ca. USA
Joined Apr 2001
8,719 Posts
|
Hi Matt:
As discussed in the article Jeff has her balanced laterally and at 25% back from the wing's leading edge for initial flights. He planes to move it back to 28% back from the leading edge. No problem with balance. We will wait and see how it is with equipment and having to shift that around but there is a lot of space. Thanks for your tip. Mike H |
|
|
Latest blog entry: New receiver packs and asking Castle for...
|
|
Sep 16, 2011, 07:24 PM
|
|
USA, IA, North Liberty
Joined Mar 2008
2,388 Posts
|
Mike,
Nice review. I see that the weight is listed as 3600 grams. What was the weight of the reviewed model? |
|
|
Last edited by Crist Rigotti; Sep 17, 2011 at 08:14 AM.
|
|
Sep 17, 2011, 03:28 AM
|
|
Las Cruces, New Mexico, United States
Joined Jun 2002
6,358 Posts
|
There are instructions available for download. On the product page just below the stock level/add to cart bar, there are tabs for REVIEW/DISCUSSION/VIDEO//FILES. Uner the files tab there are two pdf files. Hope that helps.... HK has mentioned in the past that the logistics of including language specific manuals would be cost prohibitive, hence the e-versions.
|
|
|
Last edited by JimNM; Sep 17, 2011 at 08:30 PM.
|
|
Sep 17, 2011, 08:48 AM
|
|
|
Stockton, Ca. USA
Joined Apr 2001
8,719 Posts
|
Crist I am waiting for Jeff to find a scale he can weigh it on ready to fly. When we get the information he or I will post it. That is why I gave the weight as listed. Our usual scales just weren't up to the job. Mike H
|
|
|
Latest blog entry: New receiver packs and asking Castle for...
|
|
Sep 17, 2011, 08:56 AM
|
||
|
USA, IA, North Liberty
Joined Mar 2008
2,388 Posts
|
Quote:
BTW, I just noticed that the title of this review is for a 1.66MM airplane! Might want to change it.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Sep 24, 2011, 02:48 AM
|
|
|
Napoli (Italy)
Joined May 2005
14 Posts
|
nice review but ... there are no detailed data about the type of engine and the propeller used.
ciao |
|
|
|
|
Dec 02, 2011, 12:30 AM
|
|
|
Stockton, Ca. USA
Joined Apr 2001
8,719 Posts
|
the plane RTF but without camera gear weighed in at 2 pounds 15 ounces all up weight. mike H
|
|
|
Latest blog entry: New receiver packs and asking Castle for...
|
|
Dec 02, 2011, 11:59 AM
|
|
San Mateo, Ca , USA
Joined Jun 2000
5,410 Posts
|
Mike,
Why do you think the main gear is so far back? Brian, an EAJ |
|
|
|
|
Jan 06, 2012, 02:48 AM
|
|
|
LI, New York, USA
Joined Mar 2003
22,115 Posts
|
are you going to fit it with the FPV equipment and do another review?
|
|
|
|
|
Jan 06, 2012, 03:32 AM
|
|
ISRAEL
Joined Aug 2007
2,299 Posts
|
I couldn't find souce of replacement parts. If I had just the wing I'd fly it without the fuse and fold into backpack.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Thread Tools | |
Similar Threads
|
||||
| Thread | Thread Starter | Forum | Replies | Last Post |
| Article Horizon Hobby E-flite UMX Gee Bee R2 BNF With AS3X Technology Review | Michael Heer | Micro RTF | 3 | Jan 26, 2013 07:37 AM |
| Article HobbyKing Plug N Fly Electric Fox EPO 2.3 Meter ARF Sailplane Review | Michael Heer | Electric Sailplanes | 38 | Oct 04, 2012 07:29 PM |
| Article HobbyKing B-25 Mitchell Twin Brushless ARF Review | Michael Heer | Electric Warbirds | 27 | Jul 15, 2012 06:35 AM |
| Discussion Hobbyking Busy-Bee Electric airplane W/Motor,Servo,ESC (Great for FPV) | Cralis | Video Piloting (FPV/RPV) | 28 | Nov 17, 2010 11:35 AM |
| Article Model Airplane Engineering's Jinx, the Evil Twin ARF, The Works Complete Package Style, Review | wahrhaftig | Electric Plane Talk | 6 | Mar 26, 2009 11:02 AM |
|
|