Will this thing never wear out?

Flew into a cloud this afternoon for a few seconds. I was way way high. The plane too

Max and me on a foggy morning.

<img src="http://home.austarnet.com.au/kevinp/memax.jpg">

LONG LIVE THE MINI-MAX! Vonbaron, yours has lived much longer than mine(I learned on her). Did you do all the mods Ezoners have posted?
Thomas

The Mini Max is a great little plane with a fantastic power setup. It's too bad more people don't know about them because it sure puts the LiteStick and Tiger Moth to shame. I hope the power plant never wears out because they are way too much fun. I just read on another thread that they're coming out with one called the Crazy Max with 370 motor and full symetical wing. Should be even more fun.

I would buy a crazy max on the spot!

I still havent done a loop in the max, i didn't mod the wings at all and am afraid it will fold (expecially with my heavy setup).

Congrats Vonbaron!

The only plane that lived that long on me was a Sky Scooter. I'm afraid everything else hits the recycle bin before then. I'm glad our town recycles foam.

Well done.

Thomas, I understand about one's first plane or 2 being battered to death. My first couple looked like a jigsaw puzzle after the 100th repair.

I did some of the mods. Never used that flimsy plastic wing joiner. I built up something with balsa ribs and 0.8mm sheeting for the center section. It's a bit hard to tell from this pic. After I fell out of a tree I had to glue the motor mount back in and run a dowel down the full length of the fuse. Also added a small length of balsa across the elevators to strengthen the part where the foam gets thin.

Kit, I wish I knew how the Max compared to a Tiger Moth. I bought one but my cousin ended up with it. Maybe we will compare when he has finished it.

I find the Mini Max has a very wide speed range. If I use a 6 "N" cell 360mah nimh pack I get 20 minutes of walking speed flying. When I change to a 7 cell AAA 650mah pack it turns wild. My prefered pack to dogfight crows with hehheh. The Crazy Max sounds like a real crow/magpie chaser

I'm hoping when the motor wears out I can just pop in a standard 280. They are only $4.50 from the LHS. Otherwise I'll put in my 280BB motor and go vertical.

<img src="http://home.austarnet.com.au/kevinp/bluemax1.jpg">

Briefcase, I've done 33 consecutive loops with mine so I think my wing mods may have worked

Tekochip, I've seen Sky Scooters in the LHS. I was curious about them.

I agree that after the wings are beefed up a bit, the
Mini Max will fly circles around the GWS planes because
of the better motor. 33 consecutive loops! I'd like to see
a GWS plane do that. Durability seems to be better as
well and the great thing is that the price is the same as
a GWS plane. I haven't had to fight off crows yet, but it
looks as if Vonbaron has won every encounter so far.

Vonbaron
A regular 280(mubachi-sp) fits in the mini-max gearbox with some shiming(I used masking tape). I tried it and didn't get too much more ummff, so I stuck a 280(same) with a 4to1 gearbox and a 11x7 and that thing flew like a greased pig(they fly, right?) in fact it was so fast it got away from me. I had dragged my girl out to watch and she spent the whole time laughing because the plane was so fast that I spent the whole time reacting-come to think of it I was laughing too.
As for my flagrent plane abuse- well no apoliges. I've designed several of my own and don't seem to be very good-I'm learning.
33 loops wow I can loops(well I could) with small dive but I got very heavy repairing and repairing.
Ditch the landing gear and you'll get a little more, and I've only broken 1 prop-before you ask. my field is rough so the gear was nothing more than a motor ejector.
Can't wait for the crazy-max meanwhile I'm goneing to build the ultimate bipe from foam board that is on the foamies forum-check it out looks good the bipe i mean.
thomas

VonBaron, the Skooter is a good trainer; cheap, easy to fix and slow. It's a good Summer plane too, because with a little up air, you can really do some flying. My SS is still in one piece, and I thank it for everything I learned from it in around 200+ flights, but it's retired. Everything else I've flown since has become recycling in 25 flights or so because I over-step the bounds of physics or the batteries eject mid-flight (this happened to me three times, but the Scooter came home with the batteries dangling by the wires. All the other planes were placed by the curb the next Friday morning).

Congratulations again on your longevity!

My scooter has over 50 flights. I fly mine stock w/400 6 volt and
the gunther prop. Tried to gear it with a 3.1 and 9x6 prop but
every landing prop broke. Nose has busted off but I put a rubber band underneath front of the wing slot and out to the front of the motor. This holds motor in nicely. Scooter is good plane to learn ailerons on. Its fast enough for loops and rolls and slow enough
to keep track of. Plus, I can use the hs-55 servos in other smaller craft.

Dave...

Okay on the Sky Scooters. I'm not sure I could fly one of those in my backyard (first pic of the Max was at a park). I have a lot of trees to contend with.

Thomas, I really like the landing gear and wheels on the Mini Max. I keep my grass "runway" mowed low so I can ROG and land gracefully. I find the landing gear suits the prop and gear ratio perfectly. Bigger props would hit the dirt before the wheels and break I reckon. Going by the GWS Tiger Moth I can see why so many props get broken. The prop is too big for the landing gear. I haven't broken a prop on the Max.. yet

DNA, the crows around these parts are smart little #%$&*%s. I out manouver them on a full charge but now they wait until my battery runs down and get me on final approach! They've very nearly pushed me into a tree with their downdraft a couple of times using this method. I see the crow has been giving lessons to the local Magpie too. Rotten sods.

My max's wings are not modded, infact none of it is

I have massive control throws, the rudder acts like an air break, and i can loop, stall turn and all the other cool stuff, nothing has broken So why the mods, i have noticed that at higher speeds the wings flutter, i avoid this, perhaps some of you dont?

Puregold,

You may have one of the newer Max's with the factory upgrade to strengthen to wing mounting. The original Max's had a rather weak wing mounting and needed to be reinforced to prevent in-flight wing foldings.

Vanbaron,

Crows must be crows where ever they are. They are rather clever on this side of the equator as well. You may have to try a new strategy in your combat. You might try the old decoy method pretending injury while your batteries are still fresh, then gunning the throttle to take them out.

I had one of the old Mini Max kits and did have flexing wing problems which led to it's demise. I ordered a new kit about a month ago and it has the new aluminum tubing and epoxing the dowels to the wings and then wrapping made the wing almost crash proof! The tips of the wings sometimes flex a bit in wind gusts when doing panic tree and ground misses (the key here is "misses") but no signs of failure or overstressing so I don't feel any further wing mods are necessary on the new kits.
I don't have the crow problem as when I buzz a crow he just heads for the hills and never looks back but I have picked up a few sparrow escorts that seem to think it's a threat and have attack the plane in flight! I'm just waiting to see what happens if one gets too close to the prop. That should be interesting!