Article Hobbico's Mini Ventura RTF Park Flyer/Glider Review

[TIA]

Looks really neet!

Would love to see it move after adding Lipo's, Brushless motor, and some carbon wing support.

[gcedillo]

Last Sat I took the mini V for it,s maiden and it flew ok the first time., had to quit because of the wind.
Today I took it to fly again it gained height (about 30 feet), then stop responding commands (interference?) and just went for a dive from level flight, i cut throtle and tried to apply full up elevator to no avail.

The plane structure is intact but the motor wont run, I notice little green chips from a very little brake in one capacitor.

[Jim Young]

Sorry to hear about your mishap. If possible, try to cut off the capacitor to see if this will correct the motor run problem. The cap may be shorted. You can find replacements at Radio Shack. 0.1uF ceramic disk caps should work fine. If you have a multimeter, check to see if there is any voltage getting through to the motor. This will tell you if the ESC is working. If the ESC is working, I'm sure Hobbico will be glad to sell you a replacement motor.

If had mine at the local flying field with no interference problems. Was there any chance that someone was running an R/C car nearby?

On the hop up side, I think an astroFlight 010 and 2S LiPo would be a cool setup. Can you say one design pylon racing?

-Jim

[gcedillo]

Jim I think that maybe someone was using another vehicle with the frequency since the plane was flyng level and sudenly dived.
I,ll try to get the capacitor at RS while my order for two new motors come.
Thanks for your orientation

[bobby legue]

I bought my nephew this plane and we only had it out once. On trying out some hand tosses it would glide in a slight downward path for a LONG time. So we hit the motor switch and flew it for half the field and attempted to land, if we let it continue on the downward path it seemed like we would hit terra firma way to fast, way to hard so I pulled up the nose and it would roll over very quick! Happened several times. We checked balance point and control horn/ pushrod locations and all seems well. The only thing I could think to do was to change the incidence on the tail. After all those handy little thumb screws makes it so easy. Raised up the front of the elevator - that was dumb! Raised the back up the thickness of a paper match [ remember those?] and it helped only a little as it would porpise at a glide. Next attempt was to raise the leading edge a little [ the match thing again ] WHAM hit the sweet spot!!! Now it glides without power or flitting around like a butterfly. Sure it climbs on power but isnt that the idea?
Fly like no one is watching.
Bob

[Jim Young]

Hi Bob,

Thanks for your input on the MV. I found that the Mini Ventura does snap roll if slowed down too much or you put in too much elevator. By shimming up the L.E. of the stab, I think you just limited the amount of up you could up in, and thereby keep it away from stalling. What do you think?

-Jim

[pwcoach]

Jim, We just purchased this from our local shop today and had a rough landing, not too bad but rough. Immediately it seems the motor is dead (less than 5 minutes air time ) I don't understand what you are talking about the below, I unhooked the motor and attached the multimeter and when I throtled up, the power on the multimeter went down to 0, is this what I should expect, I thought it would be reversed ? More throttle, more power?

Thanks for any insight you can provide!!!

-steve

Originally Posted by Jim Young

Sorry to hear about your mishap. If possible, try to cut off the capacitor to see if this will correct the motor run problem. The cap may be shorted. You can find replacements at Radio Shack. 0.1uF ceramic disk caps should work fine. If you have a multimeter, check to see if there is any voltage getting through to the motor. This will tell you if the ESC is working. If the ESC is working, I'm sure Hobbico will be glad to sell you a replacement motor.

If had mine at the local flying field with no interference problems. Was there any chance that someone was running an R/C car nearby?

On the hop up side, I think an astroFlight 010 and 2S LiPo would be a cool setup. Can you say one design pylon racing?

-Jim

[Jim Young]

Hi Steve,

If you hook up a VOLTmeter to the out of the ESC, it should read close to 0V at low throttle, and for the MiniV it should readover 5V at full throttle. Make sure you have the correct throttle direction on the transmitter.

Other things to check:

1.) Check the motor for physical damage. Will the output shaft turn?
2.) Check the battery voltage, it may have gotten damaged in the crash.
3.) Check the capacitors for shorts.

I hope this helps.

-Jim

[pwcoach]

Thanks Jim, that helps.

I may be reading my voltmeter in reverse, as when the throttle is off or prior to pressing the motor start button my voltmeter reads 4 this morning. Then when I throttle up, (after pressing the start), it goes to 0, if I throttle up without pressing the start it stays at 4. Since a voltmeter reads the drop between the leads, is that correct? Or would you say I have a problem with the ESC? (it seems backward to me intuitively)

The capacitors seem fine when looking at them, but then again I've never played with electronics much so ... I'm assuming the capacitors are the green tick size pieces on the motor correct?

I'll be buying a couple of motors today, just to try them out at the worst, I found one for 7.99 so it's worth the $ and time.

Thanks for your patience and knowledge!

[Jim Young]

Hi Steve,

You are correct about the capacitors.

I'm not exactly sure what is going on with your ESC. I'm an electrical engineer and I have a few ideas, but I don't want to confuse you more with speculation. I'm out of town right now, but will try a few measurements on my MV this weekend.

One more question for you: was the motor running when you crashed? If it was running, how fast did you turn off the motor? If you left the motor on, while the propeller was stopped by the ground, you may have burnt out the ESC. This may explain the wierd readings on your volt meter.

Electric motors are voltage to RPM converters, with a given voltage across the motor, it will draw whatever current it needs to spin at it's design speed. If the motor shaft is stopped, the motor will draw a lot of current to try and get the shaft spinning. The ESC in the MV is only rated for ~10A, so if the motor was stalled for a long time it could have overheated the ESC. If you can get the ESC out of the model, look for signs that the magic smoke was released.

On electric powered airplanes if it looks like you're about to crash, shut down the motor. There is no reason to make the crash power assisted, and it will save your ESC if you don't have a fuse in your power system.

-Jim

[Neurotex]

My experience trying to fly the Mini Ventura was exciting to say the least.
Yesterday I tried to fly it in a slight wind with poor results. It would fly
straight into the wind and upon trying to turn, it would roll over and head
right into the ground. This happened about 10 times.

Upon returning after a second charge to try again, I sprained my ankle
hopping the fence to get to the field. I trudged on any ways. 10 more
flights with the same results but this time I had managed to make at least
one respectable turn until it flipped into the ground again.

I hobbled home, put an ice pack on my swollen ankle, and went over what
went wrong. I came to the conclusion that I must be tail heavy.
So today I added some weight to the nose and set out to the field again.
This time I parked in a different lot to avoid the fence. No way I can climb
a fence now, my ankle is the size of an orange.

After limping out to the field I gave the plane a good toss and it sailed
out across the field, made a nice left, sailed back nice and steady, but
upon making another left it suddenly went for the ground again.
I think I got it now I thought. I launched it again. It sailed out, made a
left, but for some reason I pulled the stick right and before I could correct
myself, it went right into a tree.

There it sat, about 35 feet up in a dead tree. I sized up the situation. It
looked hopeless. I went back home to get a chainsaw but thought it might
be too loud and the houses nearby might hear me so I grabbed a couple
of hand axes and headed back.

After chopping into a two foot wide tree for half an hour I only managed
to cut about 3 inches around the trunk. It's hot and I'm getting careless.
The axe is slipping and near misses to my leg are not making matters better.
What to do next? Throw the axe at the plane of course. I figure the
equipment inside is better than nothing.

So after about 20 some flings I managed to hit the branch and the plane slid
down about 6 inches. This is possible I thought! 20 some more flings, more
branches busting off, and finally the plane fell to the ground!
Upon inspection I found only a slight slice to the wing.
I'll say one thing, the plane sure can take a beating!

That's enough for one day. Who says RC planes aren't fun!

[lstevens]

My son just bought one of these last week and we haven't had good luck with it yet. It is built sturdy, but he called me at work and said the motor wouldn't run. Since I'm an Electrical Engineer I started looking into it, measuring voltages and battery capacity. The NiMH were completly discharged, even though my son said he had just charged them. When I went to disconnect the motor to do a direct test on it I found that the power connectors to the motor were not insulated and had shorted together (probably on one of the nose dives)! It appears that the speed control (ESC) is blown from the dead short across its output. We'll be taking it back to the shop that we purchased it from and see what they will do about it (it's obviously a manufacturing defect).

[Jim Young]

I just checked my MV, and both power connections coming from the ESC have clear heat shrink tubing over them. These connections were hidden under the Velcro for the battery pack on mine. If yours was missing this, then I would call that poor quality control and not a flaw in the design. Under these circumstances, I would think that Hobbico should stand by their product. Please let us know how this issue is resolved.

-Jim

[lstevens]

Jim, you're correct, this is a quality control issue - NOT a design issue.
I called Hobbico today and they are sending a new motor and speed control unit, no questions, no hassle!