Originally Posted by Flipper_118

I bought a SS which is stock with a Kokam 1500 2cell lipo, speed 300 with the D gearbox swinging a 12*6 prop. It weighs in at 16.5 ounces with my camera servo and camera mount and batt. What is the rough amp draw with this set up. My batt is only an 8C so I can only draw 12 amps max but want a more powerfull motor. I will be using it for aerial photography and want better climbout speed. Should I get a speed 400? 500? I wouldn't mind going brushless but need some batt that can take the amps. I'm staying lipo, please give me your suggetions on a power system. I only need to lug up a few ounces (maybe 2-5) extra for the cam. Try to keep the price below the 200 mark.
Any help would be very much appreciated. Thanks in advance.

Flipper

Flipper,
Goto:
http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=387807
boomer

Thanks for the directions, just skimmed past that thread so now I will look alittle closer. That 600 is looking mighty tastey to me.

Originally Posted by Flipper_118

Thanks for the directions, just skimmed past that thread so now I will look alittle closer. That 600 is looking mighty tastey to me.

Actually the 600 is way too heavy as the plane with reinforcing weighed over 40oz! The brushless shown is the motor of choice. Read on and you'll see what I mean.
boomer

Looking up the price of a himax outrunner from my LHS in good old Canada....................ok I only have the Himax Brushless Motor 4200kv in stock hmmm going to be over 200 bucks before I can get it into the plane.
Maybe I should restate my query, I need some "safety" power to get me up and around a little better then the stock motor. I'm thinking that the speed 400 with D gearing spinning my prop would work. My current setup works good, I can ROG off a sheet of plywood, but I want a little better wind penetration and a little more power. I have read on about page 25 of the 1st thread it said this motor I am thinking about is a good upgrade.

Originally Posted by Flipper_118

Looking up the price of a himax outrunner from my LHS in good old Canada....................ok I only have the Himax Brushless Motor 4200kv in stock hmmm going to be over 200 bucks before I can get it into the plane.
Maybe I should restate my query, I need some "safety" power to get me up and around a little better then the stock motor. I'm thinking that the speed 400 with D gearing spinning my prop would work. My current setup works good, I can ROG off a sheet of plywood, but I want a little better wind penetration and a little more power. I have read on about page 25 of the 1st thread it said this motor I am thinking about is a good upgrade.

Hate to tell you this but the 400C-D with your 2 cell Lipo will have LESS Power than the setup you are now flying with. That 400C-D needs 3 cell lipos or 9 cell NiMH KANs to do the job.
boomer

I know that it needed a 3 cell pack, thats why I want to keep the motor price down because a 2000mah 3 cell lipo with 15C will cost like 100 beans so I think I'll see how long I can do without the power house of a motor, if need be I'll slap a rocket under my plane to get it up to height!

Originally Posted by Flipper_118

I know that it needed a 3 cell pack, thats why I want to keep the motor price down because a 2000mah 3 cell lipo with 15C will cost like 100 beans so I think I'll see how long I can do without the power house of a motor, if need be I'll slap a rocket under my plane to get it up to height!

Good Luck and let us know how it goes.
boomer

[

EDIT - I goofed

Flat Fenderman - am using a JR 6102 radio. I'll just move the servo for now but if you'd like to help me understand how Aileron/Rudder mixing works I'll move it back. I'm using the stock GWS battery for the kit - a 7.2V 1150 mAh NiCAD. Am going to call batteries plus in the morning and see if they can custom build a NiMH (I'll look through the other SS Help threads for the right voltage, ampherage before I leave work tonight).

Boomer - Argh! I've already remarked the wings for 3 3/4", CG'ed and marked the fuselage where the sliding mounts are at CG.

Another stupid newbie question - Grass vs. Asphalt flying areas: Does Grass really cushion crashes enough to make it preferable for a newbie to fly over? The gent at the hobby shop suggested a place really close to me to fly but it's basically a huge parking lot. My other option is to drive about 20 miles to get to one of the many parks in an adjacent city which does not have flight restrictions in public parks. Curious as to your thoughts.

Chris

Originally Posted by ronin4740

Hmmm... me thinkst I have lots to learn about flying before going to LiPo batteries...

The maiden flight was successful - for all of about 45 seconds on the longest run

The story leading up to the maiden flight is probably more humorous so, as with all stories, it's best to start at the beginning...

I arrive at the park, wind calm, the heat of the day beginning to build. I open the hood over the engine to connect the battery charger to the battery terminals so I can top off the battery and make a quick mental note to get a do it yourself cigarette lighter adapter - the battery charger won't quite reach the ground when connected and I'd rather leave the one battery pack I have on the plane...

The charger finishes it's work and I start to put the wing on the plane when sprinklers pop up from the ground on ALL of the baseball diamonds in the park to water... dirt?

The county grounds crew is present and one of them is within eyesight so I ask him how long the sprinklers run. He tells me "3 minutes but there's an ordinance against flying those things in the parks in this county". Well... We kind of discuss this and sort of agree that I won't come back and he won't stop me this time but if a Ranger shows up I'm on my own and we didn't have this conversation.

I'd like to mention that the two county grounds keepers and myself are the only people within eyesight of any of the baseball diamonds. Had the park been crowded I would have put the plane back into the car and gone elsewhere.

So, the sprinklers stop, I set the plane on the diamond, pointing into the wind, throttle up and...

...barely get off the ground after a 20' taxi. I throttle down in time to avoid planting the plane in the chainlink fence on the parking lot side of the diamond (the light breeze was coming from that side).

I inspect the plane and notice that the retention device which holds the servo horn onto the elevator is missing. Undaunted, I go to the trunk of the car where I know there are spares and put another one on.

Attempt #2. I rethink my runway departure and orient the plane so that it's pointing out into the field. I figure this way if I have to abort again I'll run off into the grass rather than put the plane through the front winshield of my car (my luck, that would have happened). I throttle up again, pull back on the elevator... Whoops! WAY too much lift! Straigh up into the air, stall, nosedive, crash.

Try #3: same taxi orientation... Throttle up, easy on the right stick... nudge her into the air... success! I've got about 10 ft of altitude... but... I'm turning slowly left... making a really big circle... Rudder doesn't seem to be working... Pointing towards the field house in the center of the diamonds... This isn't good... cut throttle and watch the SS barely clear the lower side of the backstop fence over the dugout, splang off of a metal park bench in the center of the diamonds and.. yes, you guessed it, crash. The other county grounds keeper was watching in amusement.

Try #4. Aha! All this crashing has moved stuff around! I move stuff back, do a hasty CG check (I'll do permanent marks on CG with a marker later today), check to make sure that the left stick moves the rudder (it does), orient the plane out towards the grass, throttle up... climbing... climbing... oops! too much elevator and still not turning... Stall... pulse throttle and manage to almost not crash... This time the landing was more of a bounce, bounce, crash in the grass.

Try #5 Recenter everything again, hasty CG check, curse at rudder, reseat elevator retention device, taxi out, up gently... still not turning... WAIT! DOH! LEFT STICK, NOT THE RIGHT ONE! Still climbing, easy right rudder... and watch as plane banks hard to the right, loses lift on right wing, decends and dumb thumb myself into another crash. This time I break the prop.

So. *smile* I am having fun but I think I'm going to ask the LHS where their flight area is again when I go to pick up about four more props and a prop saver. It's a miracle that I didn't snap the prop on flights 1-4. Mebbe someone out at their runway will take pity on a newbie like me and offer a few pointers.

Oh, and, upon taking the plane out of the trunk when I came home I noticed that the LHS sold me a SS with a 400 motor... Another DOH! I made the CG marks on the underside of the wing for a 350 because I had assumed it was a 350!

Anyway, I'll get the kinks out and fly again. I think I'll take the Hobbyzone Commander with me from now on just incase I break all of my props or something else... At least this way I'll be able to fly something

Quick question - how does one keep the servo horn thingies from pulling their retention clip off? Glue? Bolts? Doublesided sticky tape? I'm down to my last spare now and don't want to lose anymore!

Chris

A park police gave me a ticket for flying in the park once, the ordinance was against gas/alcohol/fuel powered RC vehicles. I went to complain and the person asked, "how could have known it was electric?" I replied, 1-he could have asked, or 2 - he could have seen that it had a battery on it and you could noticed the lack of any fuel tank. The same Park Police dude was there after the ticket was voided, sort of miffed I think - and I buzzed his SUV cop gas guzzler (a LEAST 20 feet above it) - I thought he was gonna shoot me - I told him - 'sorry, wind got a hold of it, ya know electric powered isnt that powerful to fight the wind'. He gave me a ticket ($15 park ticket) for parking across the lines in the lot. The lot holds at least 400 cars, and there were three in the lot at the time. I took a snap shot with the digi I had brought with (with him in the picture) and told him that I would see him in park court in a couple of weeks. I love my slow stick, not to sure about the park dicks though. . .

BTW - have now equipped the SS with a parachute dude drop and bombs. Waiting for the park guy again - its sometime good to be old and dont really give a hoot sometime!!!

New way to do the trust mod I was flying today in about 6-8 MPH wind and did fine the frist pack getting tossed around on the slower passes ect. Hooked up pack #2 and about 3 mins into it a big gust fliped it right over all I could do was try to loop it back and it smacked the ground at the bootom of the loop bouced off the LG and nosed in. bent the fuse almost perfect down and right LOL.

Originally Posted by mohillbilly

New way to do the trust mod I was flying today in about 6-8 MPH wind and did fine the frist pack getting tossed around on the slower passes ect. Hooked up pack #2 and about 3 mins into it a big gust fliped it right over all I could do was try to loop it back and it smacked the ground at the bootom of the loop bouced off the LG and nosed in. bent the fuse almost perfect down and right LOL.

LOL - I did the mod by making a motor mount for my brushless - hacksaw and hand drill used so poorly I ended up with 2 degrees right and 3 degrees down!! Guess Ill never know what it flys like w/o the mod - I really was trying to get it straight as an arrow!!

This will be my frist trust mod for this bird. will see.

Parking lot flight was... also unsuccessful. One of the day crew called in sick this morning which meant I had to work until about 9:30. By the time I got to the area I wanted to try flying in the wind had picked up a bit.

There's not always much to do on nights so I downloaded FMS and the SS last night to kill a little time and practice a bit. At one point I'd dialed the wind in FMS up to 1m with gusts of 1m and found the SS to be next to uncontrollable in this environment.

...As I did in real life today with winds probably in the 5-7mph range on the ground.

Being a little irked at my boss for making me stay late I decided to give it a quick go. Pointing the plane into the wind and applying throttle yielded a 2 ft taxi, a swift climb and a very tight, banked left turn all without me touching anything other than the throttle. I shut the throttle down and waited for the inevitable 1 point landing into the side of my car. The SS survived and the rubber prop doesn't seem to have left any damage on the Beetle I drive.

Guess I'll try again tomorrow or late tonight if the weather cooperates. I read about a rudder mod for the Alfa's involving cutting a floppy disk into strips, slotting foam and using the floppy media as a hinge. I think I'm going to try this on the SS as I have had the worst time getting tape to stick to the rudder and elevator. I can already see the tape coming off in mid-flight in my minds eye and want to avoid that kind of out of control crash.

Anyway, that's the flight log for the day.

Chris

Also, if you DO bend the fuse too much... dont try to bend it back by hand =)