Geez that man is in great shape too! Probably out live me... ;-)

Jack

Bajora,
Not sure whether BV was previously aware of the electrolyte project but yesterday he sat down next to it, and gave a good inspection. The micros are not usually on his radar so for a few min we chatted about the small side of edfs. I brought the custom shrouds and rotors which he got a kick out of.

Jack,
Yeah no doubt, I saw CNC equipment and other tools that you'd never expect to see at a model manufacturer. They use some very advance machinery to maintain tight tolerances. I was drooling over the molds....
BV is in great shape! Apparently if he's not flying he's at the gym....those are some good priorities!

Just fishing here but I seem to have bad luck with my servos! I have 5 brand new DS378HV in my Electra, flaps, ailerons, rudder. One of the flap servo's is always buzzing, yeah it is the typical digital servo buzz, but it never stops no matter the servo position or load, i.e. disconnected from the flap. That's a little odd. But when I put everything together Monday another servo, the rudder servo, was not centering, and not moving smoothly either. But after "exercising" it a bit with the stick it returned to normal operation. Not good. So Horizon support says send them back and I guess I will but have you guys had trouble with these servos? Radio is JR11X, Spectrum 12000 Rx, 2x 2s LiFe packs (6.6v) Thanks.

Originally Posted by Husafreak

Just fishing here but I seem to have bad luck with my servos! I have 5 brand new DS378HV in my Electra, flaps, ailerons, rudder. One of the flap servo's is always buzzing, yeah it is the typical digital servo buzz, but it never stops no matter the servo position or load, i.e. disconnected from the flap. That's a little odd. But when I put everything together Monday another servo, the rudder servo, was not centering, and not moving smoothly either. But after "exercising" it a bit with the stick it returned to normal operation. Not good. So Horizon support says send them back and I guess I will but have you guys had trouble with these servos? Radio is JR11X, Spectrum 12000 Rx, 2x 2s LiFe packs (6.6v) Thanks.

Never?! I'll ask Rob Lynch today and post back, he's worked in a hobby shop for 20+ years and still does, he would be a better one to ask about issues. As far as I'm concerned, these have been awesome!

Jack

Thanks Jack! Sure appreciate your thoughts, could always be something else.... FWIW I used to compete in F3A pattern back in the 80's and since then i've always thought JR servos were top of the line. Some of the Futaba guys wished they could run JR servos back then. long before digital's though.

Originally Posted by Husafreak

Thanks Jack! Sure appreciate your thoughts, could always be something else.... FWIW I used to compete in F3A pattern back in the 80's and since then i've always thought JR servos were top of the line. Some of the Futaba guys wished they could run JR servos back then. long before digital's though.

Rob said they have replaced that servo with a new one (new model) but said he was unaware of any mass issues and said he agreed they've always been rock solid. I have to see anyone get a bad batch of something normally so good...

Jack

OK got the new rudder servo in (thanks Heather!) and she is ready to fly. I decided I could live with the noisy flap servo. Did taxi it around in the street tonight. Followed the manual setup except moved the CG forward 1/4" and reduced the elevator throw a bit, high rates are 7/8" instead of 1" (thanks Jack D!). I'm gonna run 25-30% expo initially. Does anyone have a wag for flap to elevator mixing? My Habu 32 needed down elevator with flaps and this was spec'd in the manual, that was nice for the first flight.

Hey husafreak

I thought I needed a mix on mine too but you don't. I was getting a ballooning effect but it was because i was moving too fast. Just slow it down when you drop flaps and it will be fine. I decreased landing flaps a little per the manual and on non windy days I can do power off landings. Glides right in.

Originally Posted by Husafreak

OK got the new rudder servo in (thanks Heather!) and she is ready to fly. I decided I could live with the noisy flap servo. Did taxi it around in the street tonight. Followed the manual setup except moved the CG forward 1/4" and reduced the elevator throw a bit, high rates are 7/8" instead of 1" (thanks Jack D!). I'm gonna run 25-30% expo initially. Does anyone have a wag for flap to elevator mixing? My Habu 32 needed down elevator with flaps and this was spec'd in the manual, that was nice for the first flight.

No mix but if you use flight modes (I hope you do!) then you should add 4 clicks of down elevator to your landing mode (full flaps down) to compensate for the added lift...

Jack

Wow, the Electra must be designed very well if only 4 clicks down trim are needed with the flaps full down. That can easily be handled without sweat on that critical first flight. I imagine the CG of Jacks Electra and LTR450 is slightly different. I do use the flap system and also flight modes. FWIW I fly EDF's (fast) 3D (slow) Hotliners (both!) and helis (?) and the way we use flight modes and switches has made a great impact on the ease of flying them, just gotta remember which is which! As for flap to elevator compensation that can vary wildly, from 0 to 0.5mm in the Electra to 2mm on the Habu to 7mm on my Typhoon hotliner, and it was pretty hard to land that dang Typhoon before I got the mix ratio sorted! Anywhooo, fun facts

Originally Posted by Husafreak

Wow, the Electra must be designed very well if only 4 clicks down trim are needed with the flaps full down. That can easily be handled without sweat on that critical first flight. I imagine the CG of Jacks Electra and LTR450 is slightly different. I do use the flap system and also flight modes. FWIW I fly EDF's (fast) 3D (slow) Hotliners (both!) and helis (?) and the way we use flight modes and switches has made a great impact on the ease of flying them, just gotta remember which is which! As for flap to elevator compensation that can vary wildly, from 0 to 0.5mm in the Electra to 2mm on the Habu to 7mm on my Typhoon hotliner, and it was pretty hard to land that dang Typhoon before I got the mix ratio sorted! Anywhooo, fun facts

We assign flight modes to the flap switch, this allows for different trim settings for each flap mode (no flaps, takeoff flaps and landing flaps). 4 clicks is just to keep you level on approach, the plane will still balloon if you deploy flaps while flying to fast or if the servo speed isn't slowed. The Electra can fly SLOW, sometimes people don't learn how it flies before coming in hot. Good luck!

Jack

Instead of flight modes I use the left slider to dial-in the flaps on my planes. It lets me pick the right amount while in flight and I don't need to grab a switch. If I'm coming in to hot or slow I can make fine adjustments easily.

Like everyone else says, in your radio slow down the deploy (down) side of the flaps (I have mine close to 3 seconds) and deploy them when flying slow and you won't get any pitching up.

And like everyone else, I refused to believe how slow the the Electra will go. In fact I refused to fly at my normal field (400 feet) because I thought I needed more room. But I found out last weekend, 400 feet is more than enough.

My suggestion on the maiden would be to take it up fairly high, point it into the wind, deploy the flaps and turn off the motor. Let it slow down until it stalls and you will see how slow it will go.

Stalls are uneventful, slow, predicable and always straight forward, no wing dips.

Good luck!!

Thanks, I will look into using the flap switch for flight modes, never heard of that but my radio does have an elevator trim mode mixed into the flaps. I did slow the flap servo and as a full scale pilot I know to slow before deploying them I have been fortunate to watch Jack D fly his Electra many times and it is pretty wild how it can slow down. I put brakes on mine as my regular field is also 400 feet but after watching Jack I realized I did not need them. LOL

I just read the manual about the Flight mode switch being used for flaps. I am not going to use that feature.

Originally Posted by Husafreak

I just read the manual about the Flight mode switch being used for flaps. I am not going to use that feature.

Unless you have another use for flight modes it really does make life easier. The plane does need additional trim with flaps active and it does make it efficient and neat to have a single switch "remember" all of those different settings. really it's little more than turning flight mode on and assigning to the flap switch. I guess part of the reason this is so common for me is I learned from Rob and Pablo, who both routinely do a full minute or more of S L O W flying at shows and use this feature to ensure the plane is trimmed in all modes...

Jack