Originally Posted by sammyc

Flying over the long weekend we just had here in Australia getting more game now, those trees are getting closer
http://youtu.be/M4CbRWBoQhY

Great video!

Is your plane stock or have you beefed it up? I have a Sky Surfer that I am only flying fairly straight and level. Loops and rolls seem like maybe too much stress.
I've broken up many a plane, but with all the FPV gear the risk seems greater ( both due to weight and $'s).

Spotter took the day off - of all the nerve!

So I flew the plane with no FPV and what a difference. Got the cg spot on with a bit of extra nose weight. And all was good.

It seems like it needs a bit more throttle (to climb) than I would have expected. But still it flew well. Did some loops and rolls that I am not yet willing to try with full gear on board.

I am considering that I might want a plane with a lighter wing loading for FPV, any recommendations?

Originally Posted by patfly

Spotter took the day off - of all the nerve!

So I flew the plane with no FPV and what a difference. Got the cg spot on with a bit of extra nose weight. And all was good.

It seems like it needs a bit more throttle (to climb) than I would have expected. But still it flew well. Did some loops and rolls that I am not yet willing to try with full gear on board.

I am considering that I might want a plane with a lighter wing loading for FPV, any recommendations?

I am replacing my stolen Bix with Skywalker.

Originally Posted by NorCalMatCat

I am replacing my stolen Bix with Skywalker.

Looks like a good choice (you could carry your lunch in the belly of that guy).
Who are you getting it from? Is there a stateside dealer? I have only seen it from China.

I know the other thread is filled with info but is foam safe CA ok to use?

Originally Posted by rsands2801

I know the other thread is filled with info but is foam safe CA ok to use?

I have used standard CA from Harbor Freight which eats through just about every other foam I have touched it to but in small quantities it seems to be ok on the Bix's foam, I can drop a drop on my canopy (only piece I still have left of her) and see what happens for you :P

Originally Posted by patfly

Great video!

Is your plane stock or have you beefed it up? I have a Sky Surfer that I am only flying fairly straight and level. Loops and rolls seem like maybe too much stress.
I've broken up many a plane, but with all the FPV gear the risk seems greater ( both due to weight and $'s).

Its got the basic mods from other skysurfer thread.
-Wing spar reinforced with CF rod, CF rod under fuse, CF rod in both tail surfaces.
-Rubber band and hook wing retention method.
-Tape under fuse for protection.
-Motor is stock, but not for long, have a Turnigy D2826-6 2200kv motor coming, stock motor is on its last legs.
-Servos replaced with HXT900's.
-Small air intake.

I think thats it, until it comes to the FPV gear

Originally Posted by NorCalMatCat

I have used standard CA from Harbor Freight which eats through just about every other foam I have touched it to but in small quantities it seems to be ok on the Bix's foam, I can drop a drop on my canopy (only piece I still have left of her) and see what happens for you :P

haha that doesnt sound good when its only the canopy left

I tried a bit of the CA on the foam and activator and it seems fine. just not sure if i trust the CA to be strong enough to hold it together?

Originally Posted by rsands2801

haha that doesnt sound good when its only the canopy left

I tried a bit of the CA on the foam and activator and it seems fine. just not sure if i trust the CA to be strong enough to hold it together?

Crashed (due to RC link failure) and stolen before I could recover it

Why on earth would you steal a plane (unless you had all the gear to fly it) seems pointless! sad people. so do you think ca will hold it all together?

Originally Posted by rsands2801

Why on earth would you steal a plane (unless you had all the gear to fly it) seems pointless! sad people. so do you think ca will hold it all together?

I used a mix of foam glue (some really thick gel like stuff that takes FOREVER to dry, but drys very flexible), and CA when I did mine.

I have two simple questions that I cannot find the proper answer on the boards. I ordered by Bixler a few weeks ago(still waiting for it to arrive) and I bought an additional 1600mah battery pack to go with the stock 1300mah.

My first question is about how much flight timemwill I get with each of those packs? 5-10mins? I'll be flying the RTF kit (starting off small at first) to get the hang of things before I start mods. And will be using a stopwatch to monitor my airtime.

The second question is about lipos and ESCs. I've been reading about lipos and how they work and have figured out a few things but still have a few questions. I'm the type of person who likes to know how/why things work to get a better understanding of my new hobby.

So I understand that the mah corresponds with the amount of "gas in the tank" the battery has and the more the mah the longer the flight time (generally).

But at what point would you have to upgrade your ESC?

Does the C number on the pack correspond with the amps on the ESC? For example a 30C pack would need a 30amp ESC?

Can u run a high mah pack on the stock Bixler ESC? I was gonna purchase the plush 30amp ESC yhat everyone reccomends but when I placed my order it was and still is on back order and I didn't want to risk burning out my ESC so I stuck with the 1600.

Thanks in advance

Originally Posted by Airphotog

I have two simple questions that I cannot find the proper answer on the boards. I ordered by Bixler a few weeks ago(still waiting for it to arrive) and I bought an additional 1600mah battery pack to go with the stock 1300mah.

My first question is about how much flight timemwill I get with each of those packs? 5-10mins? I'll be flying the RTF kit (starting off small at first) to get the hang of things before I start mods. And will be using a stopwatch to monitor my airtime.

The second question is about lipos and ESCs. I've been reading about lipos and how they work and have figured out a few things but still have a few questions. I'm the type of person who likes to know how/why things work to get a better understanding of my new hobby.

So I understand that the mah corresponds with the amount of "gas in the tank" the battery has and the more the mah the longer the flight time (generally).

But at what point would you have to upgrade your ESC?

Does the C number on the pack correspond with the amps on the ESC? For example a 30C pack would need a 30amp ESC?

Can u run a high mah pack on the stock Bixler ESC? I was gonna purchase the plush 30amp ESC yhat everyone reccomends but when I placed my order it was and still is on back order and I didn't want to risk burning out my ESC so I stuck with the 1600.

Thanks in advance

Lot of ground to cover here :P

On stock setup a 1300mah should give you a solid 10 as long as you aren't being too heavy on throttle.

As far as batteries go on mah and C ratings...

3S batteries in this case

Let's say we have a 1000mah 3S1P 20C battery....

1C = the amperage of the battery (1000mah battery is 1 amp at 1C)
This means it will provide 1 amp for 1 hour, and can provide up to 20*1 amp = 20 amps of load. At this math, if you where pulling 2 amps it will last 30 minutes, if you are pulling 4 amps it will last 15 minutes, and so on and so on.

For a 1300mah battery 1C = 1.3 Amps, so 20C would be 1.3*20.

ESC:

Needs to be big enough to cover what the motor is going to pull, motors don't care about mah, they care about amperage at any moment in time, if you are running a motor capable of needing 30 amps, you will need an ESC that can handle 30 amps of push, which means you need a battery capable of pushing 30 amps, you could have a 10,000mah 100C battery on that same ESC and it doesn't matter that it can push thousands of amps, what matter's is that the motor can only pull 30A in this scenario.

Originally Posted by Airphotog

I have two simple questions that I cannot find the proper answer on the boards. I ordered by Bixler a few weeks ago(still waiting for it to arrive) and I bought an additional 1600mah battery pack to go with the stock 1300mah.

My first question is about how much flight timemwill I get with each of those packs? 5-10mins? I'll be flying the RTF kit (starting off small at first) to get the hang of things before I start mods. And will be using a stopwatch to monitor my airtime.

The second question is about lipos and ESCs. I've been reading about lipos and how they work and have figured out a few things but still have a few questions. I'm the type of person who likes to know how/why things work to get a better understanding of my new hobby.

So I understand that the mah corresponds with the amount of "gas in the tank" the battery has and the more the mah the longer the flight time (generally).

But at what point would you have to upgrade your ESC?

Does the C number on the pack correspond with the amps on the ESC? For example a 30C pack would need a 30amp ESC?

Can u run a high mah pack on the stock Bixler ESC? I was gonna purchase the plush 30amp ESC yhat everyone reccomends but when I placed my order it was and still is on back order and I didn't want to risk burning out my ESC so I stuck with the 1600.

Thanks in advance

Looks like you may not have been to the original skysurfer/bixler thread, go here for the general non FPV related stuff:
https://www.rcgroups.com/forums/show....php?t=1231310
Lots of information, a lot of questions have been asked and answered in the past, use the search feature, will help out a heap

Order your parts from somewhere else if needed. HK isn't the only place to get parts for plane. If you want your parts fast, try HobbyLobbyInc, they are in Tennessee and ship the next day.