Hi Guys,

Sorry about cutting the build thread short, I got busy with work...

I finally got my Cessna finished tonight and I took her out for the maiden flight.

Power setup:

Motor: AXI 4130/16

ESC: Jeti 77

Battery: Thunder Power Extreme 6s 5000

I had to do many mods and change up a lot of the hardware to feel safe in the air with this plane...( I can explain later if you're building one... )

Here she is sitting pretty waiting for her maiden flight:

In-Flight Shot:

Power off hot landing:

The flight went GREAT !!!

She needed 6 oz of weight to balance, she seemed a little nose heavy..but like someone once said... "I've never seen a plane crash on a maiden flight that was a little nose heavy"

She cruises around at about 1/4 throttle no problem...she does have some tip-stall characteristics at low speeds though....so be careful !!!

Any questions, I'll do my best to answer...

All the best,

Sam

Hi Sam,
it looks gorgeous, congratulations. what did you do with the nose landing gear, did you use the stock one?

I will build mine glow powered but I will apreciate your comments about the changes you made on the hardware.

Thanks!

Yes, do please let us know what mods you did.

Hi Guys, just running out the door to work...

I put another flight on yesterday, the plane flies awesome , but the nose gear did fail on me yesterday...just after landing I bounced in a small rut and bent the nose wire all to heck and cracked the nose wheel pant up pretty bad..

I'm going to replace the wire and hardware, I should have listen to others about the nose gear issues...

My all up weight is around 9 Lbs 9 oz...

I had to add 6 oz of lead to the nose to get her to balance...

I'll give you more details on the mod tonight when I get home....

Thanks for the nice feed back...

Sam

Hi Guys,

Finally got a chance to get out tonight to try out my new Robart 654 Nose Strut...

This thing is GREAT !!!

If you build this plane:

Replace the Nose Strut...
Replace all the Servo connectors, don't use the EZ connectors inc in the kit...
Epoxy both wing halfs together...
Goto 2.5" Du-Bro Wheels...
Remove wheel pants for field or flying off grass...

Here's some pictures from the flight:

Rotating on take-off:



First pass:



Coming around up the flight line:



Lining up for a landing:



Coming over the threshold:



Setting down:



Hope you like the pictures,

Sam

That looks amazing! Does it come out of the box lookign that nice?
Excellent pics.

My Lancair did, so it's entirely believable the Cessna does.

Axi 4130/16 and 6s 5000... that's a heck of a lot of power. How overpowered is it? I'm starting to wonder if the motor I have in mind isn't enough (Hyperion 3025/10 on 3s2p 3300, or maybe 4s2p A123). Motocalc says it's plausible for a scale model.

I have seen allot to Cessnas in my life, and yours looks as real as real can be. The pictures are outstanding. The droop wing tips lead me to belive that it could be a STOL airplane with some slats (I forgot, I think they are slats, I am wrong they are called wing fences) ontop of the wings and you can modify it for float flying.

Congrads on the maiden, you have one bitchen airplane, you did a great job with the kit.

Al

Oh my word, that looks amazing. Great photos! I've looked at that plane many times thinking maybe it'd get in the queue. Did you get any video perhaps of it flying? I'd sure like to see what a 4130 would do in a plane like that, especially with those extreme packs. That's a lot of battery to lose if you ever down that baby! Video!

Yep, it looks just like a fullsize machine (ZK-JPN) that belongs to a friend of mine... his is STOL-kitted.

Hi Guys,

Thanks for all the nice comments....

I can't take any credit for all of our pictures, that's the work of my better half "Mrs. Tracon"

I got in from two more flights tonight, I did a couple of tests tonight:

1. Stall test (About 8 mistakes high)

Result: Nose came up slow...the plane stopped flying and she did a very gentle pitch down with a slight roll to the right...

She regained speed and with a little power was back flying...

2. Take off from rough soccer field grass

Result: She took a bit to get rolling once up to speed she lifted off the grass ok, but in an instant not quit having enough power on she rolled to the right sharply and just about scared a turd out of me...

I thought.."Oh boy here comes the cart wheel the guys with the 83" version were talking about..."

I poured on the power and she righted herself and was flying fine !


3. Take off from blacktop with the flaps down...

Result: I usually only take off at about half to two thirds throttle, with the flaps down she got up to speed and in half the length of a normal take off she jumped into the air and was flying awesome !!!

So things I learned tonight about my new bird, she likes to be flown a little fast, she likes to have a little rudder added to her turns and pulling her nose up into a stall isn't too scary as long as you have enough altitude to get her back flying again..


As for your questions about the AXI 4130/16, I went with this setup because this is a good match for a .60 size glow plane...

I plan to add floats to this plane, so the extra power will be needed for that application later...

My rule of thumb is.....you can never have too much power...it's what you do with the power that determines whether your plane flies or dies !!!

Is it too much power ??? Yes if you fly it wide open and do aerobatics with it...is that what this plane was designed for ??? NO !!!, so fly it for what it was designed for and it'll stay in one piece...

With my AXI 4130/16 with the Thunder Power 6s 5000 I'm not really sure how long I can fly, I'm setting my timer for 12 minutes now, but still have lots of juice left over...

A full charge on this battery is about 25.0 to 25.4 volts, after 12 minutes of gentle 1/4 to 1/3 throttle fly I have about 23.5 volts left on the battery...

I take off at about 1/3 to 2/3s throttle, she climbs out nice and flies quite stable and scale at about 1/4 to 1/3 throttle...

I highly recommend this setup for this plane...

All the best,

Sam

For pictures of our other planes,

To visit our personal site, please go to: www.teamtracon.com

Looks AWESOME!. CMP has really brought this kit a long way it seems. It now looks better than the great planes version I think.

Went out this morning and got a couple more flights on her...

I'm getting a more and more relaxed with this bird...

Flew around with full flaps down...nice and stable....

Awesome for landings...

How are you guys making out ???

I see that a guy posted a picture of his Robart strut in the stock wheel pant..

Here's a link:

(Hope he doesn't mind us borrowing it )



See, it does fit in there...

Sam

Got to say that is one sweet looking plane. Good luck with her, she's a beauty.

You sure did a nice job on that plane Sam and Beverly once again nailed the pictures. Sweet!!

I wish you many many enjoyable flights with her. Hi to Beverly for me.



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