Hi everyone. I am really not electrically minded, and would appreciate some advice on what motor, battery combination would be best for my top flite P47 63" Gold edition kit.

I have seen people talking about having a 1.20 petrol motor for enough power in these. I will have a retractable tail wheel and robart air retracts in this one.

I was therefore thinking perhaps something like an e-flite power 110 motor (http://www.e-fliterc.com/Products/De...odID=EFLM4110A) with an 85 to 90 A speed control. I am looking for something relatively reliable and well priced.

I want to run lipos and I was thinking 8s2p (did I say that right? two 4 cell batteries hooked together is what I mean), but as to what capacity I am not sure... i would want a decent run time, and from what i have heard these kits turn out tail heavy as it is. I don;t think I am ready to get into A123's just yet.

Has anyone out there done this conversion? I am finding it tough to find any forums where someone has done this before. I would also love any hints as to battery mounting position if someone has done this...

I also really want to run a 4 blade prop, so any suggestions on which type I am all ears!

Any help is truly appreciated.

Hi Gree

Many electric conversions have been done to models of this size.

Many approx 65" wingspan warbirds, such as the Hangar 9 series ARF's, have been powered by an E-flite 60 motor, 70 - 85 amp speed control and 6 series 4000 to 6000 mah lipos. These models typically weigh 8 to 9 pounds including the electric equipment. This will fly the plane very well for 8 to 10 minutes.

The Top Flite kits generally weigh more when finished, so they might fly faster, climb slower, and have a faster stall speed with the same motor system.

I have an E-Flite 110 motor (85 amp esc and 9s 4900mah lipos) in a 10 pound 71" spitfire, and it has about double the power needed for flight.

An E-flite 110 (on 8 cells) will certainly fly your plane well, but it will also be fast.

https://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=604431

I did a Spitfire kit last year and crashed on the second flight due to my inexperience with large birds. It was easy to fly... I just slowed it down too much and she tipstalled from 20ft. I still think about her lol!

I went with an 8s 4200mah 20C pack, a HXT 63-64B motor (www.hobbycity.com), and a Castle Creations 85HV ESC. It had more power than required, and was probably quite heavy after all the scale details I added. There was about 1500W to the prop, and this 10lb plane had vertical! After flight motor was just warm and bats were cool. Great power system for a plane this size. Can't beat the motor price either... How does $60USD sound?
Let me know what you think.

May I recommend useing a hacker motor or an AXI
I've done alot of research and asked ever electric flyer I could about motors ..and in general Hacker is what came up as the best...with axi right behind...
I did my hanger 9 P-51 with a Hacker A-50 12L with a 6s 5000mha pack..
The power is awsome! I get about 6 minutes of real hard flying

My first hanger 9 P-51 had a saito 100 in it I thought it flew it nice. but the Hacker has much more power!

You could run the same motor on 8s and have alot of power.. which you will need for the topflight.. if you are building yours from a kit(not sure you may have it done already or bought it done) keep it light! topflight sheeting is heavy replace all the tail sheeting with good midwest 1/16 sheeting to keep the tail light... build it really light you don't need it so beefed up for elelctric becasue there is no viberation.. use light wheels..light servos..use a ubec not a rx battery...

Here is a link to hacker : http://www.aero-model.com/motors.aspx
also do a advaned search on here for topflight you will find a few builds that will help you out
I'm a not a rep just a flyer trying to help guys out

Thanks very much guys! It is great to hear personally from you about how much power each of the set-ups had.

Michael - thanks for the advice on the 110. I am thinking of 8 cells because I already have a charger that will do 4 cell packs - so am thinking of saving some money where I can. It is good to know 8 cells will be sufficient.

Tommyeflight89 - $60USD sounds damn good! I will look into this very closely.

Ron101 - Unfortunately I have already built the tail surfaces (yes it is a kit), but as of yet that is all I have built, So I will take your advice on board about the weight. I may have shot myself in the foot with this though because of my tail retract, but I got a little air cylinder to run it so hopefully this will be much lighter that a servo.

I'll definitely use a UBEC for this one. Do you know of a good one I can look into into?

Originally Posted by tommyeflight89

https://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=604431
I went with an 8s 4200mah 20C pack, a HXT 63-64B motor (www.hobbycity.com), and a Castle Creations 85HV ESC.... How does $60USD sound?
Let me know what you think.

I forgot to ask - how long was your flight time on this set up?

Thanks for the link to your thread I'll definitely read through it.

Originally Posted by Gree

...I want to run lipos and I was thinking 8s2p (did I say that right? two 4 cell batteries hooked together is what I mean),...

Hi there,

FYI, 8s2p would be TWO 8 cell packs hooked in parallel, so a total of 16 cells. What you want sounds more like 8s1p by using two 4s1p in series. (ok, i think thats right, can someone confirm?)

Ah so 'p' stands for packs perhaps? I am not right up on the lingo. tat would make sense, thanks very much for the clarification...

so what I am talking about is 4s2p?

"p" stands for Parallel. And no you are talking 8s1p. 4s2p would only be 14.8 volts. So it depends how you wire those two packs. If you do them in parallel, you get 4s2p (bad, not enough volts). If you wire them in series you get 8s1p (good in your case).

yep go 8s 1p
I run 5000 mha in mine and can get 8 mintues mixed throttle
or 6 minutes full throttle.. I'm pulling about 1500 watts and weight 8 pounds so it does really well.. I'm also at sea level.. so if your higher you may need more power

I use the ultimate battery backer for hobby lobby..on 6v
alot guys will tell you on a plane this size not to use one.. but mine is working great and I know bigger planes that are using it.. to me it's worth saving the weight and not having to charge the recevier and no swith

I used to have a top flight p-47.. what a great bird.. they fly so sweet
sence you are doing a build if I were you I'd do a hatch like mine so you don't have to pull off the wing to change packs.. I used very strong magnets to hold it on.. if you need a picture let me know and I'll snap a few

Thanks Ron101 for the info about the UBEC and hatch.

Looks like 8s1p may be the go! i'll investigate all of the motors people have suggested here, and maybe look for some type of existing mounting bracket that will get the motor far enough forward...


I would very much like to see how you set your hatch up if you could be kind enough to get some photos.

Not knowing the balancing will go yet, I am envisaging having the batteries in the cowl area on a custom built battery tray coming off the firewall, and was thinking about having parts of the cowl removable for access - the same panels that come off the cowl on the real P47, but this would involve some major surgery, and I think I will have to build the fuse first and physically check the balance.

This will be much easier if I already have all of my electronics sorted by the time i get that far.

Since there only were two flights, I can't really tell you about the runtime.
It is an 8s setup with 4200mah capacity, so it would probably do over 8mins easily. It took very little throttle to maintain speed. I had a 5min+ flight, landed, and there was still plenty of voltage left, so i wnt up for another. That's when I tipstalled and crashed it... Wish I hadn't flown it then or it may still be around!

damn - so sorry to hear about that. I went and read your entire thread - a beautiful plane. You must have been gutted at the loss.

I had to recharge my camera..
I snap those pcs for you in the morning
They my not help you because as you said you may need your battery way up front.. mine is behind the firewall.. but the hanger 9 has two servos in the tail.. so I'm sure your will be way up front

Thanks Ron101.

But it may be simpler for me to have a hatch on top, then slide the batteries into the nose from there rather than trying to mess with the cowl. I am open to all ideas at the moment!

I'd love to see your hatch... wait that didn't sound right did it!? :S