Slo-V Story
First of all, I appreciate all the information that is available in this forum. I am relatively new to RC flying but I flew a friends’ Slo-V at work and took to it with much delight. I guess it was the right plane at the right time because I went out and bought one last week end. My lunch hour for the first week consisted of practicing basic flight skills to eventually doing loops. What a blast this plane is.
By the time Friday evening came around I was very comfortable putting the Slo-V in the air. There was one lesson that I wanted to accomplish and that was to take-off and land on a smooth surface. Well I took the family around the corner to the elementary school parking lot and had a good take off (with some video coverage) and a smooth landing. Things are going good I thought. Well my 11 yr old daughter was bugging me to try the controls - this is where everything went to the can.
After getting the plane in the air I handed half of the controls to her as to try and grab the TX quickly if anything went awry. I wasn't quick enough. The first thing she did was push up on the stick - perfect one point landing into the grass, the screw that holds the servo and Rx pack ripped a good 10 mm grove in the fuse. I didn't get upset (acted all civil and all). I checked the plane over and noticed that with the servo pack moved forward, my ailerons were down. Easy enough - I pushed it back in its original position and was going to try and fly - bad idea. The pack moved forward as soon as I hand launched it and it took a 5 foot drop straight into the pavement. Broke the gear assembly box. Oh great - I flew this thing all week without an incident and within 15 minutes disabled it with 2 major crashes. Well I went to the LHS and picked up a gear assembly for a few bucks - no problem. I took a tie wrap and some double sided tape and secured the electronics pack on the fuse. All is well again - or is it.
I borrowed a couple of 7 cell batteries and added to mine I was able to fly for a couple of hours Saturday rotating the batteries out on the charger once they had cooled. It was a bit windy and I had to pretty much run at full throttle the whole time. The next day I went back up to the school and started to fly - hmmmm, I heard the motor missing (sputtering). I thought it might be a loose connection so I landed it (right into the side of my car) and took it home.
As I was trying to troubleshoot the problem and running the motor, the servos were twitching like crazy. Then all of a sudden a thick flume of smoke came from the ESC/RX; oh crap, burnt electronics are not a good thing. I quick unplugged the battery. The next day I called the LHS and they said to bring the ESC/RX in and they would replace it - cool. I got back to the house and put my new ESC/RX back on. I plugged up the battery and hit the throttle. Two seconds, the motor stopped. Here I go again. I quick unplugged the battery to save the ESC/RX - whew. Now what I thought, I checked the voltage out of the ESC/RX and it read the battery voltage and varied as I moved the throttle back and forth. Dang-it, it must be a bad motor.
I read many posts on this forum last night and had a good time doing it. All the problems that I encountered have been experienced by many many folks that were willing to share their experiences and ideas. I took some of the advice on this forum and bought a Venom Fireball today (to replace the motor that I burned out). I came home this evening and started my little mini project and got the new motor installed. I tried it out and it sounded great. I put the wing on and went out back into the neighbor’s field. I hand launched the plane and zoom it took off as smooth as could be. This is the first time that I was able to get the plane above 50~75 feet. I guess it got about 200 ft and I dropped the throttle down to half and let it float smoothly around the field and part of the neighborhood (maybe a 10~12 min flight on the stock 6 cell battery). This is what I wanted - to be able to relax and fly around without having to fight the stick.
A bit winded, but I had to share my thoughts (first post and all).
RC