Doc Austin

Well, the old girl was getting pretty beat, so it was time to retire her. I got about 200 really intense, abusive flights out of my Mini Pulse 480. Captain Ben has her now, so she has a good home.

Meanwhile, I don't have a Mini Pulse, so I run down to Archie's Hobby Shop and grab another kit. Since everything on the Mini Pulse is pretty standard stuff, I didn't need to buy anything except servos, and I stayed with the HS55s. I used my trusty old E Flite 480 1020kv motor, which I am astonished isn't showing any sign of wear and tear after 200 flights in a Mini Ultra Stick and another 200 flights of duty in the last Mini Pulse. The E Flite 40 amp ESC has always been paired off with this motor, so it's seen a lot of air time too.

For this plane I went 2.4 gig on the radio. I recently acquired a Futaba 2.4 unit, and it is so similar to the Futaba 6EX that I've been using that I'm very comfortable with it. I've been flying a lot of JR radios this year, and I heavilly considered a DX6, but I've been flying Futaba for so long that I was just more comfortable with this unit. I figure since I like my JR stuff so much I'll go with a Spectrum 7 as soon as I recover financially, and use that to replace the JR6102 in my big Pulse XT nitro plane.

On the battery front I had pretty well toasted out my Thunder Power 15C 2100mah packs, so I got a couple of the new TP Extreme Series 20C 2080mah packs. I've only run one of them so far, but it came out of the plane pretty cool today, and it was 90 degrees in Florida. Last summer the 15c packs were coming out pretty close to on fire (to be fair, I run the crap out of them, so it's no surprise they don't like it), so this is a really good step. Also, for some odd reason, the new Mini Pulse came out a little tail heavy, and the extra weight of the extreme battery made the plane come out just right.

Assembly was, again, pretty straightforward. I've put about 8 or so of these together for friends and they have all come out really good. I had a little trouble figuring out how to route the double antennae setup, but as you can see in the photos I managed to hang one of them outside of the plane and it's actually pretty attractive.

Captain Ben surprised me with a pilot he painted up for me, so by the time she was all put together, she looks even better than the first one did when she was new.

I did however, have a few nasty wrinkles behind the canopy where the Mini Pulse decals are. To get them out I had to remove the decals and I think the plane looks plain without them. Hopefully I can get Horizon to send me another set, but they are really good about things like this.

So far, she is just like the old Pulse, though I feel a much better and more direct connection with the 2.4 radio. Right now the elevator seems a little sensitive, but we are still a tiny bit tail heavy. I don't want to add any weight, so I'll try to adjust my flying to it. If that doesn't work, I'm sure 1/4 oz or so on the motor box will fix it.

Anyway, here she is..................

1st Photo:Glamour Shot
Second photo: Antennae Routing
Third shot: Helmet Stogie, aerobatic ace
Fourth shot:Dubro buttonhead screws holding canopy look tidy and sort of scale

Doc Austin

Hopefully the mini will survive tomorrow's beating and I'll get some photos of the radio installation. Right now I'm too lazy to take the wing off, but that's what happens when you start flying electric.

Photo 1: Aileron Setup a little explaination because the photo isn't very clear. ||||||||I am set up at three holes out at the servo and middle hole on the contro, horn.

Photo 2: elevator setup Two holes out on the servo arm, middle hole in the control horn

Photo 3: Rudder setup four holes out at the servo (E Flite extra long servo arm)

Photo 4: Landing gear setup I replaced the steel allen head bolts that hold the landing gear on with nylon 440. these have proven useful in the past as several friends have knocked the gear off their pulses on bad landings and haven't hurt the plane. However, either way the wheel pants can come back and take out the bottom of the wing, so if you fly off rough fields you may want to leave the pants off.

jmir

My Feedback: (1)

Doc Austin,

I see you have been flying both the Mini Ultra Stick and the Mini Pulse. Of the two, which do you like best?

I had an MUS for about 4 or 5 months and had a lot of fun with it. Only problem I had was the landing gear tearing off on rough landings, but the nylon bolts helped that situation. I had one final flight trying to do some stupid things, demolished the fuselage and damaged the end of the wing.

I decided not to replace it, but been looking at the Mini Pulse and was wondering how it would compare since you have flown both.

Doc Austin

I don't have any video of the Mini Ultra Stick. Have we met, or is it possible you've seen my ultra Stick 25E video?

That's kind of like asking me if I like blondes or brunettes. Both have their own appeal, though they are very similar. I'de say the Mini Pulse is a little more forgiving and better for a new guy than a Mini Ultra Stick. The Pulse has a lot of dihedral, so it's nice and stable. the Ultra Stick snaps and spins much more voilently. I fly them both the same way, and I think I can get away with more flying the Mini Pulse, but remember that I've got it grossly overpowered. Power makes a lot of theings easy, plus it's great for pulling you out of trouble.

Really, though, I can't decide, so I fly both. However, the Ultra Stick is so much more simple to assemble and maintain, so it's a perfect daily beater. The Mini Pulse looks so nice that I would really feel bad if I ever hurt one, but the Mini Ultra Stick doesn't look much worse after you wreck it than it did before.

My best advice is that, if you can on ly have one and are accomplished as a pilot, get the Ultra Stick, and if you are still polishing your skills or learning aerobatics, the Mini Pulse is better.

I like them both. I wore one out and I replaced it. i've also got a big Pulse XT nitro plane, and I am all over E Flite to make a Pulse 25E.

Bottom line is that either is a good choice, but having them both is better.

jmir

My Feedback: (1)

Thanks for quick reply. You covered the subject well.

By the way, Hangar 9 has a new Pulse XT 40 (60" wing span) and can be equiped with a electric motor - a Power 46 brushless outrunner motor is recommended.

A Pulse 25 would be better for me since I don't have any 4S batteries.

Again, thanks for your comments.

Doc Austin

I'vce got one under construction but I can't seem to save up enough money for the batteries.

I have a few sources inside E Flite, and right now, officially, at least, there are no plans to do a Pulse 25E. However, they are traditionally very secretive about their releases so we will have to wait and see.

I complain to my friends at E Flite all the time to get a 25E into produc tion, but so far I haven't been successful. We need more people to express an interest in the plane, but you can start here:

http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/m_5866663/tm.htm

ronbonham

Question Doc,

Did you have to add some balast in the tail? I have a new FMA Direct 2100 pack and it looks like I need to add 18 grams of weight in the tail to keep the battery anywhere close to within the battery compartment.

...Ron

netdudeuk

My battery is fairly well back but I didn't need any balast and maybe you can move the RX back ? That could make a worthwhile difference.

Doc Austin

No. After some additional flying, I detirmined this particular plane flies a little better nose heavy, so I had to add 1/2 oz up front.

There are a few things you can do to get the plane a little more tail heavy without adding weight. I put the reveiver as far back in the radio compartment as it could go, just to get my antennae placement perfect. It's not a lot of weight, but it doesn't take much shifting around of the equipment to make a big difference.

Also, I used larger fender washers under the nuts that secure the tail. They spread the load out over a larger area, so you can crank the nuts down a little tighter without crusing the wood. I'de try that before you go cutting or drilling a hole in the plane to put the weight in the tail. On this particular plane however, those washers were too much weight and I had to use the washers that came with the kit. If you need to go more tail heavy, try heavier washers because at least they serve a purpose instead of just being dead weight.

Also, spinners vary in weight. If, for example, you are running a metal spinner that could explain your nose heavy problem. Great Planes just came out with a translucent spinner that looks really cool, and it doesn't weigh hardly anything. Or, you can just ditch the spinner altogether if you don't mind the way that looks. I settled on a Dubro spinner and it works fine.

Unless you are going to do flat spins or ultra precise pattern work, it doesn't hurt a thing for the Pulse to be a little nose heavy. The airfoil is very stable and forgiving through a wide CG range, but granted, it will be much livelier with the CG to the rear. I run my CG right on the spar because that's where it likes it. The plane won't flat spin or anything, but it grooves really nice at high speed, and I can turn it really, really hard without the plane trying to snap out.

The first few flights the elevator seemed really, really touchy, even though I am running the same setup as on my old mini Pulse. This particular plane just likes to be a little more nose heavy than the other one. They all fly a little differently from each other, so this wasn't completely unexpected. I could have done all sorts of crazy stuff to move some weight forward, but it was just way simpler to add a 1/2 to the nose because the plane is already so light that it floats forever on landing approach.


I have metric dyslexia, so how much is 18 grams? If it's less than an ounce, I wouldn't sweat it.