Richie

I have been tweaking my e-flite ascent motor glider since I've purchased to get it to fly as I would like it. I cahnged the motor to 480 with stock prop... didn't fly. Changed the motor back to a better brushed 400 and changed to a 6 by 3 folding prop( same spinner ) and it flew o.k. , but... I want more. So I purchased an e-flite 400 3700kv brushless motor and it seems to do great with the 6 by 3 prop while holding it (flight test soon.. after hurricane). Is the prop and motor settup o.k.?
Any info would be greatly appreciated and flight test results will be posted.

Matt Kirsch

My Feedback: (21)

What battery are you using?

You need to be careful here. Direct drive, this motor won't be able to spin a very large prop without drawing too many Amps and burning up. A 6x3 might give you phenomenal performance, but it may not last very long.

I just ran the numbers on P-Calc at www.flydma.com, and on a 7-cell NiMH pack, that motor is drawing 38 Amps... Too much. If you fly it like that, you'll get ONE flight.

Don't fall for the "bigger motor means more power" trap. As you've found out, that's usually completely opposite of what happens. See, bigger motors are designed to handle higher voltages, so if you don't compensate for that, you end up with LESS power and more weight. The smaller 400 is actually more powerful than the larger 480 in this case because the 400 motor is designed to run on a lower voltage than the 480. Since you didn't increase the voltage to take advantage of the 480 motor, it wasn't turning enough RPMs to pull the plane.

Richie

You are right, it does give great performance with the 6 by 3 prop.
I only ran it for short periods of time then glided around for a while.
I tried a 8 cell nicad and a 2 cell lipo. I have a three cell lipo, but I haven't tried that yet.
I am not going to put a geared setup on this aircraft, but I would like to put a prop on that will not burn up the motor. Anyone know what size is a good one for an e-flite 400 size brushless motor 3700kv?