TimCouto

Oh, i'm well aware that the GWS floats perfectly fit both the E-Starter and the Beaver models straight from the factory... but if I epoxy the whole front landing gear to the mount, that pretty much eliminates my use of the floats. Or are you saying that I can just take off the wheels, and then complete the installation of the floats by using the exsisting landing gear that gets epoxied originally for added strength when landing on pavment, etc?

Sorry for the confusion... I think the best thing for me to do, is post a couple of pics.. and maybe that'll help clear things up... although i think I already know what you mean. I just like to be sure before I go ahead and do something. No need screwing something up just because I didn't take an extra day to gather some knowledge from the experts, lol.

Anyhow, i'm going to take a few pics of my E-Starter and throw them in here, so you can see what she looks like.

By the way.... SWEET E-STARTER you got in the works there!!!! That's looks awesome with the floats all built into her body and the double tail style!!

Maybe someday i'll be able to build something that nice. Oh well... one step at a time, lol.



Fun and safe flying [8D]
~Tim~

TimCouto

Here are the pictures of my E-Starter. Yeah... she has a strong resemblance to a J-3 Cub after I decided not to go with the original white look and decals, lmao. I purposely painter her yellow and black just because I like the Piper Cubs looks. Now I just need a black lightning bolt down the side, hahahaha!

TimCouto

On an added note:

I did do one modifacation to my E-Starter. I heard that the tail section of the fuse often ends up snapping in a good crash, so I took two small shishcabob skewers, and cut out just enough foam to embed them inside the fuse, from the tail... right up to the back of the wing. Hopfuly that'll help reinforce her enough to survive a few brutal crashes.



Fun and safe flying [8D]
~Tim~

AJ1202

Tim, first that was a good mod with the skewers, I have had mine for a couple years now and just broke the tail for the first time the other day when I clipped a light pole with the edge of the wing and it flat spun to the ground and nosed over right before hitting the ground, so it slapped the tail pretty hard, OK enough about that,,,,, yes you can easily change from wheels to floats
only epox the front gear, then epox only the plastic mount on the rear, when your ready for the floats you pull the wheels and install the floats, the floats will come with 2 LG wires that are the same as the stock front LG wire so it all works together. when your ready for floats you want to set it up to where the step on the float is about 1/2" behind your CG of the plane. once you get your floats and look at the crappy instuctions it will make more sence
Oh and I like the yellow and black paint job, I too like the Cub

perttime

Arrrghhh, my eyes! [sm=48_48.gif]

You did not read the manual when putting this one together, did you?

TimCouto

Ok, I should have my floats in by monday. There in the traveling process from Tower's warehouse as we speak.

So once I get these things put together... I set the "step" a 1/2" behind the CG and I should be good to go...? Works for me! It takes alot to discourage me, so i'm sure the floats won't tick me off too badly, lol.

Anyhow.. i'll post pictures when the floats come in and I start putting them together.




Fun and safe flying [8D]
~Tim~

AJ1202

Tim, good for you, they didn't tick me off, it was just harder to do than I expected with the very thin working area of plastic and it being so flimbsy didn't help any. I'm sure you will be fine, there not that hard

TimCouto

Ok.... my E-Starter is flight ready. Everything is installed and ready to go. BUT... before I plug in the battery.. I had one question.

I have the stock EPS-400 and i'm using an Electrifly C-20 ESC on it. It says I can use 5-8 cells. The low voltage cutoff is 4.8V

So... if I use a 3 cell (2200mah) 11.1V Li-Po battery... is that safe? or am I going to fry this ESC when I power it up?

As long as I can get 8 or 10 flights out of it, that's fine, as i'm going to advace to a brushless setup later on. I just want to get some actual flight time on this plane so I can get a "feel" for her. (I also know that the 3 cell Li-Po is going to cook the motor after 5+ runs anyways.. I just want to make sure that the setup i'm going to use, will generally work, even if just for a few flights).


Thanks everyone...



Fun and safe flying [8D]
~Tim~

AJ1202

Tim, I'm not sure if your ESC is lipo freindly but a cut off voltage of 4.8 is a bad thing for a 3S lipo, you want it to cut off no lower than 9V to be safe, I don't ever let mine get to the poin of cut of anyway, I just watch the plane and as soon as I notice a drop in performance I land it. I have never went below 9 V that way so if your real carefull you will be OK. The 400 motor will hold up prob more than just 5 flgihts but your right you will cook it . If you use lipo get it as far forward as you can and double check your CG, now the ES is rather forgiving on flying tail heavy but it's no fun having to constantly correct it
Good Luck and let me know how it goes
I hope to get out today and fly for a while

TimCouto

Well, I test started it with the C-20 ESC, and everything works just fine. I ran the motor for a good minute straight, and the ESC wasn't even warm to the touch. I don't plan on letting the battery get that low, that the LVC would engage. I know better than that, as that would ruin the Li-Po. As for the C of G.... she's right on those little "X" marks on the underside of the wing, and at that point she's perfectly balanced with maybe 1 or 2 degree's of nose-heaviness at the absolute most. I held the plane by the fuse and pointed it straight up and gave the plane full throttle. She really wanted to pull right out of my hand, so i'm hoping that the power is there for a good maiden flight. All in all, I think she'll fly just fine. I was a little skeptic at first because I used those standard servos and 2200mah 3 cell Li-Po... but she doesn't care... she just wants to GO!!

I was going to take her out today as there was only 4mph winds, but 2 things stopped me....

1) It's kind of rainy outside today. Not raining hard at all but that misty stuff constantly coming down, just enough to keep everything wet outside. I didn't want to chance harming the electronics, not that I really have to worry much since it's all hidden inside the fuse.

2) And lastly... I noticed that my rear wheel wasn't secure so I had to do a little re-gluing.

After reading so many posts on how people couldn't wait to get out there and fly... and decided to "go for it anyway"... then end up writing a post a few hours later, about how there plane did something "unexpected" and lost control, or kart-wheeled during the landing.

I know better that to make that mistake. So instead of flying today... i'm doing the smart thing, and re-checking ALL of my planes for any minor problems and making sure everything is good to go for the next chance I get to fly.... (which during this time of year.. could be AWHILE!!). []

Patience is a virtue, lol.




Fun and safe flying [8D]
~Tim~

TimCouto

So I got my GWS floats in the other day. You weren't kidding about the design being "patience-testing", lol. Too bad they don't just mke it a one piece float set.

Once I started taking everything out of the box, and laying it out to see exactly what the kit contains... I was like... "hmm... I have to cut the bottom part of the float as flush as possible so it sits snug gainst the sides of the top half of the float."

So I started cutting slowly and carefully.. but it didn't really "line up" all that great overall. So after I epoxied the two pieces together... I took some packaging tape and ran a strip all the way around the float to "smooth it out" as best I could. Then I decided on painting them black.

I didn't install them just yet though. They're just "finished" so I can hook them up to the E-Starter whenever I want to do some flying from water.. or take-offs from the snow.

I guess they came out "OK" considering they were my first set of floats, lol. I have a couple of pictures I took of them. You can be the judge of my building skills, hahahaha!



Fun and safe flying [8D]
~Tim~

rcs r us

hey guys what up?while your on the topic of slow sticks.....im 13 and my dad works all day so i cant build my planes.im buying a gws slow stick rtf only,that means with every thing.pleas post that your selling one or email me at... [email protected]

thanks,
james terry[]

TimCouto

Actually.. we weren't on the topic of slowsticks. We're talking about E-starters. Both made by GWS though. As for looking for an RTF SlowStick setup... try looking around here, in the classifieds section, you might get lucky.

Then there's always www.rcgroups.com in thier wanted/for sale section as well.


Good luck, the slowstick is a great biginner plane. I know... I have 3 of them, lol.



Fun and safe flying [8D]
~Tim~

duck stew

hi all you E-starter gurus.......I'm back into RC after 15 years and totally new to electric (and foamies). anyway my e-starter is under construction....can see potential problem with aileron torque rods (already installed) engaging the LE of aileron too low? ...does not match up with hinge line.....I'm doing something wrong......any guesses? thanks

Duck

perttime

I recall I adjusted the depth of the torque rod channels a little to get it centered. The other problem with the torque rods is that they try to eat a hole in the aileron foam. You could take pieces of the push rod tube and glue those into the ailerons, and put the torque rods into them without gluing. That might solve both issues (haven't tried it myself yet...).

Time Pilot

I also adjusted the depth of my torque rods so they were centered.

I didn't use the pushrod material in the aileron, but I did use small diameter glow fuel tubing. I carefully drilled out the hole for the torque using increasingly larger drill bits spun by hand until the tubing fit. I used the GWS glue to hold the tubing in and cut the tubing flush with the aileron surface after the glue dried. Still good after almost 2 years and many hours of flying (and a couple of good crashes)

duck stew

thanks for the input guys.....seeing as the rods are already installed (too low to line up with the hinges) probably wind up cutting them out and use a mini servo for each wing instead.....I have a couple of micro bluebirds kicking around....only 6 oz of torque though....will this be enough for this airplane?

best regards
duck

perttime

6 oz torque per aileron should be fine if you are not planning to fly very fast or do violent aerobatics.

I have a single Hitec HS-55 (15oz at 4.8V) on the ailerons of my Formosa that has about 150W, bigger surfaces, bigger deflections, more speed...
Lots of people consider torque rods a pain anyway...

duck stew

thanks Pertime.......interesting about the torque rods.....they'd have worked fine if I had more experience and ignored the intstructions and cut the slot deeper than the foam molding. These instructions leave a lot to be desired.[:'(]

I have a Formosa II on deck. [sm=regular_smile.gif]

perttime

People sometimes complain about GWS instructions but they did not really bother me. I took it as reference material and did not follow the steps slavishly. Instead, I kept thinking about what I am trying to accomplish. Of course, that meant that I was not finished in a couple of evenings like some guys who have experience building stuff.

Besides, getting a manual done, or redone, professionally costs real money that has to be included in the price you pay for the product.

TimCouto

I have to agree with you about the gws directions overall.

Though they "do the job".. they DO leave out alot of basic information that could make the build ALOT easier for the "first-time builder".

I remember when I was building my slowstick and e-starter.... I was like.. huhhhh? what's this part for... the manual doesn't say ANYTHING about where this goes.....

It was until later on.. (reading through the forums).. that I realized that they have "basic" plastic accessories that they use for a variety of models.. so some of the parts are therefore, "extra's".

I thought for sure, that I had messed up on something, lol.

Thank god for all the helpful people that have "been there, done that" and are nice enough to let the "new guys" know what's what.




Fun and safe flying [8D]
~Tim~

TimCouto

Well.... since nobody's posted anything in this thread in months.... I mine as well throw in another picture of my E-Starter on floats.





Fun and safe flying [8D]
~Tim~

TVLmole

Hi All (That still read this link!)

The Estarter is also one of my first foamies and was impressed with the ease with which it flies. As like all things relating to speed, you just want to go a"little" bit faster and do a "few" manoevers!

I chucked out the stock motor and put in a Eflite Park370 1360kv BL outrunner and GWS9x7 SF prop. Man, what a difference! If I put on a 10x8 it should be able to do 3D

You can do repeated loops till you get tired. When you do a steep dive, the wing struts vibrate like a double bass!

I am busy converting my GWS Zero to the same BL.

TimCouto

Swwet... can't wait to see some pics!!

mechlova

Hello all, noob here. I'm trying to build an e-starter and i'm not too sure how to cut out the aileron and rudder. Do i make one cut for each (i.e. cut along one side of the groove) or do i attempt to cut the little piece that holds them to the main component (i.e cut both sides of the groove)? Hope my question is clear and appreciate any help i can get.

Thanks