I've joined the "Dark Side"
04-24-2007, 10:17 PM
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I've joined the "Dark Side"
Well, I finally did it. After my Club has gotten permission to use the local park for an electric flying field, I started to work on a scratch built electric flyer. I never got past making the wings, I'm sorry to say, but since I am a "Glow-man" and was building a 60 Aeromaster, I didn't give it much more thought.
Well, I went to Toledo and saw all sorts of new and exciting things, a lot of eletric planes and accessories, and decided to start looking seriously into getting something to fly at the local field, or just take to work. I picked up a free copy of Backyard Flyer at Toledo and was riffling through the pages and found the write up on the new Hobby Lobby Bellanca Decathlon 480 RTF.The report and the price sold me, and I ordered one, along with the optional aileron servo. Now I'm looking forward to flying again, both Glow and Electric. I hope this doesn't turn out to be a boondoggle.
Has anyone else had any experience with this particular RTF? Also, if I want to up the power, how would I do that? Remember, I'm a total Newbie to eletrics, but can fly my Avistars along with my Graduate pretty good. Thanks for the input all!
Don
Well, I went to Toledo and saw all sorts of new and exciting things, a lot of eletric planes and accessories, and decided to start looking seriously into getting something to fly at the local field, or just take to work. I picked up a free copy of Backyard Flyer at Toledo and was riffling through the pages and found the write up on the new Hobby Lobby Bellanca Decathlon 480 RTF.The report and the price sold me, and I ordered one, along with the optional aileron servo. Now I'm looking forward to flying again, both Glow and Electric. I hope this doesn't turn out to be a boondoggle.
Has anyone else had any experience with this particular RTF? Also, if I want to up the power, how would I do that? Remember, I'm a total Newbie to eletrics, but can fly my Avistars along with my Graduate pretty good. Thanks for the input all!
Don
04-25-2007, 11:45 AM
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RE: I've joined the "Dark Side"
Hi Don,
Welcome to electric flying!
The Bianca looks like a good deal for you to start with. With your experience, you should make the ailerons functional right off the bat.
Usually the easiest way to get a perfomance boost is to upgrade the battery. I believe that the Bianca comes with an 8-cell 600mah battery, so the logical upgrade would be to a 9-cell 600mah. You don't want to go too large because of the extra weight and you don't want to burn out your motor with too high a voltage. A better upgrade, but a little more costly, would be to replace the brushed motor with a brushless motor (which requires a different speed controller), and to go with a 3-cell 1000mah LiPo battery.
Keep us informed of your progress in the "Dark Side", which for most of us is the "Bright CLEAN Side".
Welcome to electric flying!
The Bianca looks like a good deal for you to start with. With your experience, you should make the ailerons functional right off the bat.
Usually the easiest way to get a perfomance boost is to upgrade the battery. I believe that the Bianca comes with an 8-cell 600mah battery, so the logical upgrade would be to a 9-cell 600mah. You don't want to go too large because of the extra weight and you don't want to burn out your motor with too high a voltage. A better upgrade, but a little more costly, would be to replace the brushed motor with a brushless motor (which requires a different speed controller), and to go with a 3-cell 1000mah LiPo battery.
Keep us informed of your progress in the "Dark Side", which for most of us is the "Bright CLEAN Side".
