JoeMamma

Is that your new EFlite smoke system ?

Joe M.

Huang

My Feedback: (27)

Ouch!! What happend? [X(]

Free Bird

First time I've seen one smoke. Figure out the cause yet?

FB

pitstop000

My Feedback: (26)

Ouch !

edp

My Feedback: (5)

FB
I let out the "Magic Smoke" from the PC board. The gear was intermittent in flight so I cycled them on the bench. The left main just sang, then poof. I was hitting the power switch and grabbing a screw driver at the same time. I didn't hurt the wing. After this, I'm sticking to my B&Ds

Free Bird

Ed,

I'm on my last leg (pun not intended) with the Eflite retracts. On my last outing, the nose gear leg broke in the trunnion at the set screw. Of course I found out when I lowered the gear for landing and saw the nose gear dangling in the wind hanging by the steering cables. Needless to say, another belly landing was in order.

To try and provide some vibration isolation, I smeared a layer of silicone (about 3/32") on the mount lugs and let it cure overnight. I'm going out today and see if it helps. Will report back later.

FB

Huang

My Feedback: (27)

It amazes me how e-flite could produce such a product and still selling them at these prices. They must have a room full of them at customer service and still be making money.

The design was likely made for electric planes, and they never really considered operating environment of glow engines (they're "e-flite" after all). The original small 10-15 size one worked great, too bad the large ones have so many problems.

Jason Shulman did reply via PM about his new electric retracts. He is testing them in Don Lowe's Phoenix 7. He is still getting parts for the wire struts and steering arm mechanism (arm with slider for pushrod), so price and availability still unknown. From the photos posted they look like the PZ retracts, but Jason's will be complete with nose steering.

I'll probably test out the Robart nose gear. I'll also test out some of the "Chinatracts" for the mains. PZ and ChangeSun both produce electric retracts for this size range (PZ-15091M and CS-46-V2). They are widely used by the electric warbard crowd. They might work for the mains. At $8~15 each there's not much to lose...

FB, let us know how your silicon mount works out...

Free Bird

Yesterday I put in 5 flights and not a single hiccup! This was the first outing (ever) where there were no issues with the gear. Only time will tell how long they'll keep on working. I think I'm going to give the same treatment to the mains. I'll be flying all day Saturday, so it'll be a good test of the gear. More to come.....

FB

Huang

My Feedback: (27)

Great to hear!! That might be the simple solution to be able to use the e-flite. Let us know how it goes Sat!

hook57

My Feedback: (21)

FB, when you get trime a pic of how you did this would serve us well! Keep us posted.
Mark

Huang

My Feedback: (27)

FB, how's the retracts working out with the silicon treatment?

JoeMamma

I believe I'm all through with EFlite electric retracts.

I have six sets of them. Hey..........at least they are fairly consistant as five of six sets have failed. [:'(][:@]

Five of these planes are all equipped with glow motors. The only retract set that's still working for me without any problems is on my twin electric powered EFlite Deuces Wild.

One thing I've discovered is the EFlite's sure don't like any kind of vibration as witnessed by the broken wires in the picture. This wire failure has happened twice. Once on my Hangar 9 Jackal and again on my Phoenix 7.

I used some clear silicone applied to the wires (see picture) and so far the wires haven't broken, but, each of the units has still failed to work at times. Sooooooo, back to Horizon they went. The last set I sent to them the tech said if I used that "glue" (glue ??) anymore, my warranty will be void. I noticed on the latest versions of the EFlite retracts they are now using some kind of a hard "China" glue to keep these wires from breaking.

I have a set of Down & Locked electric retracts on a Top Flite 310 Cessna twin. They were a little pricey, but are still working without any problems. The electrical control unit is remote on the Down & Locked retracts. On this Cessna I have this retract electrical control unit soft-mounted. The control unit on the EFlites is mounted directly into the retracts. This could be part of the problem with the EFlites.

One of the Horizon techs said maybe my props aren't balanced correctly. I said, hey, I've been in this hobby for 40+ years and I do believe I know how to balance a prop and spinner.

Joe M.

Free Bird

I've put a couple more flights on my P7 and so far so good. All I did was to smear a coat of GE silicone about 3/32 thick on the mount lugs of the unit. You could make it thicker if desired. I also used PFM adhesive to secure the wires so they wouldn't break off.

FB

stuntflyr

Pure F***ing Magic?
Chris...

Huang

My Feedback: (27)

So I received the Robart electric nose gear last week and immediately realized (contrary to what their customer service stated at the time) that this nose gear can't operate alone. The robart e-retracts do not work like a servo. The retract only has +/- wires for the motor; it has no control unit or signal line. It needs to be plugged into a "control box" which is an electrical unit little bit bigger than the size of an old PCM receiver. The list price of a control unit? Another $107 large.

The good about this setup is it will likely be very resistant to vibration as the gear itself does not contain a PCB or other electrical components except the motor that drives the worm gear. I had a chance to chat with one of the engineers at Robart, he stated that a lot of the other units had issues with vibration so they went with the separate control box mounted inside the plane away from the elements.

If you purchase the mains the control box is included, so if going with Robart you are best to get the entire tricycle unit ($$$). The plus side is the unit looks very well made. If you read their press release, Robart uses their existing retract mechanism, and Down & Locked makes the electrical unit, so they're probably similar to the Down & Locked that Joe has.

Looks like the options for e-retracts so far are: (1) shell out $400 for a set of Robarts which are designed to take vibration (2) spend $185 for e-flites, silicon the rails and hope for the best, or (3) spend $45 for three of Chinatracts from PZ and make the steering mechanism yourself...

JoeMamma

I hear Ya. ! I'd much rather spend a few extra bucks for something that I can depend on. I agree with your comment about EFlite vibration problems.

I have spent a lot of bucks on a lot of EFlite products and they are (for the most part) good products. That is, except for the electric retracts. I simply can't trust them anymore.

As I stated earlier I have six sets of them, and during every flight I'm wondering if they will come back down. Maybe they can print this on the EFlite retract shipping box: What goes up, must come down.........except for EFlite electric retracts.

In my own opinion, until they do a major design change, the EFlite retracts should only be used on electric powered planes up to about 10-11 pounds.

Another plus when using a separate Down & Locked control unit: if you have gear doors, you can program in a timed, sequential gear door opening and closing.

Joe M.

markhamregular

Do you guys think an OS75 will fit there without any modification?

bem

My Feedback: (1)

Hi,
Do You mean OS75AX?

At least it has same bolt pattern as OS61FX.
But OS 75AX is about 80 gramheavier(without silencer) then65AX so you may get problems with nose heavy.

/Bo

markhamregular

It's an OS75AX

jnred123

Mine has a OS 95AX/MVVS pipe and Eflite retracts and only needed the battery mounted about 4-5 inches behind trailing edge of the wing to balance, just make a tray in lower fuse turtlledeck and slide it thru the opening.
Cheers
Greg

koenig427

Do you guys think a tower hobbies 75 would be way to big for this plane? I wasnt planning on using retracts either.

jnred123

The engine is fine but reconsider the the fixed gear thing please.
Cheers
Greg

koenig427

I guess if im saving the money by using an engine I already have I could get these

http://www.amazon.com/E-Flite-60-Tri...cts+by+E-flite

jnred123

Yeah I'm using those, seem alright so far but I have them mounted on rubber grommets like a servo, I believe they don't like vibration.
Cheers
Greg

koenig427

Whats the best retracts for this plane? Ive been trying to find other ones.