jmohn

Here's some video of my maiden flight of my Tucano. It's low res, so sorry about that but what a great plane. I was concerned about the high wing loading (33 oz/sq ft) but it flies nice.

Setup:
motor: Eflight Power 60
ESC: Castle 85 HV
Battery: TP 6S 5000 mah
Prop: 16-12
Spring air retracts
AUW: 9.9 lbs.


Enjoy


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RNrDhXd6f8U

faurrlemos

My Feedback: (1)

Nice!!!Nice!!Nice!!!... perfect!!! I LOVE Tucanos!! do you wanna sell it??

jmohn

I just built it, so it's not for sale. Just go to Nitromodels and buy one. It took a lot of work to get the motor and retracts installed properly. I also had to make a custom latching system for the canopy so I could get the batteries in/out without removing the wing. Works great and only takes a few seconds to change the batteries.

faurrlemos

My Feedback: (1)

ok...do you know how much the cost for all work? like plane, servos, motor, speed control, etc...

thank you for your help!

jmohn

Here is the approximate cost:

Aircraft: $219
Motor: $129
ESC: $169
retracts: $89 (got a deal on these)
UBEC: $29
Batteries: main = $229 receiver = $49
Servos: 7 @ $9.99 each

I think that's about it. There may be a few other items I am forgeting, but that's the big stuff. That brings to total to: $982.93...ouch why did I ever total the cost for this. Now I think it's too expensive All of these items were from another plane, so I really didn't spend much, maybe gas is cheaper

iFLYrc_Vic

My Feedback: (6)

We all find it shocking to discover how much we have tied up into our RC planes. I try to look at it from the "reuseable" view and basically look at the cost of the airframe - servos, motors, ESCs can be removed and put into your next favorite plane. For Electrics, the batteries are the killer....

I try to limit myself to about 7-8 ready to fly planes - then I sell one and start the next project.

jmohn

I do the same thing. I have four large size electrics flying at this time. I will be adding another as soon as it gets here which will be my largest, a79" wing span KMP Stuka. I just sold three aircraft and purchased two. I am trying to reduce my inventory to around 6 total, but it's hard to do. My problems with Spektrum have been the real limiting factor since I don't have too many 921 receivers and I won't use the Spektrum ones until they figure out what's going on. The batteries are very expensive. They are also a problem with small portable electric devices (cell phones, cameras, PDAs, laptops, etc) and will be the limiting factor in new technology as power requirements increase because of new features. My company is currently involved in several of these products and working with some inovative and new technology to solve this problem. I really don't see battery techology improving much although there may be some price reduction as more companies start to compete. The real solution is to make more efficient motors, IMO.

faurrlemos

My Feedback: (1)

Hi, it's me again!

What the engine (model) and speed control do you used in the plane?

Thank you!

jmohn

The motor is the E-Flight Power 60 with a 16-12 prop and a Castle 85 HV ESC. I am using a Castle UBEC for the receiver pack with a 1320 11.1 volt TP Lipo. I am getting 1400 watts from the motor with this prop which is more than it's rated for. It should be using a 16-10 prop, but I wanted a little extra power for the climb outs and low level passes. As long as I don't run it full trottle it should be fine. Otherwise with the 16-10 prop you get a little more than 1200 watts. A little more motor would be better, but it works fine. Besides it would be very difficults to fit a larger batter in the plane.


Jeff

jmohn

A few more still photos of my Tucano. It's a great flier! I had a wheel fall off the main on the right side on the last flight. No damage, but it was a strange landing

patzane

starting mine now

patzane

Jeff what happen to your tube video on this plane. How how did that power 60 pull this baby. I went with the Power 110. I have to decide on spring air or robarts retracts
\