E-SKY_FLYER

I have had one for a little while now and thought i'd have a section where the electrafun guys can talk their stuff.

What better way than to start with a nice review!
Reviewer Name: Adrian DeBono

Introduction
I got the plane for $170 from my lhs down the road. Everything was in the box, all the servos were trimmed and so was the controller.
There was a spare stab set and a spare main wing included. There were even 2 nicd 600mah batteries included in the pack. All i needed was to charge the battery and install 8 AA batteries in the transmitter.

Maiden Flight
Weather: light breeze
At first I made sure all the servos were working well and put about 3/4 throttle and launched the model. The great thing about this plane is the fact that being a trainer is suprisingly agile and easily glides once its thrown. Its even more forgiving without its wheels. I removed the wheels as the plane tends to catch and flip forward with the wheels installed.
The plane reached a decent altitude, its not a rocket but its definitely got enough power to get around. Half the time you will be runnin on 1/2 to 3/4 throttle. After a few straight manuveres I attempted harder turns and a loop. To do a loop with the standard motor isn't difficult at all, just make sure you have enough altitude to gain some speed down and then enough distance to then pull up. This plane flys very well.

2nd Maiden Flight
Day weather: Strong winds ()
This was a bit more interesting, and the motor size becomes a bit more important. The plane will still fly, and will handle the wind very well especially in stronger wind. But there is often not enough power to progress into the wind, once u go with the wind, it will be very quick but it will have trouble to come back into the wind.


Overal Opinion
I found this to be very good value and a very good plane to both teach someone on and to learn off for yourself. It was my first plane and it has remained my favourite.
The batteries might not last you all that long (someone said you would get about 50 charges out of them) due to the fact that they are only nicad. I found that the upgrade to 8.4volt 1200mah venom batteries fit perfectly and give you a decent bit more battery life. (approx 13-18mins depending on throttle control)
The spare parts are dirt cheap:
Spare Fusalage with pushrods, foam pieces, hold down rod for wing, and servo holder: $12.95AUS
Spare main wing: $14.95AUS
Stab set: $5.95AUS

Very well worth the money



Recommended Upgrades
As many would know, the main wing isn't exactly bulletproof, quite the opposite. The problem is that the piece of balsa used is too thin, and under big nose dives and loops the wings fold up and your electrafun comes crashing down I have put down a couple of upgrade paths for your to choose.

Motor Changes:
Change the stock 370 motor to a stock 480 motor (it has the same barrel size as a 400 motor) which fit perfectly.
You will get quite a decent increase of power, although the motor is a bit heavier, the plane accepts a certain amount of extra weight suprisingly well.

Change the stock 370 motor for a himark 2000kv brushless motor and a phoenix 25amp brushless esc.
I have done this modification and found the electrafun an absolute blast, I took it out yesterday in 55km winds on an OPEN field and had no problems actually going into the wind.
I am still using just 9.6 volt and 8.4 volt 1400mah batteries but the plane has no problems and its very quick. I reckon it would be at least 80-110kms and about 100-110 kms an hour with 11.1volt lipo batteries.


Battery changes:
I heard many people putting 11.1volt batteries in this plane with much success as well with the brushless setup.

I have found that 9.6 volt 1200mah batteries make a decent upgrade to both battery life and power out of the standard motor



Thats my review I'll have some pictures soon!

benb1984

i bought a wing today for 15$ and got a carbon fibre tube about 3mm maby for 7$ then ive taped it down hard to the wing, she wont fold anymore, its stiff as a board
i also cut out some old rum cans in to squares then folded it in half over the trailing edge of the wing, on either side of support sticker for the elastic bands, if your following me so when the wing comes off on hard landings the prop wont eat it up, with all the tape and the bulge from the carbon fiber and the aluminium i dont reckon its much heavier than some of my old taped up wings, i hope this fixes the problem with my electrafun xp, as she is a great plane to learn to fly and even for someone more experienced it is still fun, the the wing is a major let down

E-SKY_FLYER

Anyone else interested in gettin this forum going again?
I'm puttin my brushless motor back in this week!

smalltime0

I just got my Electrafun (have to wait for xmas though) .

I can better ur price of AUD 170, got mine for AUD 140!

I was tossing up between 3 planes, the Electrafun XP, the Extrafun XL or the Shun-Da Piper J3 cub. I got the Electrafun cause it was cheaper than expected (the price is supposed to be AUD 150 i think from Perth RC's website) and also Perth RC didnt have the other 2 in stock (they only got new ones in today, I know i was there yesterday). I was wondering about the stock batteries, what is the flight time roughly with them, 5-7 min?

smalltime0

well if any1 is interested i found a good site for electrafun (unfortunately now static)
[link=http://www.electrafun.co.uk/]electrafun[/link]

it has a good review/forum/tips

ozrcboy

You guys started an electrafun XP thread and didn't let me know...

I've done an EF review including some prepping tips, fixing some of the common problems, and list of manuveurs with some photos etc on my blog:

http://www.oz********.com/2007/01/el...un-review.html

Absolutely back up Fox_pilot on the whole 9.6 v pack idea - a nice cheap little upgrade.

My EF has a 380 motor, not 370. Perhaps they vary a bit through production.

Overall the EF is a lot of fun. I still really enjoy flying mine even though I've moved onto other things.

As for the NiCads that come with it, they are kind of crap, but everytime (so far) that I have thought they are due for recycling I've put them on a slow trickle charge and they have come up well enough.

clovus

Heya guys
All this talk about the electrafun is kinda making me nostalgic. Might havta dust mine off.......

They do accept 11.1v lipos, but the motor life is shortened dramatically. If you have the EF version with the proportional throttle you will get a longer time out of it as you do not need full throttle...ever. I was using a kokam 1500 3s lipo for a time. A bit heavy, but I moved things around in the fuse. Long flight times with that sucker in there... something like 20 mins before my neck got too sore.

I think they are all 4 channel, the rx looks like it will take 3 servos, you just need an extra servo. The first version with the on/off switch I think was also proportional but the trans was as cheap as they could get.
clovus

ozrcboy

The Electrafun XP has a 4 channel RX but I would recommend against trying to use all four channels on a model (Just ask my GWS Tiger Moth 400).

clovus

wot happened?

clovus

ozrcboy

Eventually destroyed (almost - I did glue it back together although it hasn't flown since) my GWS Big Moth - some gory details here:

http://www.oz********.com/2007/01/big-crash.html
http://www.oz********.com/2007/01/interference.html
http://www.oz********.com/2007/01/in...continued.html

With the benefit of hindsight and a little more experience I think the fundamental problem is that the EF Receiver will not do a good job with 4 channel setups. 3 channels seems to be okay.

Pijuvwy

My 10yo son and I both got Electrfuns around Christmas. Mine was buggy from the start, but I didn't know enough to tell that at the time. It took a fair bit of damage, until I finally replaced the receiver. Then it was OK. The problem was, control surfaces would start dancing around by themselves. It got worse as it warmed up, and was still worse when the engine was running.

Anyway, with the help of the local RC club, we have both had some training. I am currently trying an aileron conversion, using the standard radio gear. First flight test showed almost no response to ailerons: surfaces too small and too close to axis. I have a single servo mounted in the centre of the wing, with pushrods.

I'll extend the surfaces outward to see if there's any improvement.

ozrcboy

You should have a chat to machette on the Australian Thread (in fact you should come over to the Australian Thread and just say hi) - he tried the same thing. Go up to Park and Backyard Flyers and look for the Australian Thread - we are normally pretty close to the top of the list.

Cheers,
Oz.

Broken_Arrow

Hiya mate how r ya,

I just bought the Electrafun XP, I reckon the name says it all. It's good value for money, allowing for a decent amount of performance and entertainment for under $200 (AUS). I thought I'd leave a comment or two for Fox_pilot about the upgrades he reccomends.

Yeah I also found that 9.6 volt 1200mah battery was an excellent upgrade to both battery life and power out of the included motor.
It seemed to pretty much double the power and speed but overall the aerobatic performance of the plane was vastly improved. I got talking to the bloke down at the hobby shop, he said everything you said along the lines of upgrades however he also reccomended the upgrade of the propeller, as apparently the standard one is a bit defficient in the transfer of energy from the motor into propulsion.
I am not so sure if it would be a worthwhile upgrade... But thought I'd mention anyway.

TJ

Pijuvwy

You might as well give it a try, the props are only a few bucks. What size prop did he recommend? I think I'd like to try the 8-cell battery and a prop, mainly because they are cheap and simple changes.

My son and I get very inconsistent amounts of charge into our 4 NiCd betteries. Can anyone tell me whether that's mainly due to crappy standard batteries, or crappy standard charger, or are we doing something wrong? Experienced guy at the Field took one of our batteries which had under-performed, stripped it down, tested each cell, and put it back together, saying it tested OK.

dabvid

one word-amazing, after finally learning i know have 19 consecutive flights and i can do a few tricks. i also can vouch for the 1200mah 8.4 and 9.6 batterys. do you guys know what prop would work better cause i hear that the stock prop is deficient and doesnt get all the juice out of the motor.
regards,
dave

dabvid

brocken arrow, sorry for stealin your question i went over the thread after i posted lol, let me know how the prop goes.
regards,
dave
p.s and also what size you use

Pijuvwy

Does this look familiar?





[link=http://www.readytoflyfun.com/thawk3chrtf.html]T-HAWK 3Ch 380 8.4V[/link]

[link=http://www.toytx.com/thawkvideos.html]Watch the T-HAWK In Action! [/link]

Pijuvwy

Based on the T-Hawk, with a few performance changes and a new exterior based on the Skywave, I made an FMS model for the Electrafun. Like to give it a go?

http://www.box.net/shared/87dvbz1249

goopy

good job! Mine flies a little differently, but it's had a pretty rough life

Pijuvwy

Thanks Goopy.

I tried to match it to my own EFun, with the throws centered. My son's EFun is a little different, with a CG difference as well as gentle throws.

I was flying the Sim tonight, and I thought the inverted flight was not quite difficult enough, and high-alpha was also too easy for the stock motor. (But you should see the simulated outrunner version!)

I've made another .x file for the appearance, based on actual photos of my EFun parts. It looks good, but I don't want to release it just as a cosmetic update. I'd rather wait till I get feedback to fix the performance, to get it "just right."

So any Electrafun flyers, give it a good hard testing, and tell me how it differs from your real Electrafun, then I'll make a better one.

Pij

november-whiskey

Hi, this is my first post, so here go's...

I bought an electrafun (my first rc plane) and after the second flight, the g-loading on the wings was too great and they folded. One of the effects os this was the motor housing moving forward kind of crushing the plastic, but I was able to push this back out.

Are there any methods of strengthening the wing and the housing of the motor to stop this happening again (other than avoiding the situation that caused this)?

Any help greatly appreciated

NW

ozrcboy

Hi NW,

Use some clear packing tape, or better yet fibreglass reinforced tape put the wing under slight tension against the direction they folded (so the tips come up, the middle goes down if looking at the wing from above) and then run some tape along the length of the underside while it is under tension. Put a second piece on doing the same thing. Then put a some tape over the leading and trailing edges the length of the wing.

Cheers,
Oz.

november-whiskey

Thanks for that Oz. Is there any way to stop the engine moving forward and crumpling the surrounding plastic?

Cheers

NW

E-SKY_FLYER

I haven't had that problem before.
My electrafun has been quite good. I had the wings fold before, but for the motor area to crumble there must be something quite tight, which rubber bands are you using?
I had my electrafun xp so high yesterday it was unbelievable.

I was so suprised to how high, Its a suprisingly good glider if you get it high enough too!

ozrcboy

Further to what fox pilot said - just straighten it out best you can, strap on the rubber bands and fly her again. EF is quite tough. If it is really really really badly crumpled you may need a new fuse, but this bird doesn't need to be perfectly straight to fly - just get it about right and put her up.

Cheers,
oz.