GWS P-51 Cheap Upgrade
11-24-2004, 02:07 PM
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GWS P-51 Cheap Upgrade
I purchased a GWS P-51 last year, and I was so disappointed with the performance. 
With everything stock, the plane barely flew above stall speed. Being a glow engine flyer, I'm used to pulling back on the stick and seeing the plane climb, not stall out immediately. I crashed it several times and glued it back together repeatedly. I just finished upgrading the plane, and I thought I'd share my configuration.
I didn't have the cash to spend on a brushless setup, so I searched for an appropriate brushed motor upgrade. I've seen others say that the only viable upgrade for the stock GWS speed 300 is a brushless. I'm here to say that that's not so.
I installed a speed 400 motor ($10.00) and mounted it on the stock mounting stick, but slid the stick into the bottom square hole. I scrapped the gearbox and went direct drive. The ESC is a Pixie-20 by Castle Creations ($39.95), because I didn't know how many amps it would pull, and this one will handle 20A. The prop is a 6" APC prop, and I used a plastic 2" nose cone. Power is from a 3-cell 1350 mAH Li-Poly ($40.00). With the battery pushed up against the firewall in the cockpit, the balance was perfect. My total weight with the battery is 18 ounces.
The plane flies great now! There's plenty of power to pull into a hard climb, and I can do loops and rolls easily. It's no brushless speed machine, but it's so much more enjoyable to fly now. For about $90 extra, this plane performs very well.[8D]
With everything stock, the plane barely flew above stall speed. Being a glow engine flyer, I'm used to pulling back on the stick and seeing the plane climb, not stall out immediately. I crashed it several times and glued it back together repeatedly. I just finished upgrading the plane, and I thought I'd share my configuration.I didn't have the cash to spend on a brushless setup, so I searched for an appropriate brushed motor upgrade. I've seen others say that the only viable upgrade for the stock GWS speed 300 is a brushless. I'm here to say that that's not so.
I installed a speed 400 motor ($10.00) and mounted it on the stock mounting stick, but slid the stick into the bottom square hole. I scrapped the gearbox and went direct drive. The ESC is a Pixie-20 by Castle Creations ($39.95), because I didn't know how many amps it would pull, and this one will handle 20A. The prop is a 6" APC prop, and I used a plastic 2" nose cone. Power is from a 3-cell 1350 mAH Li-Poly ($40.00). With the battery pushed up against the firewall in the cockpit, the balance was perfect. My total weight with the battery is 18 ounces.
The plane flies great now! There's plenty of power to pull into a hard climb, and I can do loops and rolls easily. It's no brushless speed machine, but it's so much more enjoyable to fly now. For about $90 extra, this plane performs very well.[8D]
11-24-2004, 03:33 PM
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RE: GWS P-51 Cheap Upgrade
Nice!
I did a similar upgrade. but mine was a sky scooter! It came with direct drive 400 motor(weak!) so I purchased at my LHS one of those metal gearbox that comes with 3 difrent gear ratios(1.7:1, 2:1 and 3.4:1) and a cheap(8 bucks) 6v speed 400 motor! and a Kokam 1500mah 3cell Li-po. I used a wattage ESC (no LVC, I just landed when the power faded) and a APC 9x6 prop!
MAN...... did it do a difrence!!!!!!
It would climb, super fast and It could fly inverted pretty Ok!
I know the P-51 is more sleek than my Draggy, sky scooter but I think that if you use a gearbox, you should be able to run at least a 8x6 prop. for more torque and faster climbs!!!!
My .2cents
NoMore........
I did a similar upgrade. but mine was a sky scooter! It came with direct drive 400 motor(weak!) so I purchased at my LHS one of those metal gearbox that comes with 3 difrent gear ratios(1.7:1, 2:1 and 3.4:1) and a cheap(8 bucks) 6v speed 400 motor! and a Kokam 1500mah 3cell Li-po. I used a wattage ESC (no LVC, I just landed when the power faded) and a APC 9x6 prop!
MAN...... did it do a difrence!!!!!!
It would climb, super fast and It could fly inverted pretty Ok!
I know the P-51 is more sleek than my Draggy, sky scooter but I think that if you use a gearbox, you should be able to run at least a 8x6 prop. for more torque and faster climbs!!!!
My .2cents
NoMore........
