David Eichstedt

My Feedback: (17)

This seems to have slipped everybody's notice. Looks like a great new kit!

http://www.electrifly.com/largeelectrics/gpma1140.html

blackbaron

My Feedback: (92)

I just bought one and recieved it yesterday. It looks fantastic. I bought it with the recommended brushless setup and will put it together this week. I am going to buy the Fokker DII when it comes available.

drunkenbushman

Looks like qui a scale model as well.

Im not a fan of the LX WW1 planes.

Slo-V Flyer

That's one pretty plane. My lhs has one box sitting there. I was debating with myself whether to buy that or an E-flite's Ascent glider.

Slo-V Flyer

Well, it was between the E-flite Pulse XT, or the Se5a. I broke down and bought the Se5. Sweet looking airplane.

I've put it together mostly. I thought I could get away with using my BP-21 (haha) motor, but unfortunately that's more of a hassle than worth it to fit in the stock firewall and clear the cowl. So, I gotta go and buy myself the recommended Rimfire and we'll see how that goes. Though I'm already on a somewhat negative budget, so I'll be sticking to my BP 15A esc and 2s TP1900 lipo for initial flying, just to keep things safe and slow as well as cheap. One thing I noticed though, taking into account that I only have 2 other ARF balsa planes under my belt, that this one seemed to have a half hearted covering attempted on it. Now I know you're supposed to "iron" out everything for final assembly, but I don't really remember any covering peeling off/puffing up in certain spots as easily as it did on the Se5, just by removing the shipping tape strips on the aileron parts! And some of the ribs on the wings also looked like they were not properly contacting the covering unlike my other 2 planes. Now all this could be resolved with a simple use of covering iron and/or heat gun, but both of which I lack due to mainly financial reasons. But then my LHS has a heatgun so it won't hurt to visit them for a "favor."

And god, do installing servos just have to be so brain fryingly annoying! All those tiny parts falling and slipping all over my WHITE carpet (hehe yet another excuse for something to go wrong). Already lost a stupid screw that goes in a l.gear support strut. As much as I hated to, I had to do some surgery to the underside covering of the lower wing in order to push the darn servo extension through the middle of the wing towards the servo bay. That's because I already had 2 small 3 inch extensions plugged into a decently long Y-harness, so I had to reverse the method for pulling them through, and I messed up and the guide string on one side came out. Let's just say I didn't want to dish out another $15-20 just for a couple of 12" pieces of wiring with plastic ends (this hobby can be such a rip off!!) to do it right (ok so I would do it right next time, after having messed up the clean new covering in order to get my way).

So far it weighs in at about ~16.5 oz without the motor and battery. My estimate is I will be right around the 21-22 oz. mark AUW (3.2 oz lipo, ~2.5 - 3 oz. motor). If the recommended 950kv motor is anything like my dead E-flite Park 450 890kv outrunner (R.I.P.), I should get decent scale performance out of 2-cells for sure. The amp ratings are similar at 14A continous, though the Rimfire is ahead with 20A burst (only if I wanna fry that 15A esc). I think playing it safe, I'll try to prop it to not pull more than 12-14 amps at full throttle. On 2 cells that should give me about 75-100 watts total power. More than enough to keep things going as long as wind is not a huge concern.

With my previous unlucky experiences with 2 speedy and juiced up balsa sport planes resulting in bad expensive crashes, i.e. brushless Mini Super Sportster, I decided to not get the Pulse XT even though I really liked the design and the fact that it's geared towards beginner-intermediate sport flyers like myself. Hopefully the SE-5 will be slow enough to keep me out of trouble, simply due to the fact that then I can't pull off stupid things like inverted flights and risky rolls at low heights and slower speeds. But some stupid people learn slow.

Alright, let's hope it's not psychotically windy like yesterday, so that I can maiden it and bring it back home in one piece. Amen!

I would post pictures, but then the ones on the website are so much prettier than mine!

Happy landings!

Slo-V Flyer

Ok so I just maidened it!

Total flight ready weight: 21.8 oz. Balances out just about where the manual suggests, A little over 2" from top wing leading edge.
After getting the Rimfire to fit, I used a couple of props to test the amps as I am using a 2s lipo, considering GP recommends 10x4.5 using 3 cells.

Instead of using the provided wood tail skid, I decided to add a steerable tail wheel. Though not true to the real plane, it can do wonders.

Amp draw using my E-flite Power Meter at full throttle running on a 2s TP1900 lipo:

APC 11x5.5 "E" - ~7 amps = ~49 watts I flew the plane for its maiden flight like this for about 4-5 minutes before testing the next prop.

APC 10x7 "E" - ~7.5 amps = ~52 watts Coincidently enough same amp draw. Retested with fresh charged battery.

I don't know if I want to dish out another $65 for a 3-cell. But it flew with this much power. Read ahead.

It was windy with slight gusts, maybe ~2-10 mph. I took off from short grass multiple times into and with the wind. Landed multiple times to get a feel for it's "float-ness." I had to mash the throttle full in order to get a "short" take off. Climb outs where quite strong considering it's got <50 watts to work with. Cruised around at about 65-70% throttle. If you call constantly scaring the crap outta me with touchy response and wind buffeting it "cruising." Off power this thing can glide! Well, into a strong wind of about 10mph (my best estimate) I was able to keep it inching forward while not losing much altitude. During landing approaches, I had to mind the wind and be ready to add throttle if it died suddenly, otherwise the Se-5 comes in nice and slow with barely a few feet of roll out on the grass.

Now I am the type that sets the control throws not by the manual, but by physical max throws for Hi rates, and maybe 50-75% for low rates. I set expo to about 25-30% on elevator and ailerons. After flying on high rates it definetly needs LOTS more expo especially on ailerons. This thing could probably snap roll if I dared to (as in snap it's delicate wings clean off). A few times I lost orientation and couldn't tell if it was upside down or turning let or right, due to the wind kicking it some out of my control. It's like the weird "cross-eyed" feeling you get looking though a screen door. Stand real close to it and look through and you can't tell if if you're cross eyed or if it's an illusion. The same way I couldn't tell which was it was, even with the Top and bottoms of the wings being different colors, the bi-plane wing profile will take some getting used to for me.

Ground handling was awesome with the addition of the tailwheel. I could blip the throttle, push the rudder, then add some down elevator to pick up the tail for some quick turns, or ride that tailwheel and turn nice and easy. During take off runs in winds I would consider too windy for this plane, it didn't show signs of ground looping.

Only complaint again is the covering over some minor wing/control surfaces needs to be re-heated and stuck on properly, AND most importantly it lacks a hatch or similar access that I'm so accustomed to for accessing the electronics, which means I'd have to undo about 6 screws each time and *carefully* remove the lower wing backwards and do what I need to do, and then carefully screw everything back again.

Over all a real nice sleek WWI plane. As soon as the winds die down I can go out for some proper flights and better judge it's flight performance on my 2-cell lipo. But from the brief flight, it seems it should be a great scale flier, with 3 cells probably just giving you some "hot-rodding" power.

Edit: I just flew another pack through it. Same 1900mah 2s pack. I got almost 25-30 minutes of flight. I can easily say that with some off-power soaring and low power flights in some warm winds, that can be extended. That is a step up from my 17oz. BP-21 powered Slo-V that lasts about 25 minutes WITH soaring 25-30% of the time. According to the amp draw I should get almost 15 minute full throttle flight, and about 25 minutes of cruising at ~65% throttle. Those numbers are almost what I got in this second flight. Bent the landing gear struts during one hard landing, but thanksfully all seems well. Just had to bend it back. This plane is quite sensative to wind. I cant get it to fly level and smooth for too long, before it decides to turn one way or the other. Maybe I should add some ballast?

Hey look no cowl! [8D]

drunkenbushman

very good run down there mate, glad to hear that your maiden went well, altho it sounded like a maiden that woulda had my knees shaking and my palms sweating.

i hope you can get all your covering issues sorted out and what not.

Slo-V Flyer

Well, it seems it is quite sensitive to wind. It was quite a handful. [X(] After some rough landings including some nose overs due to thick grass patches, I've cracked and broken the plywood motor mount. I've glued it twice now, and plan to fly it with less wind out there. It would seem that using a metal mounting plate would have been a better idea, or at least a more broad plywood design that wouldn't stress the areas around the outter firewall mount screws. I think I'll make something like that myself so I don't have to worry about it in the long run.

I tried an 11x8 E APC prop on it using the same TP1900 2-cell lipo. Hooked up to my wattmeter, it's pulling a bit over 8 amps, ~57-60 watts. However during my brief and hairy flight in the wind, it seemed like it wanted to torque roll that much more with higher throttle settings. I'll have to wait for some calm days before I can fully learn its flight characteristics and landing techniques.

flmlm

Thanks for the information regarding the SE 5. I really look forward to purchasing one when they become available again.

Regards
Mike