GWS E-Starter anyone
 

Is anyone flying the GWS E-Starter here?

I've got one all built and ready to go, just waiting on the weather.
Any tips on this plane would be helpful.

Frank

GWS E-Starter anyone
 

Take a look at the review from a beginner flyer on the R/C Product Guide part of this web site.
I take the review by a beginner seriously, because the beginner does not give a lot of technical data, but "tells it like it is!"[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-happy.gif[/img][img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-mad.gif[/img]

GWS E-Starter anyone
 

Hi Frank. Just to let you know I do have an E starter and its really fun to fly. It does have attendency to be a bit tail heavy if you dont ad atleast 1/4 oz of lead to the front. Personally I use a slightly heavyer prop only because at almost 3 dollars a pop, they can be expensive. I think they break way to easy for what they are supposed to do. A slight dip on landing will break it to easy. Have fun.

GWS E-Starter anyone
 

My e-starter is retired now after a few to many crashes. I am going to get another one. personally it was diffuicult fo me to CG the thing because of the shape of the fuse. I just couldn't "see" the center line.

My first crash was due to under powering. I fixed this by adding a EP1260 prop.

next I kept tip stalling. apparently the plane doesn't much up elavator until it has a good air speed.

most all the other crashes where dur to the short circuit somewhere between my brain and thumbs.

This little will do outside loops with a little dive leading into it. It will also roll with some substantial altitude loss.

GWS E-Starter anyone
 

Oh yea ... the e-starter is the easyer to feild repair than the slow stick. All foam, gotta love it!

RE: GWS E-Starter anyone
 

My e-starter is totally stock, I use a 4 cell kokam lithium ion packs in parallel, I get 45 min of flight time with good throttle management, I have never replaced the prop, the one it comes with works well. Using the lithium pack corrects your center of cg, if placed properly.

Also take 2 tooth picks and break them in two and pierce them through both sides of the battery hatch as in time that will fall out as will you battery.

Take care and enjoy this awesome plane

RE: GWS E-Starter anyone
 

have really like my e-starter fly mine on 8 cell 720 NImh the extra cell makes all the difference. fly invertted with moderate down ele. aleron rolls kinda slow and lowes alt if don't att ele on the inverted phase. all in all really liked it ( have replaced it with a watt age crazy max)

RE: GWS E-Starter anyone
 

My e-starter was great for about 30 seconds, too tail heavy, and I was in a schoolyard flying when I realized I was gonna need a good stretch of free air to get the air speed up where I could control it.. unfortunatly that "stretch of free air" was towards the street and power lines,,,I'm switching to spads......Rog

RE: GWS E-Starter anyone
 

I built my E-starter very light and used an EPS 350 motor with E-tech 1200's. I had some unusual problems with yaw stability. At higher speeds the plane was difficult to turn and sensitive to trim changes. Moving the CG forward helped somewhat,but the plane eventually fell victim to it's unstable flying characteristics and a sleepy pilot. It became instant packing material after a very high speed crash. My flying buddy and I were amazed at how much speed this plane would carry.

RE: GWS E-Starter anyone
 

I have the E-starter also, and after a few newbie messups and trying to fly on days when it was too gusty (at least for my skill level) I finally have a great plane IMO
Handles nice, and stable, I am really enjoying this plane, especially after the previous attempts with the ill-fated A-10. I haven't tried anything too much past the basic flight attitudes, but the basic turns, climbs, descents, and landings all seem to be very easy to perform.

I use a 9.6 730mah pack the stock 1080 prop, ROG take-offs pretty decent, and I just recently added foamfloats.com 19" floats and it will ROW just fine!
Probably could go with the 22 inch floats for a little better floation (19" leaves the tails just at the water line, and not a lot sticking past the prop, but they work)

BTW the tail portion of the fusealage, I think could have some stiffening added longitudinally (carbon fiber rods?), it seemed to break with the slightest impact, 3x for mine, and none of the crashes were at high speed or altitude) :D

RE: GWS E-Starter anyone
 

Just finished my 2nd E starter. Used a six cell 1100 Mah on the first one. Going to use an 8 cell 1100 MaH on this one. I know that's a lot of punch for that little plane. Anyone think it is too much power for it? Or is their such a thing in this hobby?

RE: GWS E-Starter anyone
 

Just flew the E-starter for the first time and it flew really well. The tail is a bit heavy but after reading the forum I went to the field prepared with some spare change and tape. It took a 1.25 in quarters taped to the underside of the cowl to balance it. Overall I'm really happy with this little bird. I have the upgraded 350 and I fly using a home made set of batteries - 8 cell 1100 mah - from Energizer AAA rechargables. I get about 25 minutes at half throttle and its more than enough. After talking to a more experienced friend at the field I made some modifications to the fuse to strengthen the tail, a cartwheel later I was happy I did. I ran a stick of 1/4 inch bass the entire length then panited the underside of the tail with 20 minute epoxy, it goes on thin but forms a hard shell that can take a beating. Its a sacrifice to carry more weight but one hard landing and you'll be glad for it. The tail wheel/rudder installation was also a little weak so a beef up was in order. I used the supplied parts and some Dubro push rod conectors to tie the wheel to the push rod instead of the thin foam tail. The modifications paid off and now it flies well.

RE: GWS E-Starter anyone
 

Here are the images of the tail and of the plane after its maiden flight.

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has anyone given any thought to modding the e-starter to have tricycle gear? this could eliminate problems with the flimsy tailwheel steup as well as possibly keeping the tail from breaking completely off...if i put the main gear in the back slot, perhaps i could bend a wire for the front wheel to fit in the front slot....that or maybe tie it to the motor mount and have it extend thru the cowl.....any thoughts on how this might affect performance???...i have the eps-350 motor and am going to use a 7.2v 600mah nicd (6 cells)... still in construction so let me know what u think[sm=idea.gif]

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This is the plane I plan on learning on, with these great tips I am sure to have a strong and stable plane, I will be flying using 2 e-tech 1200's so I hope the extra weight of fixing the tail will not be a problem.

I'll be sure to keep you posted on any finding I have as I build/setup/fly this great little kit !!

RE: GWS <span class=
 

I am a greenie pilot that just got his first RC from Santa. I've been reading up on this kit (E-Starter 300c) and I kind of feel like my battery is a little underpowered. It's a 7.2v 270 mAh ni-cd. Should I be worried? Is my flight time going to be 2.5 minutes? Is it practical to keep a couple of batteries on hand and charge one while flying another? Do the batteries need to cool before charging? And lastly, I'm worried about the CG thing. How will I know I have a CG problem? I see in the above posts that the 300c is a little tail heavy. Would adjusting the elevator trim help it or would that just slow me down? Do I even need to worry about it?

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Itchdog

You may want to look at a higher capacity battery ( long flights are a bonus ). And be sure to carry a few extra packs with you in the field. Buy the best charger you can afford I will recommend the GREAT PLANES TRITON it will charge anything with little to no effort. This will let you charge a pack while flying one, and yes let your batteries cool before re-charging them, have fun and play safe !!

:D

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Thanks rcwild. I'm going to the hobby shop today to pick up another pico. Maybe I'll hang out and badger some of the nice folks there. I realized while typing yesterdays post that I have almost one million questions about rc flying.

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Welcome Itchdog!
You are in for some real fun.
I can tell that you need a lot of info. So make sure to get help for your first flights. It is not so easy to learn. Some get it easy and some take longer. Dont risk your new plane or hurt someone.

You will need a bigger battery, 720 six cell would be good.
Learn about the CG and have some help here.
Make sure your plane is "ready" before flying, adjusting trim is not an option here.
Let us know if you have more questions.

Stay in touch.

RE: GWS <span class=
 

Thanks John. I've been practicing my flying even while building my kit. I'm using Microsoft FS with a dual joystick gamepad. I have the controls set up identical to my transmitter. I know it's not anything like the real thing but when you fly from the tower point of view it's almost like flying an RC. My main concern is training my reflexes so I turn the correct way whether flying away from me or towards me. I've crashed a lot of Cessnas trying to get that right. At least FS planes are cheaper than RC planes.

I do have one question though. I just got back from the hobby shop and the pro behind the counter tells me that I only need two servos for my plane (E-Starter 300c). I should connect the elevator and the rudder at first. Then when I get used to flying I should remove the linkage from the rudder and use that servo for the ailerons while locking the rudder in place. I know this makes sense, but am I going to need rudder? What about landing in a light crosswind, I'll need to steer into the wind without banking. What do you think?

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The E-Starter is a 4 channel plane. You will need all 4 of them. The HS man must of made a mistake.
It would be best if you could find someone in your area to help out. Or maybe a club you could join.
There are better planes to train on. A three channel is better, not using the ailerons.
Like the Slow Stick. 35 bucks including motor, prop, wheels, and all hardware.
Then after learning the basic elements, go back to your full house plane. And that is a real cool plane.
Flight Sim is great and should help. But a model that wont fly, wont fly. It must be built right.
Dont get in a hurry. THis is suppost to be fun.
Keep me in tune.

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I think you are right on the money John, as I build this thing I'm finding that the instructions don't cover everything. What a veteran would know, the novice (myself) has to try to figure out. I am going to try to find a club in the area to hang around with. New friends are good.

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I know just how you feel Itch, I'm new to building as well. I had a ton of RealFlight sim experience, and flew a neighbor's GWS Zero a bit (that went really well) and I decided to take the plunge with a GWS ME-109 (an odd first choice I know, but people praise the stability and I did well with the Zero). But there's loads of little construction things that come up that I've never encountered, even after reading 3 books on rcs and park flyers and countless mags.

The first one I built and hadn't done my research on paint, so after all my build effort I ended up with heavy latex paint on it and a lot of weight needed to balance it since there's more surface area with paint behind the CG than in front, where the motor and battery are the main weight. I ended up a heavy and unflyable 17.5 ounces. So after attempting to strip it I said "screw it" and picked up another plane and built it as weight conscious as possible... but I think my battery is underpowered and overweight.

I'd get more help from local vets, but the fields are a heck of a drive away from me, and frankly the people I've talked to at the local hobby shop are kind of... well... not exactly helpful, elitist... well... generally not helpful.

RE: GWS <span class=
 

Ya, I know how you feel about the counter guys a the hobby shop. The guy I got my plane from acted like I was a fool for wanting a servo for each, aileron, elevator, and rudder. He insisted that I lock the rudder down and turn with just the ailerons. It was kind of funny though because that's the first time a salesman actually tried to talk me out of buying something. I still got the servo, I told him I wanted all my controls to work. He kind of acted like I was a ding-a-ling novice (which I am, but that's my business). I'll try a different HS for my next shopping expedition.

And thanks for that tidbit about paint. I never even considered weight and balance when it comes to paintjobs. Maybe I'll leave my plane naked until I learn a little about finishes.

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You guys are welcome here. Dont get your feelings hurt by those hobby house owners. They are mostly there for their own intrest. Thats fine as long as you know what you need and just go there to buy.
Come here for most of your information. Be careful who you listen to. Some mean well, but dont know well. You guys are helping each other already.
Let us know if we can help with ANY THING. I mean it.