Zeetah

Am planning on using an AXI 2820 motor with LiPos. The instructions say that I should trim the front of the fuselage by 2".

Has anyone done this? How did it work out for you?

Basically, I'd like to put the motor in the right spot so that I don't have to add weight to the nose or the tail.

Thanks,
Harjit

Tinkrerpilot

My Feedback: (2)

Skybench is pretty much right on with the conversion. Check their website and push a few e-mails. This is pretty much the way since you are adding a pretty good chunk of material to the nose, along with the battery and radio gear. Or you could take the difference and go back 1 inch an install. Give you a little more room to move the equipment around in the fuselage.

Frede2

I did this a few months ago with an Axi 2820-14. I didn't quite take 2" out of the nose. The ARF version was still very tail-heavy.
I suggest you put a bellcrank in the tail and the elevator servo as far forward as you can. Saving a few grams in the tail will save a bunch in the nose.
What instructions were you talking about?
Wonderful sailplane - Good Luck - Phil

Tinkrerpilot

My Feedback: (2)

Zeetah,

What is the rest of the gear that you are going to be putting in this model? If you are worried about being tail heavy, one thought is that you can go to a bigger lipo. Say for example a 2200 pack to a 3000 or even a 3200 mah pack.

You can build the fuselage up then install the motor. Then set it up on a balancer and place the gear inside to see where the model will balance at. Move the gear around until you are satisfied in the placement of things.

Zeetah

The motor is a Turnigy TR 35-42D (AXi 2820 equivalent).

The controller is a Hextronic PRO 36A with battery elimination circuit.

For the battery I have a 2800mAH (or is it a 2400mAH?) two cell LiPo.

I haven't figured out the prop. and spinner soln. as yet.

Tinkrerpilot

My Feedback: (2)

Good gear. Will give you good service. You could go with a 3000 3s lipo also. For the prop. 38 or 40mm spinner diameter, collet in the hub to fit motor shaft and 10X6 to 11X6 (diameter and pitch) . Spinner depends on how much you round the front end down on the fuselage. Regular bullet spinner for looks or Turbo spinner for additional cooling air. You may want to go bigger on the prop if you use any of the motor calcs.

mred33

I think you will do better with around a 12X6 on 3S with this motor. You should get a pretty good climb out of it and 3S will give you more rpms. If you really want to use the 2S battery, then something like a 13X6.5 should work pretty good.

Ed