Originally Posted by
dionysusbacchus
I just picked up a Royal B-17 that was started by someone that did not know what they were doing, I will be going electric, I'm finalizing my set up now.
I would highly recommend that you put the batteries in the fuselage, you will probably need a bunch of nose weight, it would be a shame to add a bunch of lead when you have those batteries. 2200mAh is not enough, you will want flight time, you need 5000mAh. Heavy outer wing panels will hurt the performance of the plane. You will hear a lot about keeping wires short, but I've not noticed problems with this. A guy on here built a 14ft Spruce Goose and he put all the batteries in the nose along with the ESC's! Those were some LONG wires!
I will be making my nose glass area removable, just dowel and magnets to hold it and the ESC's will be in the wing saddle area.
It's going to take some time for me to catch up with you, so I will watch your progress.
Luke
Glad to hear someone working out the same problems as I am.... A number of the comments you've made I've actually thought through quite a bit
e-flite power 15 + 2200mah battery at 12000 rpm running for 8 minutes pulled about 40% of the battery. So the 2600mah battery should give me 10 minute flights easily.
note: i'm using 4 batteries, one for each motor. Why? 2 2600mah batteries weigh less than 1 5000mah battery. They are also a much easier fit in the plane... having the plane already built, I've tried to fit 5000mah batteries in the nose... I think you'll find it not an easy task... doable... but not easy. It really depends on where you are in the build. For me there is significant surgery needed there. it also cuts down on detail possible in the nose area.
As an example, I don't have a 5000mah available, but trying to fit the significantly smaller( less than half size 2200mah battery ) in the nose, it fits, but gives you an idea of how tight the space is. It opens up further down in the fuselage, but that opening is a bit tight.
Performance: its a bomber.... not really worried about roll rate....I don't know what else to say here other than you are right in that it will hurt performance, but I'm not sure it will matter due to the type of plane it is.
As for weight....I don't add weight. the nacelles that house the batteries motors and retracts are all forward of the CG as it is. I'm waiting on 2 batteries and the retracts to show up today/tomorrow and once I have those the plane will be put on the CG machine and we will sort that out before much more happens. I'll re-address this point once the bomber is on the CG machine.... You may be 100% correct....I think I can get all the components to work in the locations I want... The tail was built extremely light on this particular plane ( thanks dad ... ) so I think we'll be able to manage, but we shall see. regardless, weight won't be added.