We finally managed to maiden my 2x2 this Sunday. It was very cold and it probably only got to around 4c or 5c all day with a light to moderate wind which made it feel even colder. Quite frankly, I shivered my butt off and couldn't get the enthusiasm up to get on with the task as I couldn't feel the ends of my fingers if they were out of my gloves for anything more than 3 minutes at a time. Time to call on the ever-so reliable and enthusiatic services of Dave Wilshere. No better person to put it through it's paces and if anyone could hi-lite any short-comings in my building of this model then Dave would.

C of G looked to come out about 10mm aft of the suggest range so some expo was dialled into the elevator. I'd reconstructed the two TP6000 5S3P packs to shorten the overall length and get the battery mass as far forward as possible. The 1400mAh receiver battery was positioned just in front of the undercarriage. I'll probably go for a 1900mAh pack and move it behind one of the bulk-heads over the next week.

Dave proceeded to take off and corrected the elevator with a fist-full of down trim. We suspect that the incidence of the horizontal stabs may be out slightly so I'm going to recheck this. At the time of building it was noted that the moulded indentations in the fuse for the antirotation pins were not in lateral alignment with the holes in the root rib of the stab halves so I might have got this slightly out when drilling the holes in the correct position. This should be easily corrected.

Anyway, once trimmed out and without even a circuit being completed Dave put the 2x2 through it paces. He then set about a 6-7 minute routine loosely based around a number of IMAC and 3D manoeuvres. Knife edge was very precise with no noticable elevator coupling, nice big rolling loops, reversals, waterfalls and plenty of prop-hanging. Excellent vertical performance and less than half throttle required to keep it in a hover. It drew quite a bit of attention. The Axi 5330/18 was extremely quiet and able to move the airframe with authority. That wonderful whistling noise from the ailerons was able to drown out the motor. Big smiles all round.

On landing the pack temperature was barely warm to touch, as was motor and speed controller. Recharging the packs later that day revealed them to still be reading their nominal voltage and requiring just about 3000mAh each to get them back to full charge. Should be good for a spirited 12 minute routine. I had considered that the cold weather might have negated some of the punch from the Lipos but I recon it was pulling an average of 25-30 amps with the 20x11 prop. I will get a meter on it and take some solid readings on static thrust with WO throttle in the coming days.

Dave thanked me for letting him play with my new toy and I was left with a very large grin - so everyone was happy. No doubt in my mind that this is going to be my main FW prop model for some time to come. A very pleasing result indeed.

So, about that Axi 5330/18? - what a performer! At the price you can't beat it. With an ESC it costs less than any nitro or gas IC setup for this model - of course batteries aside. If compared to a DA50 it's still in the ball park even with cells, admittedly it's not going to have the same punch. I guess the point I'm trying to make is that at this end of the FW aeromodelling scale electric is more viable than ever. I have to admit to have bought this motor tempered with a large degree of sceptisism, but it was such a bargain I wouldn't have felt too bad if it had under-performed and I'd ended up shelling out for "purple power". It's safe to say that this motor has earned it's place in my 2x2 for the time being and I'll be pocketing the not-so-insubstantial difference between the AXI and a suitable Hacker.

Regards,

Phil