SAFZERO

Sweet! Will you be posting the details of the conversion?
I spoke top Steve Stricker last week regarding the conversion he performed back in 2003. He did say the conversion is fairly simple, but he stressed that with the Hacker motor the plane needs significant down elevator when the flaps are activated. He recommended to experiment with various elevator/flap mixtures to ensure the plane can be controlled better.

Here are some of the other questions I asked him.

> Anyway, about the Hangar 9 Cessna. I read the article on HorizonHobby.
> It was great. I want to convert the Cessna to electric as well. I had
> some general questions regarding the plane, motor, and batteries you
> used. I know it was a few years ago, so if you can't remember the
> exact details that's ok too.
>
>
> What was the flying weight? 17 Lbs.
>
> Do you feel the plane was overpowered or underpowered? I read on
> rcgroups.com that the plane was overpowered, so I want to determine if
> a smaller motor can be used. The plane was overpowered for scale
> performance however when I throttled back I could fly it 1/2 hour.
>
> The 5S4P's are 18.5v. Do you think the plane can fly with 4S4P at
> 14.8v with the same motor? Probably but I am not good at that
> kind of question. I think the folks at Hacker could better answer
> that. I will say that the plane can handle less power if that were
> the only downside.
>
> In the article you stated that you flew for approximately 30 minutes
> with 2 5S4P's. Would it be safe to assume that flying time would be
> cut in half if 1 5S4P were used? No, the voltage drop would be too
> drastic for that motor. What might work is to reduce the 3 of P. In
> other words a 10S 2P or 3P would work fine. I would want to talk with
> Hacher about an 8S (X)P pack though. The controller or the motor
> might not like that.[/b] A follow up message from Steve cleared this up after indicating the batteries are actually connected in series, not parallel.
>
> Can you recall the brushless controller you used, and its amp rating?
> It was a 70 Amp (Peak) Jeti. It had no heat sinks and my max current
> draw was only 52 Amps.
>
> How was the plane on landing approaches? Was the speed controllable,
> or difficult to slow down? That was the beauty of the plane. It
> flies EXACTLY like the real one. You will want flaps because it does
> take a little while to slow down. The landing behavior is wonderfully
> scale-like.
>
>
> Which radio did you use? I used the 10X and the 9303 but the 9
> channel is better. The flap elevator mix is better in that I slowed
> the flap servo speed down to scale transition speed and the elevator
> mix matches it. (But only on the 9 channel).
>
> Do you remember what types of servos you used (regular, micro,
> etc) for the ailerons, flaps, and elevator/rudder? Regular cheap
> servos but they performed very well due to no vibration.
>
> In general, was the plane difficult to fly? I don't intend to do
> aerobatics with it; I enjoy scale flght :-)
Then this is the plane
> for you. I have flown many scale planes but this one really flies
> like the real one. It is not difficult but it can be unforgiving of
> sloppy flying during the landing. I have seen others fly theirs and
> try to horse it around low and slow and it would bite them. It also
> needs pattern approach discipline due to the landing inertia. I fly
> UAV's and it's great for that reason to me. If the pattern looks real
> then you are in good shape, if the approach looks like its a toy then
> you are likely to get into some trouble. I have flown the electric
> and a G-26 version. The electric had a little more power but both
> "felt" the same in general. Good design. Good luck with yours!

SAF