Bill Killillay

My Feedback: (18)

Jim,

There was a guy over on ezone that flew his for the first time today. At the end of what he described as a wonderful first 10 minutes of flying on landing in grass he broke the gear. I asked him for more info on it and some pictures, he's not responded just yet. Sure hope that mine comes soon...

therupman

To Greg ,
On The Icon 312 I can't see any openings in the cowl for cooling. Is this correct?
Thanks,
Bob Ruppel
Nashville, TN
[email protected]

Greg Covey

Bill,

I have broken mine several times now on what should have been acceptable landings. I feel that the material used in the mold is the real issue and not the shape of the leg itself.

I may try wrapping the top end in epoxy-soaked fiberglass and see what happens.

Jim,

I broke one in a grass landing and the other on pavement.

Bob,

You are correct. I have not added proper cooling openings in my cowl yet.

therupman

Greg,
Thanks for the quick reply. I'm getting my Dremel right now.
Bob Ruppel

Bill Killillay

My Feedback: (18)

Greg,

From the picture I saw on Ezone, the break was right at the top where the bend starts down, right at the connection to the plane. Is that where yours is breaking too? I wonder how hard it would be to take some CF gear for a plane like say the E3D, cut them in half and use them, they would be heavier and probably taller, but the plane would break before they would. How much of the stock gear needs to be glassed to make those work? I should have mine later this week... I hope! I will probably just try the glassing method first. I've got some .5oz stuff and some finishing epoxy, I may just mix up that and put on a layer or two if you think that would solve it. Can you post a picture of where yours is breaking at and how your fixing it so far?

Thanks again, and looking forward to the video...

Greg Covey

Bill,

Yes, that is where the weak spot is due to the material used. I have reported the issue to Fliton and it is being discussed by their Engineers. We are not sure why it wasn't seen on the prototype testing.

I'll take a photo soon. You can see on my video that it was flying without gear. I kept the humerous hand-launching clip in because it ended up in a good "save" instead of a balsa mess.

I'll try to get the video posted this afternoon.

Greg Covey

Here is the ICON video. We may make a second video showing some slower flying maneuvers. The smaller fast moving plane made it difficult to video.

On this video, we let it hang out. The ICON seemed impossible to stall and really flew great! You can see the power that the ICON possess with a 200+ watt power system.

[link=http://www.gregcovey.com/RCU2/ICON2.wmv]Fliton ICON video[/link] (8meg)

Sprink

Nice little mover

sinthroid

Icon 312

I fly at a local high's school football field during the week and at a flying field on the weekend. I have about 14 flights on my Fliton Icon 312 and have had no issues with the landing gear. I am very curious about the breaks I am reading about. Can someone post pics of the problem at hand. There is a possibility that first run injected molded parts may not of had a full cavity fill upon injection. The plastic is heated to liquid form and then injected through a spur bushing mating to the mold containing the cavities
of the landing gear. But the pieces would of shown signs with pits or deformity in the area of the break.
How many reports of this are out there? I did watch the video of the Icon landing and that appears to be some thick grass. It stopped that plane on a dime on the second landing. You have the weight of the plane multiplied by the speed and then a sudden stop. The weakest link is bound to break. Anyone else with out this problem?

Bill Killillay

My Feedback: (18)

Here is the link to the post with the pictures over on the 'other' board.

http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showp...7&postcount=33

It's got a picture of the break, the break point, etc....

Hammbone

My Feedback: (309)

I'm glad to hear someone is not having problems with their gear. What kind of surface are you landing on sinthroid?

If anyone is interested, Graphtech RC (http://www.graphtechrc.com/) has made custom gear for me in the past. I would just send him the original gear and he could duplicate or modify it from there. His price was very resonable also.

If need be, several of us could get some gear from him if just one of us sent him the original gear for him to copy.

Just thought I'd let you know. I'm still hoping I won't have any problems when I get mine assembled and start flying it. I will be landing on a artificial turf runway that is very smooth.

Jim

FlitonUSA

We conducted numerous tests with the ICON's landing gears before/after production and didn't run into this problem. I am double checking with my engineers Greg as I promised. If this is a problem, we'll have a good solution for it.

therupman

Jim,
I'd be interested in getting a good replacement gear for my Icon. I haven't broken it yet but, I haven't flown it either.
Knowing my landings, I know I'll need a replacement.
Please keep me in mind.
Bob Ruppel
Nashville,TN
[email protected]

Bill Killillay

My Feedback: (18)

Jim,

I think that's the guy that I bought a set of CF Gear from for another project. As yet they have not show up yet, I expect them most any day though. I also expect my Icon to get here tomorrow. The stock set that he already sells may work, but I'll need to look and compare. I have no problem sending my LG to him to have him make a custom set if he's good and this first order comes quickly...

Bill Killillay

My Feedback: (18)

Correction, I'm talking to Graphtechrc.com about a set of gear for another plane. So far he's been super helpful, I had NO idea that he did this kind of custom stuff. I was only asking for an extension on a 1/4 scale plane that I'm converting... I've got a set of much, much smaller CF gear coming from another small web site and guy... I still need to dig up the link but have just been to busy...

Greg Covey

I'm sure that Fliton will provide a good solution. The custom gear mains really look great so perhaps a slight change in the material will be the answer.

We're going to try another video today at lunchtime. I glued my gear mains back using medium CA and some kicker. We'll try an empty parking lot this time.

Greg Covey

The CA glue wasn't strong enough as I broke the gear mains preparing the battery. It was windy so we were limited to what we could do in flight.

Here is another video of my ICON 312:

[link=http://www.gregcovey.com/RCU2/ICON3.wmv]Fliton ICON video 2[/link] (3meg)

Bill Killillay

My Feedback: (18)

Greg,

Nice flying in both videos. Question though, is the really that fast or is that just your style of flying? Have you tried to pull it into a hover and hold it there or do anything like a blender or waterfall with the plane yet? If so how does it do?

I'm going to add a CF strip covered over by some .50 fiberglass cloth to my LG while building it. My Icon came yesterday and I've not had a chance to do anything but get the servo's in to the wings and the ailerons are on and glued. I also went ahead and added some tape to the underside to 'seal' the gaps. That's just a personal preference thing that I do. No other reason. I hope to finish it up and fly it this weekend weather permiting.

Thanks again for the thread and the videos!!

Greg Covey

Bill,

Not much chance to 3D fly it yet. This was mostly due to available pilots and weather conditions.

Videos can be deceiving sometimes. I forgot to mention that I was trying a new wide-angle lens on that last video. You can see the distortion sometimes as ground curvature.

So far, I like the way it flies. My plastic GWS EPS-300C gearbox will need to be replaced with my new aluminum Cobri gearbox soon. I decided to wait until it was needed.

Bill Killillay

My Feedback: (18)

Greg,

I thought the speeds might be a bit deceiving due to the cammera... I guess that if I can get mine flying by this weekend we'll find out how well she'll 3D. I'm sure that I'll find out if the wings can be folded doing a blender... I've broken more than one plane that way. Maybe I can talk my wife into shooting some video too... got to get it finished up first, but maybe... I'm not a very good 3D pilot by any means, but I have fun trying... I can hold a steady enough hover to grab all my sub 25oz planes out of the air generally when I'm done, but anything bigger and I normally don't want to be anywhere close to that big old prop turning that fast... I can get my Banchee into a nice hover, but I don't trust myself to pull it out of the hover, something about that 17" prop up front...

I'm going to try the blue GB's that come with the Himaxx motors and something in the 10x8 to 11x8 range, I may kick down to a 10x4.7, 10x5 and go up from there playing with gearing and how it fly's until I find the combo that I like... I've got some Polyquest batts to test for a local guy here so this should give me a chance to abuse them for him.

Bill Killillay

My Feedback: (18)

Dear FlitonUSA,

First, my gear broke on one side on the first landing, however I KNEW that it was going to. I also know the fix. The small pilot holes that are on the outside of the legs when the legs are mounted are to far out. They need to be closer to the center about 3mm. I caught that on the second leg and it held up fine. I am about 3mm inside of your pilot holes on the other leg, toward the single screw that is in the tip and it's fine. That being said I've pulled the gear and went kit bashing a bit and put a set of gear on that I had sitting around from an E3D. Even with that and a mod very much like Greg's to move the battery forward I'm still having issues getting the CG to the 85mm. I've got my ESC strapped on out front of the firewall, I've got my Rx sitting to one side of the motor mount stick up against the firewall and even went through all the trouble to route all my servo wires, etc to the front of the wing so that I can have all my cable weight as far forward as possible. Yesterday I flew the plane with it about 8mm behind the recommended CG and every time I would try to pull the plane past 45 degree's nose up the wing that was slightly outside would stall and it would break hard one way or the other. With the additional 1oz of LG which I'll take a picture of my mod later I'm at 22.4oz and my CG seems to be spot on now. I hope to go fly it later. I don't know how well it will 3D at that weight and I have my doubts as to how stable it will be in things like a hover because I just can't seem to get enough elevator throw for my liking, but we'll see it may have just been the CG. I'm propped for 45oz of thrust today so that should not be an issue even with the increased weight. I'll shoot some pictures and post an update later on my findings with the CG.

By the way, what motor did you guys test this with, that and battery pack because with the EPS stick mount in there, there is just NO way to get the batt pack far enough forward to get the CG right.

BK

JoshFlies3D

I have been flying my Icon, and I have found it to fly quite well.

I've also noticed the gear problem, having two gear failures as well.

It appears the plastic is just to brittle. I have spoken to the CEO of Fliton USA, and, They are currently working on including Carbon Fiber landing gear with the Icon kits instead of the plastic gear. Or , finding a more durable plastic-composite material to use.

My setup is a 10x4.7 APC, Himax 4100, Pixie 10 ESC, Hitec HS-55's, Hitec HS-05mg, Apogee 830mAh 3 cell Lipoly batts.

The setup tips the scales at 16oz with battery, and flies very good at this weight. Due to the light Himax, however, the CG is pretty tail heavy, so I need to do some fine tuning. It is also a little under powered with the Himax 4100...

Josh Glavin
Fliton USA Factory Rep- Sponsored Pilot

Team RCU

RickC2009

My Feedback: (12)

Gosh,
Is that the 2015-4100 or2025-4100?
Thanks
Rickc

Bill Killillay

My Feedback: (18)

It would have to be a 2015 because the 2025 would be a 2025-4200, there is no 2025-4100. The 2025-4200 and 5300 both have more than enough get up and go to move this plane along. I'm changing out between the two looking for a preferred setup currently and both fly it very well. I've not settled on which one just yet though.

Greg Covey

Josh,

Thanks for the update on the gear issue and your setup.

My initial setup using the Razor 400 had similar results. A Razor 2500, Lehner 1020, or Himax 2025 motor has the added weight to balance the plane well and the added power to bring out the real 3D capability of the ICON.