xtra 330

My Feedback: (19)

i am new to elecrics and just curious what i should get to out fit this plane....i know what servos to use....what i need to know is the batteries,prop,esc,and motor...i want to go brushless...i want this thing to Rock!!also,what type of charger to use??Thanks for your help

Foamaholic

My Feedback: (1)

It will rock with a Himax 2015/4100, GWS or Himax 6:1 gearbox, 12-6 GWS slowfly prop, Castle Creations Phooenix 10 or 25 esc, Berg MicroStamp 4 or 5 receiver, Etec 3s 100 lipos.
It will hover for about 20 min. and accelerates straight up.
All the guys in our club use this setup.
You can also get the Himax motor/gearbox combo for around $66. Not bad.
For these small lipo packs the Triton charger is great, especially if you also have nicads and/or nimhs.
If all you use is lipos get the AstroFlight 109 lithium charger. About the same price and does a superb job, does up to 9 cells at up to 8 amps, so you can charge larger packs or parallel the smaller ones and cut charge time almost in half.

Hammbone

My Feedback: (309)

So Foamaholic,

Are the guys in your club (and you) liking the flight characteristics of this plane? I've heard some bad flight reports, but I'm wondering if it might just be a matter of getting the correct CG.

I've got a Himax 2015/4100 sitting here looking for a plane to go on.

Thanks, Jim

Chris Moon

My Feedback: (8)

I am flying the Ultimate now. The most critical thing is to get the battery as high as you can on the cabane strut - just under the top wing. It flies great with the Himax 4100 w/ Himax 6.1 gearbox and APC 12-6 slo flight prop. It flew pretty poorly until I moved the battery up high like in the updated instructions. Hovers at 1/2 and torque rools really well.

Foamaholic

My Feedback: (1)

We love our Ultimates. We think they fly very good. Torque roll like crazy. They just sit there in it. We do have the cg real far back. Like aol767 says, get the cg right in the vertical plane, under the top wing.

Hammbone

My Feedback: (309)

O.K. cool,
Thanks for your input guys.
I guess I'll be ordering one of these for me.

Jim

WhtBronco

May as well add a question to this post since it has already answered 1 for me. Should i use the landing gear on this plane? I will fly mostly in places that I can land in grass, but I think I can probably catch it as well.

This is my first electric 3D plane so it'll be interesting. It will be stock for now, just to see if I like flying this type of plane. I am very concerned about how flimsy it seems compared to my glow planes, and even my daughters Hobby Zone planes. I knew it would be flexible, but I was a bit surprised. Course at an advertised 9oz what should I expect. I found it very hard to get the elevator glued and taped on. Ended up cutting some tape from the scraps of the decal sheet.

Any hints for securing the plane in the trunk of my car? I'd like to leave it in the car so I can fly it whenever I have time.

Thanks all.

Foamaholic

My Feedback: (1)

My brother's Ultimate took quite a beating on the nose and motor just landing in grass. He since put the landing gear on to protect the nose.
Yes they are flimsy but the flexibility helps when hitting the ground. They bounce pretty good.
You could put the plane on some foam so it doesn't slide around or fill a couple baggies with sand and lay them on the bottom wings.

WhtBronco

Thanks Foamaholic. I have yet 1 other question I forgot about. I have seen that the Tribute, similar plane has trouble with the elevator joiner failing. I have already completed that task on the Ultimate. Any ideas on strengthening it? I had though about a tooth pick in addition to the balsa joiner glued into the foam elev halves and to the joiner itself. I have also considered staples between the foam and balsa joiner glued to both. Anyway any ideas would appreciated.

Foamaholic

My Feedback: (1)

Yes the joiner will fail. One cure is to soak it with ca, foam safe since it's already on the plane.
If it wasn't on the plane a piece of carbon tube or rod would work great.
Or a piece of hardwood.
My brother's broke after a few flights so he taped a piece of music wire over it, bent at both ends back onto the elevator. Doesn't break now.

WhtBronco

Thanks I'll do both, soak it in CA and use some small music wire to reinforce it.

Futurase

My Feedback: (10)

There is an easier and stonger fix tha can be done before or after itis built. I have the Tribute and Ultimate. Wrap the piece of balsa with thread and then put CA on it. This hardens the thread and you couldn't break it if you tried. A super easy fix and one that is bulletproof. The thread holds the balsa together from all sides and the CA hardens it.

Norman Ross Jr.

WhtBronco

Perfect idea. Thanks, glue soaked thread it is.

Futurase

My Feedback: (10)

The Ultimate is the best flying foamie I have ever got my hands on. Like it has been sid it torque rolls so fast it will do it hands off if the winds lays down. Once you get a few rotations it kind of has some built in stability. The Tribute is a great plane and a LOT of fun, but is not for wild 3D. It is much milder. In foamies a bipe is always better for 3D. No exception to that rule. No monoplane will snap and tumble and torque roll as good as my Ultimate. None. the only gripe of the Tirbute is the tail will fishtail at higher speeds due to it is so long. I told Horizon and they had never heard of it, but three other guys locally all have the same problem[:-] The Ultimate has none of these problems. Knife edges well and the Tribute has gobs of coupling. Can't hardly knife edge it at all. Both will turn on a dime with the rudder though.

Both are good planes, I just like the Ultimate a lot better. The tributes wings flap like a bird in hard moves and the Ultimate is rock solid. I put some fiber-reinforced strapping tape on the bottom of my top wing. Two pieces. My Ultimate snaps so hard I swear it is goignto break something. I use the EFlite 370 brushless and a 11x4.7 GWS prop. The best combo of all will be the new Eflite 12x3.8 props due out this month. According to Motocalc they give like right at 30oz of thrust and only pull 9 amps. Like half and amp more than 11x4.7's and several more ounces of thrust. The sweet spot for E-flite 370's and Himax 2015-4100's.

Norman Ross Jr.

jakjr

My Feedback: (18)

I just got my ultimate today! Been building it tonight and its pretty well done except for the controll horns and pushrods, theyll have to wate till I get the servos Im going to use.

For now I just want to get the thing flying so I wont be using a brushles setup yet. Im going to go ahead an get me a good charger (probobly the apache) and a 2 cell battery pack and fly it stock until I get around to buying a bruhsless setup. Ive got the money for it but dont want to (more accuratly cant) spend it all right now, I can wate another month (until my birthday).

Ill probobly use the the E-flight 370 brushless since its pretty cheap and is what they recomend, for the speed controller im thinking about a CC pheonix 25. Quick question about the Pheonix controllers, do you need the programming kit to use them?

Foamaholic

My Feedback: (1)

The CC controllers do not need the usb kit to use them. They can be programmed manually if you want to program them. The instructions that come with them tell how. The usb kit makes it a lot easier though.
The Phoenix controllers are for brushless motors only.
For brushed motors get the Pixie. The Pixie 20 for your plane.
So when you do go brushless you'll then need the Phoenix.

Hammbone

My Feedback: (309)

Norman,

Could you please share with us your battery location and CG?

Did you do any other mods besides the fiber-reinforced strapping tape on the bottom of your top wing?

Thanks, Jim

Futurase

My Feedback: (10)

I do not change one other thing except I mount the servo for the rudder and elevator sideways through the fuse like many have so the servo arms won't hit. This gives more throw. I put on 3D Foamy's carbon biplane landing gear as it is the best made and 1000 times stronger than the junk that comes with the kit.

My CG came out exactly where the manual says at 95mm. This is ideal as you can swap out packs of various sizes and the CG never moves since the pack is mounted at the top of the cabane strut and the center of the strut is the CG. Ideal.

Norman Ross
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Futurase

My Feedback: (10)

I tried to post a pic of the plane and the landing gear and all, but her goes again.

Norman Ross Jr.
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Futurase

My Feedback: (10)

I guess I still haven't figured it out. Go look in my gallery.

Norman Ross Jr.

jakjr

My Feedback: (18)

I got my battery pack and charger today. I decided to go all out and get a Thunder Power 2s 1320mah pack (im using the stock motor right now) and a GP triton charger.

I might fly my plane tommorow, Im just scared of ruining my battery pack since the instructions say not to discharge to less than 6.6v and my ESC's auto-cutoff is at 4.8v. I guess It wouldnt hurt to fly it for like 5 minutes or so (maybe I could set a timer?) but still yet I dont want to ruin a $35 battery pack. I guess I better go ahead and order me a li-po freindly ESC tommorow. I think ill get a kokam super 20 from tower hobbies, it looks to be pretty good and is reletively cheap ($33).

Havent tried the charger yet (dont have a power supply), weve got a power converter somewhere but I dont know if itll handle 13 amps. I might see about using an old pc supply or buying a cheap one. Weve got some old car batteries I could use but their all dirty and need charged so their probobly more trouble than their worth.

Like I said I havent used the charger yet so I cant comment on it too much but it looks well made, the instructions are well written and pretty thorough. I think for what the charger cost GP couldve at least thrown in some bannanna plugs and wire though, not that big of a deal (bannanna plugs are 4 bucks for 3 sets and I had wire) but for 130 bucks you'd think they could throw em in so you didnt have to purchase them seperately.

Anyayws, I guess tommorow once I get my battery charged I'll try out my plane, horizon says it has a 10-20 minute flight time so I guess if I just flown it for like 5 mintues it wouldnt hurt nothing.

Hammbone

My Feedback: (309)

Thanks for the info Norman.

I like that gear you put on yours. I think I might order some for myself. I found their website and the page with the gear listed. Do you know which size you got? I'm guessing maybe the 4" x 9.5" ?

Thanks, Jim

Futurase

My Feedback: (10)

The one that he says is for his Pitts or for any other biplane. It is the short gear. He only sell 3 kinds. Tall, short and on for an Extra.

Norman Ross

jakjr

My Feedback: (18)

I went ahead and ordered a kokam super 20 ESC and another hitec feather receiver. I got the faster shipping so itll probobly be here by wednesday or thursday.

Hopefully ill be able to fly my ultimate by friday.

For now ill just use the servos in my cessna (hs-55s) but im going to order some for this plane later on. If anyone has any suggestions on servos let me know, I would like to go smaller than the hs-55s to save weight but id also like to keep the price around $15-20 so my choices are probobly pretty slim. Right now im leaning towards the GWS picos, they're about 15 bucks and weigh .05oz less than the hs-55s so they seem like good choice.

I already checked ebay for cheap servos but most of the ones Ive found within my price/weight range look kinda cheaply made(compared to the GWS's and hs-55's).

Foamaholic

My Feedback: (1)

GWS Pico servos are a good choice. I've had good luck with them. They seem noisier than 55's but work fine, and like you said they are lighter. They produce lower torque than 55's but plenty for light planes.