E-Flite Ultimate 3D
 

I'm getting ready to start mine...just waiting on a couple of servos - no real substance to this thread I'm just excited about it.

Right now I've got three dedicated 3D planes including the Ultimate - a GB MAtrix, a Funtana and now the Ultimate for my park use.

It's also my first brushless application and my first lipo...I've had a couple of other electrics but nothing so hi-tech.

So...I'm just excited - I'm not planning on giving up glow fuel (I love the smell of burnt nitro in the morning) but I am excited about electircs.

:D

RE: E-Flite Ultimate 3D
 

i baught one of these airplanes and was disopointed...i have been flying a FoamtanaS from Lee Ulinger and it is the best flying foamie i have ever flown...3d is rock solid and hangs on the prop no prob..i baught one of these for a first bipe aandcamein for a hoverand it was so hard that i couldnt keep it held, so i powerd out and landed...that was the first and only flight with that airplane...that is just my personal opinion, but if ur planing on havin alot of fun with it, the Areobatics were rock solid and the airplane tracks and flys very well...just be careful on the 3d type manuvers...

Cole

RE: E-Flite Ultimate 3D
 

What was your power system?

RE: E-Flite Ultimate 3D
 

One of my friends has a E-flite Ultimate.

With a good brushless motor, it will do 3D. It comes in a tad on the heavy side for indoor flying, but would be IDEAL for ripping up the sky outdoors. Been thinking about one myself.

RE: E-Flite Ultimate 3D
 

I'm on my 2nd Ulitmate, and I like it a lot. There are a few mods that you will need to make, definately go brushless, for the other mods, check out this link.

http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=354257

Bob

RE: E-Flite Ultimate 3D
 

Yeap the Eflite Ultimate 3D's just fine. I learned to hover and harrier with it.

I made a mistake assembling it though. The instructions were unclear IMO on where to mount the rudder and elevator servo and following the picture I ended up with a very tail heavy plane. The rudder and elevator servo need to be mounted close to the CG. Other than tht mine is stock. There's a lot of talk about aileron differential using the stock configuration for the aileron pushrods, but I have had no probs with it. The differential is barely noticable.

Mine has 26+ hours flight time on it, and it is starting to show it now. In fact yeserday while flying the right side aileron servo came loose. The double sided tape is holding just fine, the covering on the foam had come loose. This made it very tricky to land in the 10 mph winds I was flying in as the aileron would not center.

If I was to build another Eflite Ultimate, which I won’t likely, I would use epoxy all around. The foam safe CA just did not hold well. All repairs have been with epoxy and it is now a much more rigid plane. My next foamy will the 3DFOAMY Advantage bipe.

RE: E-Flite Ultimate 3D
 

Started it tonight - sure isn't much to it...I need two more servos...

RE: E-Flite Ultimate 3D
 

I have the Eflite Ulitmate, 400park Eflite brushless(major powerhouse) with a 10x4.7 it turns to hard but keeps the motor cool,,, GWS flight pack, Phoenix 25 amp ESC, and using Electrifly 1500mah 11.1v Lipo,, I love the plane, I have hovered/Torque rolled everything from a UCANDO .46 to a Carden 40% and I must say that this thing is very quick, I mean that you have to be quick on the sticks to hold the fast torque roll I can do it now about a foot off the ground with no problem but it took a bunch of practice and stick time on this plane,, is a good flying plane,, would I buy another,, maybe,,, I am wanting one of Chip Hyde's Bipe's either the new Fore-Play or the Raptor3d, not because they might fly better(they might but I don't know havent' heard any flight reports) but just for a change of looks,,,,,

RE: E-Flite Ultimate 3D
 

If you like biplanes and can use a knife and CA- build up one of the bipes flown at the German indoors pattern recently
These are light years away from the EFlight Ultimate in performance.
The plans are on line for a number of these.
The advances in flying capabilities of the flat foamies has been on a rocket ride.
My own latest stuf will fly perfectly accurate pattern or wild and crazy stuff
the differences look subtle but generally big weight losses - lots of power and short wing to fuselage relationships have made the most difference.

RE: E-Flite Ultimate 3D
 

Hey Dick have you seen or heard how Chip Hyde's new ForePlay flys or the Raptor 3D bipes fly,,,,

RE: E-Flite Ultimate 3D
 

Hello to all. Just finished my fourth and fifth flights on my Ultimate. Very mild mannered plane, but not very rigid. To reinforce everything is an understatement. Also make sure your aileron linkages are tight, or your rolls with be a little iffy. My setup to fly is as follows; Feigao brushless 6160kv motor, Thunder Power 2s 1320, Castle Creations Phoenix brushless ESC, and Futuba radio and servos. No problem with being underpowered at all. With a 2s 2100 this setup produces around 30 ozs of thrust, with 2s 1320 it produces around 22-24 ozs of thrust. This setup with fly vertical out of your hand until you tell it otherwise. It will hover at 1/4 power on the 2s 1320, and thats with the 12 x 6 stock prop. Depending on what battery you use the amps are usually between 11 and 16 amps. But do not use that motor with a 3s battery. It has almost 50 ozs of thrust but the amps are through the roof. Hope to post a good video of it flying soon.

RE: E-Flite Ultimate 3D
 

Well, It was too windy to fly today but I did "go light" in the garage after I finished it.

I held it nose up and brought the throttle up until it was light in my hand and then I played with the controls a little bit - they were very responsive. It balanced perfectly according to spec with where I put everything so I was pleased with that. First chance I get to fly it I will and I'm looking forward to it.

RE: E-Flite Ultimate 3D
 

BAH!

Yesterday I was setting up the plane with my transmitter and I was adjusting the servo reversing for the rudder and accidentally did the throttle! OUCH!

I grabbed the plane but not after tearing up the prop with both my hands! Nothing too bad - a few real little cuts and one real good one on the top of my right index finger on the section between my knuckle and the first finger joint. Again - not a bad cut but a cut none the less. These little planes ALWAYS get me the best. Well...now my gearbox is a little worse for wear and I don't think it's going to last long as it is. It's got a couple of gears that are a little worn.

Here's the thing - which GWS gearbox would I replace it with since eveyone I've looked at online so far is out of the eflight EFLM221 gearbox and it's parts (since I really only need the spur gear).

Edit:

I'm kind of wishing I had bought an outrunner instead of using the geared motor setup; I can see buying more replacement gearboxes and with the outrunner it would have been a non issue I suppose...

RE: E-Flite Ultimate 3D
 

The spur gears are about $2, buy a few of them. You should also invest in a hardened shaft for $5.00. If you need a new gearbox, I believe the D model is the correct one. For outrunners, the Himax 2812-850 outrunner will work well with an 11x4.7 or a 10x4.7 prop. It's a great motor, very quiet and almost 50% more efficient than the E-Flite 370 5400KV. Also, you might want to consider programming your transmitter (assuming you can) so that the throttle can be shut down with a switch in case you inadvertantly bump the throttle. Another solution would be to remove the prop whenever you're working on the plane.

RE: E-Flite Ultimate 3D
 

Yeah, I went to buy just a few of the spur gears and they were out of stock everywhere I looked as well...

I'll check out the GWS gearbox - might be able to find that locally.

While my radio has a kill switch - it is not programmable enough to do any more. I'll just start removing the prop when I'm working on things - that's safe enough.

I did fly it this morning though for a couple of minutes but the spur gear didn't last very long. It got real worn down real fast but the flights were successful and I feel pretty good about the plane as a whole. I can't wait to get it going with a good gearbox.

RE: E-Flite Ultimate 3D
 

Also, put some grease on the new spur gear. When you are adjusting the fit of the gear spur to the pinion, put a piece of paper between the two. That should give you the correct spacing and reduce stripping the spur gear. Check it regularly, because it does tend to shift occasionally. Also, the pinion gears don't last forever either. FancyFoam.com has gearboxes and spur gears. They also have really great planes.

Bob

RE: E-Flite Ultimate 3D
 

THanks Bob - I hadn't looked on their site.

I already ordered some spur gears from Horizon unfortunately...

Next time I'll go to Fancyfoam.com instead for those parts I think.

In the end I think it is more cost effective to go to an outrunner with no gearbox though.

RE: E-Flite Ultimate 3D
 

I have the Park 400 Eflite with the Gearbox 6.6x1 ratio and I have crashed several time wide open and it just pushed the spur gear off of the splines on the prop shaft I just pushed it back on the splines and it worked great, and for setting up the gear mesh I just put a piece of thin grocery bag plastic into the gears(this is how Eflite/Horizon says set it up) and just pushed them TIGHT together and they are great never had a problem after about 50 flights and I put a dab of white lithium grease on the spur gear about every 5 flights and I have been nothing but pleased with the gearbox set up,,,,

RE: E-Flite Ultimate 3D
 

Well - the spur gear wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it was. The motor had actually worked itself a little loose and had come off the spur gear. I changed to the 12 tooth pinion this morning after some so-so flights yesterday with a battery that likely wasn't charged fully. I had the 10 on there and it simply didn't seem to have any power - like I said - I think the battery wasn't charged completely. With the 12 and a charged battery though I swear I had like a half hours flight time. I was doing touch and goes and torque rolls and just having a blast. I'd fly for about 10 minutes; take a little break and then fly for another ten minutes, break and then the last ten minutes. I'm using the 11x4.7 GWS and the Park 370 brushless with the TT 1320 mah 3 cell lipo. I need to get a prop saver because when I do hit the prop on the ground now and then it really torques the fuse profile up front. I've already got two stress cracks and I've only been through three batteries on it. THAT is pretty lame but I'll shore it up with something to keep it together. The first hard landing pretty much broke the CA holding it in. It's still held there by the threads and foam but it's loose. I put a rubber band around the base there and that seems to keep it in line but it isn't "pretty."

Oh well - it's just a foamy.

Flies good too. I will have to go out again in the morning or maybe this evening.

RE: E-Flite Ultimate 3D
 

Check out the mods I made to the front end of my Ultimate in the attached picture. It made all the difference in the world. I can't even describe what my 1st Ultimate looked like after a couple of dozen flights without these mods. Also, take a look at the CF that I put on the leading edges, also a big improvement.

Bob

RE: E-Flite Ultimate 3D
 

Yeah, flying out doors in some wind on landing mine has taken something of a beating over the weekend.

:D

I'll have to do some repairs...maybe some carbon fiber reinforcement or some light 1/32 ply reinforcement in some key areas.

In the end I think I will find something made of wood with a real airfoil to fly around that handles wind a little better as I almost always have some.

I really like the look of this: http://www.accelhobby.com/2p_pittses28.html but it isn't out yet.

Anyone know of any plans out there that will work with a geared brushless 370?