Ideas on power choice
Thanks for the input, Steve. The owner of the store that sold me the kit warned me that the recommended drive is insufficient. It flies OK, but the motor runs too hot and has really short life. That's apparently real-life experience.
Now, I'm not asking to make the plane hang off the prop or anything, and I do look at the numbers more than their opinions, my point was, that I'm not really sure what I should shoot for.
When I said the thrust was low, it said it would take moderately long runs to get off the ground. I'm perfectly willing to spend the money to get li-poly batts in a series/parallel setup to have sufficient amps to fly the plane, and the weight is WAY down. I'm really after more duration, rather than ultimate power. I considered anything less than 10 minutes WOT to be too short.
In theory, this plane has, as designed and spec'd, 6.5 oz/sq ft wing loading, which is really light. But if the speed 400 is too small of a motor to fly the plane, then I was intending to move up in size (using inexpensive motors), but moving up never really "solved" any issues. My other thought was that I was willing to use 6 cell nimh packs, even if relatively short flight, since they are c heap and swapping is quick and easy.
However, I had trouble getting enough power from 6 cells without using a relatively large motor...
What I ended up with, was using a speed 600 (graupner 1793), olympus 2.3 belt drive, 11X7 prop, 6 cell RC car NIMH pack.
All up weight of 40 oz (I threw in some extra weight just to play safe above what it should weigh), mc says stall of 15 mph, max speed of 32 mph, it should climb at 500 ft/min and run for about 10 min in flight at wot, 17 min at 80% throttle, with the motor at 110 deg.
This combo is cheap...
Next, is a speed 400 (graupner 3320), 2 3270 lipoly cells, 4:1 gearbox 10X6.5 prop. MC says it will take 10-11A static, 100% throttle.
This one has lesser performance, with a stall speed of only 13 mph, max speed of 25, climbs at 320 ft/min and has longer takeoff.
It, however, shouild fly for close to a half hour flown gently.
it costs quite a bit more, too.
Now, my point in all this is, I have no idea what to compare what to. I don't know what it should be, I don't know what's "good" or what's "bad".
There's nobody around here who flies much electric stuff, and I just want to be able to buy the parts, put them in, and have a model that can be flown well, without danger of quick failure of anything.