darnold

Here, here! I flew Miss Dee 3 yesterday with a lipo for the first time (last flight was a year ago) and she flew ON RAILS!!!!!! She literally pulled out of my hand on launch and flew with authority despite the 8-12mph wind!!! I didn't even need the 5-7 steps launch sequence into the wind to get her airborne, just one step and a GENTLE push and she was off!!! She is WAY FASTER now with the LiPo's than at anytime with the NiMh's, even when they were fresh!!!!

The rolls not only became axial but I could do them sloooowly and looping finally became a nice arc instead of a stall-flip at the top!!!! I had already been flying her inverted last year but now with the 3S 1350mah 15C LiPo pack from my F-18 she almost did an outside loop AGAINST the wind from being inverted before I rolled out of it!!! I felt like I had near complete control, even in the wind and I actually RELAXED while I was flying her because she wasn't tip stalling all over the place from the lack of power in the old, tired NiMh's that I threw away a month ago.

Of course Miss Dee 1 flew on rails also when the NiMh's were fresh, but even then it had MAJOR problems getting airborne. Thanks to all of the old guard on the original thread (plus this one early on) that helped everyone (including me) figure out a procedure for consistent launches. Back then most of us were having the plane just auguer into the ground with NO response to aileron control on launch, busting our planes up and getting frustrated. We all came to a consensus that you needed to help the PZ P-51 get some airspeed by taking 5-7 good steps to start the airflow over the wings. This band aide worked fairly consistently but take-offs were still always a nail biting experience if you were flying her stock but not anymore with the LiPo packs!!!!

Even with this launch procedure most of us experienced her dipping down before gaining enough airspeed to climb out, and this was when the NiMh packs were still relatively good with only 15 flights on them (I had two packs)! We all pretty much found that those crappy packs only give decent voltage for about 10-20 flights and then you get a noticeable loss in speed. Sometimes a change of motor helped but often nothing seemed to bring her back and you start to get tip-stalls all of the time. At that point it's more of an adventure to fly her than it is fun and I couldn't relax because I was always trying to keep her energy up and be ready for a tip stall in a turn, no matter how gentle, or she would be in a steady decent or fall-out after a roll. She just stopped being fun.

Now she is a blast again and I don't have to manage her instead of flying her. Of course all of this could have been avoided if I had just bought a LiPo for her but then I would have needed a charger also and to be honest that combination 2 years ago was going to set me back another $150. Now, I can just pick up a used 1300mah 3S 15-18C pack for $15 and I just bought the Turnigy Accucel 6 do everything charger/discharger for only $40 plus $18 shipping so the LiPo thing makes sense now for someone like me whose main hobbies are rc car racing on the national level and recreational golf. Of course it helps that the same pack that my new EDF F-18 uses are useable in my Miss Dee 3.

Side not: The new rx/esc unit that Horizon sent me worked flawlessly, without the hint of a radio hit...of course it helps that the antenna stayed soldered to the board. LOL!!!