Hello all. I am new to R/C Airplanes. I recently purchased an electric Aerobird Challenger and I just love the pane. And the fact that the main wing is only 14 bucks

Anyway, I believe the airplane came with a Speed 380 motor and I have since put a high torque 480 7.2 volt in it with it along with a 8.4 volt 1,000 nihm battery. The plane seems a little more powerful but I would like to do more.

After looking around on the net I found a site ( http://www.hobby-lobby.com/elecmot.htm ) that sells all different types of motors that look like the same type as mine. Now I understand the larger the motor the shorter the flight time, but is there a limit I should not exceed? Like the watts and the amps that the motor will need. I am sure there is a limmit to what my lil electronics and built in speed controller can handle. Any suggestions on batteries? It came with a 7.2volt 6 cell 800 (i think) nihm and like I said I also run the larger 7 cell 8.4 volt 1,000 nihm.

Has anyone else tried this? I just don't want to get too big of a motor and end up frying a circuit board that would be difficult to replace.




P.S. I recommend the plane to any beginner. It can fly quite slow in still air and gives the beginner the best of both worlds- long flight times ( especially when you glide on thermals a lot ) and it is very durable. Great first plane for sure!
Thank you.




Edit: I noticed that the larger plane- the Aerobird Extreme uses a 540 motor with what they call a 7.2V 1700 MAH NI-CD BATTERY. Would this work in my plane? I would imagine they have the same electronics, but I do not know for sure.

Sounds like you have got yourself a hot rod. Just remember that more milliamps means longer flight times which equals engine heat. I wouldn't hold it full throttle for extended periods. You are ok on more milliamps but don't exceed the recommended voltage which I think is 8.4 volts. Another thing to keep in mind is bigger NiCads=more weight. Don't get into the circle of bigger motor/bigger battery as the additional weight cancles out the additional power. The wings on the aerobird aren't reenforced (as stock) so be careful with all that power and weight or they might fold.
Have you considered Lipo's? They are the ticket for electric planes. A fraction of the weight of Nicads and gobs of power. The down side is the are expensive and require special chargers.

WCB

I think you're trying to exceed the intent of the Aerobird Challenger. I've flown several and had lots of fun with them. I don't even know how you got into it to change the motor, then put the plane back together again. I think the plane is designed to do as you and I have done, learn to fly, and have a good time in perhaps restricted places, and at not all that much expense. To me trying to "soup it up" with larger motors and batteries is going beyond the intent of the Aerobird Challenger. The plane is not designed to do aerobatics or fancy stuff and it won't take a lot Gs (confirmed by multiple folded wings even when reinforced with packing tape). Suggest you look at something like Parkzone's (I think) Stryker 27 (an aerobatic delta wing with lots of ability) as an alternative to continued modification of the Aerobird. Of course, that is just an opinion :-)

Thank you for all the comments guys. I am not sure what a lipo battery/charger system is. I would be interested in something like that b/c of the weight savings. And you are correct vagent- I do not want to add much more weight to the plane. The reason I thought it was ok to add the different engine was b/c it was only like 1.5g heavier, and about a 1/4 inch longer. And getting the motor out really isn't that hard. You have to remove the bar above the canopy where the rubber bands attach. Remove the 2 screws going into the motor (behind the prop) and it can be fished out via the wires. Getting it back in is a little more trickier




Yes, I removed the speed controller, this is just a comparison shot at the start of the project.


I rarely have it on full throttle, I would rather have more time in the air than a short fast time that can damage the motor.

How many runs have you made with the 480 motor? Do you fly a lot a full throttle?

No one has offical specs for what the capacity is of the speed contol, so I would have expected the 480 to fry the speed control because it will pull more amps. This is the largest motor I have heard of being used in an Aerobird. If you put in something larger, let us know. It will be very interesting.

As for the motor in the Xtreme, I believe it will be larger in diamater than the Aerobird can take. Also, the Xtreme requires larger batteries. I believe they are A cells to provide enough amperage output to feed the motor. I don't believe the challenger cells can put out enough amps to feed an Xtreme's motor. I don't think the Xtreme cells will fit in in the Challenger.

My advice is to buy an Xtreme fuselage, wing and tail and fly it with the challenger radio. As long as it is on the same channel it will work fine.

I am pretty sure you can also fly the parkzone three channel planes with that radio. So maybe your best bet is to leave the Aerobird as is and get another larger/faster plane if that is what you want to do.

I have had prob 10 flights with the 480 in there. It is the motor from this plane that I crashed [8D] http://www.parkflyers.com/html/cessna_182.html

And I typically do not run at full throttle, I like to get a longer flight time in. I will only kick it to full if im going into a strong wind or doing a loop. As for more stuff to be done I am not sure. A local guy suggested going brushless but that would be a bit of work. I was going to convert the plane to use the radio/reciever/speed control out of the Cesna but when I got to looking at how the servo's are set up, I am not sure if I can replicate it. Since the plane doesnt have a rudder (has a 45deg tail, not sure what its called) Going from say left to right doesnt move one servo like a "normal" one would- its the combination of 2 servo's working together and vice versa. So I dont think I am going to convert it inless there is another way of doing it. I think I am just going to keep practicing with it and then step into something a lil larger with a brushless setup.

The surfaces on the aerobird are called ruddervators as they provide rudder and elevator. This is accomplished through V-tail mixing which is found on most current radios. Or you can add a device to provide the V-tail mix.

Quite normal set-up actually. Lots of planes have V-tails. Especially popular in gliders.


Aerobirds converted to standard RC gear:

Three Channel
http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showt...5&pagenumber=1

4 channel
http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showt...1&goto=newpost

Ha, thanks so much for the info. Can you tell me more about this device that would split the work between the 2 servo's? I did not want to have to buy a new radio to be able to convert it.

What 72 mhz radio will you be using?

This is a v-tail mixer
http://www2.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...?&I=LXHHS3&P=7

Thanks again for your help. Well I do not have one of the supported radios so I am just going to wait on a brushless motor until I can get a nice radio. Seeing as how I will prob get more planes down the road, a good radio would prob be a good investment. However, since I am going to leave the plane as is- I decided to pick up a 2.4Ghz video camera for it. Only 9 grams so it should not be a problem.

My question now is the range on the lil thing. There website (raidentech) says the range is 450ft/ line of sight. Thats nice and all but I stumbled upon a home page a few weeks ago where this guy added a small high gain antenna that boosted the signal like 5X. However I can not find the page again. Any ideas on boosting the range? Or any resources you know of? I am going to take a look here and see if I can find anything.

No clue on how to boost the range on a wireless video system.

The Challenger has a range of about 1/2 mile.

Great info! Can you tell me how you have got along with that bigger motor in the Challenger? I've been told you can also throw a Stryker motor in a Challenger which will give more speed and power but MIGHT blow the internals after a while. I think I read the standard motor pulls 6amps. I *think* the Stryker motor pulls about 10? Also saw mention of a few other aftermarket motors that are within the specs of the Challenger's current capacity yet will deliver more power and speed. I'm looking for good info on motors as well as aftermarket props for the Challenger. Why not hop her up? Half the fun of flying these things is making them do what other people say they can't. I also always love it when I hear people complain about the internals on a Challenger being non-standard and thus not able to transport to other planes. Just picked up a new body with internals so guess where the old guts are going within a week or so? I'm putting them in either a foam delta wing (Hyper Wing is a good candidate...need something cheap that doesn't require me to build the body), or a large foam glider. One guy put his into a $7 Comet foam glider bought at the local toy store. Simply by reversing the motor wires he made it a front mounted engine. Man....now I'm thinking....I think it's off to Toys-R-Us to find a cheap foam glider. Just have to look like I'm shopping for my imaginary kid and not me...:'). Will update when done.