Okay no one is talking about this plane, I have this plane, and even tho its a trainer and im past that, i still fly it.
Come on guys this is a great plane, a lot easier than gas, looks great, and u can fly it in 20 mph winds, I DID IT!!!
I highly recommend it.

I actually recommend it quite frequently when the topic of an electric trainer pops up. It's an amazing package, Hobbico really thought things through when they put it together.

Hopefully we'll all see more of these at the fields this spring.

Yep and it takes a beating too. I've made some hard landings both bounces and nose first. The most damage I've done so far to the balsa was the air scoop being knocked off which occured when the nose touched down hard first. The propellor broke during this too but that's easy to fix. Just whip out a new propellor and glue the scoop back on. I really shouldn't have been flying in gusty wind like that. The approach was good and steady heading into the wind and just as it was about to touch the wind stopped suddenly and down it went.
On my good landings with no wind, I really like the way I can flare it for a jetliner style landing.

cwharper.......just wondering how the c.g. balance was on your plane. do you have it balanced flat? just wondering

Hello All , I just bought a Eletristar, It should come this week....Anything I need to know before flying this great looking plane ?

The c.g. was right where the manual said it should be and I didn't have to do anything to the plane to adjust it. This was with the stock nimh batteries. I suppose if I had one large 4 cell lipo battery then I would have to experiement to see where in the battery compartment to strap it down for the same c.g.

Just a side note, I don't think the Great Planes C.G. Machine is worth the plastic it's made of. I believe a good finger tip measurement in calm weather 3.5 inches from the wings leading edge could produce the same result of the great planes machine.

And now that I think about it, I probably could have made my own machine out of scrap lumber using a tape measure to get the balance point.

wannabee pilot, listen to the advice of others all over this board and get somebody with rc experience to help you fly it for at least the first three flights, 1st flight instructor takes it off and establishes good flying altitude then hands you the controls for SIMPLE circles or figure eights, then instructor lands, 2nd flight instructor takes it off and you practice going around in circles again and this time trying the final approach for landing and if you aren't comfortable do a go around and try again while you still have battery left, if you have doubt then let instructor land it, 3rd flight, you take off, climb to good flying altitude, practice approach again and land.

This plane needs a good open field without any obstructions. A football field will not do. The lights are in the way and the end zone goals are right in the way of landing. You might could get it up but getting it back down on the field will be a problem as it tends to float a long way before it touches. I've discovered that it doesn't like thick grass and prefers to have a good ground speed for a smooth take off.

Good post. I was thinking of getting an Electristar.. but i just might not have enough room to fly it I have the realflight G3.5 sim coming in the mail so i will practice up anyways on it! Maybe i can get a reasonable estimate of the room i need from the sim... i'm really itching to fly! [>:]

I flew the electristar in the sim before I flew for real. To me it seemed plane in the sim was heavier than the real thing because it wanted to sink faster in the sim.

i TOO GOT THE ELECTRISTAR UNDERESTIMATING THE ROOM NEEDED TO FLY. YOU WILL NEED QUITE A LARGE AMOUNT OF SPACE TO FLY COMFORTABLY. FOR EXAMPLE A SOCCER/FOOTBALL FIELD SIZED SPACE WILL NOT DO. REGARDLESS...I AM HOOKED AND LOVE IT.

I THINK THE ONLY THING I WOULD HAVE DONE DIFF IS BUY AN INEXPENSIVE MODEL TO PLAY WITH FIRST. JUST TO GET USED TO FLIGHT AND NOT WORRY SO MUCH ABOUT CRASHING MY "INVESTMENT" SUCH AS THE HOBBICO VENTURA OR SOMETHING LIKE THAT. MADE OF FOAM....$100 BUCKS...CRASH...WHO CARES. JUST MY OPINION. I CRASHED MY ELECTRISTAR AFTER HAVING IT FOR A MONTH AND IT COST ME $140 TO GET IT BACK UP IN THE AIR. MAKE SURE YOU HAVE ENOUGH SPACE AND JOIN A CLUB(CLUB FIELDS ARE GREAT). HAVING SOMEONE INSTRUCT YOU HOW TO FLY IS PRICELESS! YOU WILL ENJOY THE HOBBY MORE WITH LESS DISAPPOINTMENT.

GOOD LUCK

I almost bought one for my gf ... then I found out it runs on a 4S set up!!! I was so disappointed. The plane is very nice, its a lovely package. Just because its EP does not mean its not a 40 sized trainer!

I have Real Flight G3.5, and while overall I'm quite happy with it, I don't think it does a very good job of modelling slow flight. It's funny to fly the Nexstar around at half throttle and have the thing practically dropping like a rock. The real Nexstar is practically a sailplane and will easily cruise around at a click or two above idle.

Hmm.. i may just have to look into something a little bit smaller scale. I have a green area in my little housing estate i'd say about 3/4 the size of a football field.. and around it are houses [X(] They aren't right up against the field but will definately make it tight for landing.. i will have to scout around to see if there are any larger open spaces around! I don't have a 1/1 scale car... so i am limited to dragging it around by foot or on my bicycle. So this close little green is the best shot i have..... UNLESS! Near the beach there is a ton of open air space hehe but it is over water [:-][:-] How does it hold up in the wind?

Your right, but this is both trivial to fix and G3 models slow flight VERY well.

The problem is that the parameters are off on the Nexstar.

Edit the plane in the physics editor ( with the advanced options on ) and for the wings, rudder and elevator, set the wing lift percentage to 130 to 150 and the parasitic drag to approximately 80%.

Then the plane will fly like what you are used to.

If it's still not enough of a glider, set these higher and parasitic drag lower.

i just got realflight g3.5 in the mail today!! i CANNOT open the box until my exams are over tomorrow! Hehe it is destracting me just sitting there in the box tho Thats a great tip opjose.. i'll have to try that out when i get the sim going.

Remember to head over to the forums on Realflight's web site, particularly to get at the swap pages.

There are hundreds of planes, cars, helis and other craft available to download.

Is the electricstar just an electric version of the nextstar? If so how is it better?

"Just"?

No.

The Electricstar is based upon the same general airframe design, but it is constructed specifically for EP flight.

So there are things such as cooling entry and exit points, lighter firewall woods, etc. that make it lighter than it's glow counter part.

Also the droops, etc. are missing.

I had a bit of a scout around and i found a big soccer field with extra room! a soccer field doesn't have the rather tall goal posts to worry about for landing.. so the electristar has snuck back into the picture for me And sorry to go off topic with my RealFlight posts.. but i can't help this one.. OPJOSE did you say you can get CARS on the swap page for realflight??? My realflight g3.5 still hasn't left the box yet because i have to entertain some guests (grrr go away!) LOL And an ON topic question.. How is the Electristar at landing in taller grass? this isn't a perfectly manicured soccer green im talking about.. will 2-4" blades of grass make the prop eat dirt?

Yeah cars, and rockets too, as well as UFO's, etc.

The E-star will do quite well on short grass fields.

For 2-4" grass, you could resort to replacing the wheels with 3.25" ( or larger ) lightweight wheels, and you'll have no problems on grass.

Does anyone have specs on the 42 mm ElectriStar C-42 brushless outrunner motor. All my Lipo packs are 3-cell, I don't fly DC motors, have little purpose for a 2-cell pack and have little desire to build up a stock of useless 2-cells just for this plane. All I need to know is whether the motor will hold up to a 11.1V 3-cell Lipo. Not finding specs on the C-42 anywhere online, I called Hobbico Tech Support long distance at my expense this morning and found my inquiry about the C-42 less than warmly received. The Support Tech I spoke with was unwilling to discuss the C-42, claiming that "they have not received that motor from the manufacturer to examine it", and "that they have no data to date on it". What...!? How can that be...the plane itself has been on store shelves for 6 months!?

Hobbico's Support Tech was unhelpful and very uncooperative, repeating himself at ever juncture... "I have no specs"... "I have no information"... "I can not advise you". My explaination that my questions were "Pre-Sales" in nature and that I was needing the motor specs to better make an informed purchase of an ElectriStar, served only to annoy him, to which I again received the same reply in shorter tone of voice and to which I found myself apologizing for annoying him. For my 10 min. long distance call I got nothing from Hobbico about the C-42 except a condescending superior attitude.

Why all the non-information on a plane that's been in production for 6 months? Why does no one have any published data on the C-42 motor? If, as is speculated, the C-42 is just a re-branded version of an existing motor, why not fess up so the hobbist can research the data and move on? Why all the secrecy about this stupid little motor... or... is this just on par with the way Hobbico runs things?

I think you are focusing on the wrong thing.

You need to check the specs on the ESC... which states....

"Compatible with 7-14 cell NiCd/NiMH, and up to 4 LiPo cells. Works with Outrunner and Inrunner Brushless motors"


The voltage to the motor is varied as needed, so it has to be able to handle voltages at LEAST as great as what the ESC puts out, with a large margin for safety. Usually the windings are heavier on these RC motors so that they can tolerate the higher burst currents without burning out the wire.

So you should be able just to plug in a 3S or 4S Lipo into this plane w/o problems.

I remember reading that this was one of it's salient points.

Check the review here at RCU where the reviewer did just this.

In another thread someone had identified the C-42 motor as the Rimfire 45-50-600. Here is a link to Electrifly's page:
http://www.electrifly.com/powersyste...ire-42-50.html
They discovered this when looking at the specs of the plane in the G3.5 simulator. I myself then went out with a ruler and measured the little sucker and found that its dimensions exactly matched those of the 45-50-600 rimfire. This motor has the potential to handle more power than the stock ESC and propellor can deliver. I have this plane and really like. It flies very smooth and slow so you have time to react. You will need a 4 cell 3200mah lipo or two 2 cell lipos. If you like nimh then two 7 cell nimh sticks 3000mah is all you can get in there without it being too heavy. There are two series battery connectors from the ESC. A three cell lipo isn't going to have enough power to comfortably fly this plane.

If the motor is a rebranded rimfire then there probably exists a nondisclosure agreement between Hobbico and Electrifly. I've read somewhere that Great Planes, Hobbico, Electrifly, and even TowerHobbies are all linked together somehow.

Since I've had my electristar I've made a few power enhancements to it. The cheapest of which is to replace the stock prop with a 12x6E or 13x6.5E APC prop. The 12x6E tends to give more thrust with less amp draw than the stock 11x7. (Not all prop brands are created equal.) The 13x6.5E gives even more thrust with slighly more amp draw. It just leaps off the ground. Since I read that the motor can handle a 5-cell lipo I just had to try it. I had already fried the stock ESC by getting it wet (was taking off on a pond dam and it landed in the water) and replaced it with a phoenix-80. The 5-cell gives it much greater ability to get out of tight situations, but remember though that the stock ESC can't hand 5-cells.

What kind of flight times are people getting with what packs? And has anyone hooked up a watt meter to it to see what it's drawing with differnet packs and props? I've had several potential students ask me about the plane. While it looks like an electric version of a Hobico Superstar (and nothing like a Nextstar), and I'm sure from an aerodynamic perspective it flys great, I was wondering about the power available from the stock power system and the flight duration.

Has anyone who's flown typical .40-class glow trainers also flown one of these who can offer a performance comparison?

Oh, and guys, it's NOT a park flyer. The weight alone should tell you that, don't fly this thing in a park. It has the impact force of a .40 size glow trainer, and planes in that size class have killed people in the past. Not to say you will, and not to be overly dramatic, but a 6lb plane at 40-50mph to the head or chest will do a lot of damage if it hits nose-on. Don't fly this plane anywhere that someone might be wandering around or walk out in front of your plane as your landing or taking off, or where you might crash down on them.

Also, at my field, .40 size trainers with the same wingspan as the Electristar can easily get over 500 yards away from the pilot. That's 5 football fields from where you're standing, striaght out, to your left, and to your right. And I'm not making up that distance either. My field has high-tension power lines that measure out at 1400ft from the pilots boxes to the left and right side, and both have been hit multiple times by planes in that size class. Now, the planes are normally kept a lot closer, but inexperienced pilots often get farther away than they mean to be. With an experienced instructor, if this plane fliys like a typical trainer in it's size class, I'd say you really need at least ~900 feet left and right, and ~500 feet straight out. With a less experienced instructor, you need more room, and with no instructor you need even more.

While you can get the plane up and down on a football field or soccer field, you'll be over-flying whatever is around the field, and you don't want that to be houses, roads, and people.

I'll second your space requirements. A 900 x 500 ft field at the very least. Only a very experienced pilot could take off and land at a football field, even then you'd be constantly turning it around and trying not to hit the goal posts or lights and to me it would take the fun out of flying it. I'm not an experienced pilot and having flown the electristar wouldn't even attempt it.

I have though experimented with different batteries and props. There are others who have posted their own results in other threads. So I'll attempt to create a chart here of what I have personally measured for myself. I've only been able to meaure static amps with a fluke clamp meter so the following are static numbers at full throttle. Average cruising speed is half throttle or slightly better. After cycling the NIMH batteries a few times they finally gave me around 15 minutes with all three props. I spend most of my flying time just floating around. However, I wanted more power on takeoff and to get me out of trouble. The 12x6 seems to have more pulling power with less amps than the 11x7 and the 13x6.5 has the most pulling power.

With 14 cells nimh 3000mah
Stock Hobbico 11 x 7 = 28 amps
APC 12 x 6E = 24 amps
APC 13 x 6.5E = 33 amps

With Lipo 5 cell (not compatible in stock setup, I've upgraded the ESC to handle 5 cells)
Haven't tried it with 11x7
12 x 6E = maximum is unknown as it overspeeded the motor just past halfway, I set the endpoint so it drew 30 amps at full throttle
13 x 6.5E = again, maximum unknown, set endpoint at 35 amps, full throttle

I probably need a 13x8 to get up to any higher amps. At this time I'm satisfied with what I've got.


I haven't tried a 4 cell lipo but measurements from other indicate it performs better than the nimh, because of better sustained voltage and its greater power to weight ratio.