I took delivery of a Flyzone Cessna Skylane last night, and had it built and trimmed within a couple of hours. I tried to fly the plane this morning, but never got off the ground due to our rough topography (horse pasture.)

I'm heading to the local R/C club's field tomorrow, which will be good since I haven't flown in 15 years or so and never really did much of the flying when I had my nitro-powered plane in college.

Went electric because I hated having oil/fuel all over the plane and my stuff.

It is evident that the Flyzone plane is underpowered. Can anyone tell me what parts (with links if possible) I can use to replace the existing motor, battery, etc.?

I am not impressed with the 8.4V 1100mAh battery that Flyzone includes with the plane. Want more flight time and more motor power, without having to modify the motor area of the plane if possible. Can file the battery holder area, only if necessary.

Unfortunately, have 2 more 1100 mAh batteries on the way right now; should have just waited to find out what batteries would last longer before ordering....

Do I need a new prop, or can I use the existing one?

Thank you for any help.


Mike

well, im not an electric plane flyer, but since u have 2 more batteries coming is it possible to put them together in a parallel series with all 3 together if they dont weigh to much, Or im thinking u can take the cells apart and solder them into a better battery like 2200 mah at 6v. Good luck hope you get your bird into the air.

My first piece of advice is to thoroughly test the charger that came with the plane before you start replacing or upgrading anything else.

I bought a Hobbyzone Aerobird Challenger (affectionately referred to as my Aeroturd) a few years ago before getting into glow aircraft. It came with a 12V Peak charger that plugged into the cigarette lighter of my car to charge my flight battery. I would charge the battery up as full as I could, only to find my plane underpowered and with very, very short run times.

The reason? The $10 retail peak charger bundled with the plane was "false peaking" and telling me my battery was full when it wasn't anywhere close to being fully charged yet. A better battery charger allowed me to actually charge up my batteries and allowed me to move on to other difficulties. In retrospect, I found the name "Aerobird Challenger" to be ironically descriptive...

If you intend to do more than a couple of flights a week and spend most of the time charging batteries, then you need to get something like the [link=http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin/wti0001p?&I=LXKAU0&P=ML]Great Planes PolyCharge4 DC Only 4 Output LiPo Charger[/link]. It'll charge your batteries up quickly, its very easy to operate, and you can charge up to 4 batteries simultaneously.

I have one and make good use of it.

Hogflyer

But, it only works on lipos. That plane comes with nimhs, and some of us, myself included, still use nimhs here and there, especially for r/c cars. Personally, I would suggest the Triton 2 or Triton Jr or possibly even the Quick Field Charger MKII, all from GP/Hobbico, based on my experiences flying E-power for the past 5 years. I've gotten a lot of mileage out of my first gen. Triton and MPX LN5014, which is very similar to the Triton Jr. Just my 2ΒΆ.

Mike, these foamies are usually underpowered, but should fly well if you hand toss it. Just rare back and give it a good hard toss. Remember to keep the nose down till it picks up a little speed. I have the Art-tech Cessna 182 and it will not take off from the ground. Grass it won't even move. the batteries should be good enough for 10 minute flights, and get rid of the supplied charger.

Since you are planning on going exclusivly electric I would recommend a good charger with at least 2 outputs, and LiPo capable. You don't have them now but you will more than likely want to use them.

Another thing you might want to consider is converting glow planes to electric. They get expensive when you get to .40 and larger aircraft, but the Motors and LiPo batteries should pay for themselves in the long run. (battery life verses gallons of fuel).