Hi all

looking into getting an electric flyer - I can't understand how motor, battery, charger and speed controller all match up - is there an idiots guide somewhere? Lots of amps, cells, trickle charging, etc being banded around and I'm completely lost. So much for my engineerinf degree!

many thanks

AP

HI AP, it's really not all that hard. Try the discussions over at ezonemag.com. A lot of basic info for you

HTH

Tom

thanks - and thanks for not pointing out my poor spelling of "principle"!

hey im 14 and understand your problem. as a first electric plane i recomend the thunder tiger winstar ep. it's a good starter and comes with the motr. one less worry. with the windstar get the thunder tiger esc also. the esc will shut off the motor when the battery gets low. but lets you still control your rudder and elavator. use an 8 cell(battery) pack made od 1500 milliamp battery's.that how i started and after 1 year im still flying it.

Try this link

http://www.ezonemag.com/pages/efaq.htm

Yes, the Ezone FAQ is an excellent place to start. Too bad we don't have a similar feature here yet... I'm sure it can be done, though. A working knowledge of Volts, Amps, Watts, series/parallel circuits, etc. is invaluable. Without it, you're pretty much dead in the water...

Your best bet starting out is to pick a plane with a known successful power system, like anything GWS makes. The Slow Stick is a good first plane for someone who hasn't flown anything before, ever. Just looking at the array of GWS planes based on a couple of different power systems, you can see how versatile an electric motor is. The nice thing about picking a plane where it's already been figured out for you is that you can see what goes into a successful plane.

Above all, if you have questions, ask them. The more specific the question, the better, but any old question will do. Try using the search feature too.

Thanks Guys for all the advice,

I've been flying a glider for a while now and have decided the next purchase will be:-

Ripmax Sirius (600 motor installed)
30A ESC
7 cell 2000ma battery

seems to be a tried and tested formula, so a good place to start!

regards

AP

How did your Sirius fly. I have just bought one and am waiting for the weekend to try it out. I have powered it with a power train I bought from FMA Direct. 600 motor with Lipoly batteries.

disaster! I let the club secretary fly it on its maiden flight. went 100ft up, then 100ft down. crunch. plenty of pieces.

On closer inspection, the tail fin had been incorectly cut (by Ripmax) and this introduced a silly angle of incidence between the T tail and the wing - result, an uncontrolable climb.

I sent the pieces back to Ripmax 3 months ago. Only received a replacement on Monday, so back to the dining room table to re-build it!

I hope you have a better maiden flight - watch out for the angle of incidence!

regards

Alec

I did notice the tail had a very slight warp. I'm hoping this doesn't effect the maiden flight too much. I'll let you know how it goes.

The first flight I had was a disaster. The glider had hardly no power with the speed 600 drive train I was using from FMA Direct. It started sinking after a hand launch and hit the ground with a hard belly landing. The tail elevator snapped off. I was warned about this glider's weakness in past reviews.

I upgraded the motor to a 8.4 V Ripmax 600 Litespeed geared motor and used a bigger prop that was supplied with the motor. I also made sure the tail wouldn't break off too easily. I have reinforced this with 2 triangular fillets of balsa each side. The climb was good at about 30 degrees and the glider flew really well. From this experience and past gliders I've had I recommend upgrading the stock motor with a gearbox and a bigger prop.