AgCat1982

I started out building my own electrics. Scratch from balse and monokote. I have a nice 55 in wing span home built that I fly with a low priced brushless, ($85 which is the motor and ESC) and it flys 14-16 minutes on a $38 11.1v 1500mAh Li-Po. If you look in my gallery it's the red, Cub type, plane.

I don't want the gas planes, mainly, because there is no club close enough to me and I hate to drive way out into the country to find a place to fly. I just go over to the school park. My little foamy, Slow Stick, I can fly in front of my house, which has houses all around me!

powerchute50

A previous post suggested listing details of electric setups so that those of us struggling with electrics could start to build experience with the components. What motor and esc are you using, and what is the weight of the plane? What prop are you using? Your battery pack would be 3 cells in parallel? I have noticed a wide range in price for LiPoly cells in the ads. Fifteen minutes on a 1.5 amp pack suggests you are pulling around 6 amps? So at 11.1 volts that is a bit over 60 watts? Pretty good for a high wing 50 inch cub. I would really like to know the prop and weight.

Flying in parks and school yards is another topic, but our club is starting to worry about this. With all the Radio Shack and Walmart models zooming around parks it is only a matter of time before there is an accident. The little foamy models aren't bad, but some of the higher powered setups could cause real damage if they hit someone.

Here in Canada our liability situation was hammered with 9/11, and then a serious accident in Ontario where a fellow was hit in the head by a .40 trainer and will suffer lifetime injury. This happened shortly after a girl in England was killed in a similar incident. Our national insurance premium tripled. We have so many saftey regulations at our field we had to appoint a full time safety officer just to wade through it all. Despite our safety precautions at our flying fields, if there is a serious incident with a park flyer in a school yard, we may all be painted with the same brush in the eyes of the public.

Just something else to worry about.

Don
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You don't learn anything if nothing goes wrong.

raptorite

The secret is no secret .. find a dealer who knows what he is talking about and is prepared to stand over his offerings.

I had loads of Gliders with 400's and 600's and they climbed like a balloon with a brick tied to it.

I had a Picojet which was ok'ish

I had a Zagi that was ok'ish

Mostly I flew electrics for a break when I had flown my ic models for a few flights as they were relaxing.

A while back in the LHS I saw a real nice 2.5m glider with glass fuz and thought "must get one of them" so I bought it. The instructions said speed700 and 8cells but I reckoned that would give me two bricks tied to the balloon so I phoned John Emms at www.puffinmodels.co.uk and asked him what to buy. Two days later I had an AXI 2820/12 10 cell RC1600 packs, prop, spinner and all the connectors. I fitted the bits and took it out hoping it would climb put at around 45° and get two or three climbouts into thermals ..... WOW ... it almost goes vertical ! A motor run of 15-20 secs puts it higher than I could get my speed 600 jobs on a full charge, and if there are no thermals I can buzz around for ages on 1/3 throttle.

If your supplier doesnt know what you need then change your supplier, easy as that.

AgCat1982

I think I listed it in my gallery, but, I have been working on it. I was the one who posted that and [&:] guilty of not doing what I said. I have posted that info in many places and did not want to clutter here. Mistake. What I started with was an EPS-350C D which a GWS geared motor with 6.6:1 ratio. I began using six AAA batteries, went to seven and ended up with eight while putting a heat sink on the motor. With an 1180 GWS prop it has good power and I was flying my plane with it while it weighed 19 oz, but, with difficulty. Next I found a brushless outrunner motor, from Balsa Products, with brushless ESC for $89.00 plus shipping. It fit a GWS 400 motor gear box. I used the same prop and a Kokam 11.1v 1500 mAh Li-Po battery with great success. I was able to increase the weight of my plane to 24oz and fly with plenty of power. Half throttle while cruising around and getting 10 to 15 minutes, depending on how many stunts with full power I practiced on. The motor was a Motor Max Motor 400F brushless. You can find it at this link:

[link=http://www.balsapr.com/catalog/motors/OutrunnerMotors.asp]Balsa Products[/link]

I use the same setup on a GWS PT-17 Stearman (see my gallery) and it flys great! Climbs at, at least, a 70 deg angle non stop. Lazy around for about 15 minutes or cut up alot for 10-12 minutes.

As far as the school yard, I do not fly when there are people close to the plane who are not with me. It's that simple. If I have to I go out in the country.

I would be glad to help if I can.