Hello first I want to say I am very very new to this site and new to electric aircraft. Okay so here we go! I just bought the parkzone slo-v and after a few flights I hate the stock motor! I want to upgrade to a diffrent motor setup. Now I am new to electric aircraft and really have no idea on what to get so thats why I am comming here for some help. I dont need all the bells and whistles, just a nice performing setup that I can get enjoyable flights out of with an easy instal. So if anyone could give me some advice or better yet post a setup they think would be good for my v let me know!

First off let me say that a cheap way of upgrading the power is to get a 7 cell pack and an 1180 slowfly prop, this makes the performance much better. If you want outrageous performance you'll need a brushless setup, but I am afraid that will mean changing out all the radio gear as the stock gear will not support a brushless motor. I have heard that there is some sort of adapter that lets you run a brushless from the stock motor but I don't knowmuch about it. If you go brushless a cheap setup is towerpro 2410-09 motor with 1047 prop, towerpro or similar cheap 12a ESC, 2 towerpro sg9 servos and a HS055 rx or gws 4 ch, you can use a 7 cell nimh or a 2/3 cell lipo. This setup is cheap and cheerfull but very powerfull and makes the slo-v a bundle of fun.

Yup, What GT said. I believe the name of the pack configuration is the 'Firebird' pack. Cheap battery packs has them as does PZ. It's used in their, you guessed it, 'Firebird' plane. Much better performance. Brushless is the way to go though, as GT mentioned, all of the components + radio will then need to be upgraded. Happy flying.
Rick

Yes I have just bought the 7 cell pack and cant wait to get it! It should be here in about a day so thats good! Its been windy here so I havent been able to fly much which is driving me nuts! So thanks for the advice and I will give the 7 cell a try before I move onto a motor upgrade option but thanks for the help!!!

make sure you change to an 1180 prop as well

[&o]I need help and feedback on what to expect this plane to do out of the box!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I just bought mine 4 weeks ago and broke the spar putting the rubber bands on the wings. Bought a new spar and rebuilt the plane about a week ago. Tried to fly it a few days ago with these results:
Discharged the battery twice and recharged - from the looks of the plane I thought it would float out of my hand into the blue - didn't happen!! Attempted to hand launch 3 times with exactly the same results - plane flew about 50 ft out - could not gain any altitude - plane feathered as if landing and came down. It did not stall but looked as if it were extremely tail heavy and underpowered. AM I DOING SOMETHING WRONG OR CAN'T THIS PLANE FLY AS IT LOOKS LIKE IT CAN????


Thanks. Con

No you are not doing anything wrong, you are right it sounds tail heavy, its an easy fix just slide the wing back, with the stock battery and motor I used to run mine all the way back. Don't expect any sort of fast climb out with the stock gear though, it flies nicely and slowly but it won't climb fast, it also really hates the wind. Follow our advice and get the 7 cell pack and 1180 prop you will find the performance much better or go brushless if you want awesome peformance, just remember to get the weight forward tail heavy is a right handfull.

Okay so I just recieved my new 8.4V Battery today and well, what is the the peak setting to charge the battery at? 1.2A?

T5500,G

Thanks very much for the quick reply. This Slo-V is not performing as I expected but I will try your suggestions and know things will improve. Question: When you suggest an 1180 prop is that the same as 11-8?? I'm new and don't have a grasp of the in lingo. Thanks again [8D][8D]

I flew my Slo-V in stock form for a while and hated it. Larger Nimh batteries did give it more power, but also added weight....weight is bad on a Slo-V.....I then tried to switch to a 3S 1350 ma Lipo battery...This didn't work well as it quickly burned up the motor. Another on the Slo-V thread, helped me out by telling me to forget the stock 380 motor. He used the trial and error method and found that all 380 HobbyZone/ParkZone planes are not created equal.....By experimenting he found that the 380 motor from a Blade CP heli was a perfect fit, for the stock gearbox, and it was rated for 3s Lipo.....I switched the motors and also switched props to the orange ones that come with the stock GWS E-Starter.....WOW......I had to be careful as it would fold the wings on tight loops or when pulling up from dives because of the speed it gained. The good thing was that the weight was the same, so the plane kept all it's slow flying properties, and then I could mash the throttle and climb straight up.....LOL......Pat

Yo everyone, what should be the peak charging range for the 8.4V battery pack?? 1.2A??

Yo what is the capacity of the pack?

Yeah 1180 is an 11x80 prop the best ones to use are the slo fly ones, I use GWS because they are cheap but some say the APC's are better. Patnchris is right a different motor will give you even better performance, team orion avionics make a specific motor for the slo-v that can be used with the stock gear, I wouldn't use a lipo with the stock gear though as the ESC will have a low voltage cutoff set for nimh so it could over discharge a lipo (thats very bad!!). Don't worry though you will find with the new prop and bigger battery it flies as a slow flyer should really, don't forget these things were designed to fly indoors as well so it wasn't meant to be a sky rocket, some people just like to push and push, me included!

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Thanks for the come back - I must admit that my flying mentor noticed a problem on my Slo-V that was contributing to lack of performance and I only admit it in hope that it will help other new flyers--------- [X(][X(] I had thIe prop installed backwards!!!!!!!!

Enough said?? I will install the 11X8 prop and test performance once it stops raining here. ConRman