FERNDALE AIR FORCE

3D, this one will not go on water, period.

Dan, have you taket the plane apart yet? Check the solder joints. Half an hour with a soldering iron and some solder(the finest you can find, I'm using 0.022 dia. "high tech.") is cheaper than buying a decent battery charger.

Someone said they thought they had a 2 cell(2s) lipo. YOU DO NOT HAVE A 2S Lipo. If you try to charge it as a 2 cell/2s/7.4v lipo you may manage to blow up the battery, and burn down your house, and maybe some other houses. I do charge my msl from my battery charger, but it is a 1S/single cell/3.7v battery.

Tim

I thought I posted these pics a while ago. Tim

FERNDALE AIR FORCE

The msl, jus got a major seal of approval. My buddy flew it and was pleased and his son, my nephew had a blast driving it around. If our street was smooth a 3 1/2 yo would have been flying . Tim

Fiannawolf

I wound up taking the plane and controller apart and could see no obvious defects. I even checked connections with a muliti meter and still no luck. Everything but the charging function works. After hearing the run times others were getting with after market chargers, I might just do that. The short test flight I did with my MSL was too much fun. Anyone have a suggestion for a good single cell charger?

Dan

FERNDALE AIR FORCE

Dan, I would recommend looking at larger chargers. If you later want to build something bigger, you'll possibly have to buy another charger. I just had a thought, I wonder if the plug and socket are to tight, and there is a poor connection. I mean the outer housing is not allowing the wire connection to connect. Tim

Fiannawolf

My MSL just started taking a charge and now it works fine. I changed nothing and still have the same batteries in the controller.[&:] Who knows why, but I'll take it. I got some flight time in today and this thing is a blast! A quick question, does the MSL have a low voltage cut off, or do I just fly until it feels a little weak? I don't want to run the battery down too low.

Dan

FERNDALE AIR FORCE

Dan, it has a cut off. I'm willing to guess that any consumer product with a lipo from the factory has the cut off. Have fun, Tim

shizack

OK, I was bored. The Reflex and the Havoc were charging, it was night time, and I live in a trailer park with NO outdoor flying area. I remembered the old "hanging-from-the-ceiling" buzz-planes I had when I was a kid and was struck with inspiration (such as it is).

I did this with my AA biplane too. Sorry about the crummy resolution - I took the video with a mid-grade camera phone.

Who says a MSL is an outdoor flyer?


[link=http://www.fileden.com/files/958/MSL_indoor.WMV]Video - Flying a MSL in a trailer[/link]

Edit: BTW, I charged it with my Reflex charger earlier for 45 minutes. Worked beautifully, and got MUCH more "flying" time than I ever did even with fresh batteries in the controller/charger.

FERNDALE AIR FORCE

Hi all, I find it interesting that there is little traffic here, but that is what it is. I had to dump my msl today. I somehow adjusted the balance on the controller, and did not realize that I had done so. So to go straight I gave the plane some right stick, while trying to turn the balance knob. I had full control when I cut the throttle after turning to safe territory. This was at about 60' up and 600' away. This thing may have a 750' range[X(][X(]. Tim

monstermaker13

well
i bought a mini-sl today at target

4th flight broke a prop right in the middle

easy fix!

this guy is just like its older brother , requiring full throttle to keep in the air

just barely [:@]

im gonna put wings on it and see if it helps like it did on the original sl

FERNDALE AIR FORCE

Monster, I keep thinking about putting a set of bottom wings from the ace between the pylons, cut to fit of course. Any thoughts? Tim

monstermaker13

i tried something like that on the full sized sl

very unstable

FERNDALE AIR FORCE

OK, my other thought is to remove some of the styro. Or hang a set of AA wings off the side. I know you flew/fly the 3 ch sl I just want this one to turn and lift.

Tim

monstermaker13

aa wings will provide barely any lift

tomorrow i will try to get pictures of mine with newly added wings

monstermaker13

flies good at 2-3rd throttle

micro_builder

My Feedback: (1)

nice mod

i had re-assemebed my mini SL to show one of my friends, this was on thursday, and i've been flying it regularly since. the more i fly it, the more i enjoy it. this plane/boat is kinda backwards though, as i have MORE fun flying on windy days than calm, and the whole slowing down to turn thing. both of those things just feel backwards to me, probably a big reason why i had a hard time with the original SL. i also dug out my apache 2020 lipo charger, soldered on some plugs and gave it a charge. i didnt time the flight, but it was certainly longer than it usually is when charged with the TX, and it seemed to have a bit more kick those first few minutes.

this poses a problem, as now i dont want to gut it again to put it in the other airplane i've gotten pretty good at flying it, you can get some really nice looking banking turns and dives, rolls, and some good low level flying. if this bloated bird got a diet, it would probably perform a lot better.

nick

W.A.S.P.S-Flyer

Im thinking of getting a msl just to put some gearboxes on those n20 motors and make my own plane. Any thoughts?

justin7t

Mine is hard to fly i cant turn well anybody got a link for tips???

Djstinger

Sorry to report that I don't like my MSL, I have tried 2 and I just don't care for the way flies, if that is what you call it. I need to find a Sport Flier.

micro_builder

My Feedback: (1)

hey folks,
i thought i'd see if i could duplicate the mini SL in some differant foam to get the weight down. its pretty close to being done, just need to finish the underside, install the electronics, and wait for all the glue to dry. the original mini SL weighs 26.4 grams without any electronics, my new one with the original decals and plastic parts comes in at 17.8 grams. i still need to finish the bottom, but that shouldnt add much weight...if i flew it as it is, i'd be flying nearly 10 grams lighter than stock! probably wont be as rugged though.

i think if i can get the pontoons water tight, it would float, and maybe with a few coats of Rain-X, she might ROW. with the weight that i've saved in the fuselage, i could go down to 7mm motors, a 250mah lipo, an actuator, and the bladerunner RX - a 3 channel mini SL the upper hull will be just a profile, nothing fancy to add weight or wind resistance. i've glued about as much as i can for now, it all has to set overnight to really hold. should be done this week i'd imagine, looks neat so far.

nick

gasrc

Whooooaoaaaaa! At the 1:18 mark of video 1, I though for sure it was going to crash! Impressive.

micro_builder

My Feedback: (1)

well the above DIY mini SL didnt fair so well. i built it as closely to the original as possible, but she just would fly. it seemed like it had its CG too far back, but moving the lipo didnt seem to change much. i'm thinking about using the SW's electronics and motor/gearbox with it instead.

since the DIY version didnt work, i decided to try a bladerunner RX in the original mini SL. stock motors, stock airframe, BR RX, 250mah lipo, and a .6 gram actuator for elevator controll. it doesnt turn as well as the stock mini SL, but the elevator works. it needs some work though, it doesnt have enough deflection and its not big enough, so i may cut the stock foam elevator free and use it. i'm hoping it'll loop with that setup. my AUW dropped around 5 grams too and with the 250mah full river cell, the motors seem extra strong. i'm hoping the winds die down to see how it does when its not being knocked around.

also attatched a wiring diagram for the mini SL RX, might come in handy (and usually does).

nick

Fisher

I hate to say it but I balked at the price they were asking for the Mini SL ($44) at my local TRU. They had several Mini XPVs on sale for $21.99. Other than that fact that the XPV only has 2 throttle steps it is a great product for the price. I am a big SL fan but the price for the Mini is just too high.

Centralia

the msl that i bought (with 2 AA's and an acrojet) gave a triple flash and nothing when i put it on charge. i thought dud, (having read this thread) but it ran around on the basement floor pretty well, so i took it out with the rest. worked well. far as i can tell it was fully charged in the box.

doug

ski4six

I would reccomend the original...the mini has light turns and no roll/loop capability like the SL.



GO SL, GO SL

FERNDALE AIR FORCE

Here are some pics of my msl. I tore the stock landing skid off driving it around with my nephew, so I installed a hot wheels axle and a balsa skid. It also has monsters wing mod. It still does not fly that well, but with the wing and wheels it's better and it doesn't take a lot of runway to get airborn. Tim