riot3d

Hey, be careful with DHL, since both Fedex & UPS are mad at you already ...

So, see you this Sunday at Hollister for your maiden?

Adrian

lsjpeng

Adrian:

Hollister is E-PATTERN ONLY. Are you sure you wanna come?

Luke

riot3d

My starter is li-po powered ...

patternflyer1

My Feedback: (11)

I most likely will have it done by Sunday, but I have to work all weekend so that I can go to the Phx contest next weekend!

Hope this pic didn't turn out huge!

C

patternflyer1

My Feedback: (11)

A few more. I really like the canopy colors. They did it black in the center fading out to silver! Looks nice..

C

roalddogge

Well, it finally happened. The maiden flight of my e-Neptuno. (and my first step into e-power pattern flying)

After days of waiting till the snowing would stop, we went out today to see how it would do.

I used the settings from my Altair, instead of the glow Neptuno as that one has only one elevator servo and when changing the model type to two elevator servo’s, all settings were erased……


The specifications of my e-Nep are:

- Hacker C50-14XL
- APC 22 x12
- Jeti Opto 99
- 2x Hyperion 5S 5000 and 2x Top Gun 5S 5000 (local brand)
- Futaba 6008HS receiver
- Futaba BLS servo’s
- Powerbox digiswitch
- 2S800 Dualsky receiver battery
- total weight 4884 to 4909, depending on battery pack



The first flight was uneventful. Just some passes to get used to the plane and do some trimming. It needed a few clicks up elevator and left aileron. First impression was good and the plane felt very stable and soooo slow to fly. I only had to get used to the throttle control as the feeling is significant different compared to a YS170 CDI.

Also landing went well, but again a bit different feeling of the throttle, but no problem for the rest.

After making some changes on the settings (more rudder and elevator throw) I used the second flight to check knife edge flight and up and down lines. It did not need much mixing for knife edge and up line was perfect. Only for the down line a little throttle to elevator mix will be needed as it started to level out after a while.

The third flight was with a battery pack made by a local LiPo factory, which I got for testing. After making several passes to check again the knife edge, I started to get the feeling that I was already flying for quite some time when I suddenly lost power…..! Quick landing and then to find out I was already flying for 16 minutes..!!! Turned out that I did not hear the timer at all because of some other (noisy) flyers around.

Fourth and fifth flight I used for flying the P11 schedule which it does with no problem at all.

All in all it was a very nice afternoon and I am very happy with how it went.


Some observations:

- flight characteristics are comparable to glow Neptuno, i.e. very stable, straight and neutral and in some areas a bit better.

- electric drive seems to make it more stable and easier to fly slowly

- due to the slower speeds more throw on the control surfaces is needed, especially on rudder I ran out of travel. I think that the control horns on the rudder are a bit too long, as was also the case on the glow version

- snaps are good and a bit slower compared to the glow version, which makes them easier to control. The snaps on the glow version tend to over rotate a bit, which the electric does not do at all.

- the opposite spins were already very acceptable, but could improve from some small changes


Tomorrow I will try to make some more flights and I will keep you posted


Roald

flyboy91

My Feedback: (1)

Roald

Very nice looking airplane you have there. When we were at the worlds I got to see the glow Neptuno fly a bunch and it looked like a very nice model.
If you get a chance, you should try out the 21x14 apc prop on that setup. That is the same motor and speed control I run and I really prefer the 21x14. It has a bit more speed which helps out in windy days. The nice part about that prop is on the calm days it will fly just like the 22x12.

Andrew

SByrd

My Feedback: (4)

Hey Chris the plane looks good im glad to see you getting back into the air. Hope to see you at the Nats again this year.

Byrd

roalddogge

Hi Andrew,

Indeed I will need to try some different props. In fact I was already planning to try the 21 x 14. But there must be only 3 electric pattern flyers or so in the whole of China so e-props are not available on every street corner.

I am very happy with the motor setup as it behaves a bit more similar to using a YS compared to an outrunner. But it will take some time until I get used to fly electric, that is for sure.

By the way, no flying for the moment, it is snowing again…..


Roald

patternflyer1

My Feedback: (11)

Hey Steven

Thanks bro! I like it a lot. It has a pretty tall fuse. I think it's going to do the FAI stuff really well.. Of course, I'm staying in Masters for the challenge of trying to beat Frak.. Not sure on the Nats this year. Jon Carter isn't going and he's my roomie..

Congrats on your CA deal! The VISA looks nice. I almost got one after I went down and flew it with Chip, but decided to go this route for now. His setup was odd to me though. He sure fly's it well! I think he will do really good at the nats this year..

Roald,

I second the 21x14 recommended by Andrew.. After seeing him fly his Spark at the nats (and almost not believing that it wasn't a 13XL instead of a 14XL) I tried one myself and really like it.

Andrew,

What do you have your timing set at and what c rated packs are you running? The 20C's or 30's? Your 14XL has better speed than mine in the wind. Just curious..

Thanks!

Chris

AmericanSpectre505

That's a really good looking airplane, big too! The price of it is $1,500.00+shipping? If so,..thats an incredible price! I am looking forward to reading more about the performance of it.



Best Regards,

bholsten

Custom Airframes of America, Team Black Magic, Advantage Hobby, Guardian America, Dist. 2 FAI/F3A Champion 2009.

lsjpeng

Chris took his e-Neptuno to Hollister today.... seeing is believing, it is gorgeous!

patternflyer1

My Feedback: (11)

Thanks for posting those Luke! Glad you brought a camera!
I was amazed at how nice and bright the colors are in the sunlight! It made me even more stoked that I got it! I will buy another for sure! What a deal IMO.. I'm really happy with the look with the canopy in this color.. Seems as all the pattern guys at the field liked it better also..

Kevin, did you order one yet? haha We were taking bets after you left that you'd have one at your house in 3 weeks.. lol

C

elan120

My Feedback: (1)

Chris,

Thank you for showing the plane. I am very glad to see the plane in person, and can easily say that the pictures are not nearly showing how pretty the plane looks!!! You are right Chris, I am working on how to fit another plane in my Garage...lol...



Derek,

Don't bring the plane to Tomcats for test drive...I might not be able to resist anymore.

Kevin

woodie

I must have missed the memo about the pattern fly-in at Hollister... damn!!!

Nice looking plane, Chris.

Woodie

Derek.Koopowitz

Even more reason for you to see it fly...

jon bruml

I would bet a dollar that kevin has already pulled the trigger!

woodie

I think I pass on that bet!!! ;-))

Woodie

Derek.Koopowitz

You're on!

elan120

My Feedback: (1)

Who's going to raise the bet first?

roalddogge

Second flying day

Finally some sun and I could put in some more flights, 9 in total now.

Continued to work on the mixing for knife edge and up and down lines. This plane needs much less mixing than the Altair. Almost nothing for knife edge and a little for downline.

I tried to change the incidence of the wing to solve the down lines but that did not work, so I will add a mixer throttle to elevator.

I also tried a bit more forward CG by moving the batteries as forward as possible and that made the plane more stable, as with the glow version.

For the rest not so much changes as I wanted to get used to it first.


Rolling is fantastic with this plane ! Straight as an arrow and sooooo slow. Since I switched to flying with a transmitter tray the rolling (2x slow roll in P11 or 3x in P09) was always my weak point but not anymore ;-)


One improvement to make: rudder horn length. Those are too long and do not allow for enough throw. Could not dial in enough rudder compared to the glow version but then I realized that that one has shorter horns.

Also have some repair work to do as I dropped one battery in the plane on the mounting tray. Nothing related with design or manufacturing, just my clumsiness. I am not used to batteries any bigger then receiver batteries ;-)

Actually the biggest thing at this moment is getting used to the e-power system. Throttle response is different but also braking feels different. Any tips here ? Anyone who want to share settings for a Hacker C50-14 and Jeti Opto ? At the moment I have braking at “hard” and 3 degrees of timing.


Regards

Roald

Derek.Koopowitz

Mounting the motor...

I apologize for not finishing up this thread and posting the motor and battery tray/equipment installation but life and work got in the way. Let me finish up the thread now.

The kit comes with a standard mount for the Hacker C50 motor which I used. It also came with the rear support mounts for the Hacker but I chose to use Jerry Budd's rear support mount. I wanted to use Jerry's soft mount for the Hacker as well but it is slightly smaller than the supplied mount and doesn't match up to the alignment holes. I've since received another faceplate from Jerry that is larger than the current one and will try it later. From the pictures you can see the supplied mount and bolts and how I taped the motor to the plane and marked holes for the bolts, drilled the pilot holes and then enlarged them for the bolts. I had to countersink the front to accommodate the flush bolts.

1. Mount attached to the motor with the mounting bolts
2. Motor on the front but hanging loose
3. Motor taped to the nose so that it can't move and is stable
4. Plane hanging from the wall after I finished the taping
5. Motor/mount aligned with the nose plate
6. Marking the holes so that I can drill a pilot hole
7. Drilling the pilot holes
8. Pilot hole drilled out
9. Countersinking the front to accommodate the bolts
10. Two horizontal holes have been countersunk

I mounted the motor first with these two holes first before marking and drilling the final two holes.

Derek.Koopowitz

Mounting the motor... continued.

The final step in mounting the motor was to drill out the remaining two mounting holes, countersink them and then mount the motor and the rear motor mount support bracket. Here are the pics...

1. The motor mount is now bolted to the nose of the plane with all 4 bolts installed.
2. Motor is installed now with the rear mount in place. I used light ply for the brackets that attach to the fuselage and these were reinforced with fiberglass where they attach to the fuselage.
3. The other side of the mounting bracket.

Derek.Koopowitz

Next step is to mount the shorting plug, ESC and the battery tray. I glued a piece of 1/32 ply to the fuse and cut out the shorting plug hole. I then glued two pieces of balsa triangle stock to the fuse sides to act as a support for the ESC tray which is made out of honeycomb. I glued 3 dowels to the tray to act as supports for the screws that hold the ESC down. I've since changed the ESC to the Jeti 77 which is half the weight of the 90. I wasn't sure where the CG would end up so instead of gluing the battery tray to the fuse sides I decided to make it removable and to mount it to the gear plate. I used a 4/40 bolt and blind nut to hold the battery tray in place. I also put in a light ply brace in the front/rear which I then used to zip tie the battery to so that the tray wouldn't move up and down. I started off with the rearward CG (190mm from the leading edge) and have ended up with the tray more forward now and the CG is at 170mm. I've removed the rear brace and have only the front one in place now as well. I've also slimmed down the battery tray (made it narrower) and drilled lightening holes in it as well. Here are the pictures...

1. Shorting plug mounted showing the inside
2. Shorting plug from the outside
3. Triangle stock bracing for the ESC tray
4. ESC tray mounted using honeycomb
5. Landing gear plate - I added the triangle stock to give a larger surface for the tray to sit on
6. Hole drilled through the landing gear plate
7. The battery tray bolted to the gear plate - you can see the slots I cut in the gear plate so that I could move it forward/backward easily
8. The battery plate with tape on it so that I can mark the CG position - you can see the rear brace which I've since removed - the front brace is under the left hand side of the plate
9. RX battery and RX installation
10. The completed plane ready for flight
11. Another shot of the plane
12. The group at Tomcats in San Jose and 3 Neptuno's - my two on the ground (GP on the left and EP on the right) and Riot3D's GP Neptuno that he is holding

Derek.Koopowitz

Flying the Neptuno EP...

I now have almost 20 flights on the plane and it is flying great! I have minimal mix on KE in both directions, some slight down mix in the downlines and that's it. I may move the CG a little more forward as well. This plane rolls like a dream and the snaps are incredible - stop when I want them to... I'm still learning the nuances on the plane but it has to be one of the easiest flying and best rolling plane I've flown. With my Hacker C50 in it I am using about 2900 - 3200mah for a F3A P11 flight in calm air. Unlimited vertical with the C50 14XL - even flying in 25mph+ winds at the Lancaster contest wasn't a problem with power.

The amount of effort that was put into manufacturing this kit is incredible... I think that it will take someone 8-10 hours at the most to get it into the air and the bulk of that time will be in installing the motor.

I do need to install a larger rudder servo arm so that I can get more throw for stall turns - the wheel I'm using now doesn't do it for me. I like a little extra just in case. Right now I'm at 4900g with my heaviest battery pack and about 4800 with my lightest one.