Moon Pie

I recently completed this electric power conversion to my 30 year old Train Air 40 .
I used an inexpensive "32" size motor with a 60 amp ESC, 4S 3300 mah pack, with a 12' X 8' APC prop.
I used a AR636a receiver using the 3 axis gyro, but no safe functions enabled.
The first flight's were very promising. Plenty of power and duration. Possibly need some more cooling air
intake's, but the battery was barely warm after an 8 minuet flight.
It took a bit of thought to incorporate the motor into the bird and still retain the old engine mount for the front gear steering.
Apparently I cant post any pictures here until I achieve a certain number of post's. Sorry.

9ballvalk

My Feedback: (13)

I’ve got one on the building board as we speak…40 year old kit manufactured in 1981.

Moon Pie

Looking good so far. Are you converting to electric, or will it be glow ??

9ballvalk

My Feedback: (13)

thanks for the compliment. Good luck with your glow to electric conversion.

I have a .40 glow version that I built many years ago, but this one will be electric with dual aileron servos instead of the single servo. I ran 1/2” plastic conduit for the aileron servo wires which really added a lot of torsional strength to the wing, although not really necessary since the wing is sturdy as otherwise originally built.

I opened up the rear of the fuselage to allow a cooling flow path and I’m going to cut slots in the bottom rear sheeting for additional airflow. The 1/4” plywood motor mount bulkhead was clearanced to route the motor wiring and I opened up a hole just behind the motor.

I’m installing a Rimfire .46 motor. Should have no problem going vertical!

I have at least 4 more new Train-Air .40 kits, a bunch of Sport -Air .40 kits, a few Twin Air .45/Sport-Air .60 kits, two Zeph-Air 1.20 biplane kits, two Aquila pattern ARFs, two Giles-MX2 50cc ARFs, and a few Train -Air .20 kits. I know I’ll never be around long enough to build all of these! This has been a life long collection that began in 1980 with my first Northeast Aerodynamics Train -Air .40.

Moon Pie

Yes, a power .46 will be plenty of power. Mine has a .36 size motor, and it fly's like it did with the OS.40FSR
I had in it before.

Moon Pie

Would you be willing to part with the wing plans for the TA-40 ?
Mine got sucked up by a propellor and destroyed. I still have the fuselage plan set.

9ballvalk

My Feedback: (13)

I could probably do that….

Moon Pie

I had to add 6oz of lead to the front of mine. You can't trust the advertised weight of LIPO's you buy online.
My ordered 12oz pack actually weighs 10oz !

Moon Pie

Moon Pie

Finally reached 10 posts, so here are pictures of my electric conversion.

9ballvalk

My Feedback: (13)

Nice covering. You have a talent. I like the simpler style of graphics. Your custom rudder and elevator setup is outstanding.

Would be nice to see some flying videos…

Moon Pie

Thank you for the roses!!
Note the motor mounting scheme. Since my steerable nose wheel was part of the glow mount, and ahead of the firewall, I just sawed off the glow engine mount arm's, threaded and tapped the back of the nylon mount to accept 6/32" hardware and used spacers from the "box store". So far so good.
If the wind would ever calm down, I will try for some flight videos.

Moon Pie

FYI, I enlarged the rudder surface due to the fact that I intended to use this aircraft for both float and snow ski operation.
I have flown this bird from asphalt, concrete, grass, water, and snow. On one outing I had to switch from wheels to snow skis as the weather had changed, and we received enough snow to allow ski flying.

Moon Pie

Hello again. I have recently purchased another TA-40 kit. Unfortunately, it is missing the wing plan sheet.
I could really use your wing plan sheet when you are done with it.
Thank you for your consideration.

Moon Pie

Lousy video. Offered to show the power of the cheap .32 motor conversion on 4s.