I thought I would share this with you guys. I finished this conversion in a Hail Mary Pass the night before leaving to go to SEFF in Americus Ga. From start to finish it took me 7 hours. I wasnt even sure if the power system that I was going to use would work. On top of that, I would have to maiden it at SEFF in front of hundreds of people. That could be either good...or that could be seriously bad .

Fortunate for me, my Hail Mary pass hit the inzone and far surpased my expectations. This 68" WS pattern ship came in at 7.5 pounds with 1000 watts available. Roughly 133 watts in. CG was dead on.

The maiden went off without a hitch. I was 20 feet off the deck slow rolling on the second pass. No pitch divergence and it looked beautiful and axial from the beginning of the roll to the end. My only complaint is that I need more elevator throw as I need it to snap more aggressively. Not a bad "only" complaint to have huh?

What's for power? We'lll that is what is throwing people off and even suprised me a bit.

What I am using:

E-flite Power 60 outrunner
16X10 APC E
Pheonix 80
UBEC
6S 4400 Electric Power and 6S 3200 BalancePro from FMAdirect
Hitec Superslim Rx
4- FMA DS3002 servos

The 3200's are light and give good flights. The down side is that he run time isnt enough to complete a sequence. The 4400's are 4 oz heavier, but do give the required runtime to complete a sequence.

For me, this is an excellent practice plane and one I would definately take to competitions once I start.

I will get video soon.....

Mike...
I have been watching this on " the other" forum, and am really seriously considering it...I was thinking to use approx the same power setup on either 6S or 8S . The motor I have available isn't the same brand, but co incidently has the same specs. do you plan to compete with it?? I have for years thought that the systems recommended by the Manufacturers and distributors are way overkill, and have been dabbling with my own ideas on this for a few years. Have always been of the opinion that watts isn't necessarily the measurement that really counts. I read on the "other" site that it performs just as well as with a 1.20 glo motor...is this so? ..It sure is a nice looking model, and the price looks not bad either.
right now I'm flying the Venus on 3S and it has more than adequate power for sportsman and intermediate class, which is likely where I will be staying for the next couple of seasons at least. I just would like a little larger model so that I can keep track of it a little better in no so perfect atmospheric conditions ( read old guy with bad eyes)
now that there are likely a few flights on it, what is your opinion of the model??

Ron,

If they come out at 7.5 lbs with a 120 it would be a rocket! Back in the day, we used to fly 10.5 lb planes with 120s and thought they had incredible power hehe

There are a couple of guys that put a hacker C50 12XL and 8S3P's and they are coming in at 9.5 pounds. I think the Glow version is right around 8 pounds. I cant comment on the 120 as I have only flown electric.[]

I have a 2M Pattern/Artistic Aerobat that I am working on. It will most likely be my competition plane once I get started. I intend to practice with the Dream 110 in the interim and possibly compete with it in Sportsman. I am just getting into pattern, so I have a long way to go.

I have approx 6 flights on it. It is well built, but not overbuilt. I did not use some of the ply extras that PP includes. Tank support, Throttle servo ply plate, doubler etc. The Tank Support and doubler saves a few ounces for sure. The instructions were clear and easy to follow if needed for a reference.

I would have preferred to use a bell crank on the elevator as I never did like setting up a split elevator arrangement. Although the measurements in the manual were pretty much spot on and I only had to make one small adjustment to make it work. I think a bell crank would allow me greater flexability with adjusting the elevator throw however.


While 135-140 watts/lb is great, my only concern is with as light as it is will it be able to compete on a windy day? I plan on taking it out on a 10-15 mph day and see how well it holds the pattern (or how well I can get it to hold at least)

-Mike

I'm still blown away by your exceptionally low weight. Mine uses 8S3P, a Hacker C50 10XL and as you said, it weighs about 9.5 lbs. But this power system will have just shy of 1500 watts at the prop. If it ends up flying heavier than I'd like I might give your power system a try.

One thing is for sure, you have one of the cheapest electric pattern planes out there for it's size.

Wiz

Chad:

seems everyone is into more and more power these days....Have the Venus flying quite well now thanks to your advice at the field when you were out here.
Once I took care of some of the trim/CG issues, it made a huge difference in power consumption, and as I'm getting better with throttle/speed management, things are starting to improve for me....
Hope to see you again at the next competition....Ratz...you are getting me hooked on this stuff.

Gee thanks. Now you've got me plugging numbers for my lonely NIB Excelleron 90 into Motocalc. I think I'd probably go with a Hyperion Z4035-10, for a few bucks more. The 6S2P I have already.

The numbers look similar to the Dream 110, certainly doable at 149 w/lb in, and 60a at WOT. [8D]

Just what I need--another project. OTOH, I've been needing an excuse not to put in the .90 2-stroke piped slimer motor I bought for it.

Rick

Planes Plus has the Dream 110 on sale right now
http://www.planesplus.com/


Milton

Did you use a bellcrank setup for the elevator? I had one in mine, but it was giving me headaches and I took it out. Not sure of the best way to hook up the elevator now, but I want to use CF tubes.

I used the stock setup that came with the kit. It is a Carbon Fiber tube with a single 2-56 rod on one side and a split rod arrangement on the elevator side. I thought about picking up a bellcrank, but this works fine the way it is.

-Mike

I would be real careful buying anything from planesplus. Their customer service leaves a lot to be desired.

I would be real careful buying anything from PLANES PLUS - CARLA KANAK
She has my $1,400 and unfortunately,
a) Did NOT DELIVER the plane she sold me at the Toledo Show
b) has not refunded my $$ as promised on April 16th
c) does not respond to e-mails or phone calls

Happy flying
George Brod

So how is your power set up working? I plan on doing an E conversion myself soon.

15 flights and rock solid. I have been on business for the last three weeks, so I hope to get out this weekend.

Mine will be flying in it's very first pattern contest this weekend. It will by my first too. [8D]

Wiz

I'm glad to here that someone else CAN fly with only 130-140 watts per lb instead of the 200+ that all of the manufactures suggest. I have one larger e-powered plane running 175 watts per lb and its hovers at only1/2 throttle and has more vertical power than I'll ever need. I think that 200+ watts is just overkill.

200 watts per pound is for certain 3D flying, but I agree. Anything with a 1.5:1 or above thrust to weight ratio should be able to hover very easily.

JFYI, I'm not using Mike's power system. I have a Hacker C50-10XL in my Dream 110.

I am a 150 watts per pound minimum on anything I intend to either 3D. It gets interesting at 150w/lb. For competition I try to get to 200 w/lb minimum. 200 watts per pound is ideal as it doesn't limit competing in windy conditions.

Good luck with competition Mike!

I flew my plane (Dream 110) at the Signal Seekers pattern contest in Westland Michigan this past weekend. It was great! My plane dosen't hurt for power, in fact, I never used full throttle for the entire contest. That probably hurt me a little, but with nerves and all the other things I had on my mind at the time it never occured to me to fly the sequence a little faster. I'll have to go back and check my Wattmeter reading, but I'm fairly certain it read something like 1400 watts. My plane weighs 9 lbs, so that's only 155 watts/lb. The plane has unlimited vertical and I mean unlimited. I can stop it in a vertical climb and then pull up and out of it with no trouble. I hesitate to use the word hover, since the plane isn't a 3D machine and it really dosen't hover, per se.

Wiz

Mike,
Have I sent you a KW sticker for your Dream yet? If not, PM me on either site with your address, and I will get one out to you

Thanks, Mike. That would be great!

I just sent you an E-mail.

Wiz

Got it!

Wis glad you made it to the contest and glad to meet you. The first thing I found my my electric was to use the power to get the speed up, even though you have plenty of power the to fly, the speed helps smooth out the flying, not rocket ship speed just to the point to get smoother, you might have to move out a little farther to make the box bigger to keep the speed.


Steve Maxwell

Thanks, Steve. It was nice getting to meet you and watch you and some of the other excellent pilots fly.
I'm planning on hitting one or two more contests this season....maybe more if I can, but I can't promise anything on that front.

With some practice before Mike Darr's contest, I'm hoping to score a little better. I had never flown sequence before the first round. Well, actually, I flew it about 6 times on my simulator last week, but the first round on saturday was the first time I flew it for real. I think these pattern planes make it a lot easier to fly than the sport and scale planes I've been flying.

It was very impressive and inspireing to see how clean and smooth you upper class pilots fly. I was hooked after just watching some of the warmup flights.

Cheers,

Wiz

Mike pic of you and your plane would be a great cover to the K-Factor and a story of your first contest.
Steve Maxwell