I recently purchased the ascent E-flight electric glider, need to know if any one has had any luck with it or what power upgrades were made. I am using the provided 400 motor, got a 1045 Mah battery and castle creations 25 amp SC. 7 x 3 prop.
It barely stays up in the air, absolutley no power to pull any altitude. Any Ideas!!

Move to a place with thicker air...

OK, seriously, as I was looking to buy this plane I have to ask...

How many cells in the pack and what type?

It wasn't long ago that a 400-powered plane was considered to be at the bottom of the E-powered food chain... Forget a 280…

I had trouble keeping my Electra in the air with the stock setup (20 years ago???) until I added a cell to the pack... And these were 1300 NiCads! That was a heavy battery.

Good luck and let me know what you find out.

If you look at some of the old posts about the ascent you'll find that the consensus suggests replacing the stock prop with a Graupner 6x3. This should give you better climbing ability and a cooler running motor. The new props costs about $5. The hub on the Graupner is smaller than the stock one so you'll need to use some washers. I've read that two 2mm washers work great. As a quick fix, you can cut regular fuel tubing to the size of the gap and use it as a washer.

Good luck,

chris

The Ascent will fly on the S400 provided with the kit, but it needs a 6x3 folder(not the prop that comes with the kit) and an 8 cell pack. I found that this provided "OK" performance. The addition of a gearbox and a larger prop really improves climb-out ability.

I went to a geared brushless and that made it get to altitude very quickly. It's a nice flying compact glider.

Sierra Gold

Thanks everyone for your great tips!
@ Larry, I do believe the air idea is a good one, the pack they sell for the plane is a 750 Mah - I purchased a 7 cell 1045 Mah.
@ Gamegeek, I will try the Graupner prop 6 x 3 How much more rpms am I looking at, I almost thought of going with like a 7 x 6 but with the 400 motor, might have been to much.

@ SierraGold - The addition of a gearbox- which would you suggest or did you use as well as the geared brushless? I do like the compactness of the glider!
Thanks everyone

I would try the 6X3 prop upgrade first before going brushless. I can speck mine out 3 times on a 600mAh 7 cell nicad pack. The great thing about this plane is that it is cheap and a 5$ prop will keep it that way. I have built 3 of them and they all require washout on the wings to keep from severe tipstalling. CG should be moved back 1/8-3/8" for good flying also.

I just finished assembling an Ascent with some minor modifictions, I took the motor out! [:@] Using some Play-doh I created a mold from the original prop spinner, and filled that with a Goop brand super-mend epoxy and allowed it to set up over-night. I bolted the new nose to the engine mount holes from inside the fuselage which worked out fine.

I wasn't looking for an electric (I have some already), rather I chose this glider based primarily on it's small size and reasonable price, especially for an ARF, however it's still too damn heavy! Using GWS receiver and mini servos with a small battery pack it was necessary to add about 2.5 ounces of lead to reach the balance point (even with the solid epoxy nose).

What I see with this craft is a very heavy glider that doesn't want to glide, but rather takes an immediate nose down attitude when tossed across my room. (On to a waterbed of course!). In the 'drop-feel' test, where one can lift the aircraft overhead while walking briskly and 'feel it wanting to fly' when the hand is lowered, all this thing does is just sink!

In summary, this Ascent is lighter than the electric with a battery pack would be, but I can't imagine it with any glide ratio at all. Any thoughts/experience with sink rate for this kit? I have not yet taken it out and tossed it across my yard yet. (wind storm today; blowing real hard)

Should I be looking for 'flight' characteristics only at higher speeds and not expect it to fly at all in low speeds? I would suspect that an electric would have to land at relatively fast rates because of the weight.

If using as a glider - move the servos and receiver up into the nose and dump some or all of the lead. My EP Ascent glides fine, even with the weight of a battery, ESC, and motor

You can gut the plastic battery compartment and add servo rails up front.

Sierra Gold

Mine weighs in at about 21 oz, lots of repairs and heavy battery. It still glides great and penetrates the wind. i could get it lighter using lipos and moving servos back but i am really happy with this bird averaging about 15-25 minutes with light lift.