I'm looking into getting an electric Bipe (park flyer ARF). I have access to an acre and a half lot just down the street and want something to fly there to save the 40 minute trip the regular field.

The planes I've looked at are the GP Albatros and Hobby Lobby's Albatros, as well as the GWS Tiger Moth. What others should I consider?

Ideally, the plane can handle light winds (5 -10 mph), fly within an acre area and land on grass.

Thanks in advance!

I don't have it, but it looks good.
http://www.srbatteries.com/bantam.htm

Mike

There was a nice writeup on the SunWheel in a recent ParkFlyer Mag. It shows as a very nice option for small spaces.

http://www.hobby-lobby.com/sunwheel.htm

Lots of people also really like the GWS Pico Tiger Moth. Here's an article.

http://www.backyardflyer.com/BY/articles/tiger_moth.asp

http://www.espritmodel.com/

it may not be a park flyer ... but if I was going to get a bipe ... and it was to be electric powered ...

it would be a Diablotin Bipe!

Thanks for the replies. I decided on the GWS Tiger Moth since it has such a loyal following. I picked up the plane yesterday and ordered the flight pack & crystal. Hopefully, I'll find some time this weekend to start putting it together!

Augy, I think you made a great decision with the Tiger Moth. I have about 40 flights on mine, and it's starting to show some age (scrapes etc.), but it flies just as good as it did when I got it. Go to ezonemag.com and do a search on the Tiger Moth in the Parkflyer forum, and you will find a bunch of mods for it that really make it strong. Or if you want, I can give you a pretty good idea as the best ones to do.

Have fun!!!

I've been sorting through all the mods people have suggested and settled on a few, for sure. I will install the flying wires and beef up the landing gear...not sure which others I will implement but will know better when I get into the kit and start building.

Augy, here's another great site for the 'moth http://tigermothsquadron.com/ with lots of good stuff. I just wanted to mention that with the flying wires and 1" wide clear mailing tape (I used 2", cut in half lengthwise) on the LE's of my plane, I have done loops and also cartwheeled it on the ground a couple times with no breaks (yet... ). Also, you might want to add CF rod ( I used 3/16" spruce dowel) to the inner sides of the outer struts. Not only does it make them stronger, but without it the struts will bend and look crappy. I think anything else to the wings is overkill. I used 8# test Berkley Fireline fishing line for flying wires...very thin and strong, also looks like scale steel cables... . You can find it at your local Wally-Mart.

For batts. the ones that everyone seems to agree on are 7-300 2/3 AAA Ni-MH. I bought a pack from aeromicro.com and they work great...lots of power and duration + they are light...always good.

I finally trashed the stock gear and bent a slightly stronger piece of music wire for new ones and added very light foam wheels...looks great. The stock gear are so flimsy that any kind of harder landing and your prop is in the dirt. One thing I did do for awhile is take 2 of the supplied rubber bands, looped them together to make one longer one, and then put it across the stock gear close to where the wheels mount. This worked good as it took the initial shock of landing and didn't let the gear spread as much...but my new gear work so much better....

Also, the stock GWS 9x7 props are REALLY brittle. I broke mine right away and tried a 10x4.7 GWS (out of 9x7's) and my TM actually flew better, + they are a lot more flexible.

Didn't mean to get long here, just thought maybe I could help you enjoy your TM more...I really like mine, makes me feel like a pro every time I fly it... !

mefly2

Thanks, that is all good information. I will definately do the wires and pick up some CF for the struts. How does packing tape on the LE help the wing? I'll also pick up the 7-300 NiMH battery pack (is it 300 or 370?). Probably try the stock landing gear first but will most likely end up with foam wheels and music wire from what I've read

This is my first electric model so I'm still learning a lot about batteries and electric motors. It's also easily the slowest and smallest model I've ever owned. I have to re-train myself to keep everything light...I tend to build ic models a little heavy

Hope to have the GWS flight pack by next Tuesday so if the wind gods permit, I'll be flying it by next weekend. I'll report back here with my results from the maiden flight!

The packing tape will keep the LE's intact just incase you hit a tree branch or something. It also adds to strengthening the wing. I've put my moth in a couple trees now, and if it wasn't for the tape, I think the branches would have ripped into the wing. I made the mistake of not covering the very tips, they are all chewed up, but the rest of the LE under the tape is fine. The batt would be the 370mah, sorry.

I know what you mean about retraining yourself, I went from .40 glow to this little bugger...from four lb's to 9 oz's.... ! I did start with a heavy battery and my plane ended up heavy, but it still flew OK. After I dropped in the NiMH, I lost about an ounce. Sure doesn't sound like much, but it made a world of difference to the plane... !

One thing that you will notice with this plane...that is that the wind is ALWAYS blowing ! My girlfriend keeps picking on me because I'm forever looking at trees to see how much wind there is... .

I have a Tiger Moth, and it's definitely a lot of fun. What I did was bought a bunch of Lithium batteries for it. Theres a deal from Hackett Electronics where you can get 8 packs and 2 chargers for $60. One pack is enough to fly the Moth for about 30+ minutes at full throttle. They're also lighter than a 7 cell NiMh pack, and if you do the math, alot cheaper. There a neat instrument panel you can print out and paste in the cockpit from that Tiger Moth squadron web page as well. It's a nice touch.

Tommygun, do you have a URL for this place? I'd like to check those Liths out. thanks

My motor finally gave up, I figure I have about 45 flights on it. I'm going to play around with a 280 just to see what happens....

http://www.nickstech.com/rc/lithium/

This site tells you everything about that packs, including where to get them. You tear them out of the cell phone packs, and just use the cells. This page tells you how to do all that. I did mine a little different. Mine are built long like a hotdog, and I didn't need to modify the moth. Oh, and this site has a link for the batteries at $4.00 a pack. Of course, you still need the charger unless you have one capable of doing lithium. I bought mine from Mark Hackett at the All Electronics site.

Thanks Tommygun, I gonna go look..!

Well, I put my TM through it's maiden flight and 2 follow ups. The first flight was a little tense as I didn't have enough throw in the rudder to turn left very well. I increase throw for the second flight and it was better but not spectacular. There was very little wind but what there was, was turbulent. I just never felt like I had much authority over the rudder but this may have had something to do with the wind conditions. I'm not saying it didn't fly well, which it did, but it wasn't what I expected. Still, it was a blast to be able to fly in my back yard and the TM sure makes it easy.

The only mods I've done thus far are using epoxy to fix the wing dihedral, adding strut wires, and laminating balsa onto the struts. I think I will upgrade my battery pack next.

First off though, I better put more throw in that rudder

Augy, the 7-cell Nimh will help a lot. Also, experiment with props, try a 10x4.7 and it might fly better. Put as much throw in the rudder as you possibly can.

My TM underwent some major changes...sp280 w/4.1gearbox. The weight went up quite a bit, but it flies great. I'm using an 8-cell 700AAA Nimh and it will climb like crazy, also handles wind better.

This morning I figured out exactly where the powerlines are in my yard...oh well, a bit more epoxy and it will be as good as new.