So I just just recently graduated from Slow Stick happiness and moved up to a GWS E-Starter. I took some time and painted it up all pretty and swapped the electronics out from my SS. I was a little nervous about flying her because it was my first aileron plane. (cough, cough - Liar) Ok I was scared to death of her. It did not help that they guy at the counter of my local hobby shop made a comment about how fast the E-Starter flies. So I waited for a calm day and took her out for a test flight. I walked out to the middle of a soccer field, cranked the throttle, made a nice hand launch, and was totally mystified! It flew straight and level without touching a single control! Now I may be new at flying but I KNOW that you have to trim your models. To make matters worse - the ailerons were not a problem! The plane went approximatly where I told it to go! Now I was smart and took my E-Starter to the recommended 3 mistakes high altitude before trying anything. The first thing I tried was to take it up to 5 mistakes high.

I found this plane to be utterly enjoyable to fly. In my first two flights I had only one mishap and it was easy to recover from. I think I went into a bit of a spin. Landings however were a little bit unnerving. Did I mention that the E-Starter flies much faster than my SS? I always fly until the motor cuts out and then make unpowered landings. All three landings with my E-Starter so far have been more like thumps then landings. It stayed on its wheels but it hit uncomfortably hard. Any suggestions?

Anyways - I took a picture of my E-Starter before I flew it (in case of an encounter with gravity). What do you think?

Nice looking plane!

I'm looking to upgrade from my SS to an E Starter too. Any tips on making the transition from one to the other?

Master landings on the slow stick. Did I mention that my landings on the E-starter are more thumps than landings?




P.S. Obey gravity - it's the Law!

Hi,

your aircraft looks very well finished, really nice job.
I also have just finished building an e-starter. After its first flight I had to make a few adjustments as it was a little tail heavy, not a major problem and fairly easily sorted.

However I am experiencing a rather worrying engine problem. When I am on full throttle the engine cuts for no apparent reason after about 20-40 seconds. If I then pull the throttle back for a couple of seconds the on again its fine for another 30 odd seconds. Obviously this makes it very difficult to fly the plane!

Has anyone else experienced anything like this???

Any suggestions of help on this would be greatly appreciated.

Regards, Sam.

Someone on the "other forum site" was having a very similar problem.

If I remember correctly, it was because his battery didnt have enough cells and the motor was sucking up the power too quickly. This made the BEC (?) on the ESC cut in (can you tell I'm a newbie ?).

If you look in the beginner electric section on that site you should find the thread easily (or just send me a message)


Thanks,
Digsy

Sam,

The motor cutting out is normal. All electronic speed controls have a low voltage cutoff (LVC) built in to allow you to have control of the plane when the battery voltage gets low. You simply need to recharge the battery with an appropriate peak charger at an appropriate charge rate, and everything will be fine again.

I too, have had similar problems. It turned out to be a bad cell in my battery pack. It would show charged and you could even measure it with a volt meter but, once you put load on it, the voltage sagged enough that the BEC would kill the motor. My servos would even go whacko as the BEC cut the motor. Put on a different battery pack and all is well.

mmmmm, so its safe to say it might be a battery problem then!

I will have to phone my local store and order a better battery today, the battery I have been using is only the one that came supplied with my E-Starter.
If I can get this sorted quickly I'll try another flight at the weekend, fingers crossed

Many thanks for the advice, as I say, I'm new to this so learning all the time!!!

Cheers, Sam.

Hi all,

I got another battery today, 8 cell 750mAH and the bad news is I am still experiancing the same problem.
This is turning into a nightmare, all I want to do is fly!!! lol

can anyone help me, or do I need to take this model back to the shop?

Regards, Sam.

PS: I am using a GWS-MC2002 Charger and I am charging the battery as instructed!!!

Sam,

Try sliding your throttle trim back below halfway...sometimes if the trim is set too high...the esc cuts the motor off...

I've had this happen...

Good Luck..

Sam

Here's my E-Starter

I am a begginer and I was wondering, is the E-starter to much for a beginner to handle.

I have a magazine that has a picture of the E-starter but it looks alot different than what you have. do you Know when they changed it?

Heya Connely,

If by beginner you mean you have never flown at all, then I think the E-Starter might be a little much to handle right off the bat. I don't say this because I dislike the E-Starter, it is my favorite plane so far, but no plane with a front mounted motor handles crashing without taking damage almost every time. I would look for a plane with the motor mounted behind the wing and facing backwards. The HobbyZone Firebird Commander or Challenger and the T-Hawk would be good planes to start with. I am sure there are others.

The E-Starter makes a great 2nd plane, once you get a little experience.

The closest thing to a real rc Airplane that I have flown is a little electric with two props and it turns by putting more thrust on one prop than the other. The same consept as the fitebird Outlaw. It doesn't fly very good though. Its basicaly a two chanel plane becase the amount of power you give the props changes whether you go up or down.It doesn't have elevators,rudder,or aileron.So its basically the same as the Firebird Outlaw, just diferent body style.

Do not worry that much about landings....most GWS planes land like that because of the low weight combined with very light wheels and an "overall flexible approach" to the way the kits are made. However, do not fly in windy conditions (i consider "windy" for an e-starter anything above 5knots....).

Sam,

I've got a new /simular problem with a Slow Stick that I just built. The motor runs fine for just a little while and then cuts out, just like when the batteries are running down. I have fought with it for a couple of days now. I have tried a new battery, a new reciever, new servos, a new speed controller, everything except the motor. I am about convinced it must be somehow related to noise spikes coming back from the motor. I plan on swapping the motor this week end and trying that. I sure am stumped by this problem. It sure sounds like we have similar difficulties. if you nail down the problem let me know and if the new motor fixes my problem I will sure try to relay that info to you.

Buck

Hi Buck,

You've got me worried now! I also have tried a new battery pack and I am going to try an new speed controller this weekend, I hoped this might solve my problem but having read your mail possibly not?

I'll keep you posted if I have any success!!!

Regards, Sam.

Sam,

This isn't supposed to be this hard. A new battery seemed to cure my problems with my e-starter and I've had a wonderful time flying it, but now this problem with my brand new slow stick right out of the box.
I'll be sure and let you know if a new motor fixes it.

Oh, by the way, a stip of clear postal tape down the bottom and around the fuse in front of the rudder of your e-starter would be well worth the extra weight. The first time I put mine in hard, the whole tail section broke off at the smallest point of the fuse . I glued it back on and put the tape on it and have flown it 25 - 30 times since, with no problems. I have also put it in pretty hard 4 or 5 times since with no real damage to the plane save for the landing gear. It bends pretty easily. I usually just bend it back and off I go again, well until last night, anyway. I finally broke the cheesy little GWS ultra light wheels on it, so I stole the wheels off my (not so flight ready) Slow Stick and flew it until all batteries were spent. All in all, this plane is really pretty tough.

Buck

Hey Tracon I like the tricycle landing gear on your E-Starter. Tonight my wife just pointed out a place where one of the hinges from the rudder pulled out. I don't like how so much stress is put on the rudder during a hard landing. What did you do to mod it like that? Did you use the back slot for the landing gear? Would I be able to take off from grass as well as with a tail dragger? Oh yeah, and is that front wheel steerable?

ho ho ho the e starter is a great plane but my suggestion to you is lnd softer when the throttle cuts dive a little to get up air speed and then glide it in and make sure to use elevator It wolt land it self......duh

Sam,

I think I found my problem. I put a scope meter on the power terminals on my receiver and discovered that my motor was not the one generating the spikes. It was the servos. I had bought a couple of GWS mini std servos by mistake once and thought that the slow stick would be a good place to use them. And it would have been except that when the servo motor changes directions it would send a spike back to the receiver. I could capture it on the scope. the spike would be about 2 vdc peak to peak. It would take the reciever voltage down to around 3 vdc, which I suppose was low enough to basically reset the receiver electronics and the speed controller would cut the motor due to low voltage or something. I put some old, and I mean really old servos on it after I discovered the problem and they created no such devastating spikes. I put it through several tests that I devised to try to recreate the problem with these old servos, but no resets and motor runs smoothly. I even got out my other full range receiver and put it on and all works great. I sure hope that I have solved our mysterious motor cut out problem.

Buck