FlyinHigh78

Well I finally took up my mustang. After a long awaited maiden she was sitting on the taxi way. I had a crod of on looker so I thought this better be good. I taxied her up to the runway and gave her full throttle. It was a beautiful take off. Then when she got in the air shew flew like crap. For one she seemed way under powered. It looked like she way just hanging by the the prop. I flew it around a bit but it had a hard time turning. So I turned around and landed. Nothing broke but disappointment when I see videos of doing all kinds of things and mine barely gets off the ground. It is all stock with the 350 moter and the 1700 nm-hi battery and a 18x8 prop.

Could my CG be off and thats why it flew that way or is that just the way it is? I am very disappointed and wished I bought the parkzone mustang because my buddy has no problem with it. I have A 400 motor but I need to figure out how to get the 350 motor out without breaking the styrofoam, then I will have to bore the motor compartment to fit the 400?

Any suggestions???

Vinny

vtwinguy

My Feedback: (3)

Don't give up yet. Check the CG and make sure you are not tail heavy, which it sounds like may be part of the problem, if it is, move things around to get it right, rather than add weight. Make sure your battery is fully charged. Make sure your prop in on facing the correct way, this can also cause your type of problem. You may also do a water break-in on the motor, which will give you more power. It at least should fly decent.

Good luck

FlyinHigh78

What do you mean by a water break in? I am new to electric flight so I now nothing other than how to fly a plane. Could I retime the motor and if I can how?

Thanks

Vinny

gigelus2k3

Beside the previous suggestion to check that the prop is facing the right way, your battery pack voltage could be too low. I think that you need at least 8cell NiMH packs to get the performance seen in the videos.

Also, if it's not a typo, the prop seems h u g e (18X8), even for a geared motor.

Regarding the break-in. The brushed motor has (surprise!) brushes, which are contacts that carry the current to the rotor. New brushes are straight, while the rotor contacts are round; therefore, they do not make a very good contact. Breaking-in means slightly worning-out the brushes so they fit better the rotor contacts. This is done by taking a fresh D-size alkaline battery, connecting it to the bare motor, immersing the slowly rotating motor in a glass of water and leaving it there until the battery is exhausted. The water will color (suspension of fine particles from the worn brushes).

Serban

Gullwing72

Yeah I hope you hit the 8 by mistake(instead of the zero) I don't even think that it would clear the ground when setting on it's gear. I just got my Mustang day before yesterday, I figure it will take a couple of weeks to put her like I want her. I'm not going stock(brushless and lipo) I read somewhere in RCU about the CG not being where the guide says it is. I was waiting to get to that part of the build to look it back up. After hearing your problem I might start researching now instead of later. I know the setup I am using will fly the plane I have used it in my corsair. So I am not to worried about it falling out of the sky. On the removing of the gearbox and motor. I have already thought about that with mine. I am planning on drilling a hole in line with the screw on the stick, so I can get a screwdriver in there for replacement of propshafts. Well good luck and let us know how it goes and what it is..........CDP

SBR_RV

its always the set up. that prop belongs on a large glow plane. your battery would be too heavy.
i cant quite remember but i dont think the manuals suggested CG was quite correct.
got any pics of her?

FlyinHigh78

Well the prop is a 10x8(typo). I will try and find the CG you are talking about in here. I thank you all for your suggestions and if you have anymore please help. I will check all these things shortly and see where I sit because as of right now it is I told you so from my friends.

Uncas

My Feedback: (1)

Electric Power systems are complicated - so many variables like gearing, prop size & pitch, battery capability & esc ratings. This had me stumped for a long time. You have a HUGE battery, but not all Nimhs will produce high power. Here is my brushed motor recipe:

EPS-350 - with D gears (6:1)
20 amp esc - I use Pixie 20P
8 cell KAN 650 Nimh - This is critical!! KAN 1050 is good too.
12 x 6 prop
Deans Ultra power connectors

This setup will produce 17 - 18 oz thrust and draw 13 amps. Under this load battery terminal voltage is around 7.3 volts. With the KAN 1050 you can drag another oz of thrust out of it. If your battery cannot produce the amps due to high internal resistance, none of the rest of this matters. Also, you will need good connectors to handle the amp draw.

To do significantly better than the above, you will have to go the brushess motor and Lithium battery route or switch to glo.

Good Luck!

DFalpha

My Feedback: (3)

I found for my mustang to fly well the cg had to be only a few MMs back from the leading edge. Never flew on the stock setup but it did seem to hang on the prop until the CG was moved forword.

RickAvery

The CoG being to far back as suggested above is a good place to start. Mine was built with a brushless outrunner and LiPos so power isn't an issue, but on its second flight, I hand launched a bit to agressively and the battery slipped back about 1.5". this threw off the CoG and did she ever fly BAD!!! It was a handful just to bring her back to the landing strip without poking her in the deck. Good luck.
Rick

FlyinHigh78

Well first off I found my prop to be on backward. Silly me!!!! I also moved my CG more forward by a couple mm. The manual said 5 mm I moved it to 8mm and I'll start from there. I have not flown it yet but hopefully today I will get a chance and see what happens.

Thanks for the help

Vinny

FlyinHigh78

Well I had my second flight. Much better. Plane took off with authority and climbed high. The only thing is that it was very uncontrollable. It was real jerky no matter how smooth the stick movements were. It crashed twice but no damage. Is this the normal fight characteristics or is something not right?

Thanks
Vinny

DFalpha

My Feedback: (3)

I have found I need to cut the aileron throw down to almost nothing to atain a controlable plane(gws p-51), this is done with dual rates on the transmitter.

fireman7875

My Feedback: (7)

Check your ailerons to make sure there is no slop either. I had the same problem and I found that the torque rod holes in the ailerons were a hair too big which meant the ailerons could move freely. This caused an uncontrollable condition. I just flexed the ailerons and dropped some epoxy into the hole and let it cure. After that it flew beautifully with the stock setup.

Brian

FlyinHigh78

Well I tightened up the torque rods with epoxy and adjusted some Expo and D/R and I will take it up tomorrow so hopefully she will fly. What do you think?

Thanks
Vinny

RickAvery

One trick I learned with GWS models to stop the aileron, elevator rudder slop that eventually befalls that type of actuation is to put a piece of plastic tube which just slips over the thin actuator rod into the hole made in the aileron / elevator rudder & glue it in. Then just slip the actuator rod into the plastic tube. This prevents the thin rod from hogging out a larger and larger hole in the foam through use. Then, if you should ever need to rehinge the control surface, it just slips out of the tube and isn't glued in. The hinges don't usually wear out, but it's come in handy during crash repair where I've had to fix and re-hinge a horiz-stab.
Rick

gravityrules

Rick,

Excellent tip. I do this on all of my GWS planes now. I also make sure that tube goes into the aileron foam a bit past flush to accomodate the bend in the actuator wire.

timothy thompson

My Feedback: (1)

welcome to the gws world the planes fly well but you usually have to hop it up. i had the c-47 it would not get off the ground with the recommemded batt pack. I took it back and got a slo stick very nice plane! use futaba gear and the gws speed controller

FlyinHigh78

Well I took her up today. It was very hot out and no wind. She took off and I trimed her perfect. After adjusting the D/R and Expo and flies awsome. Well after a few minutes of flying and trying to get used to her I deceided to try a loop. Well she went up and spunand out of the loop and went into a death spiral. i was pulling up and she did nothing but spin. about 15-20 ft off the ground I throttled down and kept pulling up. Maybe it was a bad idea but I never went through that before. Anyway she nosed in the ground. We were amazed that all that broke was the fuse right after the cockpit. So I guess tonight I will go and buy a hot glue gun and patch her up so she can see flight tomorrow.

Vinny

WolfeWind

That plane will fly a lot better if you go to a battery with around 1000 mah. That 1800 is making your plane way too heavy and weight is everything on GWS warbirds

Uncas

My Feedback: (1)

I agree with Wolfewind. I tried to point that out in my earlier post but I missed the mark. Try a KAN 650 or 1050. I get mine from [link=http://www.cheapbatterypacks.com]www.cheapbatterypacks.com[/link]