quint-rcu

My Feedback: (24)

Be sure to get the ESC to match your battery type so the cutoff voltage is corect. (I know you're not suposed to go all the way down to the cutoff level), but it's good insurance. The Astro Flight Firefly motor set from Tower Hobbies included an ESC that works with LiPo's.

I also used the stock motor and a LiPo battery on one of the warbirds with an ESC I got from from the folks at Balsa Products (www.balsapr.com) its a "Blue Arrow 10-Amp ESC for Brushed Motors / 2-Cell Li-Poly" their part # is: BA-PP-10B.

Here's a link: http://www.balsapr.com/view.asp?id=V533528&pid=U379609

The price is: $12.95

cheers,
quint

bribeguy

For now I'm gonna run the stock motor, with a Castle Creations Pixie 7amp ESC. It has a programable cut-off, so it should work well with the E-TEC 7.4V 300mAh LiPo I ordered from Balsapr.com.

I already have recieved the ESC and Servo's (can't believe how tiny they are!!!), and now I'm just waiting on the planes themselves from Cox.

Mail can be so agrivating sometimes....................

Has anyone out there tried indoor flying with these planes? Are they manuverable/slow enough that this is a possibility?

quint-rcu

My Feedback: (24)

Finally flew the P-51 with the stock motor and a LiPo battery. It really moves along! Nice long flight of 13 minutes before landing and still had battery left. It balanced out just right with no need of extra ballast after shifting the RX and servos a bit to allow for the lighter battery. I wouldn't want to fly this one indoors or anywhere smaller than a baseball field at first. I guess after getting it trimmed out and a couple of flights it will get more comfortable in tight spaces. Luckily we've got wide open spaces around here thanks to Hurricane Katrina - lol.

I should try out the Corsair with the Astro Flight Firefly brushless setup next weekend and compare the performance. Albeit, the stock motor seems ample for these lil' birds to get up and go. One more observation is that while the components are so light and small, the finished plane 'feels' heavy in the hand even though it does fly 'light'. Guess I'm still comparing to my larger fuel powered planes.

bluemax

My Feedback: (19)

Just finished my warbird P-40. Have not flown it yet as its a little windy. I made some changes to the plane. I left out the switch and charge plate and cut one side of the front fuselage for access to the battery and motor just in case I want to change them. I also use the 2s 450 mah lipo in my P-61. The plane came in at 4.5 ounces which is strange for me since I tend to build heavy. I used FMA PS 20 servos and a bluebird rx. Any way I'm anxious to try it out. Has anyone put ailerons on this one and if so what did you use and how?

Motoduck

Hey folks,

New here. New to RC flight too. While the Cox warbirds may not be great "starter" planes, I couldn't beat the price at $20 each! Not to mention they look pretty good in the magazine ads. Ultimately it was this thread that sold me on them. I have two on the way, a Spitfire and a Corsair. Wish me luck.

Mayday!Mayday!

Just thought I would chime in and tell you of my warbird.
I used the CC pixie 20
E-Tec 700 mah 2s lipo
The stock motor
2- Bluebird 303 ultra micro servos
Used the Bluebird 4 channel Rx also

This is actually a nice sleeper. Has quit a bit of power for what it is and my flights are a bit longer than I expected on this.
I was thinking of changing out the motor and esc and going to one of the small 12mm feigao brushless motors. Those little things put out quite a bit for what they are. my .02 BG

damianhindley

If going budget minded. How much could i totally setup a plane including batteries and all minus the TX. thanks guys.

bribeguy

damianhindley, you should be able to do it for less then $100 easy.

The Plane is $19.95.

Go to balsapr.com and put together a "flight-pack"

2 BMS-306bb servo's ($29.68)
1 BMR-04 4 channel reciever & crystal ($16.15)
1 Blue Arrow 10amp brushed esc ($12.30)
1 E-Tec 7.4v 300mah lipo battery ($16.10)

Total electronics cost: $77.03
Total plane cost: $19.95

Grand Total: $96.98

quint-rcu

My Feedback: (24)

damianhindley

You can save a few $$ and still get a good package even including a LiPo battery for less weight and longer flight times than stock NiCad's (minus TX and charger) at Balsa Products' website if you select the complete flight pack package page for $70.65 at: http://www.balsapr.com/view.asp?id=V052392

Tower Hobbies has a good LiPo charger for the flight pack at:
http://www2.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...&I=LXHNW5&P=ML

Here is my recomendations (of course, pick your own channel):

SLOMO

ok i have read this all the post and like damianhindley i too am wanting to get started with one of these warbirds, but dont know what setup i need . i am a litte strapped on cash. so what do you guys suggest on a basic setup. and do these planes fly and handle good enough for someone with limited flight exp. i do fly an aerobird scout and i have been flying a 2 channel airhog aero ace that flies great by the way. i figured that i could switch to a 3 channel for experience at half the cost.yes it is a little expensive to get started but not too much to maintain .

bribeguy

BUMP!

Heres a shot at adding new life to an old thread!

Anyways, I finally got my P-40, and Corsair from Cox this week. The package got lost in the mail, so it took over 2 months to get!!!

BOOOOO!!!

Anyways, I built up the P-40 tonight with a Castle Creations Pixie 7amp ESC, E-TEC 7.4V 300mAh LiPo, Bluebird BMS-303 Coreless Sub-Micro Servos, and a Blue Bird BMR-04 reciever. The stock motor and prop will have to suffice for now.

Anyways, the build went smoothly, and I'm quite impressed with the scale look of the plane. Cox did a very nice job.

I placed all the elctronics as far forward as possible, but my CG seems to be a little off. Cox recomends the CG to be 7/8" back from the leading edge of the wing (at the base). Mine seems to be sitting a bit further back at around 1 and 3/16th" (about the front edge of the "spar" on the wing bottom).

All the other Cox Warbirds seem to have the CG back fairly far, but not the P40.

Does anyone have any experiance with this particular model? If so, where is your CG?

I'm eager to fly it, but don't want it wrecked over something as lame as a small balance issue. That being said, I also don't really want to have to add any weight to the model. These little things are heavy enough already. I'd like to keep it as light as possible.

Any help is appreciated.

mrluke

how do you know when to stop flying so you dont cook your lipo on the brushed esc

mrluke

Quint, What size 2 cell Lipo are you using to get 13 min flight? also where did you guys cut out the slot for the batts and how are you securing them? Hatch, rubber bands etc

bribeguy

mrluke, the brushed ESC I'm using (Castle Creations Pixie 7amp) is fully programmable, and is currently set for a 2 cell lipo cut-off.

I'll probably do a bench run of the motor first, to see what run times are like, and then fly the plane with a timer running for a few minutes less then the bench results (just to be extra safe). I'm using a Hitec Optic 6 radio, so it has a few different timers built in.

As for battery's, I've just got mine wired into the charging/on-off plate, and held in the fuselage with a dab of epoxy. The 300mah pack fits great ([link]http://www.balsapr.com/view.asp?id=A0320069&pid=V268197[/link]) though I likely would of gone for the 450mah version if I knew I'd end up tail heavy, even with the electronics all far forward. If you're gonna have weight, it may as well be usefull, right?

Now I just need the weather to clear so I can test this thing...........

Of course, all this is on the assumption that I can get this P40 balanced propperly and actually flying....................

mrluke

should the on off switch be on or off while charging ?

bribeguy

off

bribeguy

Well, at the risk of resurecting a dead thread....................................

I finally flew the P-40!

The weather has gotton (occationally) nice enough that I maidened the lil' Cox P-40 the other day.

ROUND 1: P-40

-Nice hand launch to the realization that once the plane is about 15' away from me, it is completely silent. Very cool. The little motor (stock) puts out almost no noise to start, so it was almost creepy watching it fly with silence on it's side.

And fly it did!

5+ minutes of zipping around the field showed me that not only does this plane have the ability to stay aloft at a relatively slow pace at 1/2 throttle, but that it also tears up the sky at a very scale looking rate at full throttle.

The plane is surprising stable, and both the rudder and elevator work surprisingly well. Loops are no issue at full throttle, and I did 3 just 'cause I could.

Power off yeilds a nice smooth glide, and my first landing would score no less then 8.5/10. Beauty!

Round 2: P-40

-After a 5 minute "cool down period, it was back to the skies with the little plane once more. This time with a bit more knowledge of what to expect, the throttle stayed closer to 3/4, and the plane stayed a bit closer to the ground.

Sweet. This thing looks awsome in the air. 3-D is cool, and biplanes rock my world, but when push comes to shove, watching a warbird zoom by is where its at!

A couple more loops, some sharp tuns and a few minutes latter it's time to bring it in. Landing gets a 5/10 this time round, as the plane caught a tip and spun the bird around. Got a small crack in the elevator (it's 1mm foam, what do you expect?), which was subsequently fixed with a drop of CA.

Virtual pat on the back for me!

I've had a few crashes since, and the bird (after being put back together w/ CA) is still doin' fine.

Gotta say..............$20 well spent!!!

mrluke

how long were your flights? Im finishing mine tonight after some battery problems ( cooked a new lipo pack letting the wires touch) Where did you test the cg? right next the fus upsidedown? did you use the suggested control wire hook up with the little black shrink tube and doese it hold up also did you use the middle hloe on the control horn ?

mrluke

anyone have trouble getting there spinner on there p40? mine only goes on about 1/3 of the way, sticks out about a 1/2inch from the plane! Please help!!!

bribeguy

Ya, I had a bi&$@ if a time trying to get that spinner on! I ended up reaming it out ever-so-slightly to get the hole a bit bigger. Seems to have worked.

Of course, last night I snapped a prop, so now I get to go through the whole ordeal all over again! LOL.

To answer your other questions mrluke:

Quote:

how long were your flights?

-First time out I got about 8-9 minutes, and put in less then 200mah back into my 300mah pack. Didn't time the next few flights. Last night I got about 6 minutes before the ground jumped up and knock my plane down, but I haven't recharged to see how long I actually got. I'm thinking 10-15 minutes with a 300mah Li-Po is probably about where I'm sitting (with conservative throttle).

Quote:

Where did you test the cg? right next the fus upsidedown?

-Yup, that's pretty much exactly what I did. Sadly I needed to ass a 1/4oz lead weight to the front to make it proper. Next time (I have a Corsair kit sittin' around too.....) I think I'll put in a 450mah pack instead. If I need weight, it may as well be usable, right?

Quote:

did you use the suggested control wire hook up with the little black shrink tube and doese it hold up also did you use the middle hole on the control horn ?

-Sure did! The set-up seemed a little "ghetto" to me, but has worked fine thus far. The middle control horn hole didn't offer as much physical control throw as I thought I'd need, but it seems to be more then enough when flying.

And now, back to glue the fuselage back together again! Keeps snapping right by the front of the canopy/by the charging jack. Oi! Guess that's what happens when you land on the nose cone, right!

mrluke

Thanks for the great answers! what did you use to open the spinner hole? Small drill bit? I think Im going to have to add some weight as well ans I used a 700 mah pack with everything cramed forward. Hope it isnt too heavy! I really thought that would ballance it out

mrluke

bribeguy, did you use the on off switch or did you make a hatch to get to your batt?

bribeguy

I used the stock on-off switch. The 300mah li-po only cost me ~$15, so I wasn't too worried about needing acess to it.

And yes, a small drill bit is exactly what I used to ream out the spinner.

bribeguy

Well, got in a few more quick flights, and now my plane has developed an odd issue.

Okay, so it's more like the ESC has developed an odd issue.

I'm using a Castle Creations Pixie 7 esc, and now it won't let me go past 1/2 throttle. Whenever I do, the ESC shuts off, and won't work again untill I reset the throttle lever to dead-bottom. Then as you advance the throttle, it shuts off ~1/2 throttle again.

Uhg!

Looks like time to did through the Pixie user manual.

I hope it's something simple, since getting inside the fuselage won't be an easy task.

quint-rcu

My Feedback: (24)

I had posted this reply on another Cox warbird thread, but wanted to share it here too. Hope no one minds and the ailerons do make them fly so nice.

I had assembled and flown the F-4 and the P-51 on the stock motors with a 300mah Li-Po and stock elevator/rudder/throttle setup with many nice flights. Plenty of power, etc, BUT, the aileron bug got me too and I built a P-47 with ailerons. W-A-Y more fun and response - now it can do pretty nice rolls and even get inverted for a while.

Started out by cutting out the front wing retainer snap area, marking out the fuselage width and digging a shallow pocket (Hooray for a Dremel tool) to get room for mounting a servo sideways in the wing center section, just be sure not to go all the way trough the foam at the bottom. I glued a pair of 1/8" balsa strips to the leading edge to catch the fuselage at the front and left the rear snap alone (sort of the same installation used to secure the wings on an conventional engine powered plane). The servo is then installed transversely in the dug out area with the arm sticking up and moving from side to side.

The linkage is a single length of .015 wire passing through the servo arm at the center (a simple 'Z' bend there will eliminate the need for a heavy retainer since adjustment will be at the aileron ends). The wire is run inside a pair of K & S 1/16" x .014" aluminum tubing pieces formed to a radius (around an old pot) and spot glued to the top of the wing. The whole assembly looks like a bow with the tube guides arcing back from the leading edge to the stock aileron positions. I put the control horns on the top of the wing so they wouldn't catch or drag and be damaged on landings. Glued the rudder on straight and spray painted the whole model with a very light silver coat before applying the decals. - I just don't like the 'zebra stripe' color scheme on the P-47.

The P-47's flying weight using Bluebird 4.3 gram servos, a Bluebird receiver and an E-Tec 300mah Li-Po still came out around 4.9 oz. - Guess digging out some foam and removing one snap made up the weight of the tubing since the wire is the same weight as the rudder linkage would have been. A bonus was that the CG came out right without needing any ballast thanks to the forward placement of the servo and linkage.

These little warbirds are a hoot! and the installation method has been previously well documented here on RCU. Now I wonder if it can fly a set of super light weight landing gear? Got a set weighing around 5 -6 grams with the wire and it could probably be sandwiched between the wing and fuse at the front. It wouldn't be scale location (in the wings), but it would be easy to install and strong there. Going to fly it like it is and then try the gear later - if it survives that long.