Anyone know anything about the E-Flite Ascent?
Saw one for the first time at the hobby shop today. Not much into park flyers yet looked like a nice plane. What do you think?

Just bought one Saturday. Seems well built. Have added servos but am waiting on new micro receiver to get here. Can't wait to fly it...

LM

I don't see how you can go wrong for $60!! I didn't have the cash, but I'll buy tomarrow. I looked at it real carefully tonight, and it is going to be tight to get everything in, but..... I have all the electronics out of a Razor which should be excellent.

I'll also try to immediately order a wing. If the plane is $60, I can't imagine what a wing will cost.

Let's keep this thread open, and see who flies first.

Bill

You say it is tight, I have small servoes but will a reciever 1 3/4"x1 1/4"x5/8" and a 8 cell batt.AA pack and a speed cont. 2 1/4"x1 1/4"x5/8" all fit?
I'm use to flying giant scale so this fitting stuff into a small area is new to me.

I bought it last night, and the box says it will take an 800 ma NiCad pack - it will. I put an 8 X 600 pack in there & there is plenty of space. I have not tried balance yet, but the batteries are for the most part in front of the wing. I don't like it that the canopy has to be unscrewed to change the batteries. The fuse itself is bullet proof. Even in the worst crash, I don't think there would ever be damage to the fuse. The Boom is about the size of a small arrow with the push-rods inside. I want to come up with another system to hold the canopy on. Maybe a couple holes that rubber bands can pass through. The Aspire has a good canopy hold down system with a single rubber band.

I'm going to use a HiTec 555 withOUT case. I don't think one can get in a "standard" case receiver. Due to the curve of the fuse (it is basically circular at the leading edge) the speed control will stay on one side. I'm hoping the receiver will fit along side the batteries, if not I'll build a small deck to put the receiver OVER the servos. There is plenty of space behind the motor, but I would never mount a receiver between a set of batteries and a motor. Quick stops would do in the reciever.

It looks like the plane is overpowered with a 400, but I don't have experience with a 380 to know if that would work. The 380 is considerably smaller and maybe 1/2 the weight, though I had no way of weighing the motors at the LHS. Another option would be a planitary gear drive on the 400.

If one puts a large set of NMH batteries in there, it would fly for ever & ever. I think it is going to be very easy to run the plane out-of site. I am going to put some white or yellow pannels on the bottom of the wing so there is a high contrast to pick it out from the sky.

I'm having to set aside a new Ultra Stick 120 with OS 1.60 FX to work on this plane. It is small enough to fly on a regular softball field. I have to wait for a receiver.

Bill

Well has anyone flown there's yet?

Man this plane is awesome. It thermals great and really lets you know when it hits lift. there were a few mods I made that help out a lot. First of all, put a smaller prop on. A 6/3 works great. second, put a small scoop on the canopy over the hole that's there. last, make the front screw hole in the canopy into a c-cut and put velcro on the wing and the back of the canopy to hold it on. Now you won't have to take any screws out to remove the canopy. I had an hour long flight today.

Jhawk169 -

How did you deal with the "sticky" control rods at the rear exit? I'm thinking maybe a smaller diameter rod?

Thanks,

Sierra

Great idea for the canopy. I've had one of these planes for a couple weeks now and have a few flights on it. I was very disappointed at first. I put a 7 cell 500mah pack in it and it wouldn't climb above 40 feet. I'm used to flying glow and my first electric was a Sky Scooter PII so I was really let down.
Then, I had my LHS add one more cell for a total of 8. Still pretty miserable. I had some radio shack 8 cell AA NiMH 1600mah packs around from the Scooter. I cut the shrink wrap on the packs and was able to fold the pack over into a double wide 4 cell pack.
This actually fits inside. HOWEVER, it is extremely nose heavy and I don't really want to add any (more) lead on the tail. I have 1/8oz on the horizontal now. I'd probably need a whole oz. to get it to balance. I should recheck the CG. Now the plane has acceptable performance and flight time--for me. I'm probably giving people fits while they read this. A buddy at the field loaned me an 8 cell AAA 900mah NiMh pack that worked pretty good as well and was substantially lighter.
I had 2 different people at the field fly it this last weekend and they loved it...said mine was too nose heavy but felt that it was a pretty cool plane and definitely very nice to look at.
BTW, I'm using Hitec HS55 servos and the Hitec 3 channel AM receiver (removed from the case and shrink wrapped)

I just did the canopy velcro mod and I drilled some holes on the side of the fuse near the motor. Made the hood scoop too for the canopy. I checked and reset the CG with my gigantic battery pack. Wound up with 1oz. on the tail. All up weight is 23.8oz
I've already flown it with this battery pack but not with the CG
set right. Will post results after next flight.

The motor/prop combo is imo over-proped; I am drawing about 17A initial with a 8 cell 600KR pack. I've since changed to 6x3 Graupner CAM folding prop, much better climbs and motor doesn't end up being as hot; easy to get to altitude in 30sec+ It looks more like it's setup as a LMR glider, with runs of no more than 45-60 seconds. Do a search on the web for more discussed info.

I encountered the sticky pushrod problem myself and figured it would eat up plenty of juice fighting it...it was mostly the rudder because the control horn sits so high above the exit hole. I found that a careful series of bends in the wire to raise it to the horn level worked and am crossing my fingers that i will not get any sloppy play. I am relatively new to this so I will let you know how it worked later

"I had a definate flight plan but gravity had a flight plan of its own"

This is a beautifully designed & thought design. I dont know how they sell it so cheaply!!! My canopy mod was to cut a slot for forward screw & eliminate the rear one, Just slip the canopy under the front screw & tape down the rear end. EASY. Use smaller diameter piano wire pushrods...also lighter. Get some HECELL 1000 Mah NiMh batteries from eDogFight.com. They;re 2/3 a size & weigh much less thAN 500 nIcDS. wITHOUT THERMALS...FLITE TIMES r FROM 15 TO 20 MINS./
*My experience was that a larger prop worked better!!!
Dr. Gravity.

well--Here are my mods ..Canopy ,I slotted the front hole ,and made a hole big enough to fit over the back screw in front of the back hole..now i leave BOTH screws slighty loose ,and set canopy over back screw,and just push it slighty fwd -click-it engages both screws .
Wing--Second flight I landed in a briar patch --Plane flew terrible --wanted to snap roll --Recovered the bottom ,and put 1/4 inch washout in .
servos --drameled out servo mount wrapped mini servos with packing tape ,and epoxyed them in ..Have had them in and out couple of times --little hard to pop out ,but with patience they come out with out any damage to pod ..
Batt, I am using sr batteries 500 mah -8 cell brick
motor ,I swaped the 400 for a cermack new timer 480
used the supplied folding prop .
control rods -ran a drill up inside the openings of the rods --little slip it oil --works great
added 1/4 oz to tail,oh yes hitec 555 rec
flies pretty good--used my puter radio have end point adjustment on rudder 75 % right --45 % left --trims centered --slight up trim on elevator --plane is a rocket --penetrates great
have fun --joann