somegeek

My Feedback: (2)

Interesting... from what I've read the SF props produce more drag at the higher RPMs vs the E series props?

xduggy

Hey Thanks for all your input. Can't wait for christmas!!!

Buggygovroom

Finally!

somegeek

My Feedback: (2)

HAHA!

r1derbike

While checking my Stryker over for its maiden flight, I noticed what appeared as fixed incidence trim-tabs, at the trailing edge of the wing, and perpendicular to the tail fins. The tabs are on both sides of the tail fins, at the rear.

Sighting down the nose, you may see the incidence of these tabs, with a bit of "up" incidence built-in. They are part of the wing foam structure.

Anyone care to comment?[8D]

Mach62

Maybe the foam got bent up a bit in shipping. I would not worry about it, just toss the plane with a slight up angle at WOT with up elevator trim st to up elevator and it should fly right out of your hand. If you damage the airframe, it is only 20 bucks to replace. I have gone through many over the past few months. s

r1derbike

That was my first thought. The whole plane has an upward curve (think like teacup saucer) to it as well, not perfectly flat.

I'll just launch and deal with the trim. No biggie. Was curious if anyone elses was that way out-of-the box.

It won't launch today. Wind is gusting to 25 mph or more, and no relief 'til sundown. Tomorrow is forecast the same. May have to hit the field at daybreak.

Mach62

RIderbike: I never had a damaged one that came as RTF but I have seen the replacement fuses in bad shape from shipping. Best to try to get one as straight as possible. Once my fuses get too bent, they will tend to pull to one side at high speed. Everybody loves this plane who flies it, it floats at low speed and really moves when you get on it. If you have snow/ice, you can even do some touch and goes with the thing.

Mach62

RIderbike: I never had a damaged one that came as RTF but I have seen the replacement fuses in bad shape from shipping. Best to try to get one as straight as possible. Once my fuses get too bent, they will tend to pull to one side at high speed. Everybody loves this plane who flies it, it floats at low speed and really moves when you get on it. If you have snow/ice, you can even do some touch and goes with the thing.

critterhunter

Need a little advice on the wing loading on my AP plane. It's very near complete so I piled everything onto the digital scale to see where I was at for a ready to fly weight, camera and all. It was reading right around 36 ounces. It should stay near that but worse case let's say 40 ounces would put me at around 16 to 17 ounces per square foot for the 48" wing. Gliders are around 10 and trainers around 15. Do you think this plane is going to land and fly too fast to stay in the air? If the weight does hit 40 I guess I could increase the wingspan to around 56 inches and that should knock it down to 14 or so. I'm not too concerned about it wanting to fly a bit faster to stay in the air. Mainly I wanted to be able to keep the speed real low for good landing in tight areas where I plan to launch (hunting property, etc).

r1derbike

I'll see how it performs as-is. If unacceptable, will prolly tweak the foam. I'm hoping the typhoon 3D will have the same battery connector as the Stryker, when it arrives. I'd like to be able to use the Stryker battery in the Typhoon, so I don't have to buy another lipo battery. The typhoon is a X-mas bundle, with an extra battery, but judging from videos, it looks nice in lipo.

Charles

critterhunter

A few more pictures of the AP plane. Just have to cover the last bit of the fuse on the top near the rear once I get the one mile RX to install. Bottom of fuse/wing/tail is black. The rudder didn't show up well in the photo but it's black also. Top of fuse will be finished off in black as well. The compartment towards the nose is where the battery goes. Camera is mounted inside the belly directly at COG so the plane will fly right with or without it installed.

In the last photo you can see the 3V voltage regulator, servo plug, and dummy batteries to run the 5100M Aiptek pocket camcorder off of. The regulator servo plug plugs into another plug that is wired directly to the plane battery wires. The 3V regulator has a large heat sink on it to keep things cool and has a thermal shutdown switch for safety. Thus far on test bedding it the regulator only gets luke warm and it'll be getting plenty of airflow where it will sit.

The dummy AA batteries are dowl rod with a nail at the end and the output wires soldered to them. I could have drilled and installed a small DC jack onto the camera but didn't want to take it apart. I was thinking of powering the camera via it's mini USB jack but can't find the jacks alone and cables are like $15. Anybody know where to get them cheap? This setup weighs .8 ounces where as two AA batteries weigh 2.1 ounces so I'm saving well over an ounce of weight but ditching the AAs.

Getting better with the econocoat all the time but the plane isn't wrinkle free. Excuse the dark pictures as I work on my planes in a dungeon...my basement.

somegeek

My Feedback: (2)

I fly at a field sometimes on weekends early in the day - 8am-10am is usually very calm.

djnsayne

My Feedback: (2)

Hey there.... I just maidened my stryker today and had 6 great flights but I would like to change my electronics over to my Spektrum system. Does anyoone know how many amps the stock motor pulls so that I can add the right esc?

Mach62

C version pulls just over 22 amps static on an APC 6X4 prop. B version, no clue.

Cali11

I got some video of my Stryker today.Not real good quality.I didnt have my 1 gig card so had to use low setting on my Sony digital camara.My set up is a E-Flite 2000KV Six Series with a Silver Series 45 A ESC,3S hexTronik 1700mAh 11.1v 20-30C Lipo Pack with a 6X5.5 APC E.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ACGyfdhiuYY

djnsayne

My Feedback: (2)

Thanks Mach..... I got bored and went ahead and installed one of my HiMax motors in the stryker. I am using a 2812-1080 which will give me a prop speed of about 60mph. I know that this isn't much compared to most of the guy's on here but I am new to this and I don't want to get too far ahead of my skills.

critterhunter

Anybody know how many amps typical servo wires can handle roughly? On my AP plane I'm planning on using a servo plug and wire to plug the camera's 3V regulator directly into the plane battery. Don't want the servo wires melting on me. Also have to do an amp reading on the camera to see how much juice it's drawing.

djnsayne

My Feedback: (2)

Check to see what gauge wire your servo leads are, then go here http://www.powerstream.com/Wire_Size.htm and you can see the max amps for that type of wire. Also it depends on the amp rating of the bec in your esc. Be careful not to go above that rating as if you do the esc will shut down.

critterhunter

Not powering it via the BEC. The 3V regulator I'm using to feed the camera is wired directly to the plane battery leads and not through the ESC or RX. The problem with matching gauge wire to amp ability is I don't know what size wire the servo plug is using. I was just told that typical servo wire can handle about 1 amp of current. If that's true then I should be good but have to check the amp draw of my camera to confirm it isn't over one amp to be safe. Rather than using the dummy dowl rod batteries I'm hoping to ditch those and power the camera via it's mini USB port. Message posted elsewhere...

If anybody is looking for a very cheap USB cable try Dollar Tree or some other local dollar store. I found this...30" rectractable USB cable type A to mini 5 pin. Connectors AM-MINI 5 pin. Instructions also say "This USB cable connects a computer or USB hub to any portable USB device using a 5 pin mini-B connection. Common applications include digital cameras, MP3 Players, PDAs, and mobile phones." Price: One dollar.

I am wanting to power my Aiptek 5100M digital pocket camcorder off it's USB port via a 3V regulator. Even just a mini USB plug would have been fine, since I'm going to solder it up to the regulator. Was shocked to find that all the stores I went to wanted $20 to $40 for a cable that I planned to cut up anyway. On a whim I hit Dollar Tree and there they were. Neat little device. It has a retracting thin cord and is very small. Not that it matters since I only needed the mini plug.

Figured it would be less weight and hassle than the dummy dowl rod AA rig I have hitched to the regulator right now. Just have to clear up a few things. USB devices usually need a 5V input via the USB port. Not sure if my camera's stock cable has a voltage regulator to step it down to 3V or if the camera will power up on 3V via that port. Going to use a voltmeter on the stock cable to check. Also, not sure if the camera will go into some kind of PC mode when power is supplied via the USB port and not give me any control via it's buttons. Have to check that as well.

Either way, if you are looking for a cheap USB cable or just need the plug off one for some other purpose that's where you'll find a good price on it.

Wastegate

Max speed dopplered at 65mph but not easy to get a clean audio clip due to the wind.

critterhunter

Somegeek, was going through some old notes from the dark side threads today and came upon some amp readings using the 7x6E and 7x6SF APC props on the BP21 that others had done. Indeed the reason why the SF prop was used was to keep the amps a little lower, as the notes said the E prop would draw 2 to 3 amps (from memory) more. Since the 7x6SF is already pushing the motor beyond the amps it's rated for the SF was selected to keep things a little safer on it. I think also that the 7x6SF prop produced the best all around performance after extensive testing of various props by Cadetman (DepronJet). Perhaps he'd care to chime in here and set things straight?

r1derbike

Maidened the Stryker today, in spite of wind gusts over 25 mph. Did a lot of hovering (not really hovering, but zero ground speed flying) and flying backward into the wind. This thing handles wind quite well. Much better than I had anticipated. Speed of the thing was OK downwind, guess I was just expecting much more, after flying nitro powered combat deltas. Upwind was a "pull" (technically, it is a "push" with this bird), bucking the ferocious headwind. Landing was simply a small vertical hover to the ground. Can't say anything about final glide ratio. Had to keep throttle up a bit for zero ground speed hover, drop it vertically to near the ground, and cut power to save the prop. Wind was blowing that hard.

This thing may achieve 80 mph airspeed in a dive, but seat-of-the pants radar, when the wind lulled a bit felt more like 65 mph WOT straight-n-level.

Estimated speed at 85 mph ground speed downwind, with the up to 25 mph tailwind. Upwind was prolly no more than 35 mph ground speed, with headwind. Looked like I could nearly run as fast as it was flying, upwind.

Anyway, I'll know more about it on a near calm day. All that was required was a little downtrim.

EDIT: Went back a few hours later to get some more practice in the wind, and during a pullout, I heard a loud pop. Landed, and a 1/4 X 1/4 in. chunk of foam was missing underneath one of the pushrods. Must have stressed the area a bit, around the servo area (was dinking around on high-rates, WOT). It felt solid, as the other wing, so ignored it and flew around some more. Had one rough landing due to the wind, but just scuffed the underside of the nose a bit. It's going to get scuffed-up under there anyway, right?

Mach62

Glad to here it went well.

Yeah, it will scuff. I have gone through many airframes over the months. Might want to clear tape the parts that hit the ground most often. I agree on the speed. I have dopplered this C version many times and the best it will get straight and level is 65 mph in no wind. I once hit 137km per hour coming out of a slight dive in a slight tailwind but it is really a 65mph plane, not 80mph as advertised. But ain't that the fun of modifying it?

r1derbike

Yip...I was underwhelmed with its speed, even downwind, so let the mods begin!