That's a very fast Flash!

I see she still want s to take off when reaching top speed (3/4 throttle as I understand), the boat starts to porpoise and because of the high speed it gets nasty almost instantly.

Judging by the 'flawless' floodchannel, you need to work on the weight distribution, to get her to flip back.

I feel the CoG should be a tad more forward, the hull sanded and the traling edges sharpened (specially the runpad, if that hasn't been done yet.
I say it once more, run without the added drag of the huge canopy, it will pull the hull up at that speed.

Complements to your son for the video footage!
My son could only steer my 12 cell MTB at that age, his photographer's skills were not that good back then....

Regards, Jan.

Hey spiced crab. Nice boat. Looks like you are using a spektrum. Any issued with the range? I sold mine cause if I went much farther away then you do in your video's my spektrum would run out of range and go into fail safe!!!! Just wondering.

thanks jan, you always have some great advice on how to make this hull work, i will make the changes you mentioned, and try again. and thanks so much again for your input, the only reason the boat is even doing what it does at this point is from your advice. everytime i try one of your pointers i get a little more out of the boat, i can tell you really know this hull.

fe chris, its a JR XS3 PRO transmitter and a Hitec DCX 3 receiver. I have never had a glitch with this setup at any range. (even if its upside down) my sons boat has the same setup of tranmitter/receiver, he has never had a glitch either, thats why i got the same radio for this boat because i knew i could trust it. (im sure there are other combo's that are great as well, i am just familiar with this one) i dont know anyone else that has a spectrum in a boat were i run, so i cant get any feedback about the spectrum. although i know a car racer that has one and he had some range issues with his car, in certain area's sometimes.

Hi Spicedcrab,

My son sent me a couple of pics to give you an idea how far on the edge we drive our Flash on a 700 motor and 14 cells.

The pics were taken at the 2006 European Championchip in Moormerland Germany.

The conditions were quite 'demanding', a lot of wind and very choppy.

Regards, Jan.

jan, thanks for posting the pics, they look great.

update, all the mods were a big help in getting the boat under control but i could not get full speed still. i started looking real close at what it was doing, i noticed that the boat would jump in and out of the water, even though it was staying flat and level now from the mods. as the boat was out of the water and returning to the water it would hit the water and launch right back out again. the prop wash seemed like it was over twice the speed of the boat every time it touched down. i figured well maybe my prop should be turning slower and closer to the desired speed of the boat, i figured worth a try. i put a 7XL in with a kv of 2380 instead of the 4000kv motor that i took out.

1st test, same prop (x437). very stable but too slow, no sign of any heat in esc or motor.

2nd test, 40mm carbon prop, faster, still stable, but still not yet to speed it was with the other motor before hopping starts.

3rd, 45mm getting a little faster, nothing warm yet

4th, 48mm looks really good, very stable no rocking, no skipping. not super fast but looks to be about the speed that it was starting to hop at when it had the other motor. i decided to get the gps from my wifes car and see what its doing. i got 43.6 mph (i wish that i would have used gps before i changed motors too so i could compare) i belive it was hitting about 50mph before, but it was out of control. being able to get 43 and stable with less rpm and more prop makes me think that maybe this setup will give me more speed than the other motor.

i dont have any bigger props, but im ordering some. the goal is to try and get over 50mph. im wondering if i will actully end up going to far the other way now (my prop was too small with the other setup, now it may be too big) im thinking it will take at least a x455 to hit 50, or a x648

im wondering if running a 55mm size prop is going to have a bad effect on this size boat since i feel like im already pushing it with the 48mm, or if i switch to more pitch (x648) that may also be bad, any thoughts?

i could always switch to 4cell lipos instead of 3cell so i dont have to run a huge prop, but that would take another big investment in lipos and i would have to disable the BEC, so i would 1st like to see if i can just run a real big prop on the 3cell setup that i have now.

thanks,
john

Nice work John!

Once you've got the basics right, finetuning a boat is often a matter of trial and error, as you've found out...

Going from 48 to a 55 is a huge step, be careful and watch the temperatures.

Usually the bigger props have a higher pitch, I've used that trick to make use of the extra runtime I had on my 12 cell 700 motor Flash; I milled down and reshaped an 48K to 45mm, this allowed me to run a coarser pitch and still keep the motor revs up.
The boat speed increased about 4-5 mph without creating more torque issues.

I still have be gentle on the throttle, accelerating out of a turn, when I run this modified prop...

Regards, Jan.

I am about to get down with my flash with first running a 9xl on 12 nimh. I have got to build the pad. My hull does not look like the others. It does not have the humps at the top rear and has a differant hatch.

My hull Is not the one that comes with the flood chamber and I do not know If I could make one work...

Hi Stealth,

Yours is the 'normal' Flash, with a flatter superstructure, the underwater section is identical.
I run a Flash and my son the Thick Flash, so I'm familiar with both hulls.

The flatter Flash will need a floodchamber, as it will not selfright, but float very stable upside down after a flip....

I have the floodchamber wall template on my harddisk, if you want it, pm me your mailadress and I'll send it over.

Adding the runpad makes a major difference in boat handling, als does the position and shape of the turnfin (see the sketch higher up in this thread).
Without the runpad, almost every (sharp) turn would end in a spinout and/or a flip.

Regards, Jan.

stealth assassin,

Did the template arrive in good order?

Regards, Jan.