Joe Kollmann
New member
This is clipped from our Fly-A-ways Club site over on the groups.
Well... I maidened Five Airplanes Sunday and here are the results:
Galloping Ghost (MM p-51 with some mods) was FAST! TINY and hard to see but FAST! must be the stickers. A lot harder to launch safely (underhand worked best) Pretty stable and groovy in the air. A lot more demanding to fly than the Tiny Racers. Did I say it was fast? I bet it's going 45-65 vs the tiny racers at 35-45. Less forgiving and doesn't turn as well either . It will be interesting to see if the mini - warbirds can really run the course as well as the super-easy, confident, quick -turning Tiny Racers. It only has two or three seconds on the straight to take advantage of the higher speed before some big arcing turn so it could be a wash. Very cool looking and awesome performance on 2300KV 2205 and 850mah 3S. Small airplanes like this have a deceptive speed perception anomally. Even though they aren't breaking 100, they still go "out-of-sight" in a few seconds so you have little time to enjoy straight portions of the course. Even less than bigger airplanes going much faster. Hence perception of higher speed. The aerobatic "box" is pretty big too!
Baby Brit 2-cell...FAST...A handfull to fly. Very difficult to see, trim and not be in the next county all at the same time. Like a smaller Super-bee. Goes like hell but doesn't want to fly straight and level. On our tiny racer motors and 3-cells this thing would be interesting to say the least. Survived a snap roll into the mud zero damage. It builds with a single sheet of board in about two Hours. Much simpler than the Tiny racer. It has an APC 5x5.5 prop with a prop saver which is a good idea as it is just as likely to crash as land safely. The little 2-cell EMAX motor is quite the powerhouse. I flew it for 8 min on the 750 Mah 2S batt. It rolls like a drillbit. It needs to be flourescent orange on top and black on the bottom, but even then orientation during a roll would be difficult and give you stroboscopic vertigo! This design would definitely benefit from a 25-30% fuselage stretch to improve the dynamic pitch stability and give a bit more room for stuff in the fuselage cavity. Little addition of weight or drag would pay-off in a more easily flyable plane. I don't know if it would still fit on a single sheet of DTFB?
The KWAK (Jupiter Duck) flies really well. Not underpowered despite the little 600Mah two cell and 1250 KV motor. Does a stupidly perfect high speed step turn and the water handling is EXCELLENT. Did a couple of ROG runway takeoffs and it does fine but you need to wait until there is enough speed to make the elevator work, then it's fine. With the short span elliptical wing it has a nasty tip-stall. This is probably my fault for doing a flat wing and ailerons, but it does roll nicely and is quite aerobatic. I splatted it into the water and despite being half submerged for some time It is back up and ready with a new ESC. It looks kind of comical in the air as on the ground, but It's a deceivingly nice flying airplane. It would work fine on an 1806 or 2205 on 3 cell as well. Very light and very fun build. It looks even more "cartoony" than the Sea Duck.
My own design Cassutt IIIm flies Great! Frank says it's dismally slow but he was flying with a crappy battery. It flies like a sportier Sig seniorita but looks like a Pylon Racer! Ground Handling and takeoff are trainer-like. Landing is super-easy. Maybe I'll make a fast one as I bet this would take 500-600 watts pretty well. Everything including the wire gear and wheel pants held-up to even a few rough landings. Flew eight batteries through it and it was very satisfying to have a first day with a fresh design fly so very well. It went from a napkin sketch and modified "Scout" plans to all finished in 24 hours. I used an old HK DAT bell motor and an APC 9 x 4.5 Prop. It could easily do a 10 X 7 Or a 3 bladed 9-6 I bet.
The new Flyzone Seawind is, well, slow and woefully underpowered. It does takeoff and fly and the gear, flaps and the looks are cool, but I don't think it would loop from level flight and it would likely have a hard time getting off the water in all but ideal conditions. Barely holds altitude at 80% throttle. Aside from that, it flies pretty decently. Sort of a letdown. I hear people are getting better results on 4S, But the whole idea was to have a seawind to use up all the 2200-3000 MAH 3-cells I have around. For fun and performance, the Seaduck puts it to shame. Maybe I just got a "DOG" but as I watch videos of the plane flying on 3S on the tube...none of them are barn-burners and a lot of them seem to be floating along on the verge of a stall for most of the flight. I get that not everything needs to be wildly aerobatic or over powered and I've competed in scalemasters with huge insanely expensive planes that couldn't do a loop from level (scale 23lb Husky loop requiring a 5 second dive) ...but compared to the earlier GP Seawind foamie this one is doggy at best. In novice hands in a wind this level of power is treacherous territory.
Maybe just a higher KV motor and suitable prop would sort this out enough without going to four cell. The Otter flies so much better I am tempted to scale it up to this size...maybe as a twin, and use the gear from the seawind...now that would be cool.
SO, Foamboard RULES! Flyzone is weak as typical of "Out of the box" foamies and needs different motors and setups to be made to fly decently. Small airplanes can difficult/Challenging. And designs of your own are usually the most rewarding.
The water at our field is unplanned but it takes the curse off of flooding to be able to do some water ops.
Well... I maidened Five Airplanes Sunday and here are the results:
Galloping Ghost (MM p-51 with some mods) was FAST! TINY and hard to see but FAST! must be the stickers. A lot harder to launch safely (underhand worked best) Pretty stable and groovy in the air. A lot more demanding to fly than the Tiny Racers. Did I say it was fast? I bet it's going 45-65 vs the tiny racers at 35-45. Less forgiving and doesn't turn as well either . It will be interesting to see if the mini - warbirds can really run the course as well as the super-easy, confident, quick -turning Tiny Racers. It only has two or three seconds on the straight to take advantage of the higher speed before some big arcing turn so it could be a wash. Very cool looking and awesome performance on 2300KV 2205 and 850mah 3S. Small airplanes like this have a deceptive speed perception anomally. Even though they aren't breaking 100, they still go "out-of-sight" in a few seconds so you have little time to enjoy straight portions of the course. Even less than bigger airplanes going much faster. Hence perception of higher speed. The aerobatic "box" is pretty big too!
Baby Brit 2-cell...FAST...A handfull to fly. Very difficult to see, trim and not be in the next county all at the same time. Like a smaller Super-bee. Goes like hell but doesn't want to fly straight and level. On our tiny racer motors and 3-cells this thing would be interesting to say the least. Survived a snap roll into the mud zero damage. It builds with a single sheet of board in about two Hours. Much simpler than the Tiny racer. It has an APC 5x5.5 prop with a prop saver which is a good idea as it is just as likely to crash as land safely. The little 2-cell EMAX motor is quite the powerhouse. I flew it for 8 min on the 750 Mah 2S batt. It rolls like a drillbit. It needs to be flourescent orange on top and black on the bottom, but even then orientation during a roll would be difficult and give you stroboscopic vertigo! This design would definitely benefit from a 25-30% fuselage stretch to improve the dynamic pitch stability and give a bit more room for stuff in the fuselage cavity. Little addition of weight or drag would pay-off in a more easily flyable plane. I don't know if it would still fit on a single sheet of DTFB?
The KWAK (Jupiter Duck) flies really well. Not underpowered despite the little 600Mah two cell and 1250 KV motor. Does a stupidly perfect high speed step turn and the water handling is EXCELLENT. Did a couple of ROG runway takeoffs and it does fine but you need to wait until there is enough speed to make the elevator work, then it's fine. With the short span elliptical wing it has a nasty tip-stall. This is probably my fault for doing a flat wing and ailerons, but it does roll nicely and is quite aerobatic. I splatted it into the water and despite being half submerged for some time It is back up and ready with a new ESC. It looks kind of comical in the air as on the ground, but It's a deceivingly nice flying airplane. It would work fine on an 1806 or 2205 on 3 cell as well. Very light and very fun build. It looks even more "cartoony" than the Sea Duck.
My own design Cassutt IIIm flies Great! Frank says it's dismally slow but he was flying with a crappy battery. It flies like a sportier Sig seniorita but looks like a Pylon Racer! Ground Handling and takeoff are trainer-like. Landing is super-easy. Maybe I'll make a fast one as I bet this would take 500-600 watts pretty well. Everything including the wire gear and wheel pants held-up to even a few rough landings. Flew eight batteries through it and it was very satisfying to have a first day with a fresh design fly so very well. It went from a napkin sketch and modified "Scout" plans to all finished in 24 hours. I used an old HK DAT bell motor and an APC 9 x 4.5 Prop. It could easily do a 10 X 7 Or a 3 bladed 9-6 I bet.
The new Flyzone Seawind is, well, slow and woefully underpowered. It does takeoff and fly and the gear, flaps and the looks are cool, but I don't think it would loop from level flight and it would likely have a hard time getting off the water in all but ideal conditions. Barely holds altitude at 80% throttle. Aside from that, it flies pretty decently. Sort of a letdown. I hear people are getting better results on 4S, But the whole idea was to have a seawind to use up all the 2200-3000 MAH 3-cells I have around. For fun and performance, the Seaduck puts it to shame. Maybe I just got a "DOG" but as I watch videos of the plane flying on 3S on the tube...none of them are barn-burners and a lot of them seem to be floating along on the verge of a stall for most of the flight. I get that not everything needs to be wildly aerobatic or over powered and I've competed in scalemasters with huge insanely expensive planes that couldn't do a loop from level (scale 23lb Husky loop requiring a 5 second dive) ...but compared to the earlier GP Seawind foamie this one is doggy at best. In novice hands in a wind this level of power is treacherous territory.
Maybe just a higher KV motor and suitable prop would sort this out enough without going to four cell. The Otter flies so much better I am tempted to scale it up to this size...maybe as a twin, and use the gear from the seawind...now that would be cool.
SO, Foamboard RULES! Flyzone is weak as typical of "Out of the box" foamies and needs different motors and setups to be made to fly decently. Small airplanes can difficult/Challenging. And designs of your own are usually the most rewarding.
The water at our field is unplanned but it takes the curse off of flooding to be able to do some water ops.
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