Doing something wrong with motor combo I believe. Please help.

Ron B

Posted a thousand or more times
I see you have some very large servos that you won't be using for a very long time and am wondering if you got them from the hobby shop. I am wondering if your hobby shop is a quad/heli oriented shop or more towards cars and boats than it is towards planes. You said the battery was from a heli and is a li ion where most of us use lipo batteries so I wonder why the li ion battery. You might check the weight of the li ion 1300 against a 2cell 350mah or 500mah and see if these smaller batteries are lighter..... if they are lighter I might want to try one of them as they are cheap compared to the bigger batteries. A 2 cell 800 mah from flite test is only $8.50 plus shipping so you might be able to find something cheap near you or on line that has free shipping.
my other suggestion would be to buy the complete package from FT for a Tiny Trainer and all you need is a tx/rx to complete it. This way you would be able to follow the build video and have a plane that you know will fly. If going this route be sure to put the servos near the tail as the TT builds nose heavy and if you are going to use the battery you have you would have to put it clear back under the wing to get the CG right.
It can be very frustrating trying to figure every thing out when just starting out. I tried to go with what I thought was a good setup and scratch built a couple of foamies that didn't fly well at all I bought a couple of Horizon Hobbies planes and got the flying down better and have learned a lot while doing so and am now back to building but going with the recommended set up. I will be back to scratch build some time as I have a lot of electronics now to work with.
 

Ron B

Posted a thousand or more times
ok first off that plane is probably a lot lighter than what you are building as it probably only weighs about 3 to 4 oz's and even it probably couldn't handle that large of a battery. Remember the motor not only has to lift the airframe but all that is on it also.
You are probably way under powered for your set up and may get away with just a larger motor and esc.
 

J-J-P

Junior Member
I am not going to buy that plane. The FT TT was the reason I purchased this setup(I was told it was bigger), but unfortunately that was probably the heaviest plane that I built, and it smashed and was ruined on its first few attempts. I am not sure if I should just buy a HK pnf plane for $50 or get a power pack from FT. The money is the biggest issue now, smashing part after part I kind of want something that works rather then the time and money in a scratch built. I think I just need to step away from it today; After 30 or so hours, I am kinda burnt out today with all of the losses. I was shooting to get something flying as a nice surprise, I thought I was making the huge mistakes rather then the power system being too small and heavy. I really appreciate everyone's help, I am sorry if I seems a little crabby lol.
 

Craftydan

Hostage Taker of Quads
Staff member
Moderator
Mentor
JJP,

Brother, I feel your pain. Most of us have been there, and we felt it too.

Take a breather, replace the battery when you can with a 2S LiPo (not LIon), and pick up a few sheets of DTFB. There's a handful of airframes (like the FTTT, FT Scout, or the FT Flyer) which will love that hardware, so long as you give it a battery that can dump the power they need.

You can do this, but you have to let the frustration ease off first :)
 

J-J-P

Junior Member
JJP,

Brother, I feel your pain. Most of us have been there, and we felt it too.

Take a breather, replace the battery when you can with a 2S LiPo (not LIon), and pick up a few sheets of DTFB. There's a handful of airframes (like the FTTT, FT Scout, or the FT Flyer) which will love that hardware, so long as you give it a battery that can dump the power they need.

You can do this, but you have to let the frustration ease off first :)

Thank you very much, I know ill figure it out. I think when I set a goal of having something decent flying in a time period, that was a huge mistake because it took away all the fun and replaced it with pressure. I believe the passion for flying comes from the fact that every assumption I ever make is almost always wrong, and the reality is far more clever. I have yet to truly fly a real airplane, but I am absolutely hooked with everything we are learning in the process. I am going to work on a new air frame today, I am just getting to the point where I am slapping them together only caring about the aerodynamics and measurements, rather then something nice that I am proud of like the first 5 planes I built. WHEN I am successful, it will be far more worth it, and possibly a good lesson for me and our boy.
 

J-J-P

Junior Member
Great :)

So what's your plan for the next airframe?

I am going to go back to my original reason I wanted to build a plane, The FT simple storch. I have to replace many things anyways, this time I will just get the proper motor/esc for the job, or maybe a bit on the bigger side of things. We have a huge flying area, id really love something greater then 35" WS. But the more stable I can make it, the better it will be for both of us learning. If you have any suggestions, please feel free to comment on what you think would be better?