Newbie here to building powered planes.
Well my first build and my maiden went perfectly until the very end.
I wasn't sure where the center of gravity was as the build sheet said 2.75 inches, but the video showed the first fold on the top of the wing, which is just under 2 inches. I settled in between.
At 3/4 throttle the plane pretty much left my hand with minimal effort on an underhand toss. Virtually no trim need and it flew extremely well. Super rewarding.
That said, I was hoping the community could help me with a few questions as my maiden flight ended with what I can only call a brown out and a lawn jart landing.
Here's my main question:
1) Can this plane be repaired to fly well again?
Aside from the nose of the plane and the power pod, the rest of the plane was shockingly undamaged, despite a 30 to 40 foot nose dive into the ground. Would hate to throw away 3/4 of a new shape plane, but maybe rebuilding from the ground up may take the same amount of time and yield a plane that flies better.
2) What happened to my motor wires (see picture)?
It seems like the three wires coming out from the motor somehow got curly Q'd from their original state. The motor worked just fine testing it after the crash, but I'm wondering if those wires heated up too much after the crash to not be reliable in the future? As I said, I check the motor a handful of times after the crash, and it seemed to still be balanced and working fine.
3) What happened?
I was using everything provided in the power pack C radial kit. Brand new 2200 mAh 3s battery. FT servos, FT 40a esc and 10 x 4.5 prop. New Lemon 6 channel rx (pictured). I range checked before flying as well.
At the very end of my flight (5 or 6 minutes in) my plane would not pull up from a steep dive, despite providing elevator inputs. It appears that the ailerons would not work either. The plane lawn jarted into the ground.
It appears that I suffered a brown out.
1) Did I fly too long and drain the battery? Was probably 5-6 minutes in by my guesstimate. However, having spent most of my time in the past flying slope soarers, I'm used to getting 30 minute to one hour flights if the wind cooperates on 1000 mAh NIMH battery. So I could have been way off in my time estimate. Next time I'll set a timer.
2) Was I too aggressive on the throttle? I had the throttle roughly at 50% to 100% for most of the flight. Maybe at 75% on average. Did I drain the battery or heat it up too much and cause a brown out?
3) Was this caused by my two antenna not oriented correctly? The diversity antennas on the receiverwere not able to be oriented at 90° due to it being placed in the narrow channel of the power pod.
Getting back into the hobby after 6+ years off, I have to say the build process, the finished product, and the maiden flight (up until the signal loss) were thoroughly enjoyable. Before I took a break, I mainly flew slope soarers and an occasional BnF powered plane, so I am looking to build more and have a simple stick and Bushwacker waiting to be built.
I know this is part of the process, but considering how smoothly the build went, how smoothly the maiden went, only to lose connection... Dang!
Thanks for any input!
Well my first build and my maiden went perfectly until the very end.
I wasn't sure where the center of gravity was as the build sheet said 2.75 inches, but the video showed the first fold on the top of the wing, which is just under 2 inches. I settled in between.
At 3/4 throttle the plane pretty much left my hand with minimal effort on an underhand toss. Virtually no trim need and it flew extremely well. Super rewarding.
That said, I was hoping the community could help me with a few questions as my maiden flight ended with what I can only call a brown out and a lawn jart landing.
Here's my main question:
1) Can this plane be repaired to fly well again?
Aside from the nose of the plane and the power pod, the rest of the plane was shockingly undamaged, despite a 30 to 40 foot nose dive into the ground. Would hate to throw away 3/4 of a new shape plane, but maybe rebuilding from the ground up may take the same amount of time and yield a plane that flies better.
2) What happened to my motor wires (see picture)?
It seems like the three wires coming out from the motor somehow got curly Q'd from their original state. The motor worked just fine testing it after the crash, but I'm wondering if those wires heated up too much after the crash to not be reliable in the future? As I said, I check the motor a handful of times after the crash, and it seemed to still be balanced and working fine.
3) What happened?
I was using everything provided in the power pack C radial kit. Brand new 2200 mAh 3s battery. FT servos, FT 40a esc and 10 x 4.5 prop. New Lemon 6 channel rx (pictured). I range checked before flying as well.
At the very end of my flight (5 or 6 minutes in) my plane would not pull up from a steep dive, despite providing elevator inputs. It appears that the ailerons would not work either. The plane lawn jarted into the ground.
It appears that I suffered a brown out.
1) Did I fly too long and drain the battery? Was probably 5-6 minutes in by my guesstimate. However, having spent most of my time in the past flying slope soarers, I'm used to getting 30 minute to one hour flights if the wind cooperates on 1000 mAh NIMH battery. So I could have been way off in my time estimate. Next time I'll set a timer.
2) Was I too aggressive on the throttle? I had the throttle roughly at 50% to 100% for most of the flight. Maybe at 75% on average. Did I drain the battery or heat it up too much and cause a brown out?
3) Was this caused by my two antenna not oriented correctly? The diversity antennas on the receiverwere not able to be oriented at 90° due to it being placed in the narrow channel of the power pod.
Getting back into the hobby after 6+ years off, I have to say the build process, the finished product, and the maiden flight (up until the signal loss) were thoroughly enjoyable. Before I took a break, I mainly flew slope soarers and an occasional BnF powered plane, so I am looking to build more and have a simple stick and Bushwacker waiting to be built.
I know this is part of the process, but considering how smoothly the build went, how smoothly the maiden went, only to lose connection... Dang!
Thanks for any input!
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