FishbonesAir
Elite member
A Report from Dragonfly Labs, a division of Fishbones Air. 😁
TLDR: Cutdown 8060 prop to 6060 on TT, on 2s. Works great at high altitude- 5000'.
So, I picked up a Mighty Mini Tiny Tutor last year at Flitefest 2025, and only just recently got around to building it.
First flight attempts on 2s were, to say the least, unimpressive. I swapped out the ancient FT 1806 I first installed for a better one that wasn't making funny grinding noises. I also replaced the 45xx prop with the recommended 5030.
Since it has bushplane tires, I was expecting something like bushplane performance. Yah... No 👎. It struggled to pick up enough speed to take off, then struggled to stay in the air. It was like watching a pidgin on the 16th Street mall in Downtown Denver. Except the pidgin has been mauled by stray cats 🐈, got away, only to be hit by the mall bus 🚌. Eww. OK, it was a short bush, not a bus, but the airplane still got eaten, okay?
So I looked at this thing, and drug it back to Dragonfly Labs for some modifications.
Now, looking at it, the problem seemed to be less about the 2s battery, and more about the huge frontal area of the nose blocking a lot of the prop. I needed a quick, cheap, solution. 🤔 Altitudehobbies.com is my local supplier for motors and props, so I looked over his stock. I decided to cut down a 8060, first to 6560 (too much!) then 6060. 6560 might work, now that I have the subtrim nailed. This setup needs about 2-3mm of right-rudder subtrim to counter the big new propeller. On my TT, I also found I had to dial my elevator all the way up to trim? 🤔 I'm going to move that to subtrim now that I'm home.
How's it work? On rough dirt, at 5000+ feet altitude, it now accelerates well, and gets off in 10-12', no wind. In a strong headwind, it'll VTOL in less than a meter, from rough bumpy dirt. I haven't tried my club's glass smooth geotec runway yet. 😁 Nor have I run 3s yet.
I'll call this the Aspen model of the Tiny Tutor.
Capt Fishbones, oppresser of cats
TLDR: Cutdown 8060 prop to 6060 on TT, on 2s. Works great at high altitude- 5000'.
So, I picked up a Mighty Mini Tiny Tutor last year at Flitefest 2025, and only just recently got around to building it.
First flight attempts on 2s were, to say the least, unimpressive. I swapped out the ancient FT 1806 I first installed for a better one that wasn't making funny grinding noises. I also replaced the 45xx prop with the recommended 5030.
Since it has bushplane tires, I was expecting something like bushplane performance. Yah... No 👎. It struggled to pick up enough speed to take off, then struggled to stay in the air. It was like watching a pidgin on the 16th Street mall in Downtown Denver. Except the pidgin has been mauled by stray cats 🐈, got away, only to be hit by the mall bus 🚌. Eww. OK, it was a short bush, not a bus, but the airplane still got eaten, okay?
So I looked at this thing, and drug it back to Dragonfly Labs for some modifications.
Now, looking at it, the problem seemed to be less about the 2s battery, and more about the huge frontal area of the nose blocking a lot of the prop. I needed a quick, cheap, solution. 🤔 Altitudehobbies.com is my local supplier for motors and props, so I looked over his stock. I decided to cut down a 8060, first to 6560 (too much!) then 6060. 6560 might work, now that I have the subtrim nailed. This setup needs about 2-3mm of right-rudder subtrim to counter the big new propeller. On my TT, I also found I had to dial my elevator all the way up to trim? 🤔 I'm going to move that to subtrim now that I'm home.
How's it work? On rough dirt, at 5000+ feet altitude, it now accelerates well, and gets off in 10-12', no wind. In a strong headwind, it'll VTOL in less than a meter, from rough bumpy dirt. I haven't tried my club's glass smooth geotec runway yet. 😁 Nor have I run 3s yet.
I'll call this the Aspen model of the Tiny Tutor.
Capt Fishbones, oppresser of cats
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