Update:
I put the beta on hold today to do more flight testing on the alpha. It was just too nice of a day to waste inside. I played with CG and also burned a few 1550mAh 4s batteries through it. Unfortunately I could not hire my camera man so no video today.
I might just have to invest in a GoPro or something I can strap to the old nugget while I fly.
Anyway, putting the CG farther forward definitely helped with the pitch issues. My glide path was not nearly as nice and slow, but it was more stable.
These HobbyKing 3s 50mm EDF's are good to go on 4s. Hand launches are fool proof on the 4s and as long as you fly with some throttle management, the motors don't even get warm. I am using 30 amp ESC's and they were a little warm, but I don't have a lot of air flow in the hatch area. I am sure with some air flow these would be fine for continuous 4s operation. The majority of my flights were about 1/2 throttle with a few full throttle blips here and there.
My second flight with the 4s I did a few "high speed" passes, but it still is not what I would consider high speed. The air frame is just not built for speed. You have a ton of power for getting out of trouble though. This would be a good EDF trainer on 3s and a GREAT one on 4s. On 4s the idea would be to keep the throttle below 75%, but you would have some "oh crap!" power in reserve should you need it.
As far as the beta goes, I have still been wrestling with the serviceable EDF's. I redesigned the engine pods 5 times trying to come up with a good way to make the EDF's removable, but had no luck. I finally just gave up today. Progress had stalled and I was getting frustrated. So I went back to the permanent attachment and redesigned the pods.
Again.
And
again, I completely rebuilt the engine pods in the computer and had a few renders ready for upload. As I was looking at the renders frustrated with myself I had an epiphany. Something so simple yet effective. I could kick myself for not thinking if this earlier.
I am still kind of burned out of redesigning the same part 6 times, but this idea has sparked at least some excitement back into the project.
When I get the RE-design work done,
again, I will post pics.
Lucky number 7 it seems.