Hey everyone! Begginer to the hobby with some questions...

Vishal Dhayalan

Junior Member
Hey everyone,
Im a completely begginer to the hobby and havent built/flown any planes before but have had loads of hours on simulators. So this being my first build, I got the FT Bushwacker speed built kit along with the Power pack C. In the page where you view the FT bushwacker it says the recommended prop for power pack C is a 9 x 6 APC style prop. In the power pack C you get a 10 x 4.7 Slow Fly prop (although on my prop it says 1045, which means 10 x 4.5, idk why but guess that doesn't make a big difference).
So i was wondering if i can use the 10 x 4.7 prop i got in the power pack C instead of the recommended 9 x 6 APC style prop... Will it cause any damage to my motor, such as burn it out?? Or any major changes in flying experience and how the plane behaves??

I also would like to know the difference between APC and Slow Fly prop and will it have any effects aswell....

Thank You a lot everyone and Happy Flying 😄
 

IFlyRCstuff

Flyer Of Many Things
No, the larger prop wont affect the motor as a whole. You will have more power but less speed (kind of like going down gears on a bike). This is due to the lower pitch (second number) but larger diameter and the size of the motor in power pack C.you should be fine in that regard. APC is a brand as opposed to a prop style. Slow-Fly props have a a thinner area near the hole, and are more curved usually. this is because the props are made to perform at slower speeds. If you were to put a slow fly on a racer, the prop would bend and not be nearly as comparable to a stiff racing prop
 

Vishal Dhayalan

Junior Member
Thank you for the information IFlyRCstuff, after reading what you told i believe it will have no negative effect to anything in my FT bushwacker, i also would prefer to know if any other prop would improve the perfomance and control as i am a novice and would love the support and information...

Thank you again for responding with this amount of detail 😄
 

adamooo

New member
Thank you for the information IFlyRCstuff, after reading what you told i believe it will have no negative effect to anything in my FT bushwacker, i also would prefer to know if any other prop would improve the perfomance and control as i am a novice and would love the support and information...

Thank you again for responding with this amount of detail 

Hi Vishal -

You do need to be careful in general with substituting props (or any other component), but IFlyRCstuff is right that this change looks reasonable (and I assume it's find if FT sells it in the power-pack kit). Nothing is totally exact in these areas, and if you're a beginner then the "slow-flyer" setup is probably just fine for how you'll likely get started. I've heard a general rule of thumb that you can go up/down a size in diameter (e.g. 9-inch up to 10-inch) if you also go down/up a size in pitch (e.g. x6 down to x5, or here x4.something). When you want to learn more and play around with this sort of stuff, you can get an RC watt-meter, which plugs in between the motor and battery and lets you really measure the amps/volts/watts used with a particular combination of components. But for now this sounds like a fine place to start.

For control and having the plane trimmed as close to correctly as possible to get started, I think an FT speed-build kit is a good start since you know that the dimensions will be good, and you can use their provided control horns and other parts, and they usually give you good information like the default rates/expo settings if your radio supports it. If there's a "throw gauge" in the Bushwacker kit make sure you set the servos so that the maximum throw is according to the amount shown on the gauge. You can always change this later if you want more or less control, but it's good to have a reasonable starting point that they've recommended.
 

Vishal Dhayalan

Junior Member
Hi Vishal -

You do need to be careful in general with substituting props (or any other component), but IFlyRCstuff is right that this change looks reasonable (and I assume it's find if FT sells it in the power-pack kit). Nothing is totally exact in these areas, and if you're a beginner then the "slow-flyer" setup is probably just fine for how you'll likely get started. I've heard a general rule of thumb that you can go up/down a size in diameter (e.g. 9-inch up to 10-inch) if you also go down/up a size in pitch (e.g. x6 down to x5, or here x4.something). When you want to learn more and play around with this sort of stuff, you can get an RC watt-meter, which plugs in between the motor and battery and lets you really measure the amps/volts/watts used with a particular combination of components. But for now this sounds like a fine place to start.

For control and having the plane trimmed as close to correctly as possible to get started, I think an FT speed-build kit is a good start since you know that the dimensions will be good, and you can use their provided control horns and other parts, and they usually give you good information like the default rates/expo settings if your radio supports it. If there's a "throw gauge" in the Bushwacker kit make sure you set the servos so that the maximum throw is according to the amount shown on the gauge. You can always change this later if you want more or less control, but it's good to have a reasonable starting point that they've recommended.

Yes, i believe its a good one to get into the hobby and am planning to set it to the recommended deflection rates aswell, my radio is the turnigy 9x and i just got the hang of it in terms of usage and programming. Looking forward to flying the plane after i build it 👍😄
I also noticed that the battery is kept outside the power pod but isnt exactly shown where it is placed, since this is my first build im quite unsure where to place it, would like to know where everyone else places it and why...

Thank you, Adamooo, Happy Flying. Cheers!
 

Bricks

Master member
The FT Buchwacker the battery I use is a 3S 2200mah and install it from the bottom thru the opening and move it around to get the correct CG. Once I find the correct CG I mark that spot.
 

Vishal Dhayalan

Junior Member
The FT Buchwacker the battery I use is a 3S 2200mah and install it from the bottom thru the opening and move it around to get the correct CG. Once I find the correct CG I mark that spot.

Oh cool, didnt know the exact location although i knew the CG bit, im planning to get my plane level and not nose heavy or tail heavy. I'm using a 3S 2250mAh lipo battery

Thanks for the clarification Bricks, Happy flying :)
 

adamooo

New member
Oh cool, didnt know the exact location although i knew the CG bit, im planning to get my plane level and not nose heavy or tail heavy. I'm using a 3S 2250mAh lipo battery

Thanks for the clarification Bricks, Happy flying :)

A little nose heavy is better than tail-heavy if you're unsure. Again, it's nice to have FT designs with (usually) clear indications of the CG.
 

Vishal Dhayalan

Junior Member
A little nose heavy is better than tail-heavy if you're unsure. Again, it's nice to have FT designs with (usually) clear indications of the CG.

Oh ok, what are the advantages of having it nose heavy?
And does anyone have the turnigy 9x radio? Cos i have one and am not able to make the failsafe option in it work...
 

Snafu

Junior Member
does anyone have the turnigy 9x radio? Cos i have one and am not able to make the failsafe option in it work...

Hello Vishal,

I have a 9x running openTX and with a FrSky hack module. I do not think the 9x has failsafe as standard (mine has failsafe through a button on the FrSky recievers)
 

adamooo

New member
Oh ok, what are the advantages of having it nose heavy?

It's a bit hard to describe but mostly it's just worse to be tail-heavy. They say "nose-heavy flies poorly, tail-heavy flies once". With nose-heavy I find you can kind of power through as long as it's not too far off. With tail-heavy you lose a lot of control at slow speeds, as the tail/rear try to kind of fall under the plane and the motor is barely holding the nose up. In that kind of circumstance you're not getting good airflow and you don't have lift or good control. If there's any wind you're probably drifting down-field and if you haven't seen this before you're panicking ;-). You're faced with a choice to power up and hope you can get to a more controllable state, or cut power and let it fall in however it may (not usually gracefully).

Don't let me get you too worried - it's just that I know what it's like to have this situation when you don't have a lot of flying experience and don't have confidence that the plane is set up and trimmed correctly otherwise. It's also why I usually recommend building something like the FT Flyer and getting some experience on that (simple to build, forgiving to fly, easy to repair or replace) as a first plane, so that when you move to a Bushwacker (or Tiny Trainer, or Storch, ...) you'll have a good experience under your belt already to help you work through anything more complex with those models.