Looking for a Mentor

FlyingMonkey

Bought Another Trailer
Staff member
Admin
In one of the reponses above it was said twice now that my motor should be approximately a 550 and good advice about the 4 cell was given. However, I still have a question becuase it was said that there are many ways to accomplish this. I know that more power is better than not enough but what are the limits. When I went through the motocalc it gave me a lot of examples of motors in the 600-800 size. I understand I need more battery and it also said I should use a 4 cell 3200. With all this said I am leaning towards more power becuase in the advice section it talked about grass and short strip take offs. I need to deal with short runways and none are paved. So its dirt, gravel, grass and not much room. Can I get your thoughts? The weights are not much different but am I creating a different problem by doing this. Trying to settle on Motor, ESC and battery setup so I can order from the states. Thanks guys.

I'm not sure that a 60" wingspan plane is your best choice for the area you're planning to fly it. It might be worth picking a plane better suited for smaller areas, and fly it while figuring out the needs of your larger build.
 

Ak Flyer

Fly the wings off
Mentor
I think that depends on the area as a whole. Those trainers do pretty well in rough terrain and the tricycle gear prevents a lot of wing damage due to ground loops. I would try to keep it light obviously, but if you aren't able to make smooth approaches without having to dive to land in a small area then you should be okay. That all depends on your skills though. What used to be a small area for me isn't anymore.
 

FlyingMonkey

Bought Another Trailer
Staff member
Admin
I think that depends on the area as a whole. Those trainers do pretty well in rough terrain and the tricycle gear prevents a lot of wing damage due to ground loops. I would try to keep it light obviously, but if you aren't able to make smooth approaches without having to dive to land in a small area then you should be okay. That all depends on your skills though. What used to be a small area for me isn't anymore.

That's what I was thinking... if the area is that small to take off from that he'd need extra power to take off more vertically, landing might pose even larger problems.
 

Ak Flyer

Fly the wings off
Mentor
That's what I was thinking... if the area is that small to take off from that he'd need extra power to take off more vertically, landing might pose even larger problems.

Yep. I keep thinking of this baseball field I like to fly in. It's got a nice infield but the grass is too much usually. If you can jump in the air before you hit the grass then all you have to clear are the fences past the outfield. It's pretty easy to set up a landing approach but if you don't set down right on the edge of the grass you will run out of infield. I'd like to see pictures of the area he has to land in.

The pipe yard we fly in has a couple dirt roads with lots of big rocks and holes but there's a couple places we can land about anything. There's lots of brush and trees around, but honestly I prefer flying there because it's a lot harder. The precise landings and take off are a blast, sort of like bush flying up here.
 

pgerts

Old age member
Mentor
Field might not be the problem for osanbob as he is used to fly both glow and electric and so is/(was?) his father.
Take a look in post #12 - the last minutes. There is not a big need for space to start and land a 40-trainer when you know how to fly.
Voltage might not be a big problem as he will only be using a 4cell LiPo and most speed controllers in that range has more than enough BEC to power a lot more than 5 old Futaba standardservos at 5 or 6 volts. A bec will get the 5 or 6 volts and not go from something higher when fully charged and a lot lower after half an hour of flying.
 

Ak Flyer

Fly the wings off
Mentor
That's good, he didn't really mention experience.

I think 4S will be sufficient power, maybe not turn it into a rocket ship.

That's a really nice flying trainer. What kind is it? I have always wanted to fly from skis, never got around to it. I've done the floats on snow and that's a blast.
 

pgerts

Old age member
Mentor
That's a really nice flying trainer. What kind is it?
It seems to be this http://www.silverarrowhobby.com/shop/product.php?id_product=27 but it is not produced any longer according to our local dealers. This is the #12 Disco for the pilot in the vid ;-)
All 40-trainers fly very well if not to heavy and if you know how to move the sticks .......
A have a MPX Magister converted from electric to glow and an old Graupner 400 converted from glow to electric .. (plus a few scratch built).
Both fly well in all weathers but it is smart to use a foamie on floats as the water will always find a way in to a balsa wing and start to grow fuzzy green things ;-)
 

Ak Flyer

Fly the wings off
Mentor
One of my all time favorite planes is the Sig Kadet LT40. That was the first nitro plane I ever flew, my brother has one. I couldn't believe how well it flew.
 

wkiess01

Junior Member
Hello from down under, Adelaide South Australia!
I've been watching videos and reading articles on tricopters and thought I'd get into it myself. I've built David's tricopter V2.5 using stock standard parts. I've bought a Spektrum dx6i radio transmitter and paired it with an orange receiver. All good so far. Now comes the problem. I know nothing about flying a tricopter or about setting it up. I've adjusted the KK2 board for a tricopter and reset the dx6i to default using Heli mode. When I start the tricopter, not all 3 motors spin up, only 1 or 2. I would have expected all 3 to spin up. Anyways, after much research and many failures, it still won't work. I haven't flashed the ESCs because I don't know what that means or why it needs to be done, nor do I have a "flasher". Like I said, stock standard HK parts.
So now I am looking for someone to learn from, someone who knows about tricopters and hopefully a dx6i radio and who has the patience to deal with an old fart like me. I'd really love to get this thing going as I want to use it for aerial videography using my GoPro Hero3 Black for when we go wakeboarding.
Anyone willing?
Cheers,
Walter
 

asadpasat

Junior Member
Hi,
I have problem. I have purchased HobbyKing HK6S 2.4Ghz FHSS 6Ch Tx & Rx (Mode 2),Turnigy TG9e 9g / 1.5kg / 0.10sec Eco Micro Servo (USA Warehouse,Turnigy 500mAh 2S 20C Lipo Pack,Hobbyking SS Series 18-20A ESC,Turnigy Park300 Brushless Outrunner 1380kv to build FT Swappable. But when I connect everything and start running the motor it works properly. Unfortunatly when I get, on transmitter in middle, with the control stick, the motor shuts down and I have to go down with the controling stick down and then I can run the motor again. But this is happening every time I reach the the middle on the transmitter. Can you say what could be possibly wrong?
Thanks.
 

xuzme720

Dedicated foam bender
Mentor
You might try to calibrate the ESC to the transmitter by powering up your Tx and move throttle stick all the way up. Power on the plane and wait for the ESC to beep. Move the throttle stick all the way down and the ESC should play the normal start-up sound after it beeps again. You may then unplug the battery to the plane and replug it. ESC should be calibrated.

Or the ESC is set to 3 cell lipo and it's kicking in the low voltage cutoff.
 

asadpasat

Junior Member
I tried to callibrate it but it didnt work. I even tried to connect 3 lipo battery. Maybe I am doing something wrong. I turn on the transmiter and put the throttle to top and then I turn on the esc, connected the battery. It made a beep and it was doing the beep sound until I put the throttle all the way down. And the esc made sound like couple of beeps. Then I turned off , unplug the batteryand then pluged it again. But it still shutdown when I put the throttle in middle. But I notice when I do this and put the throttle slowly,slowly to top it work and when I reach the top, with throttle, it works for couple of seconds and then it shutdown. Is there anything else I could try?
Thanks
 

xuzme720

Dedicated foam bender
Mentor
It might just be a bad ESC or Motor. Are you testing with or without a prop? Do you have any others to test with to make sure both the motor and ESC are working correctly separately.