jaredstrees
Well-known member
Post maiden
Mountain Models EVA Bipe
- Thread starter jaredstrees
- Start date
jaredstrees
Well-known member
She flew great. Only a little trim on the ailerons. Sorry no vid. I am flying alone.
jaredstrees
Well-known member
Thanks! She is a bit tricky to land. But wow she flies nice!
jaredstrees
Well-known member
So got another flight in. Really impressed with the way she flies. Need to remember to stay on the throttle on takeoffs and landings! I also gave her a little too much flair. She stopped about a foot from the fence. Here's the vid, sorry not much fun. Just gentle flying still feeling her out!
jaredstrees
Well-known member
Thanks guys! Sorry about the crappy vid quality. It’s from an old keychain cam I found laying around.
jaredstrees
Well-known member
Thanks, for only my second balsa build I'm real happy with it. Couple wrinkles here and there, but she turned out well. Hopefully I can tale the lessons learned and make the next kit even better.
jaredstrees
Well-known member
She finally got the right prop and some tail art. What a nice flying plane.
jaredstrees
Well-known member
So, was at the field on Sunday when this happened:
I was on the second flight that day for her. About three minutes in and I hear a grinding noise and the motor stopped. About 100' up. The ESC was fine as I still had control, but this plane does not like to land without power. That motor should have only been pulling around 20A tops, and she's got plenty of room on the ESC. I tried to make one last turn in order to land and she stalled out about 5' off the ground. Damage seems to be minor, firewall separated, but seems like a fairly clean break, landing gear and cowl trashed. Inner cabanes also snapped. Wings appear to be ok, I was a little too distraught to examine them real close. She will be repaired, but man, not how I wanted that flight to end.
I took the motor apart, and don't see anything visibly wrong with it, and it smells like it fried. She was well within specs, so I imagine I just got a bum motor. I've flown a lot of these powerup motors and never had a problem before, and trust me, I HAVE stressed some of them out. If anyone else has a theory on what may have happened I'd love to hear it.
Ah well, what goes up must come down. Just not always in the way you'd expect it to! If this had been most of my planes, I could have just glided in to a gentle landing.
Everything else flew just fine, even had a successful maiden on my new mini stick.
I was on the second flight that day for her. About three minutes in and I hear a grinding noise and the motor stopped. About 100' up. The ESC was fine as I still had control, but this plane does not like to land without power. That motor should have only been pulling around 20A tops, and she's got plenty of room on the ESC. I tried to make one last turn in order to land and she stalled out about 5' off the ground. Damage seems to be minor, firewall separated, but seems like a fairly clean break, landing gear and cowl trashed. Inner cabanes also snapped. Wings appear to be ok, I was a little too distraught to examine them real close. She will be repaired, but man, not how I wanted that flight to end.
I took the motor apart, and don't see anything visibly wrong with it, and it smells like it fried. She was well within specs, so I imagine I just got a bum motor. I've flown a lot of these powerup motors and never had a problem before, and trust me, I HAVE stressed some of them out. If anyone else has a theory on what may have happened I'd love to hear it.
Ah well, what goes up must come down. Just not always in the way you'd expect it to! If this had been most of my planes, I could have just glided in to a gentle landing.
Everything else flew just fine, even had a successful maiden on my new mini stick.
Attachments
Michael9865
Elite member
Ouch, glad it is repairable.
jaredstrees
Well-known member
Honestly, if any were burnt at all it was very minimal. I may have seen some black on one set. It really sounded like a bearing went, but those tested fine.
jaredstrees
Well-known member
Took some time this evening to really examine the damage. Looks like the firewall broke off clean. Even the tabs are in one piece. Only one cross member is broken and there is a slight separation on the starboard fuse. All easy fixes. The landing gear is way to replace, and a big thank you to Try-and -glide for the landing gear reinforcement tip. Bottom of the fuse is solid even though the gear looks like a pretzel. I’ll need to cut a couple new inner cabanes, but that’s about it. Worst part is going to be matching that cowl to the fuse. Took me hours to get the right color. She’ll fly again!
Turbojoe
Elite member
That's an easy fix. Yeah, because of those draggy bipe wings if you can't keep at least a little speed on landing (dead stick sucks) it just ain't gonna be pretty. Not a fault of the kit. It's just the draggy bipe wing design. If I don't keep some power on when landing my EVA bipe it gets ugly in a hurry. Just a little power on and I can grease her every time. Takes several touch and goes but you''ll soon learn what SHE wants to land cleanly.
Joe
Joe
Glad you'll get her back into the air again!
And before you toss that fried motor in the trash, consider harvesting the magnets out of it for hatch closures, and the shaft in case you bend another one. Plus, you can take out a little frustration directly on the motor pounding out the magnets
Or, you could look into rewinding the motor - it was all the craze in the RC airplane crowds about 20 years ago. Might relegate the motor to foamies if you rewind it though. Just in case.
And before you toss that fried motor in the trash, consider harvesting the magnets out of it for hatch closures, and the shaft in case you bend another one. Plus, you can take out a little frustration directly on the motor pounding out the magnets
Or, you could look into rewinding the motor - it was all the craze in the RC airplane crowds about 20 years ago. Might relegate the motor to foamies if you rewind it though. Just in case.
jaredstrees
Well-known member
Lol. Thanks guys. I greased the first landing, but not the second! Really thought it would be worse. It is a well designed kit.
I may just harvest some motor parts, but alas no rewinding. For $15 I can have a replacement at my door in two days.
I may just harvest some motor parts, but alas no rewinding. For $15 I can have a replacement at my door in two days.
jaredstrees
Well-known member
So she lives again! All buttoned back up save for some cowl paint. Honestly this is going to be the worst part. Matching paint colors to covering colors is tedious at best. But, hopefully this weekend or next she will get a remaiden! Lots of epoxy in the nose, but considering I had to add about 10 grams of weight to the nose to balance her I’m not worried. Now I can take out that 10 gram piece of lead!
