Old electric resurrection.

DuncanC

New member
Well I was gifted an old electric biplane from my brother years ago. It didn’t work and I wound up suspending it from the ceiling of my grandson’s room when he still lived here. Some weeks ago in a fit of straightening thing up I removed it and decided to fix it up. The electronics except for the servos for the rudder and elevator were outmoded. I filled and repainted the faded blue with red. The wing attachment was problematic and required fixing them together. That made reaching the bind button of the replacement receiver very cumbersome. So I drilled a hole in the fuselage and mounted the receiver flush so I could push the bind button with a small rod. Now I just have to wait for fair weather and little wind. It passed the range test but the CG is just a best guess. So we’ll see how the maiden flight goes.
6E5C1627-3479-412D-B671-3C6ED88F924B.jpeg
 
Last edited:

Mr NCT

Site Moderator
Well I was gifted an old electric biplane from my brother years ago. It didn’t work and I wound up suspending it from the ceiling of my grandson’s room when he still lived here. Some weeks ago in a fit of straightening thing up I removed it and decided to fix it up. The electronics except for the servos for the rudder and elevator were outmoded. I filled and repainted the faded blue with red. The wing attachment was problematic and required fixing them together. That made reaching the bind button of the replacement receiver very cumbersome. So I drilled a hole in the fuselage and mounted the receiver flush so I could push the bind button with a small rod. Now I just have to wait for fair weather and little wind. It passed the range test but the CG is just a best guess. So we’ll see how the maiden flight goes. View attachment 226010 View attachment 226010
The Staggerwing is a classic, love it. Is the CG at about the leading edge of the top wing?
 

DuncanC

New member
I have no idea where the CG is yet. There isn’t much option to change it due to the battery placement. Since you’ve triggered my curiosity I’ll see how it balances later. When it last flew well over 20 years ago it was very nimble and pretty forgiving. Tomorrow morning looks promising so I’ll report back if things go as planned..
 

DuncanC

New member
It has a brushed motor which I should have mentioned. I used a Spektrum AR410 4 channel receiver and an ESC from a friend for the brushed motor. I know very little about ESCs other than them being MOSFET which I believe are wired in parallel to achieve the desired current output. The ESC I’m using APPEARS TO ONLY haVE only two MOSFETS. Not knowing anything about the motor I’ll have to wait and see if the small ESC is up to the task. At worst the motor will simply stop if the ESC fails. I’ll keep the maiden flight a pretty tight oval just in case.
 

FlamingRCAirplanes

Elite member
It has a brushed motor which I should have mentioned. I used a Spektrum AR410 4 channel receiver and an ESC from a friend for the brushed motor. I know very little about ESCs other than them being MOSFET which I believe are wired in parallel to achieve the desired current output. The ESC I’m using APPEARS TO ONLY haVE only two MOSFETS. Not knowing anything about the motor I’ll have to wait and see if the small ESC is up to the task. At worst the motor will simply stop if the ESC fails. I’ll keep the maiden flight a pretty tight oval just in case.
Brushed ESC’s can get pretty small and still work, chances are the on you got will work fine
 

DuncanC

New member
Well I was gifted an old electric biplane from my brother years ago. It didn’t work and I wound up suspending it from the ceiling of my grandson’s room when he still lived here. Some weeks ago in a fit of straightening thing up I removed it and decided to fix it up. The electronics except for the servos for the rudder and elevator were outmoded. I filled and repainted the faded blue with red. The wing attachment was problematic and required fixing them together. That made reaching the bind button of the replacement receiver very cumbersome. So I drilled a hole in the fuselage and mounted the receiver flush so I could push the bind button with a small rod. Now I just have to wait for fair weather and little wind. It passed the range test but the CG is just a best guess. So we’ll see how the maiden flight goes. View attachment 226046
An update. I took it out to the very low traffic road in front of the house to see if it would lift off. The motor spun up and the propellor flew off into the roadside brush. It must have cracked at the hub. Ah well. So now I could use some help picking the right replacement propellor. I think the prop was around 7”. The motor shaft is 5.16 mm or .203 inches. Any suggestions for a replacement?
 

FlamingRCAirplanes

Elite member
An update. I took it out to the very low traffic road in front of the house to see if it would lift off. The motor spun up and the propellor flew off into the roadside brush. It must have cracked at the hub. Ah well. So now I could use some help picking the right replacement propellor. I think the prop was around 7”. The motor shaft is 5.16 mm or .203 inches. Any suggestions for a replacement?
Do you prefer to buy from Amazon? And how much does it weight? I would also need to see the motor to recommend the correct propeller, another thing that would help greatly is just a couple pictures of the broken propeller