Sea Angel: First Powered plane in 15 years for me!

[The Hangar]

I use the turnigy air 3730 or PROPDRIVE v2 3536 910KV, they both work well on a 12x3.8 SF prop. I get the one that happens to be in stock. I use these on both my Cub & FT3D. On 3S, they have unlimited vertical and will hover @ 40% throttle. A 2,200 3S, gives 8-10 minute flights.

Sweet - thanks!

 

[DanH80]

Thanks for the link Ted (speedbirdted?). I went to the Sig site but never clicked on the Herr models link.

That might work with a little tweaking. It's a bit outdated, but modified for electric and lightened up a bit could be a cool little project.

 

[DanH80]

Another idea I had, that might offend some old slopers like me...

I have an old Super Cheetah, which was a bombproof slope machine back in the day. I could cut off the nose, and install a motor of this size (would probably still need some lead weight up there, it has a large chunk to get balanced) and have a pretty fun "warmliner".

Then again it might be too painful to cut it up that way. Just hope I find a good slope nearby and leave it as is.

 

[Piotrsko]

Missed the super cheetah but in slope there was no such thing as bomb proof. Sturdy maybe. I would just poke a hole in the nose with an appropriate diameter hole saw then shove the motor in (BTDT) a 1300 $20 battery in the front if it fits, OR a 2000+ on the CG held on with tie wraps or rubber bands. Somebody (@The Hangar, @rockyboy [¿] has a 3d printed wing top power pod.

I'm not noted for pretty planes since ugly flies just as good.

 

[DanH80]

Ha, you are correct. I was flying once at a place called the Ruins above Santa Barbara in 30-40 mph winds, where the only way to bleed off speed to land is to go behind into the rotor and hope for the best as you come up and around into the landing zone. The sun got in my eyes just as the rotor rolled the cheetah 180 degrees, and so I pulled up as it dove, and it promptly smushed into the hill going probably 90 mph. It did not survive that. The fuselage did though!

 

[Piotrsko]

Never flew there. Back when, ST Barb got to be severely anti "toy" aircraft like most of the prime sites. Stopped flying slope when Bluff Cove fell into the ocean.

 

[DanH80]

I was always surprised how little the paragliders were bothered by the rc folks at Wilcox Property, but maybe it caught up eventually.

Up at the Ruins I'm sure there's still no problem, it's pretty remote and extreme, and when the wind is great for RC, it's too much for the paragliders and hanggliders.

 

[Piotrsko]

The Ruins: I know of them (knapps castle), but, im guessing they are part of what USED to be Ronald Reagan's ranch no fly zone which was 50 miles in a circle from the VOR up there? My one remaining long term memory brain cell is agitating why I never flew there. By the time he left office, I had moved too far away.

Paragliding never bothered us, or we them, it generally was local homeowners getting annoyed that we had legal access to "their" public beach or hills.

 

[DanH80]

Yeah, another good spot in SB was what used to be called Las Positas Park, near what used to be Wilcox property. It was super popular for a while with slopers, and then the park just decided one day it wasn't going to allow us anymore, without any good reason that I ever heard.

A bummer because it was a really fun combined slope/thermal lift you could get there, depending on the day, plus really easy landing until they planted all the trees on the hillside.

I was flying there when all the combat foamies got popular, and Richter was there developing the Weasel and Alula, I got one of the first Weasel prototypes. It was super fun to ballast up with tons of lead and see how many vertical rolls you could get. I may have reinforced the wing for that, I forget. Good times.

 

[Piotrsko]

Oh wow. You were flying there when the slope combat craze started. I still have my zagi, fly it every once and a while, west facing slopes without houses are rare here in Reno and solo combat is boring.