Sky Angel A6 Intruder

lobstermash

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You know when some things are so ugly that they're cute? Like a Chihuahua, or an original VW Beetle, or Mr J. Scott ;)

The A6 is dubbed the ugliest Navy plane ever. And the Sky Angel (sold through HK) version, with ridiculously oversized nostrils, extends the ugliness. Yet somehow I was drawn to this model from when I first spotted it on HK. When I found it delivered for $15 less on HK's ebay shop, I couldn't resist.

I've tried to do some research, but there are only 4 vids; 3 sourced from HK. Looks like it might be a little on the difficult side to launch, and doesn't glide in for a landing, but flies well enough and sounds great. I guess I'll find out on Thursday...

I'll do a review when I get a chance to fly it.
 

lobstermash

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Woohoo! It's here! It took about half an hour to build, and looks stunning! A lot of people have reported that the fan rubs, but I found this is only if you over-tighten the hatch. I progressively loosened the screws until there was no more noise. It's a noisy little bugger, but there seems to be plenty of power with my 1000mAh 20C 3s. Cg is spot on (according to the manual) with the battery in the standard position (pushed right to the nose), but if I turn it around it'll push it back another cm or so. If it's not windy tonight I'll maiden it and finish the review
 

lobstermash

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Yeah, it seems to be where their slower moving stock has ended up. Some heavily discounted items on there
 

lobstermash

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Hmm. Maiden 'flight'... I put the cg to the back of the servos, given all the online feedback about being nose heavy. I throttled all the way up and gave a hefty throw into a gentle breeze. From the initial momentum, it went straight, but was loosing speed fast. It seemed a little tail heavy and didn't respond well to aileron at all. Finally it decided it'd had enough and stalled out. Nose dive straight into the ground. I've got the hot glue gun out, and will try again soon, but it's a disappointing result first up. Hoping it's just a cg issue. I'll go to the 'proper' cg setting this time. It'll be a real shame if I can't get this going, as it's such a sweet looking little plane.
 

Ak Flyer

Fly the wings off
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You know when some things are so ugly that they're cute? Like a Chihuahua, or an original VW Beetle, or Mr J. Scott ;)

The A6 is dubbed the ugliest Navy plane ever. And the Sky Angel (sold through HK) version, with ridiculously oversized nostrils, extends the ugliness. Yet somehow I was drawn to this model from when I first spotted it on HK. When I found it delivered for $15 less on HK's ebay shop, I couldn't resist.

I've tried to do some research, but there are only 4 vids; 3 sourced from HK. Looks like it might be a little on the difficult side to launch, and doesn't glide in for a landing, but flies well enough and sounds great. I guess I'll find out on Thursday...

I'll do a review when I get a chance to fly it.

Those are sweet planes. Ever watch Flight of the Intruder? Good movie. Great plane. Did a really good job for a lot of years.
 

lobstermash

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I haven't seen the movie, but what they were able to do with these was space-age when they came out.

Flight 2: Battery buried as far into the nose as it would go... Perfect cg. The wind had died off a little too. I chucked it hard again and it kept the speed, flew straight and gained a little altitude. I did a few wide loops to climb and started figure 8 circuits. I also tried to dive in for a pass, but it got a little unstable. Finally, I was turning as normal when there was a sudden gust of wind. The plane stopped responding to controls, nosed down and crashed again. I feel a little hard done by from that one. I'm gluing it up again, but this plane is relegated to dead calm days only. It sounds great in the air (that real jet sound), but I'm not convinced that there's enough power. I kept it on full the whole time. Also, landing this in one piece, if I ever get to that, will be quite tricky. It'll need to come in at pretty much full speed or it'll stall out.
 

Ak Flyer

Fly the wings off
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Doesn't sound like everything is right. That should have tons of power. No plane should have to be at full power all the time. (like you didn't know that right) What is the power system?
 

lobstermash

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Yeah, it's the 50mm EDF - kv not specified. Sounds about 3800-4200. Running a 3s 20c. Before the 3rd flight I sanded out the tubes a little and re-programmed the ESC. Not sure either of these made a difference, but the 3rd flight (just got back) was good. I avoided tight turns, chopped the power a couple of times briefly, did a loop. It was windy this time so I didn't try anything too crazy. It's a little plane and gets blown around. I brought it in from a long way out for the landing, and chopped the power in the middle of the descent before picking it up again to just under 1/2. It was actually more stable near the ground and touched down OK. No damage except a control horn came loose. I think, knowing what this plane can and can't do, I'm going to enjoy it more. It really does need a hard throw to get it going and gets thrown around in winds around 10kph.
 

Ak Flyer

Fly the wings off
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I know that EDF's use a lot of power. My first thought is you're only using a 20C battery. I would try a higher C battery and see what it does. When I went to a brushless motor on my cub, I tried using the stock 15 C battery and it would run really fast for a couple seconds and then it would drop the RPM a lot. I used a higher C rated battery out of my helicopter and it would maintain the high rpm for the whole flight.
 

lobstermash

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The battery seems to be coping fine. The motor draws about 17A static on full throttle, so probably about 12-14A in the air. 20C (30C burst) should be fine. The battery's pretty new too. I think I could probably use less throttle, but you have to be so careful on turns if you slow even a little bit. To me it sounds like similar issues to teach's mig in the same series, except a bit more susceptible to stalling.
 

spacemanspiff33

Junior Member
I just picked up one of these bad boys for free during the HK freebie fiasco and just had to post my experiences in this thread :)


As OP said, the thing looks *great* once it's all put together. I'd be extremely happy if I paid the 59 dollar HK retail price on this, but I was tickled pink because it was free!

First flight my brother hand launched it for me at like a 70 degree angle after I told him to throw it level >.< It went up about 20 feet, stalled, and started to come back down at which point it couldn't pick up enough speed to stay level and after about 50 yards of swaying this way and that I did like the OP, cut the power, and stalled it into the dirt...Thankfully there was no damage and I was read to go.....until my dog got a little bit excited and jumped on the plane, ripping off one of the ailerons ><


SO next day and a new aileron hinge I am ready for the second flight. I give it about 80% throttle and make sure my brother throws it nice and straight. Success! The thing flies out of his hand and holds a nice straight and level flight before picking up enough speed for me to pull her into the air. You really need to pick up speed for this plane to perform well. At slow speeds its hard to keep her level, and it seemed without at least 70% (give or take) throttle in a straight and level flight, she starts to stall....but she flies GREAT once you've got the speed up! I was looping like mad and rolling like a corkscrew. She rolls so fast that you can't even see the wings.....and the sound, the sound! Just sounds so COOL during fly-by's.

I then decided to do one more roll and bring her in for a landing annnnnd SMASH!!!!............unfortunately I got a little cocky and the nose started to drop below the horizon near the end of my rolls, I lost orientation while trying to recover and instead of looping away from the ground when I pulled up she looped right into a nice rocky clearing :black_eyed:

a6.jpg


None to be discouraged, I pulled out the glue gun today and got most of her back together. These things are resilient! Came together niceley in the end :D The electronics were all fine as well surprisingly enough, until I started playing with the EDF on the bench and the magic smoke came out.....

a62.jpg a63.jpg a64.jpg

So anyways once I figure out what motor to stick in this thing and replace the one I so stupidly fried, I'll let you all know how she flies :eek:


Oh, any suggestions on motor/fan replacement? :)
 
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lobstermash

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Try one of these:50mm EDF unit. This is what I was referring to on the HK forum. I didn't think they were out yet. Apparently they're not too shabby, but you'll also need to upgrade your ESC.
 

lobstermash

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Well AK, I think I might go a higher C battery after all... I flew again this evening. It went OK for the most part, but I did have one moment where it started to stall again, but I recovered it pretty quickly. Other than a few barrel rolls, I'm a little scared to do much aerobatics with it, purely because it always seems just above stall speed. When I landed it after about 3 mins, the battery was pretty warm and the wires and connector was hot (probably about 45-50 degrees C). I'm thinking a 30C battery will be more comfortable feeding 15-odd amps constantly and give the plane a bit more go. I cartwheeled a little on landing this time and it bent the wing tip slightly. I might put a CF rod in to stiffen it up a little...
 

RowdyRod

Junior Member
Hey Guys,

I got the A6 as a freebie before Christmas :) I've just set it up tonight hoping for a flight test this weekend. Do you guys have any idea on the stock ESC programming for this one?

Cheers.
 

lobstermash

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Hmm, according to that info, these things are supposed to be able to handle 4s! Given I'm using 90-100% throttle most of the time, 4s might be a good idea... Not sure how many amps it'll draw though
 

lobstermash

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NOOOOO!!! I've killed it! After >20 flights, I've pushed my luck too far. This was inevitable until I upgraded the power. Flying on the edge of stall on full throttle all the time is thrilling, but begs for a big crash to happen eventually.

It's first Canberra flight for a few weeks was going OK until it started to stall after turning alongside a row of trees. I managed to regain control near the ground, but it stalled again just off the ground. This time the nose didn't hit the ground directly. The left hand side is broken into a few pieces, the fan was dislodged and the EDF unit has destroyed itself.

I'm going to try and rebuild it, but at the same time it might not be worth it. It's never going to be as pretty.