Edgar Playfoot

Thanks for that Ken I hadn't thought of a magnet coming loose. Obviously as a new motor I hope to be returning it to the supplier tomorrow for a replacement but I am disappointed that I should have a problem with what I thought to be a top class motor. With my helis and fixed wing I probably have a dozen or more brushless motors and this is the first time I have had a problem.

I have just purchased a new Hacker A50 16 motor for my Sebart Angel. After mounting to the model and spinning the prop by hand I noticed that the motor is noisy not like my existing Hacker motors. It seems to run okay but as soon as the rpm reduces to near idle the noise comes in again much like a rough bearing noise except that it takes place at the same point on the circumference of the motor. I think the armature is touching the stator magnets and wonder if anyone else has had the same problem. I have always thought that Hacker were one of the best motors, but I now see it is made in China and the winding does not look that tidy!!

Pete, thanks so much for your help. I am now well on my way to programming my DX8 in the sailplane programme with the motor stick working. Great! I should have seeked help from this forum earlier. Thanks again. Edgar

I have the same problem with a Eflite Mystique glider and have had to use the Acro settings in order to get the throttle stick function to work. It seems we need a DX18 or the new DX9 shortly to become available. I managed to find DX8 settings for full house glider which I was able to download.

Anyone know what has happened to EM Models of Tunbridge Wells? The shop appears to have ceased trading.

Thankyou for your suggestions. I think the best thing to do is to buy some 5s lipos, the model will then be to the exact power specification as suggested by the model designer. No doubt there will be a reduction in power but also a reduction in weight with lighter batteries.

Can the Transmitters Travel Adjust feature be used to reduce full power throttle power consumption, it appears to work? I have a SebArt PC-21 with the recommended Hacker A50-14S motor and Hacker 70A Ecs. But I have using my four 6s lipos which I used in my SebArt Angel. The recommended lipos for the PC-21 is 5s. David Ashby in his RCM&E March article also used 6s lipos with no reported problems. However on Saturday last, which was a very hot day, I had a reduced power situation about 4 minutes into my third flight. On landing I checked the 5000mah lipo which still showed 60% capacity. The Esc was hot to touch but only showed about 40C with my temperature gun. This week I have checked the current drawn with my watt meter. My two older 4300mah batteries give a reading of about 1250 watts which is the motors maximum. But my newer 5000mah batteries must hold their voltage better as the watts far exceed the motors maximum and I suspect this caused a power reduction in flight. I have reduced the Travel Adjust to about 65% which appears to have reduced the current drawn from a freshly charged battery with little or no reduction in the RPM of 7600. I have not seen any mention of this being done in this forum and wonder if this is a lasting solution to this problem.

Phill, The chord of my Christen Eagle II, both top and bottom wings is 285mm. Hope this helps.

I fly a Great Planes Christen Eagle 11 which is very slightly larger at 68" top wing span,64" bottom wing span,62" fuzz length. Flying weight without fuel 7.5kg. OS 200 FS up front. Instruction manual shows the C of G 156mm back from the leading edge of the top wing centre section.

1 Mode 2 2 South East UK 3 South East UK 4 Self taught

I have just been reading Eric's comments again and he is correct in saying that on switch on the heli must not be moved until the gyro light comes on which is red on my Twister Storm.

The HL400 Gyro that came with my Twister Storm does not appear to respond correctly to the Gyro setting on my DX6i tranny. I have to leave this setting in INH. It does however respond to the FLAP/GYRO switch. Rate is in the up position and Heading Hold in the down position. Gain is adjusted on the Travel Adjust and the Storm instructions say 60% but I usually have to reduce this to 50% to lessen tail wag. Sometimes on spool up I get terrible tail wag which sometimes goes away if I switch off and back on. The instructions do say that the gyro is affected by temperature and humidity and this problem occurred mainly back in the winter. But in fact I have been flying today and the gyro behaved much better after the first flight so perhaps it needs to warm up!   The GP750 gyros on my T-REX 250 and 500 work much better and are adjusted via the gyro setting facility on the tranny. But the GP750 gyro costs well over half the cost of the complete Twister Storm!   I am not sure if my Twister would have flown OK straight out of the box, because I promptly crashed it on first spool up and before I could fly again I have to learn how to set it up.   One thing is for sure, a beginner needs to reduce the amount of control movement which one can do either on the Swash Mix or Dual Rate and Expo. I have my Twister Storm  Dual Rate and Expo set at 80% & 40% for ail & Ele and 90% & 20% for Rudder. Perhaps these comments will be of help.    

Hi Peter, I am learning to fly helicopter with a Twister Storm and can now fly circuits. I now also have a Trex 250 and am finishing the build of a Trex 500. I am using the DXi 6 channel radio with my Twister which I think is very similar to your DX7.I used the recommended settings as for the DX7 but found that I had to reverse the elevator servo and I wonder if this may be your problem. The swash plate must remain level as you advance and reduce pitch. When increasing pitch the swash plate lowers on the spindle.   I did reduce the Travel Adjust for Rudder on the transmitter setup to 50% each way to avoid the servo over running.   I think there is an error in the setup instructions for the swash mix. I found mine had to be a plus for pitch and not a minus. I also reduced the percentage for pitch from +90% to + 75 which gives me a pitch range of about -2 to +10 which has been recommended for beginners many times on this forum.   I don't think the gyros are very good on the Storm. Mine wags a bit. My gyro responds to the Flap/Gyro switch. Up for Rate mode, down for Heading hold mode. The gain is adjusted by Travel Adjust  60% as the instructions but I find I have to reduce this a bit in a wind.   Hope this is of help. Edgar  

 I have spent well over 100hrs on the phoenix sim and I am now learning to fly for real on a Twister Storm and yes I agree it was very sensitive innitially. The first time I tried to fly it it was so sensitive on pitch. It shot up in the air with the inevitable crash. I have since reduced the pitch to +10 and -1.5 degrees as a recent article in RCM&E. I also found a very good video on checking and adjusting pitch on Youtube. I have the D/R & Expo on my DX6i trany set at 80% + 40% for both Elevator and Aileron. Rudder is 90% + 25% . These settings I am finding comfortable.. There is still plenty of control movement without being too twitchy. However I have still only done about an hour flying it so it is very early days for me.

Thanks John. I have just had another session in the garden. This time I moved about a bit more and let the copter get sideways on. Nearly lost it once. Ended up in a heather bush. Fortunately no damage, put another battery in and carried on flying. Rotor blades now getting rather dirty with insects etc! Yes I must look to joining a club.