Electric Flair Tiger Moth

[Martin_H]

Thought I would start a thread on my adventures on building the Flair Tiger Moth with electric power.

 

So far I have a rather large box of die cut ply bits and sheet and strip balsa, an E-Flite 160 electric motor and 2 5s 5 amp LiPo batteries. A 19 X 10 Bolly wood prop should round out the power side with a hopeful AUW of under 18 lbs or 8 Kilos.

 

After some consideration I am hoping to get the motor and batteries forward of the firewall, accessible by hinging the cowling side panels. 

 

There have been a number of threads on this and other sites for the Flair and Duncan Hutson 1/4 scale Tiger Moths, with many good hints, tips and ideas, so I am going to keep this thread more aligned with the electrification side of the build.

 

I invite anyone who has had success or otherwise in electrifrying this or similar size models to make comment.

[Danny Fenton]

This looks an interesting exercise, I have been involved in electrifying smaller 60" bipes and tripes and larger 86" monoplanes, so should be an interesting exercise.

I believe the motor is around 240kv and should give more than enough power for this model if it comes in at about the weight you hope. I presume you are going for 10S? 5000mAh. The thing that gave me trouble on my 1/5 Chipmunk was the size of the scale prop was small by typical electric flight 15" at 1/5. I believe a Moth prop is around 78" so at 1/4 scale would be around 20" which should suit the motor well. The kv should give around 9,000 rpm which is a bit too high for my liking but if you keep the throttle low you shuld be good to go.

 

Cheers

Danny

 

[Robin James]

I am building the Duncan Hutson Tiger and will hinge my side cowlings as well to get at carb settings in my case a SC180FS, wont knock electric but i'm addicted to the smell of ic's, not sure how Flairs set up is inside the cowl but have found i can on mine secure the side cows with magnets or you could go mad and make scale twist and pull slot and handles. Just a thought for you mate.

 

Rob

[Martin_H]

Thanks Rob - the Flair cowl is a lovely large fiberglass affair and the fuselage gives good support for opening and hingeing the side cowls. I would like to find some scaleish hinge preferably in aluminium and I like the look of the Dubro cowl fasteners as a means of securing the cowls. Do you use two magnets or a magnet and a steel plate on yours?

[Robin James]

Sorry for the delay Martin but been away, i intend to use two magnets, while i am here with you scale lot anybody know where i could get a scale prop and spinner for a 1/4 Tiggie. Martin whats the U/C like on Flairs Tiggie, heard it is very good any way of getting hold of one do you know.

 

Rob

[Martin_H]

Hi Rob,

 

A scale prop would be about 19 inch diameter and that works in with my  figures for the Eflite 160 a Bolly 19 X 10 seems to be the solution.

 

You could try Clark Industries in Canada ( http://www.clarkindustries.on.ca/flintlocks-custom.html) for a prop, they do a 1/4 scale Tiggie, remember the Tiggie prop was opposite handed so you may have to get a specialist to do one. Howard Boys I think did a magnificent set of plans in Aeromodeller years ago that he powered with a Merco 49 timed to run in reverse rotation. Not 1/4 scale but lots of scale detail. Front induction 2 strokes that have a forward mounted crankshaft and carby housing, such as Enya motors, will apparently run in reverse by simply rotating the front end of the assembly 90 degrees.

 

The Flair undercarriage is listed as available from Flair : http://www.flairtradecounter.co.uk/cataloguestore/ds_login.php

 

Check out the Flair Tiggie build on http://www.rcscalebuilder.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=11287&KW=Flair+Tiger+Moth by Aussie Steve Barker. He mentions scale props and spinners.