Xfly Tasman Bush Trainer 1500mm Foamie

[toto]

I decided to treat myself to one of these as a means to providing myself with a standby trainer to support my Domino.

 

I had the Arising Star which I retired yesterday after a very short and largely unsuccessful tenure. There had been numerous repairs made to this due to several deadstick incidents and it was not in the best of condition. I stripped it down last night and salvaged the installed equipment.

 

So ..... this should provide a quick build replacement and is in keeping with my plan to shelve any IC ambitions until I am both flying solo and have gained more experience.

 

I intend assembling this over the next couple of days as a means of getting myself back into the building mode and resurrecting my Sky 40 trainer build.

 

Looking forward to getting started.

 

Toto

[Stuart Z]

Beauty of this sport is you will need to keep building / assembling just in case, so you always have spares.  In my first 6 months I think I rebuilt a Hi Boy 3 times, a Mascot several times then built a Super 60 which was eventually sold off to another beginner - all in 6 months.  Doesn't  bear thinking about now.  But it does get better to the point you keep asking yourself "which year did I buy this".  So much so I'm in the middle of building a model which I bought 40 years ago and part of the heap of kits I haven't had to assemble because I wasn't breaking enough.  Storage is a challenge so I don't build one until I need it.  

 

S

[toto]

The Arising Star had taken a beating and some of the repairs were pretty major to the point I didn't really have any confidence in it any more ..... so it bit the dust to free up space for something more reliable ( hopefully ).

 

So ... in no particular order .... a few shots of the Tasman. No assembly as such, just a few progress photo's.

 

The elevator .....

 

 

and the wings .....

 

 

and one of top and bottom .....

 

 

and the ends firstly showing in shockingly short Flap leads .....

 

 

and then the lights ....

 

 

and then the fuselage and wing spar in place .....

 

 

bags of goodies .....

 

 

The wings screwed in place .....

 

 

and the servo connections .....

 

 

You can see the flap lead that needs to connect to the supplied Y harness. I had to take the wing back off and thread the Y harness through to get this one connected.

 

 

The other Flap connection which was slightly longer ....

 

 

In goes my weapon of choice ..... Spektrum AR 620.

 

 

Some of the cables are a bit tight and I wont try tidying or locating the receiver in place yet until I have tried, tested and set up the model.

 

 

and there we have it completed but not paired with the receiver / transmitter as yet. ( I am about to get ready for a 21st birthday party .... my nephew ).

 

One last photo ..... of the obligatory spare part .......

 

 

I don't have a clue what this is and there is no reference to this in the manual ....... any ideas ?

 

I'll be back in the shed tomorrow to set up the transmitter / receiver settings etc.

 

Cheers for now.

 

PS .... I have installed the supplied undercarriage but have ordered a springy thingy as posted up by Ron on the " what did you get for Christmas " thread.

 

cheers

 

toto 

 

 

[michael cawood]

the mystery part is used with an air compressor to blow up things like kids paddling pools and inflatables through a self sealing patch. It could be for the tyres. 

[Ron Gray]

It is for the tyres but do not over inflate them as that will increase the chances of a nice bumpy landing, a bit like a pogo. By the same token have sufficient air in them to prevent the rims decking out as that will split them! Regarding the wing servo leads, put short extensions connected to the Rx, long enough for the connectors to sit outside of the fuselage. This will make connecting the wings so much easier and you just push the excess back into the fuse.

I fly mine on 4s 3700mAh batteries.

To begin with ignore the flaps but when you eventually do come to use them you will need to mix in some down elevator. The flap servos are also a bit on the weak side and I trashed 2 of mine due to stupid vertical (nose down) full flap landing approaches, I've replaced them with better ones and now it's fine.

You may have noticed that XFly have clipped about ½" off the prop, presumably to allow them to fit a smallish ESC. I replaced my ESC with a FrSky Neuron so that I could get telemetry but that also allowed me to increase the size of prop. TBH the standard prop is fine!

Edited December 29, 2023 by Ron Gray

[toto]

Thanks for the above.

 

I'm sure the 4s batteries I have are a similar rating. I'll post them up tomorrow when hopefully ( lack of hangover permitting after nephews 21st ) I'll be back in the shed setting things up.

 

I have a Chinese meal tomorrow night at 5 o'clock to celebrate my mums birthday as well. Both mum and nephew were born on the 29th December ....... an expensive month. 

 

Toto

[toto]

The sprung undercarriage arrived from Motion RC ....... hows that for service ....  especially at this time of year .......I was amazed to see it there this morning.

 

Toto

[Romeo Whisky]

A word of warning - I wasn't happy about the 40A rating of the installed ESC with 4S batteries, so I put a wattmeter on it and sure enough it went way over 40A when I powered up, so I bought a 60A ESC to replace it.   I also didn't like the floppy inflatable tyres, and I don't own a bicycle pump, so I swapped them out for 5 inch foam ones from China.  Like Ron (above post) I also thought the installed Y-leads for the wing servos were too short so replaced them with longer Y-leads.  It all added some significant extra costs which was annoying as these things should have been sorted by the manufacturer, but otherwise I really like this model and it's especially great in the winter months when it benefits from the big tundra wheels on the longer and rougher grass at our club field.

[toto]

How easy was it to get at the ESC to swap out?

 

I saw it under the battery Platform but didn't pay that close attention to it. I'll get the watt meter onto it.

 

I'll look at the Y Leads again as I want it to be an easy exercise to dismantle and reassemble at the field.

 

I have spare wheels I took of my Arising Star but think they are 4 and a half inch wheels. They are EZ wheels from memory. Much softer than the usual stock wheels but not as squishy as the wheels supplied with the Tazman which are really soft. I'll try blowing them up a bit and see how they look then before doing anything.

 

Either way ..... many thanks for all your comments. Much appreciated.

 

Toto

Edited December 30, 2023 by toto

[Ron Gray]

Careful if you do swap the wheels as the supply,ied ones are very light. I did try some proper inflatable tyres but they were way too heavy. As long as you take note of what I said about the amount of pressure in them they will be fine.

 

To get to the ESC you have to pull off the ply battery tray which is quite easy to do (carefully). I also rotated mine so that the ESC wires came out from the other end which made it easier to connect the battery and allowed me to move the battery back to get the C of G that I wanted.

[toto]

Hi Ron,

 

Thanks again. 

 

I'll try blowing up the original wheels first as you suggest. Did you actually swap out your ESC for the 60A version as well?

 

Toto

[Ron Gray]

Yes, I swapped mine for a FrSky Neuron for 2 reasons, firstly I wanted the telemetry that it has built into it and secondly I wanted to play around with different props without worrying about frying the standard esc. On the latter, imo if you use the standard clipped prop and don’t indulge in 3D style flying the standard esc will be fine.

[toto]

Thanks for that Ron, 

 

Let's see what the watt meter says. I wont be doing any 3D flying but if a few bursts at full speed could put it under stress, I'd rather play it safe and swap it put. As long as it's an easy switch. I dont want to destroy the model in doing so.

 

Toto

[Ron Gray]

Two things, the wattmeter will give you readings on the ground but the motor / prop 'unload' in the air and the current draw will be a lot less. A few bursts of full throttle will not cause a problem, only sustained use of full throttle will be cause for concern. But if you feel happier swapping the esc then fine, just remember that possibly thousands of these have been sold world wide and there have only been a few reports of problems, if it was a big issue then XFly would provide a higher rated esc.

[Trevor]

For what it's worth, I've had 28 flights on mine with the stock ESC & prop, including some vigorous aerobatics (but not 3D!). This included some flying over the hot days of summer (remember them?). No problems. Full throttle static draw on mine measured at just shy of 40a, but I can't recall what the IR of the battery was, and I do routinely just charge to 4.17v per cell so I can well believe that you will exceed 40a on a freshly charged, brand new battery. However, unless you like to take off and climb on full throttle until out of sight, I can't see it being a problem.

 

It's a lovely model though - enjoy it.

[toto]

Hi Ron,

 

I done a check on my 4s batteries and have the following.

 

 

half a dozen of the above ......... and .......

 

 

 

four of these as well. 

 

cheers

 

toto

[Ron Gray]

The 5000mAh ones will be too heavy, I would go with the 3250mAh ones. With those you should easily get 8 minutes of general ‘sport’ flying.

[toto]

Thanks Ron.

 

I have set up my settings including throttle cut off, and dual rates ( triple rates ) and flap settings. everything works as it should. I had to reverse the rudder servo as it was working the wrong way. Starting to find my way around the NX 8 transmitter functions with relative ease now. 

 

I have blown up the tyres as well to eliminate the permanent indents that they originally came with and they look fine now with sufficient bounce factor and no grounding on the rims.

 

Not done anything with the new U/C as yet as I need to look at how to install a secure fixing plate for the rear facing cross bar thingy. thats for later. 

 

I'll dismantle the wings again and install some extended cabling to allow the servo leads to be connected / disconnected from outside the fuselage.

 

Otherwise ..... everything is going pretty much textbook. I may do a little trimming of the aileron controls as the ailerons are ever so slightly out but that shouldn't pose me much of a problem. I must have knocked them slightly off centre on the install.

 

happy so far.

 

toto 

[Philip Lewis 3]

1 hour ago, Ron Gray said:

The 5000mAh ones will be too heavy, I would go with the 3250mAh ones. With those you should easily get 8 minutes of general ‘sport’ flying.

100% agree with that, also don't forget that additional weight adds stress to your landing gear so unless your landings are good every time you are jut risking a breakage that bit more for no point whatsoever, unless that is you want to fly very long flights which most begginers don't want to do anyway.

[Ron Gray]

1 hour ago, toto said:

and flap settings

Make sure that these cannot get accidentally activated as you most certainly don’t need them for your first few (many) flights and if they are activated the behaviour of the model will change, possibly quite a bit. TBH I would rather see the flaps disconnected from the Rx for your first flights, the servos will keep them in line but a bit of masking tape will give you belt and braces.

[toto]

No worries Ron,

 

I can easily deactivate the flaps. I just really wanted to test that they worked and that I could set them up alright. I'm beginning to find my way around the NX 8 transmitter settings now. Hig improvement from 6 months ago.

 

Toto

[toto]

Forgot I was going to put the watt meter over this.

 

I'll do that tonight before dismantling for storage.

 

Toto

[toto]

and the results are in ...... using a 4s 3300 mah 50C 14.8v battery

 

unloaded

 

00.00 A

16.68 V

00.00 W

11.04 AP

16.66 Vm

184.2 WP

00.00 AH

00.00WH

 

Loaded with throttle full on

 

32.67 A

14.20 V

441.10 W

34.10 AP

14.13 VM

499.5 WP

00.240 AH

03.70WH

 

this model has a 40Amp ESC so that looks fine given that it is drawing 32.67A.

 

Watts are showing as 441.1 and the model weight is 1.8kg or 3.97 Ibs so ...... 441.10 W divided by 3.97 Ibs = 111.10 watts per Ib. going on a desired 100w per Ib ..... it looks like we are quids in for available power when considering the power to weight ratio.

 

any comments ...... full yer boots.

 

toto

[toto]

The above Watt Meter readings were taken with the following battery

 

 

I cant type the name of it because the first letter of the name ( last in the alphabet ) is knackered on my keyboard. 😄

 

it is an old laptop which has been put to use out in the shed for years now. I guess it had to start playing up at some point. Looks like she may be fit for retiral shortly.

 

the other two potential battery sources of the same rating are as follows ....

 

 

 

albeit the above has a 30C rating ..... and  .....

 

 

I have about a dosen between them and these can be run in various models that I have including the newest addition ..... the FMS Super Cub which has still to be assembled as yet.

 

cheers for now

 

toto

[Rich Griff]

Hi toto,

 

Feeding your addiction....

 

My first rc plane was flown and flown and flown, boom breakages were easy but added weight, the thing rndef up with s paw19 on the front which extended its life somewhat...

 

Eventually it got so fat it just would not fly reasonably at all 

 

The wings found thier way into c/l planes, the fuz balsa reclaimed as much as possible, the remainder given s Vikings funeral.

 

I hope you have kept your gutted arising star for the future.....

 

As to this foamy, what is the opinion of the rat's nest of wires and the two thick battery wires ?