Electric Flair Magnatilla

[propogandhi]

Hey guy's. Yes Danny, I used pyramid for the first time on my last model (see below). I designed the declas myself and layed them out in Photoshop, then sent them off for cutting. I was very pleased with the results. I have also used and had great sucess with http://www.rcgraphics.co.uk/. Good quality and a in fact cheaper than pyramid I think. I use to make my own water slide decals, but have seen the light and gone with vynl and will do so from now on...sod the expense!

 

Do you know if pyramid do a set for the Maggy? Glad you got your down nice a smooth. Thanks for the tip Richard, it will come in handy for sure.

 

 

prop.

[Danny Fenton]

Hi Prop, I have my own Craft Robo plotter cutter so I can do my own, but it is not worth the expense of buying in the materials. I will cut my own black or white lettering as I have stock of that.

 

I mainly use the plotter to cut paint masks and use the airbrush, but over Solartex you can get creep if you are not careful, vinyl in this instance was the best option.

 

They do all the national markings in all styles and in all the sizes, but not a set for the SE5a I made it up as I went along. They do a set for the pupeteer, I guess you will have to have a rumage on their website. I just ordered 4 x 9" roundels without the thin white edge, and two at 3" for the fus. They do a set for the baronette and I am sure you can buy just the crosses in just about any size.

 

Anyway the SE5a is for fun and not modelled on any aircraft in particular.

 

Cheers

Danny

[propogandhi]

Hello gents. Sorry I've been so long with an update. I went away at the beginning of the month for a week, and when I returned I just flung myself straight into finishing the Maggy and have only really come up for air in the last day or two. Plus I haven't had my compact digital camera with me so no pictures....
 
However she is finished and I really am rather pleased with her, the best thing being that she flies like a dream! Having finished the building and the internal electrics etc I moved onto covering last week which although relaxing, did take me a few lazy day's to complete (I'm off work for 3 weeks though). After that it was really spraying and decals and little bits really so I actually flew her for the first time last weekend, when she was covered, but not detailed.
 
Like I said the test flight went like a dream, plenty of power and only a few clicks of trim here and there. I have however got a little down mixed in with throttle, just to help keep the nose down at WATT. WW1 style loops and rolls are a pleasure, it can even knife edge (not very WW1 though), but only a little With this 4-max motor and my 5 cell A123 pack on a 12x7 wooden prop I'm pulling 34amps and getting around 450Watts. Flight times are 8mins and I tend to fly with a mixed use of throttle, but she patrols very well at just less than half throttle. I'm having a bit of trouble getting my A123 packs to charge to the full 18.6v at the moment (the charger cuts off saying they are full at 18.1v!). But I'm going to do some testing this weekend. Has anybody else found this with A123's?
 
Anyway this evening when the wind finally settled down we managed to get another two flights and some in-flight shots. Unfortunately, with it being evening the light wasn't great, but never mind. I'll be flying her at Old Warden this Saturday so we should have some better pictures taken during the day then.
 
Thanks to all with there input, kind comments and help in the build. I'm quite surprised that I managed to build/convert and fly this model in under 2 months. A record for me...Oh just need to add an 'Albert' though, then she's done
 

prop.

 

 

Edited By propogandhi on 24/07/2009 00:32:33

[Tim Mackey]

Great stuff propi.... she looks well in the air!

is your charger adjustable ( some like my IC1010B+ can be user defined to set the terminal voltage of most cell charge programmes ). However, the "full" voltage of an A123 cell is only 3.6V anyway, and if your using a 5 cell pack, that is 18V

[Danny Fenton]

Fabulous shots Prop, looks great in the air, well done!

 

Have fun at Old Warden, wish I could be there, the Se5a has flown too

 

Cheers

Danny

[Stephen Grigg]

Lovely model, lovely pictures well done

[Richard Wood]

You can't beat the satisfaction from seeing the results

of all your effort and handiwork take to the skies.

That's a superb model Prop, well done.

 

Best of luck at Old Warden.

 

Cheers

Richard

 

[propogandhi]

Thanks gents.

 

Timbo: I was lead to beleive that a 5 cell packs should peak at 18.6V? Well I'll look into it proper over the weekend. Danny, sorry I missed that you flew the SE5A, I take a look now. I had the SE5A with a 4o surpass in many moon's ago, flew well, not as smooth as the Pup, but well anyway.

 

Will I be seeing any of you gents at O/W on Saturday?

 

prop.

[propogandhi]

Funny side note. You see that dyke bank in the top picture, well on the second flight I 'undershot' the runway and came to a very abrupt stop right there. Fortunately, the impact only pulled out the cowl mounting. It was the cowl that had taken all the force, it looked like a RTC Thankfully and very kindly flair let me order a new cowl direct from them even though I wasn't trade. So really this is another thumbs up to flair. They make great kits and follow it up with a great service.
 
prop.

[Tim Mackey]

Although not quite as critically "fragile" as LiPo, the recommended maximum charge voltage is 3.6V.

This means a 5 cell is er... 3.6 X 5 = 18Volts, so not sure who told you 18.6

[propogandhi]

Hmmm, one of only two resellers of A123's in the UK that who

 

Well thanks timbo, It was more of an itch that I could scratch, but your words have soothed it for me now, thank buddy.

prop.

[Danny Fenton]

Hi Prop, Timbo is right on A123 voltage, (he is also right about most things but don't tell him, that would just swell his head lol).

 

Sorry I can't do Old Warden this year, would have been fun to chase your Maggy's tail with Se5a. Maybe next year.

 

Post piccy's of the  day though?

 

 

[propogandhi]

Yeap will do. Oh BTW forgot to mention the AUW with 5 cell A123 pack and seperate Rx nimh came in at 5.4lbs. Which, to be fair, is basically the AUW of the glow version, but I figured that the glow version flew so well at this weight I saw no reason why the electric version of it shouldn't, as long as it had the power. And, well it does.

 

Thanks to both on the A123's, these are very new cells to me. Oh BTW is it a bad thing to balance them with every charge? I have the Hpyerion 720i NET charger so I can balance whilst I charge, but I understand that the A123's only need balancing once in a while. It would hurt to do it every time would it? I do like these packs though. The 8 mins is a fraction shorter than I'd like to fly, but then saying that, charging at 9amps, I can be flying again within less than 30 mins...Try do that with your Lipo!

 

prop.

[Danny Fenton]

Hi Prop,

It does no harm to balance every time, but you are not feeling the real fast charge advantage. if you charge without balancing it will be charged in half the time.

 

Though I would not suggest you go for as long as I do without a balance, I often go for several flights without a balance, I never balance at the field.

 

My Wot 4 6 cell pack hasn't been balanced for nearly a year   just fly it until it goes deadstick lol thats it balanced.........

[propogandhi]

Thanks danny. I'll make a point of not balancing whilst charging this Saturday when I'm at O/W, so I can get a quicker turn around and pull less from my leasure battery.

 

Good to know, thanks.

 

 

prop.

[Tim Mackey]

I am sure Danny had a little bit of humour in his posting about "flying until its deadstick and then they are balanced" but do remember that with all batteries, the imbalance that can potentially ruin a pack - including A123s actually happens towards the very end of the discharge curve - a prime reason why setting an appropriate LVC is recommended.

They are indeed far more rugged and capable of abuse than LiPo for sure, and I often run mine down well below the recommended 2V per cell minimum... but there will be a price to pay in the longer term.

Not looking for a debate on this incidentally... just toe-ing the line IYKWIM

Edited By Timbo - Moderator on 24/07/2009 10:59:05

[Danny Fenton]

Probably should clarify, dead stick on A123 is when it will no longer provide enough thrust to fly, this is not entirely flat I hasten to add.

 

Of course I would never advocate flying an A123 pack till it was flat............

 

 

Edited By Danny Fenton on 24/07/2009 11:16:54

[propogandhi]

No worries, I get the jist of it guy's. I begin landing within the 7th min on the Tx. with 8 mins I've touched down and there is enough juice left to taxi back to the house. But all this info is very welcome so thanks again for the imput guys.

 

prop.

[paul@scc]

Hi Stuart.

Thats a great looking plane you have there.

I might be making a trip to Old Warden tomorrow. If I do, I will look for the straw hat and say hello

[propogandhi]

Please do, its already packed, but if you miss it just look for the guy flapping around the collection of eletric models

 

prop (Stuart)

Edited By propogandhi on 24/07/2009 23:41:48

[propogandhi]

Back from O/W. A pleasant enough day weather wise, though there was a nasty cross wind for most of the day and the air was very bumpy until the late afternoon. Attendance was a little thin on the ground too
 
Anyway, my whole thinking behind converting a bigger model as stated at the beginning of the thread was to be able to fly (and enjoy flying) when the wind was up to much to enjoy flying my 33" Alfa model styro foam models etc. And, well it works I was very pleased with the Maggy yesterday, she couped well with the bumpy air a cross wind landings, the electric power system performing well too. With my 2 5S A123 packs I managed to get 6 flights between 10am and 3pm on the maggy (I had two other models I was flying too), with charge times of no more than 35 mins at 4amp on a 12v leisure battery.

So there we are, theory is proven and what a great result. I'm thinking of the next A123 build already. I'd consider the DB Cirrus Moth (the bigger one) only the thought of rigging does put me off a little...so any suggestions guy's?
 
Oh with the wind blowing I was getting 8 min flights at OW yesterday, that was with a mix of full and 3/4 throttle. Yesterday evening, having returned from O/W the wind had dropped to a dead calm. A quick charge and I was able to get back up with the Maggy. With no wind I could plod around the sky at no more than 1/2 throttle.  These conditions where ideal for duration tests I thought, the end result being two time flights one at 10mins the other pushed even further to 12mins. So that's great if I choose to I can get up to 12mins on this packs, which for me is perfect. Back on the charger I put 1800mah back into the pack @ 9amps, which took less than 20mins!
 
I know Lipo's are improving greatly now days with ratings etc, but for me A123 still have an advantage.
 
Again, thanks to all, see you on the next build
 
prop.
 

[Danny Fenton]

Way to go Prop, and Maggy looks fabulous, need a pilot though

 

Glad you are getting on well with A123's I wont use anything else.

 

Cheers

Danny

[propogandhi]

She certainly does. I was think of getting a 'Pete's Pilots' one but I think they are a little on the heavy side when compared to the Flair ABS palstic ones. They are however much more detailed....

 

I'll have one soon.

 

prop.

[PatMc]

Hi Prop, your Maggy looks great.

I built a Mk1 version around 1990 in a Sopwith post WW1 style& converted it from ic about two years ago having "rested" it for the previous couple of years when I gave up the oily habit. It originally had a very old ST40 but it's also flown with an old version OS40 FS, both using an 11x6 prop . The power now is a Turnigy 3548/900 with 4s 4100 lipos, prop is a 12x6 APC clone. I have 3 batteries so taking them to the field ready charged then recharging between flights/natters means almost no waiting time.

Weight has increased from 82oz with the ST40 to 98oz but the overall performance hasn't suffered noticeably & the climb rate has increased - possibly due to the bigger more efficient prop.

 

This is with the ST40

 

and this is after electrocution.

 

 

 

 

[propogandhi]

Hey Patmc, thanks, nice work on your maggy too. Its strange it looks like a Maggy, but then looks completely different as well.

 

Oh out of interest guy's, is the CG as shown on the plan, ie on the spar?

 

prop.