DB Sport and Scale Tiger Moth Electric Conversion

[Terry Walters]

Hi all and welcome to my first ever post!

 

I am a 'late' r/c beginner with a bit of full size flying experience living in France where they don't speak properly when getting teccy (or is it my ears that don't can't quite understand properly?).

 

At present I am learning with a club here in the Lot Department and feeling optomistic I am about start a DB 58" Tiger Moth build which I want to convert to electric. I am confident about the build but...........................

 

I want the Tiggy to fly near scale and not like a rocket but the world of electric setup may as well be all french to me!  Any suggestions as to what would work so as to be able to fly at a scale speed with a little in reserve for those 'difficult' moments. 

 

The finished model would weigh in at about 5.5lbs (or 2.5 kilos in french!)

 

I would appreciate suggestions of motor, power pack , esc and the probable range of appropriate prop sizes.

 

Over to you experienced chaps!

 

Terry

 

(somewhere in France)

 

 

[Tim Mackey]

Hi Terry and welcome aboard

You could take a look over at our section especially for those who are new to electric flight.

Meanwhile, very briefly, I would suggest a nice large slow turning prop, so look for an outrunner motor of low RPM ..say 400 - 600 Kv depending on the battery you will use.

 At 5.5lbs aim for about 400 -500 watts, so to keep the amps under control a 4S lipo would probably be best...or maybe 5 or 6 cell A123 cells...even better!

On either battery, 500watts will pull approx 35A, so a decent headroom ESC would be 50A.

 

Someting like this setup should be what you are looking for.....( next post )

Edited By Timbo - Administrator on 16/12/2009 17:08:15

[Bruce Richards]

Welcome Terry. Timbo has given you some good info there. Whan you have chosen the specific components for your power set up you can post here and we can comment on your choice.

[Tim Mackey]

This budget motor would do nicely on a big 14 /15" prop, and will keep the revs and noise down, whilst still producing the thrust and correct sort of pitch speed for nice tiggy type scale flying. Same company also do a range of suitable Lipos ( go for 4s at nice large 4000m/a capacity or greater ) as well as cheap but very useable 50A ESCs.

Edited By Timbo - Administrator on 16/12/2009 17:21:24

[Terry Walters]

Many thanks guys - very helpful - will have a close look at your recs and the section on electric flight.

 

  Will the prop depend on what set up I actually go for based on your range as above?

 

[Tim Mackey]

Yes.... but I always suggest you use a wattmeter and try a few different props around the size you want, this allows you to "tune" your setup to get up to the power levels you want, and stay within the limits of the powertrian components.

 

[Tim Mackey]

The budget setup I listed above, would come in at well below £80 for the lot! - and the battery I mentioned is 5C chargeable too...so assuming you have a suitable charger - you could re-charge in 15  minutes so wouldnt need more than one battery for almost continual flying

Edited By Timbo - Administrator on 16/12/2009 17:27:26

[Terry Walters]

Thanks Timbo - that's all very helpful and the mists are starting to clear.  I hadn't realised that it could all come in under the costs of an equivalent 4 stroke!  Brilliant. 

 

I know I'm not out of the woods (balsa and beech!?) yet so will be leaning on you all for future advice.

 

I built a few tow line gliders in the 60s and flew solo with the ATC at 16 in a real one.  Always loved all things that fly (except Scottish midges!) and got a JAR SEP PPL about 10yrs ago.  I flew Cessna 150s, Cherokee 140 (but really a 160 under the bonnet) and then had a share in a  Pierre Robin DR315 which I had to sell on moving to France.

 

Wish I'd gone into R/C earlier - its more challenging than I thought.  having your feet on the ground and controlling an a/c in the sky seems much harder than being in it with all the visual and sound clues not to mention the feel on the stick!

 

Thanks again

[Tim Mackey]

Your'e welcome Terry, and yes, you're not the first to notice that R/C model flying can in some ways be more difficult than full size!  Remember that a sim can help a lot in orientation problems which is the main difficulty for beginners...even the freebie downloads such as FMS are useful for this.

Edited By Timbo - Administrator on 16/12/2009 18:28:25