RC Planes

alexthecheese said:
Thanks Taggart - sounds very cool being able to make your own planes.

Assuming the PSU for charging is up to the job, will the following charger be able to parallel charge batteries? Can you get a lead for this?

http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/uh_viewItem.asp?idProduct=7028
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yup looks good. Make sure you balance charge at 1c for the first few charges,(1800 pack is 1.8amps for 1c, 2200 pack is 2.2 amps for 1c etc) then you can kick up to the max rated charge for a few then balance charge again. And dont forget a charge bag :D

edit: Making your own planes is incredibly easy, rewarding and cheep.
http://www.rcgroups.com/foamies-scratchbuilt-428/

Some great plans on there and guides for building.
 
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Yeah that Cessna - and that big mother that Taggart has - :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek:

I remember dreaming about having stuff like that when I was young, but everything was so expensive that it was so far out of reach I could never see myself getting one.

How much do those things weigh when they're in the air? The one I've ordered is 1600mm but it's made of foam and hasn't got any detail. Those things look brilliant.

Taggart - very handy you are indeed :cool: - I've been reading about balance charging and what not which is why I got onto parallel charging. I've gone and ordered a server PSU - LOL - to convert to a 32amp/400w lipo charging PSU. It was a tenner all in. Might be a bit excessive for the $20 Turnigy charger I've ordered though, hehe.

The last thing I need to sort is an ESC as the one that comes with it is supposedly pap, and then some parallel charging leads, and I can't work out what ones I need for that. More £££ though... :o
 
My MX2 further up has a DA50cc in the front and all up weight is about 7.5Kg, will prop hang all day long and is a joy to fly, wingspan is 2.2m, the carbon prop is a Mejzlik and are about £60 each, ive gone through quite a few nosing over on landings, so now use the Weiss wooden ones at about £25 each. The whole model stand me at about £2000

The extra is a Comparf extra and is made of composite rather than built up from wood and skinned, again has a DA50 and savox servos, this one stands me around £1800 quid. Gets very expensive if you have a crash :( But its oh so fun!
 
castle make good ESCS, the high end ones are pretty expensive but have data logging etc built in.

the older regular "phoenix" series is discontinued but you can get the castle phoenix 35amp for around 25quid on ebay

i dont think they have internal becs though which i guess is a good thing to most people
 
Wynthorpe said:
My MX2 further up has a DA50cc in the front and all up weight is about 7.5Kg, will prop hang all day long and is a joy to fly, wingspan is 2.2m, the carbon prop is a Mejzlik and are about £60 each, ive gone through quite a few nosing over on landings, so now use the Weiss wooden ones at about £25 each. The whole model stand me at about £2000

The extra is a Comparf extra and is made of composite rather than built up from wood and skinned, again has a DA50 and savox servos, this one stands me around £1800 quid. Gets very expensive if you have a crash :( But its oh so fun!
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So true. I hate to think how much I have in the garage and spent over the last 10 or so years.

+ Touch wood, not that many crashes at all as well.
A few brown pants moments of course. :)
 
how easy is it to crash a plane/glider anyway? surely its fairly hard? or do they have a pretty poor climb rate out of a dive?
 
arknor said:
how easy is it to crash a plane/glider anyway? surely its fairly hard? or do they have a pretty poor climb rate out of a dive?
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Plane? Well these climb and dive a hell of a lot faster than you think! Most have a lot higher power to weight ration than any realy plane, and if you are into 3D or scale aerobatics, then you are a lot closer to the ground, prop hanging and my tail is literally 2 inch from the ground.
 
Thanks guys. That Cessna is actually foam, and only weighs around 2.5kg fully loaded. It's my first model with fully working flaps.

You can get this from Hobbyking http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/uh_viewItem.asp?idProduct=13846
pretty much fully loaded, just add an ESC and RX.

I got it from http://www.throttlestore.com/planes...na_skyline_182_epo_189_giant_arf.aspx?lang=EN instead though, just the kit, so I could add my own, better quality parts.

I would think there is about £250 in mine.
 
Wynthorpe said:
My MX2 further up has a DA50cc in the front and all up weight is about 7.5Kg, will prop hang all day long and is a joy to fly, wingspan is 2.2m, the carbon prop is a Mejzlik and are about £60 each, ive gone through quite a few nosing over on landings, so now use the Weiss wooden ones at about £25 each. The whole model stand me at about £2000

The extra is a Comparf extra and is made of composite rather than built up from wood and skinned, again has a DA50 and savox servos, this one stands me around £1800 quid. Gets very expensive if you have a crash :( But its oh so fun!
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Got any videos of you prop hanging that thing? Let's get involved. :p

Expensive stuff indeed... I'm now nudging £300 and all I've received so far is a tiny £9 replacement motor and two replacement props. :confused: :p
 
Just wondering if you are going to try to fly the plane you've bought before ripping out the servos, motor, ESC and replacing them?
Just curious as it should fly perfectly well to start with as that is why it's being sold almost ready to go.

@arknor it's very easy to get your orientation wrong and plant any plane into the ground. normally it's not the plane, it's the person flying it.
 
Good timing this thread, this year I am meaning to get back into the hobby, I started way back in 2004 when brushless and lipo was expensive and I was flying with brushed motors and nimh batteries, happy when I got 10 minutes flight time. :p I have been out of it since 2008 area, so I am really out of touch with current technology and where to buy from. I keep meaning to read up on rcgroups but I know it will take hours and hours to get my knowledge back up there. In the end I had finally upgraded to both brushless and lipo and man, so much more power and run time. :D Anyways onto some pics of my fleet.

Before maiden
hawkbefore.jpg


After maiden :p (typical case of trying to use brushed motors and nimh, too much weight and not enough power)
deadhawk.jpg


What I had been training my Dad with using a trainer lead
beaverw.jpg


Probably my favourite one overall, nice all rounder, running a Himax HC2812-850 with a 3s 1800mah lipos. Nice and easy to fly really with no vices. It has really taken a beating too, and to think it started with a size 350 brushed motor and a 7 cell 400mah nicd pack. :p
planec.jpg


I finally scratch built a little wing from a pdf file. I bought a cheap brushless motor but rewound it, was silly hard as the motor is only 10mm diameter overall! Doesn't half scream now, it just is very twitchy which I'm not sure how to sort out, can't remember off the top of my head what expo I am using on it. Only a 20" wingspan from memory, but still does ~50mph!

imag0032p.jpg


So yes what's hot right now? I have seen some talk of gyro's being used in planes to help with the wind, anyone on here used them yet? If it works well I could be interested as one of the large things was the wind putting me off flying.
 
SimonCHere said:
Just wondering if you are going to try to fly the plane you've bought before ripping out the servos, motor, ESC and replacing them?
Just curious as it should fly perfectly well to start with as that is why it's being sold almost ready to go.
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Yeah I'll be starting with it as it is... I ordered it on the basis that it's pretty much ready to go, but as I've been reading and getting more into it I've just been buying little upgrades for it, so if it fails I can swap it over.

FPV is what started me off, but the more I read about it the more expensive it seems. On screen displays showing exact locations, speed, altitude, battery voltages, mAh used etc seem to be the norm, they even have autopilots and return to home features which seems pretty mental. :eek: Also there is datalogging associated with that, so you can load your flights into Google Earth and all that. People with 20+ mile roundtrip flights seems the norm with the right kit also... crazy.
 
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andy_mk3 said:
I've wanted this for a few years now: http://www.top-flite.com/airplanes/topa0300.html

I've never had my own plane, but my Mum's previous partner (going back to when I was about 8 here!) was well into his planes, we used to go flying at a local club most weekends. I'd love my own like the above one day :) But I don't have the time nor the money right now sadly :(
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That looks chuffing brilliant.
 
andy_mk3 said:
I've wanted this for a few years now: http://www.top-flite.com/airplanes/topa0300.html

I've never had my own plane, but my Mum's previous partner (going back to when I was about 8 here!) was well into his planes, we used to go flying at a local club most weekends. I'd love my own like the above one day :) But I don't have the time nor the money right now sadly :(
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The TF gear is pretty nice indeed, i have a Corsair in the garage waiting to be built, Its the Giant scale one on their site, ive had it years, just not got around to building it yet, i want to build it true scale so will take a lot of time indeed.
 
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