Thinking of an electric plane

[RonMiller]

Well, the Denver auction is a week away, and the thought of getting rid of a dusty glow plane or two and getting an electric has crossed my mind. I was looking through the tower talk catalog and the great planes electric sportster looks pretty cool to me. Any pros or cons to this plane, or electric in general?

I don't want a little plane, nor do I want a big plane. I was thinking of something in the 40 glow size or something in that area.

I'm a noob to electrics, so I have a few questions. Can I use my futaba attack radios if I get the electric speed control, or whatever you call it? Can electric planes be throttled so to speak to where there is idle to full speed in increments so as to taxi and then to just have full throttle range? Is there anything to flat stay away from as far as equipment, kits, motors, etc? Like I said I am a noob, and nobody but 3 of us in my area even flies let alone electric stuff.

Thanks.. and Chris.. are you going to denver if you read this in time?

[jetmex]

Frazz, I don't know how much help I can be to you, since I'm just getting into this myself, but here goes:

First off stop by the E-Zone: www.ezonemag.com and start cruising the forums there. There's a LOT of good info to be had there, and while you might not get an answer to q question by posting, you can usually find what you're looking for by either reading the posts that interest you or doing a search. There are plenty of good product reviews there also.

I think the Attack series of radios are AM, is that correct? All of the smaller receivers I've seen are all FM, though if you're wanting to go with a .40 size plane, receiver size won't be an issue. Some of the Hitec Focus three channel radios are AM, so as far as operating the airplane, that shouldn't be a problem.

From what I have read, a lot of people are converting .40 size glow planes to electric. This involves a lot of weight reduction and modifiying the airframe for the removal of all the slimer stuff. The problem I see is that the motors and batteries needed to get decent performance from airplanes that size tend to be pretty pricey, which removed that option for me right away! After doing a lot of reading, I decided to go with Speed 400 sized airplanes for now, which average out to about 32 inch wingspans. Since I'm a warbird freak, I've found a bunch of really cool airplanes in that size, and the motors and batteries needed won't require you to mortgage the house! That and the fact I can fly them in the schoolyard around the corner! This motor size also translates into some nice size twins--my DC-3 is 60 inches and the deHavilland Hornet I'm drooling over is about 40 inches. BTW--I just thought of this--Adrian Page has an 80 inch span electric Super Cub that doesn't look to bad pricewise. When I find the link, I'll post it for you.

My other nudge for getting me into this facet of the sport is the fact that I can now do a jet or two. The smaller EDF jets are priced pretty reasonably, and you sure don't need a waiver to fly them! And there are some really cool airplanes to be had here as well....

Yes, the motors are throttlable through the speed control. The one in the Gooney has a safety feature that prevents you from accidentally starting the motor when you don't want it. You have to advance the throttle to full and bring it back down to arm the system, and then you have engines! The speed control plugs into the throttle channel in the receiver, and the BEC (battery eliminator circuit) allows you to run servos and the motor from the same battery pack.

Batteries--I'll be running Nicads and NiMh for now, until I get some experience using them. The lithium batteries seem to be the way to go as far as duration and power, but they do have some nasty habits if not treated correctly. Overcoming this is a matter of education and experience more than anything else, I think.

I'd recommend the GP electrics, mainly just based on the one I just did. They got smart and many of their kits include the motors, props and speed controls, which takes a lot of the guesswork out of the process. This was one of the things that led me to purchase the DC-3 in the first place. Their customer service is pretty decent, too.

Stop by www.hobby-lobby.com to get an idea of what's out there and how much it costs.

Hope that helps, and we'll see if anyone else chimes in here. We could sure use some activity......

[SALMONFLY]

Howdy Ron. These electrics are a hard item for me to figure out. I am playing with brushed motors now due to cost. But the brushless are much more powerful and use less battery.

My problem is I can not figure out how to judge what motor and what prop use use on what airplane.

Buy the kit and then by the extras recomended. There is some very nice planes that fly like you would not believe.

Good luck and enjoy.

George

[ctdahle]

Hey Ron,

Mostly I just second what Jaime says.

With an ESC (Electronic Speed Control) and a BEC (Battery Elimination Circuit) (usually all wrapped up in one package) you have full throttle capacity as well as the ability to completely shut down the motor and restart it at will.

Any four channel radio will fly electrics, but beware of potential interferance with an AM radio.

So far I am sticking with planes designed for electric from the ground up. There is a lot of additional "beef" in glow powered planes to deal with the stress of engines. Just keeping a glow motor attached to an airframe to handle the stress of electric starters takes a lot of extra structure for one thing.

In another thread I recommeded Hobby Lobby's electric version of the Telemaster as a good starting place. Tower has got lots of electric stuff, but I think Hobby Lobby does a better job of packaging "Off the Shelf" Electric stuff.

I'm fiddling around with planning an electric Four Star, but I think I'll stick build a fuselage for it rather than try to convert a kit.

Can't make it to Denver for the auction again this year. Wish I could.