otherrc

My RC planes

Here are some pics of my Zagi-400, here pretty much unmodified apart from a carbon rod to stiffen the foam wing. However it is fitted with a small camera for doing aerial photography. It is all seriously on the weight limit, but it flies... Hopefully get the pics it has taken up on the site soon, that is, if it successfully takes any.

Testing has shown this setup to be too heavy, so I removed all the covering tape and the central gondola to save over 4oz of weight. The resulting Lite-Zagi weighs 17oz RTF and I am hoping will take up the camera more successfully. If not, I will use the brute force method and go brushless - I hope to soon build my own brushless motor for this plane.

Here is my F-15 fighter built from the free plan in RCM&E. Although lots of people have had difficulty with theirs, mine flies very well. I have not seen the torque rolling on takeoff that others mention. It is extremely fast and requires 100% attention! Originally it flew on 8 700AR cells, 6V Speed 400 motor and an 'Xtra' 30 Amp controller, with a Gunther push-on prop. Now I have the same cells running a Hacker Master 40-3P BEC 3-phase controller and a Mega 16/15/3 6-pole brushless motor with an APC-E 4.75x4.75 prop. This setup is eyewateringly fast. Motocalc predicts 109MPH pitch speed for this combo. Soon, I want to try 10 cells and a 5x5 prop, which will push the motor over its 25 Amp limit, but I am not too worried because it hangs out in the cooling air. I also want to build a similar layout F-16 to a modified design, and hopefully make the airframe cleaner for even higher speeds. The plate wing is very easy to build and is one of the key features influencing the high speed of this design. Due to the speed of build, I am not too concerned about crashing either. This plane really gets the heart pumping every time I fly it.

Below is the Ripmax Xtreme-LITE ARTF 3D plane. This is my first 'ARTF' plane, and really I prefer to build myself. However, this is not available in kit form. It has a 57" wingspan, fully symmetrical aerofoil and is designed for a .40-.46 glow engine. Not a fan of engines in the air (well, apart from turbines), I have converted the Xtreme to high-power electric. This is not a setup for the E-hater, because he will be severely embarrased by its glow-rivalling performance.

MOTOR: Hacker B50-13S
GEARBOX: Maxon 6.7:1
CONTROLLER: JETI/HACKER 70-3P OPTO
PROP: APC-E 17x10
BATTERY: Sanyo RC-2400 NiCd x 12

This setup weighs 84oz ready to fly, which is lighter than the popular Diablotin Super which is a smaller plane. It can take off and fly vertically upwards, and should hover according to the output from Motocalc. Increasing the prop to an 18x8 should improve things further, although ground clearance is rapidly diminishing! Going up to 14 cells should be about the ultimate in low weight/high power, but up to 16 cells can be used on this setup. When the plane is repaired (crashed on 3rd flight due to tail falling off), I will be trying the 18x8 on 14 cells.

These big aerobatic planes represent a giant leap forward in electric flight technology. A few years ago this performance would have been inconceivable, at least for longer than 30 seconds and without a set of burnt brushes! At the moment there is a new revolution happening, with the development of Lithium-polymer cells with huge energy densities, and the ability to discharge at a rate close to 10C. This technology could lighten the Xtreme further and extend flight times from about 8 minutes to over half an hour. At the moment, LiPos are too expensive for me and not available readily. Brushless motor tech is now well established - once LiPo has a foothold E-flight will be superior to all piston engine types in the air in terms of performance, noise, duration and running cost. All without covering your plane in a layer of castor oil after each flight!

Latest project: Northrop F-5E Tiger II scale jet. I am doing this in a similar fashion to the F-15 above, but more scale. I am building the F-5 with a plate wing to scale dimensions at first, but if I can't get it to fly (launch..!) with that, I will build a new wing with a greater span. Power will be Mega 16/15/3 direct on the APC-E 4.75x4.75, using any combo of 700AR or 800AR (8 cells), or 8-10 CP1300. I would like to try the 10 cell CP1300 the most, but it depends on whether the tiny wings can cope with that loading - and if it has enough thrust to get to flying speed from launch.