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Yehaa........ finally finished my Spiderman Morris Sledge last week (had to have it ready for the Houston Pro Bro) and was able to test fly it this past weekend. All I can say is WOW Awesome. I know I already posted this in two other forums, but wanted to post it here too. Maybe some of you havn't seen or read about it.
OK, as some of you already know, this is not your ordinary Morris Sledge since the whole process of letting it build (thanks to Bizarro Bill), and then trading my Morris Gee Whiz Bee for an awesome covering job (thanks to the covering master Termagator) as well as finding a setup to convert it to electric took a while. Since I couldn't find somebody who had actually converted a glow Profile to electric, I had to do some researching specially for finding the right Motor (believe me, there are so any choices out there. Well after deciding on the setup, I finally started building the Sledge. The completion only took a week so I took it for a test flight this past Saturday. AUW was 4 lbs 7 oz. A little bit heavier then I expected, but that huge lipoly battery weighs in at 16 oz . Oh well still better then most of the Profile ARF's out there.
Here is my setup :
Motor : Hacker B50 13S geared 6.7:1
Prop : 18x10 E & 17x10 E APC
ESC : Castle creations Phoenix 60
Ultimate BEC
Battery : Lithium Polymer Thunder Power 4S3P 6000 mah
Servos: Hitec 225MG's (more on that later)
Everything fitted perfect in the wings (even the big battery pack after cutting the wing open a little).
OK battery was charged radio range checked and off she went. She took off in about 10 feet (grass runway). 2 clicks off right aileron, and about 3 clicks of down elevator was all she needs. Vertical is unreal with the 18x10 prop. It ill hover at about half throttle but when giving full power, it goes like a rocket. The Hacker puts out about 8 lbs of thrust with that 18x10E prop. Flew around doing some Knife Edge and hovering as well as flat spins, and all I could say was WOW until the motor about 7 minutes into flight down wind on the other side of the fence heading toward some trees. When I moved the throttle to idle and tried to throttle I had nothing, and the motor sounded very weird. Smack right into one tree and into the ground. Bummer ! Oh no my new Sledge. I was shocked. Well went off to retrieve it, and to my surprise she was sitting on tht main gear with only a little tear in the right wing. Nothing a piece of clear tape couldn't fix. OK, now why did that motor quit ? Well, I let it cool off and took her up again. This time landing constantly to check things out. After about 6 minutes into flight I landed and tried to take off, and the same thing happened. Motor sounded like it had a brake on. It simply wouldn't turn and sounded weird. it tried too, but couldn't rev up. Hmmm.....after doing some analysis we decided that the ESC had to come out of the wing and be mounted to the side of the fuse to get some air and prevent overheating. I also decided to disable the brake (programming it out) on the ESC. Did all that last night, and took the Sledge to the field again this morning. Much better and no cut out. I flew for about 8 minutes landed a couple of times, and everything went well until all of the sudden the left aileron servo locks up in flight in a turn . The Sledge came down hard in a spiral, and I really had to fight to get her on the ground in one piece, but I managed to land her smoothly. I knew I shouldn't have used to freaking Hitecs, but I still had them so wanted to give it a try. Well I went to the LHS this afternoon and broke down and bought four Digital JR DS3421 servos. $85 a piece (ouch).
Well, I guess this Sledge deserves good servos after putting all the $$ into the other gear. All I can say is that it flies awesome. Throttle management is so much linear and more responsive then with glow. Let's hope the motor issue is resolved (seems like it). I am still not sure if it was overheating of the ESC, Motor or disabling the brake. Any ideas ? I also set the ESC to hard start. I am hoping that all issues are resolved.
Will post some pictures in the gallery.
Ulf
OK, as some of you already know, this is not your ordinary Morris Sledge since the whole process of letting it build (thanks to Bizarro Bill), and then trading my Morris Gee Whiz Bee for an awesome covering job (thanks to the covering master Termagator) as well as finding a setup to convert it to electric took a while. Since I couldn't find somebody who had actually converted a glow Profile to electric, I had to do some researching specially for finding the right Motor (believe me, there are so any choices out there. Well after deciding on the setup, I finally started building the Sledge. The completion only took a week so I took it for a test flight this past Saturday. AUW was 4 lbs 7 oz. A little bit heavier then I expected, but that huge lipoly battery weighs in at 16 oz . Oh well still better then most of the Profile ARF's out there.
Here is my setup :
Motor : Hacker B50 13S geared 6.7:1
Prop : 18x10 E & 17x10 E APC
ESC : Castle creations Phoenix 60
Ultimate BEC
Battery : Lithium Polymer Thunder Power 4S3P 6000 mah
Servos: Hitec 225MG's (more on that later)
Everything fitted perfect in the wings (even the big battery pack after cutting the wing open a little).
OK battery was charged radio range checked and off she went. She took off in about 10 feet (grass runway). 2 clicks off right aileron, and about 3 clicks of down elevator was all she needs. Vertical is unreal with the 18x10 prop. It ill hover at about half throttle but when giving full power, it goes like a rocket. The Hacker puts out about 8 lbs of thrust with that 18x10E prop. Flew around doing some Knife Edge and hovering as well as flat spins, and all I could say was WOW until the motor about 7 minutes into flight down wind on the other side of the fence heading toward some trees. When I moved the throttle to idle and tried to throttle I had nothing, and the motor sounded very weird. Smack right into one tree and into the ground. Bummer ! Oh no my new Sledge. I was shocked. Well went off to retrieve it, and to my surprise she was sitting on tht main gear with only a little tear in the right wing. Nothing a piece of clear tape couldn't fix. OK, now why did that motor quit ? Well, I let it cool off and took her up again. This time landing constantly to check things out. After about 6 minutes into flight I landed and tried to take off, and the same thing happened. Motor sounded like it had a brake on. It simply wouldn't turn and sounded weird. it tried too, but couldn't rev up. Hmmm.....after doing some analysis we decided that the ESC had to come out of the wing and be mounted to the side of the fuse to get some air and prevent overheating. I also decided to disable the brake (programming it out) on the ESC. Did all that last night, and took the Sledge to the field again this morning. Much better and no cut out. I flew for about 8 minutes landed a couple of times, and everything went well until all of the sudden the left aileron servo locks up in flight in a turn . The Sledge came down hard in a spiral, and I really had to fight to get her on the ground in one piece, but I managed to land her smoothly. I knew I shouldn't have used to freaking Hitecs, but I still had them so wanted to give it a try. Well I went to the LHS this afternoon and broke down and bought four Digital JR DS3421 servos. $85 a piece (ouch).
Well, I guess this Sledge deserves good servos after putting all the $$ into the other gear. All I can say is that it flies awesome. Throttle management is so much linear and more responsive then with glow. Let's hope the motor issue is resolved (seems like it). I am still not sure if it was overheating of the ESC, Motor or disabling the brake. Any ideas ? I also set the ESC to hard start. I am hoping that all issues are resolved.
Will post some pictures in the gallery.
Ulf
