Learning More About the Electrafun XP

Yesterday I was talking about my proposed new plane. Today I am talking about some new things I have learnt with my current one.

After flying with some of the guys from Toyworld and associated hangers on yesterday I was told a few useful things about the Electrafun.

Landing

The Electrafun's smallish control surfaces mean that it is quite sluggish to respond unless it has quite a bit of airspeed. This is good for beginners - the aircraft is a little more docile. However, it does present a bit of a problem when trying to land the plane, particularly if just gliding in (as per the method in the instructions).

By and large the advice from those at the park that had the Electrafun was:

1. Power off.
2. Dive for speed (not super steep, but a dive so you pick up airspeed).
3. Flare when you are quite close to the ground and then use the slightest down elevator to hold the plane at that altitude (its speed will make it want to climb) until the airspeed drops sufficiently and then just use a little more down elevator to push it gently to the ground.

I tried this landing approach this morning and it works much better than just letting the thing glide off power. You are much more likely to get the plane down where you want to. Your own airspeed makes the plane much more stable and responsive. Worked quite well, but maybe is not a technique for complete beginner's (now calling myself an intermediate beginner 8-) because of the finesse required on the controls to pull out of the dive early enough to not plough into the ground, but not so early that you just end up in the horrific low speed gliding thing.

Takes a bit of self control to use down elevator when so close to the ground as well, but the technique definitely works.

Tricks

Learnt a new thing the Electrafun could do yesterday that I didn't think it could. It can do rolls, not victory rolls the way a spitfire can, but something that is not a bad effort for a three channel trainer.

Firstly you need some altitude - I'd guess 20 metres would be a minimum - give yourself 40-50 first time you try it.

1. Full throttle - dive for some extra speed.
2. Full up elevator and almost instantaneously full rudder (left of right depending on how you which way you want to roll)

You need your engine to be running near full speed to pull it off, so attempting on low battery will probably end in disaster.

The plane will flip left to right or right to left (depending on rudder) - not as elegant as a roll in a airleron plane and you need to know that unlike an airleron plane it wont emerge going in more or less the same direction, but instead will tend to deflect 45 degrees or so towards the direction you first steered.

Thinking about it the Electrafun should also be capable of a hamerhead stall.
Modifications

There are a few places on the net that talk about mods for Electrafun's. Here are some of the things considered worth doing by those I spoke to yesterday:

• Buy some good batteries - the EF XP's included batteries are 600mAh, meaning you get about 5 minutes of fullish throttle, and with some coaxing can get flight times or 10 minutes or more if you have a good day for it. You can buy 7 cell NiMH batteries with 1200 and 1500 mAh, which will give you 10 minutes or so on full throttle.
• Make the control surfaces larger. Apparently some sites suggest using old ice cream containers to make extensions for the control surfaces. I am kind of thinking about it.
• Bigger engine. Install a bigger bushed engine, or maybe even a brushless engine (as well as lipo batteries I guess). Will make the EF quite a bit faster, but that would seem to cost as much as the original plane did to buy (certainly in the case of the brushless).

The things I'm immediately considering are buying batteries with more Amp Hours for longer flights, and maybe trying to increase the size of the control surfaces. I spose good batteries will also mean buying a proper charger. This stuff may have to wait a couple of weeks still.