Testing Times

I can't bear it - make the bad puns stop.

5 Flights this morning all testing something or another.

First flight on the Zero was testing the tightening and adjusting of the engine mount. All good. The plane is back to her cheerful best.

Second flight on the Zero I was trying a new battery pack - a FlightPower 3s 1200mAh battery. Is a nice low profile, that I reckon would just about fit a stock GWS warbird (without needing to hollow out the battery compartment any. I needed to use a bit of paper wadding to secure the battery so it didn't slide about. Only about 20g heavier than my model engines 3s 800mAh, but most importantly, whereas the 800mAh has a C rating of 20 (16A - more like 14A continous in actual testing and flight) the Flightpower can do 24A continous and with the ewatts motor and 7x5 provides 15.5 A steady according to the clamp metre. The battery is on loan to see if I like it from Super Toyworld in Fyshwick, who once they get to know you are often good about letting you "try" stuff out. I know I wrote about them in early posts but you probably haven't seen much about them lately. They are a good shop with true enthusiasts, they have no web site to speak of (so there is not much point mentioning it here), and their prices may seem a fraction high, but their after sales service is really really good - they want to make sure you are happy.

Anyway, back to the battery. It's amazing the difference an amp or two can make. Even though it only had another 1.5A or so the difference to the plane was actually quite interesting. Straight line speed - maybe a fraction more poke, but not enough to really notice when the plane is zooming in the blue. However, the power is enough to have increased the vertical time from 4 seconds up to 5 or 6, with maybe a possibility of going close to hovering her (I seemed to be quite close today). The extra flight time is a nice bonus, and the extra weight doesn't seem to do any harm to speak of. I reckon they have a sale there.

The other testing was trying different props on the elebee. The prop adaptor started playing up so I didn't get through all the props I wanted to test, but I tried a 5x5, 5.5x4.5 against the existing nitro 5x2.5. At the moment I still think the 5x2.5 has it. There is a 6x4 there as well which I didn't get to today.

I'm also planning to test all of these props on the Zero at some stage. I'm curious to see if the 5x5 might actually make the Zero go a fraction faster or whether there wont be enough thrust to overcome air resistance.