The Roll of Honour

Sweet Dreams and Flying Machines in Pieces on the Ground - Fire and Rain (James Taylor)

Here is where I remember those planes that have passed on pursuit of the freedom of flight.

In the line of duty

Eflite Mini-Pulse XT




Type: 4 channel low wing balsa ARF.
Engine: Eflite 480 Brushles with 11x7 prop.
Battery: 3s 2200mAh.
Avionics: 4 x Esky Servos, MKS Narrowband Receiver, Align 35A Brushless ESC
Built Time: 5-6 hours (really!).
Pros: Nice wide flight envelope between cruising and high speed with the eflite 480. Seems to be capable of many aerobatics - particularly at 75%+ throttle Can even do a knife edge. Goes together really quickly. I'm also a big flan of the tail mounting servo setup in this model.
Cons: No so sure about the landing gear on this model. I bent one of the wheel axles under quite low load. Plane also has higher flying speed than you might think (it seems slow in scale terms how fast it has to fly to maintain altitude).
Built Tips: Don't plan to go past an 11 inch prop - she wont rotate. I'm not sure the CoG from the plane is right. You can come a little forward of the recommended CoG and she still flys well. If you are using the Eflite 480 (and you should - for a few bucks it is much more fun than the 450) then use washers between the X mount and motor (and locktite in the screws) to give just a little more clearance for the bolts, and preferably, go and buy some Dubro 4-40 1.25 inch bolts (they have a much lower profile head with a flat head screwdriver) which will fit the space far better.

Service Life: 51
Accident Cause: Three glitches in a row from a starting altitude of 6 metres.
Accident Site: Kambah
On Reflection: A great plane. A moderately capable aerobat, but gentle flyer.
Career Highlight: The knife edge circuit she did the morning she crashed.






Phoenix Tucano



Type: Scale Tucano Balsa ARF Model
Engine: eWatts R2212 Brushless (should pull 170Watts on 3s) (ewatts Gold 250 watts motor at time of demise)
Battery: 3s 1500mAh Elegance, 2s 2200mAh Elegance.
Avionics: 1 x Hitech HS55 Standard Servo, 3 x cheap no name servos, Spektrum 6100E RX, eWatts Sword 18A Brushless ESC (eWatts Sword 25A ESC at time of demise)
Built Tips: Make sure you glue the put the ends of the push rods into the control horns before you glue them in place.


Service Life: Well over 100.
Accident Cause: Wing failure due to exceeding VNE.
Accident Site: Kambah
On Reflection: A much better plane than I was a pilot, but I mastered her in the end. Perhaps if only I'd been a better engineer.
Career Highlight: Showing the Mongrel what an RC plane could do.





Honourable Retirees

Electrafun XP



Type: 3 Channel Trainer, Pusher Prop
Engine: 400 Class Electric
Battery: Mixture of stock (8.4v 650mAh Ni-Cds) and aftermarket (8.4/9.6v 1100mAh NiMH)
Avionics: Included
Built Time: 15 minutes
Pros: Cheap, flys well, flys fast. Can perform basic tricks. Very robust will stand up to a lot of punishment. Very forgiving. Like the energizer bunny - just keeps going and going and going.
Cons: Avionics are rubbish - don't put them in any model you value. Batteries don't give great flight time.
Service Life: 145 flights with me.
Retirement Reason: Outgrown
On Reflection: A great plane that I owe much of my passion for model flight to.