T E A M
Many years ago, when electric parkflyers just started to hit the news and mags, I managed to get an Union S300 size motor/gearbox unit. A wonderful looking parkflyer named the 'Nora' was the talk of the town but fetched a price which is nowhere near what we are getting right now.
Then RCM magazine published a Speed 400 Buttercup parkflyer construction article, which has an equally smart look. I did not have any Speed400 motor and gearbox to go with and so I redesigned it to accept my Union motor unit.
I shrunk the wingspan from 50" to 40" and utilised an old Hitec MOSFET speed controller and a 6 cells 300mah Nicd pack, made up with 2 packs of cordless phone battery. The structure is fully built-up and hardly any sheeted surface and is covered with ultralight Litespan iron-on coverings. The result is astonishing as this bird climbs at 30-40 degrees at full power and the tiny rudder was effective enough to stir a roll if coaxed. In those days, there's hardly any electric plane that'll match it's performance although flight lasted only about 4-5 minutes. I later added 1 more cell to the pack and got even more spritely performances.
When the Nimh cells appears, I got hold of some 600mah GP cells and made some packs, which doubles to duration. The first model eventually crashed when the elevator pushrod buckled after numerous consecutive loops. Although the damage wasn't bad, I decided to build a 2nd model.
The 2nd one flew as well as the first but eventually got into a mid-air with another parkflyer and got one of its wings cleanly sheared off in flight. The model landed softly onto thick grasses and suffered no further damage. I rebuilt another pair of wings and it went into business again. Eventually, I lost interest in it and gave it to my buddy who wanted one very badly.
While I still got some 540 size buggy motors lying around, I built an enlarged version with multiple LEDs that can be flown at night. However, It took up quite some space and I passed it one to another friend of mine.
Some years later, I started to miss the Buttercup and built myself the 4th model, using the same setup, but eventually ventured into Lipo packs. At one flight, the plane climbed vertically to about 70 feet before the wings said bye-bye to the fuselage, sending it plummeting down. Surprisingly, the damages were very minor and I repaired it before giving it to another friend.
Months ago, while I was shopping at our LHS, I noticed that the GWS s300 motor gearbox units are getting cheaper while everybody is battling with each other with brushless motors. I though that there are still a lot of good use to these cheap units and got myself one. The first plane design that came across my mine is the Buttercup again, and right after the Freedom 20 got airborne for the first time, I found myself cutting some balsa again.
This is a picture of the second model.
Then RCM magazine published a Speed 400 Buttercup parkflyer construction article, which has an equally smart look. I did not have any Speed400 motor and gearbox to go with and so I redesigned it to accept my Union motor unit.
I shrunk the wingspan from 50" to 40" and utilised an old Hitec MOSFET speed controller and a 6 cells 300mah Nicd pack, made up with 2 packs of cordless phone battery. The structure is fully built-up and hardly any sheeted surface and is covered with ultralight Litespan iron-on coverings. The result is astonishing as this bird climbs at 30-40 degrees at full power and the tiny rudder was effective enough to stir a roll if coaxed. In those days, there's hardly any electric plane that'll match it's performance although flight lasted only about 4-5 minutes. I later added 1 more cell to the pack and got even more spritely performances.
When the Nimh cells appears, I got hold of some 600mah GP cells and made some packs, which doubles to duration. The first model eventually crashed when the elevator pushrod buckled after numerous consecutive loops. Although the damage wasn't bad, I decided to build a 2nd model.
The 2nd one flew as well as the first but eventually got into a mid-air with another parkflyer and got one of its wings cleanly sheared off in flight. The model landed softly onto thick grasses and suffered no further damage. I rebuilt another pair of wings and it went into business again. Eventually, I lost interest in it and gave it to my buddy who wanted one very badly.
While I still got some 540 size buggy motors lying around, I built an enlarged version with multiple LEDs that can be flown at night. However, It took up quite some space and I passed it one to another friend of mine.
Some years later, I started to miss the Buttercup and built myself the 4th model, using the same setup, but eventually ventured into Lipo packs. At one flight, the plane climbed vertically to about 70 feet before the wings said bye-bye to the fuselage, sending it plummeting down. Surprisingly, the damages were very minor and I repaired it before giving it to another friend.
Months ago, while I was shopping at our LHS, I noticed that the GWS s300 motor gearbox units are getting cheaper while everybody is battling with each other with brushless motors. I though that there are still a lot of good use to these cheap units and got myself one. The first plane design that came across my mine is the Buttercup again, and right after the Freedom 20 got airborne for the first time, I found myself cutting some balsa again.
This is a picture of the second model.
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