Watt Age - Hawk Micro Glider

[VinCopter]

First of all a good thank you to bro $h@d0w for giving me the fuselage. Also the wing as bonus, which greatly help in finishing up the plane. Thank you! $h@d0w.

Here is the finished plane http://www.daddyhobby.com/gallery/sh...5&limit=recent

Here’s the setup:
Watt Age - Hawk Micro Glider
RX-Schulze 5ch, Ail-HXT500, Ele-HXT900,
ESC-Aplus 25A, Motor-Cyclon 3500Kv,
Propeller-Align 6x3 Folding
366g w/o Batt.
All parts are from my spare box.

Originally plan to maiden on last Saturday morning, but have to abort due to un-favourable condition, too windy.

[VinCopter]

Sunday morning, about 7.40am, the condition was great. Quickly prepare the plane and to the field. Off it goes, cg was a bit back. It was bobbing up and down the entire field. Luckily manageable, bring it down safely. Already added 25g in the nose, guess may need another 10g.
Think when the cg is right it will be an exciting plane to fly.

[VinCopter]

Monday evening, have some spare time, quickly packs and headed to the field.
Lucky I do a ground test with WOT. Half of the plastic spinner broke off, and the unbalanced condition causes the folding prop to fly off. Fixed back the folding prop without the spinner and try with 80% throttle and its looks ok. Just need to remember not to go WOT during flight. Added some weight in the nose, total to 40g.

The speed was not fast, at least compares to my Corsair. Feels a bit sluggish, climb rate was not too bad. Did two packs with 8 minutes of mostly powered flight, motor was hot and ESC warm. The glide is ok, I think.

The power from the prop and motor combo is not consistent, could be due to overheating. Think by changing to a smaller prop should help.

[VinCopter]

Thanks to bro $h@d0w prompting that it should be a pylon racer. I should have set it up this way in the beginning.

I had an APC 4.75x4.75 prop which the tip was broken during an accidental full throttle while the plane is still on the table. Always be extra alert when you have arm the ESC and the TX throttle stick. Trim it to 3.25 diameter which should make a 3.25x4.75, correct? Fix it up and it looks good.

[VinCopter]

Manage a single flight on two days ago with a different prop, 3.12x4.75 cut down 4.75x4.75
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0qA6djl5xok
a bit raw ...

Speed is much faster than before. Plane tends to pitch up when apply throttle. Need more trimming. Next flight in nine hours.

[VinCopter]

Did a few more flights over the weekends, good speed with the HiMax 2015-4100Kv motor and prop combination. As before motor and pack are a bit hot. Motor mount abit deformed.

On Tuesday, beefed up the front motor mount area with pcb board epoxy in together with the motor mount. Also changed to a heavier the motor, B2445-3790KvKv. The test flight was smooth, and cg was spot on. Applying full power gets it to go even faster. Glide was good. Think I stay with this setup.

Yesterday evening weather was fantastic, quick packed and went for some pylon actions. As expected, it was fast, at least to me… too bad was alone, no video to estimate the speed. When coming in to land, I missed judge the glide and it landed into the wet area of the field. Splash! What a nice one. Quickly ran to recover the plane, there was no white smoke coming up. Half of the fuselage is submerged in water. Motor, ESC, RX are all wet. All the components are hung up to dry now.