New built.

[blueangel]

Sneak preview before maiden.

Here are the specs:

Material : Foam
Wing span : 1080 mm
Length : 980 mm
Weight 591 grams w/o Lipo.
R.O.G. weight 700 grams, with Lipo and Pink-Hippo mascot.

Motor : Brushless FSD 980 KV
ESC : 30 A
Servos : 6 qty, with UBEC
Flaps : 2 servos
Ailerons : 2 servos
Rudder & Elevator : 1 each.

Review :

This foam kit is quick to built. Everything fits together perfectly and nothing requires trimming. However instructions are vague and flyers who had experience building GWS should find this less daunting - aka less challenging.

All the hinges and linkages come pre-assembled. Note : these are proper hingers, not GWS type of plastic sheet inserts.

I decided to incorporate flaps since I had all the 6 channels available. The kit came very well thought of and had already carved out 2 pockets under the wing for the flap servos. You remove the foam insert from the pockets and drop in the servos. However some work needs to be done on the flaps - cut off a section of the foam from the wings, sand paper them straight and smooth, insert hinges and linkage. Very quick job with a new penknife blade.

Ailerons came with two option. You can choose to built with one servos, using 2 long pushrods to control the ailerons via rocker arms at the ends ( no pictures here ). However I decided to use individual servos for the ailerons instead. Differentials setting is only possible with seperate aileron servo controls.

This gives the total flying weight close to 700 grams due to additional wirings and servos. I estimated if I should opt not to have flaps and uses one servo for the aileron, the plane would be 650 grams. Anyway, the fat pink hippo probably took up 5 tonnes in the plane..

Motor mounting is very odd. It came with the white plastic motor mount but has 3 mounting poles. No way to mount my 4-hole motor mount. So I cut off the 3 poles and screw on wood for the necessary spacing. Epoxy and wood screw are used. This took me an hour to figure out a good method + a trip to LHS to buy the wood material. 2nd retry and I was satisfied with the present result.

2 hatches under the fuselage gives plenty of room for access to the ESC, UBEC and Lipo. The smaller hatch near the nose is smaller. The bigger hatch fits a 1300 mAh Lipo very tightly. This is the only location that I made addtional cutting so that I can place the Lipo into the compartment with more ease with a bigger slot. The hatch still works after trimming off the additional foam material.

Kit does not come with red spinner cone. I still think it looks prettier with a proper spinner.

As usual, foam planes tend to invite lost of fingernail dings and scratches.

A little worry thing is I tend to make mistake while landing. Since the cowling is also foam, I reinforced the internal of the cowling with 4 minute metal epoxy. I coated the inside with a thin layer of epoxy at strategic location - just in case. I hope I don't need them to work - don't crash.

Fully built with Lipo installed, I check its C.G. Opps... surprise surprise.. no additional weights required to balance this plane.

Overall impression :

This is probably one of my most scaled plane ever. Like the shape. Did I mentioned what plane this was.. OK.. come back for part 2 of this post after I maiden.

[pixeldixel]

man. i love guessing games! 1st guess. This is a Cessna 182 (based on the wing).

[pixeldixel]

HAH! found out what model this is and where u got it from.. hahahha. ok lar will not spoil the fun of others.

Good luck on your maiden bro!

[Nicholas]

definately a cessena! but then again , your hippo is flying the plane(last pic)! is this nav lights moded ?

[Nicholas]

maybe you should strengthen the wings with a CF rod?

[blueangel]

Dear all,

Your guess is close. ( Not Cessna 182 ) I think by looking at the pre-painted job and hatch you probably recognize it. There's plenty in internet too. It comes with orange, pink and blue. Cessna hardly manufactures orange or pink planes, mostly blue, so stick with blue. Originality.

I don't know what material the rod is made of. It was pre-glue, high chance it is just solid plastic rod. For maiden, the plastic material should work out fine, until I start doing loops and some high G stuffs that should make the pink hippo puke.. LOL

No Nav lights yet. Will put up lights once everything sorted out for maiden today, weather permitting.

[rockinanko]

seriously, i've seen quite a number of cessnas before i bought 2 of them but your plane is nothing i've seen before!

come on blueangel...show the real picture!
maybe we can do a cessna flypast later!!!

hehe...

[pixeldixel]

its the Cessna T206?

[blueangel]

Cessna T-206





Described as "the sport-utility vehicle of the air." Cessnas are also used for aerial photography, skydiving and other utility purposes. They can also be equipped with floats, amphibious floats and skis. Alternatively, they can be fitted with luxury appointments for use as a personal air transport.

The six-seat Model 206 was introduced as a 1964 model and was built until 1986, when Cessna halted production of its single-engine product. It was then re-introduced in 1998 and remains in production in 2008.

The prefix "T" to the model 206 depicts a turbocharged engine producing 310 hp.


Maiden yesterday with some small issue.

Plane rolls to the left and I had to trim ailerons 10 clicks to compesate.
Kind souls help checked the plane and identified ailerons to be out of shape - one side is slightly warped.

I have tried heating up the foam ( kids do not try this at home - foam will melt ) and bend it into shape. Hopefully this will cure the roll tendencies. Will check again today.

Flaps works great and I had to reduce the flap by further half as it was observed to be causing too much drag. I am too busy to notice that but guys on the field noticed it and feedback. Doesn't it helps to fly together with your friends than alone ? Yeah.. ( more eyes help solve problem much quicker )

Broke a prop when I tried to R.O.G the 3rd time. Now left with one prop. Feel that the prop is slightly underpowering the plane with 8X6. While trying to make a loop, it doesn't climb sufficiently and drop its nose when passing vertical and transiting into inverted position. Luckily plane is high enough to prevent any mishap.

One pro with this plane - very visible in the sky. Big and obvious.

Cons - can't fit inside my car's boot properly. Alot of dings and scratches on the plane already.

Balsa anyone ?

[Nicholas]

Cessna T-206





Described as "the sport-utility vehicle of the air." Cessnas are also used for aerial photography, skydiving and other utility purposes. They can also be equipped with floats, amphibious floats and skis. Alternatively, they can be fitted with luxury appointments for use as a personal air transport.

The six-seat Model 206 was introduced as a 1964 model and was built until 1986, when Cessna halted production of its single-engine product. It was then re-introduced in 1998 and remains in production in 2008.

The prefix "T" to the model 206 depicts a turbocharged engine producing 310 hp.


Maiden yesterday with some small issue.

Plane rolls to the left and I had to trim ailerons 10 clicks to compesate.
Kind souls help checked the plane and identified ailerons to be out of shape - one side is slightly warped.

I have tried heating up the foam ( kids do not try this at home - foam will melt ) and bend it into shape. Hopefully this will cure the roll tendencies. Will check again today.

Flaps works great and I had to reduce the flap by further half as it was observed to be causing too much drag. I am too busy to notice that but guys on the field noticed it and feedback. Doesn't it helps to fly together with your friends than alone ? Yeah.. ( more eyes help solve problem much quicker )

Broke a prop when I tried to R.O.G the 3rd time. Now left with one prop. Feel that the prop is slightly underpowering the plane with 8X6. While trying to make a loop, it doesn't climb sufficiently and drop its nose when passing vertical and transiting into inverted position. Luckily plane is high enough to prevent any mishap.

One pro with this plane - very visible in the sky. Big and obvious.

Cons - can't fit inside my car's boot properly. Alot of dings and scratches on the plane already.

Balsa anyone ?

haha what does balsa have to do with the whole thing?
oh man ... whats your AUW? im using the same motor and bought a 8X6 APC to try out cause 1047 totally fried my motor ...

[blueangel]

haha what does balsa have to do with the whole thing?
oh man ... whats your AUW? im using the same motor and bought a 8X6 APC to try out cause 1047 totally fried my motor ...

Balsa.. nothing... nevermind

AUW should be 700 grams as mentioned in first post in this thread.
With FSD 980KV on 8X6 GWS propeller it wasn't powerful enough for this size plane. I probably will try using 9X?.

Anyway, the specs for my motor is 10X? or smaller, so going 9 should be better.

2nd flight day, after tweaking the ailerons flat and aligned, still couldn't get the plane to fly straight -as usual, need to click aileron trims 10 counts to counter the roll. Definitely not the ailerons.

So I came back home and check the motor mount and suspect it could be mount thrust angle. The mounting was mounted slightly port side. So I re-fabricated the wood mounts and shifted the motor starboard side by a few millimeters. I believe the plane rolls left due to motor is exactly inline with the plane's roll center, thus the tendency to roll excessively. Anyway, will try the new setup again next week.

[Nicholas]

dont think you should try 1047 on that motor , i fried mine using that sorta prop. im looking for the 9 prop as well , but im using 8 prop instead cause theres no stock for the 9 prop.

maybe i should upgrade my esc aswell ... hmm.

[remauled]

So I came back home and check the motor mount and suspect it could be mount thrust angle. The mounting was mounted slightly port side. So I re-fabricated the wood mounts and shifted the motor starboard side by a few millimeters. I believe the plane rolls left due to motor is exactly inline with the plane's roll center, thus the tendency to roll excessively. Anyway, will try the new setup again next week.

Nice one. Could you elaborate on this please? Do you mean that to mechanically counter the left roll, face (offset) the motor towards the right slightly?

My last crashed was due to a rapid left roll to invert then plane meets earth.

Regards, Ron

[Nicholas]

Nice one. Could you elaborate on this please? Do you mean that to mechanically counter the left roll, face (offset) the motor towards the right slightly?

My last crashed was due to a rapid left roll to invert then plane meets earth.

Regards, Ron

Theres actually 2 ways to do this countering ,

One is by trimming via your transmitter for a nice a level flight.

2nd is by checking your thrust angle of the motor , making sure that it is perfectly perpendicular to your motor. or at whatever angle stated ain the build manual would counter the problem. Yes because the motor : for example , 4-10 degrees pointed left , would result in the RIGHT wing going faster than the LEFT wing , thus , the LEFT wing has more lift than the RIGHT wing causing it to roll.

and usually the second method would result in your plane tracking better in a straight line

[blueangel]

dont think you should try 1047 on that motor , i fried mine using that sorta prop. im looking for the 9 prop as well , but im using 8 prop instead cause theres no stock for the 9 prop.

maybe i should upgrade my esc aswell ... hmm.

In that case you should just stick to 9X props.

Specifications indicated on the FSD 980KV brushless is 10X props and below.
The current drawn for the motor is less than 20 Amps. I am using a 30 Amp ESC, so it should not give overcurrent issue, technically speaking.

Did you try J.H. ? I remember seeing some over the weekend, maybe I was wrong.

As for thrust angle, you shouldn't be tweaking the up/down angle first until you sort out the left/right (roll ) issue.

Once you sorted out the roll issue, then you can fly your plane at 50~70% trottle and observe if it is climbing. Then add spacers behind motor to tilt motor down for slightly more down thrust to achieve level flight.

Anyway, its been difficult to tune my plane for these two weekend flying because there's been too much gusty winds up high. Above tuning best done on calm day.