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.
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.
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