Lancaster?

[Troy Newman]

Jim,
 we flew 2 rounds on Sat and 3 rounds on Sun. for a total of 5 rounds.
Tony flew the Electric and it seemed to work well even in the wind. We already knew Jason proved the wind issue at the Worlds....I wanted to see it in the wind!

I played with it on Friday for about 10-15mins and then on the last round Sunday I flew it for the P-05 sequence.
The electric system is really different.  I would not say its better or worse yet...just different. As for performance its got it. Top end power is excellent and competitive with any of the glow setups.....Now you have to remember that Tony's model is 11lbs Dry, which means its 11LBS all the time. Takeoff and thru the entire flight its lighter than the glow setups...carrying 20ozs of fuel. Only when the glow model is nearly dry is the glow model lighter...this adds to consistency....the model is not changing with every revolution of the prop.

It was 21deg Sunday Morning....dead calm and blue sunny sky.  The power was down a little on take off...flying downwind I opened it up and started to draw some power out of the packs. Once the packs warmed up in a normal 1/2 rev Cuban I entered the box and it was up to speed and plenty of go juice. Jason's comments from the worlds seemed to show a better power output after a little current drawn out of the packs. From my knowledge of batteries this makes sense.

The Model seems to lock on really well. Is it Tony's building? The Partner? or that motor swinging a 22" prop sending a huge column of air past the tail of the model? I don't know. I suspect its a combo of everything.

 In my opinion this is one of the first F3A models converted to electric that was an actual glow model that is a great flying plane and the power plant was just replaced with Electric stuff. The Partner and the other PL kits will lend themselves to E-conversion because the way the fuse is build...Its a complete molded shell. The pipe tunnel floor separates the exhaust system from the inside of the model. In the E-Power models the entire inside of the fuse is the exhaust system to carry the heat away from the motor-controller-battery system. So you never install the tunnel floor and you have a complete open model....the open pipe tunnels that the US pilots like are not very good both Aerodynamically or for the Electric conversions....

The firewall is a big open hole....and the air flows through the inside of the fuse and out some belly exhaust vents in a normal stinger location. Since the PL kits are this hollow shell it converts easily. Models with Belly pans, or the open pipe tunnel models will not be so easy to convert...In a belly pan install like a ZN Synergy the batts could go in the Belly pan...but this would require a belly pan removal every flight to change the packs out. Although possible not the best of situations. The Partner is easy the batts are on the landing gear plate...and easy to access from the canopy hatch.

For the flying part.....The power is good as I have said before. I've always understood that the sound of our model plays a key role in the pilots ability to perform the maneuvers properly. We listen to the sound of the motor....Stall turns, spins, and even top of the box horizontal lines the sound of the model plays a role to both the pilot and the judges. The sound gives us cues....

The Electric sounds different and this difference makes it a little weird for the first part of the first flight. The pilot is trying to get used to the sound....My opinion as a judge and spectator this same sound difference will throw some judges for a loop at first. On take off the model will just limp along at 1/4 power but it sounds like the motor is a park flyer....After a downwind pass and a big vertical turnaround you realize this thing has some horses under the hood.
But just like the judges commented at the Team Selection last summer and the NATS the Bipe was tough to see properly with the second wing...the electric will have a get used to it factor...At first you will not be super impressed until the model gets about 2-3-4 maneuvers into the sequence.....It has power no doubt about it!

The horizontal speed is slower at full power than the YS 140DZ at full power...But the model has the tractor effect on the verticals that keeps it pulling hard all the way up the line. This does a couple things...in the wind I feel at times I would like more speed. Perhaps a prop change will help this...there is no shortage of power.

The E model has a smaller speed envelope....don't know if its good or bad....In calm air it could be better than glow. The pilot has more latitude as to where to stick the throttle position as even if he's really into too much power the model doesn't zooooom and go into afterburner mode. So this could translate into a easier to control speed range where the model flies much more constant speed in the sequence. Down line brakes were a concern without seeing it...Well it brakes very well. I think it has it all over the 2 strokes and is equal with the DZ's on the downline brakes.

The model has very little vibration and as a result the servos should last much longer. Now Tony is very critical of his equipment. I have started to become more and more critical of mine...Changing servo pots is not as much fun as flying...and even with a Hyde mount setup the servo pots will wear. Can a mortal person see the difference in his servos? Well that is answer I always get back when I tell somebody to change their servos they are worn out...

Downsides I see....Today the cost as the biggest detractor. Its new stuff...and its not cheap. You need to buy the motor and controller around the same prices were are talking for the glow setups....Next is the chargers and batts...this is a full years' worth of fuel for a guy like me that flies 1000 flights (100 gallons) a year. Next is the unknown of the batts and the system as a whole...Will the batts last 300-400 cycles and then you are going to get 3 flight packs to go that 1000 flights. If they go longer Bonus...gear reduction unit life, motor and controller life......should be good but nobody has put this kind of time on these systems yet. So they are all questions right now today. I look forward to playing more with it and seeing what it has to offer. Today I'm not ready to drop the glow setups. But I think the next generations of batteries and motor combos will bring a huge leap forward.



Troy
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