[NSRCA-discussion] FMS OLYMPUS

Sun Apr 27 18:44:18 AKDT 2014

					Fms f3a olympus !

							I purchased an FMS F3A Olympus at the Toledo show. I purchased 
this plane with the intentions of having a smaller practice plane to 
take to the field when I am time crunched to take my regular 2meter.  My
 initial thought was ''WOW'' This plane was very large for an EPO Foam 
bird. From removing it from the box to a finished product took just 
under an hour. The plane was very well packaged, and only had a few 
minor foam dings from packaging that was expected from a model this 
large. After reading some posts and thoughts on the included metal gear 
digital servos, I had intended on installing some hitec digies from the 
get-go. However, once I tested the resolution and power of the included 
servos I was extremely happy with their performance. They centered very 
well, and were very quiet and smooth operating. I decided to give them a
 try, and I must say they performed awesome. The included 15x8 prop was 
very out of balance, so I am glad I balanced it prior to flying it the 
first time. I am running a seperate 3s 400mah rx pack through a 6v 
regulator since I disabled the bec part of the esc. On a plane this 
large I do not trust BEC's with prior experiences. For the initial test 
flight I flew it on a 5s 3000 mah pack, and the only trim it required 
was one click left aileron, and two clicks right rudder. After I flew a 
couple trim circuits I did a few basic rolls and a few stall turns to 
feel out the response. I started out with 20% Expo on aileron/elevator, 
and 10% on the rudder. After seeing how very effective the rudder is at 
center, I went to 30% on the next few flights. The rolls were very true 
with hardly any pitching around neutral, and minimal to no elevator was 
required inverted. For the next few flights I flew a 6s 4400 pack in it,
 and it required no trim change, and did not notice any large difference
 in feel versus the 5s 3000 pack. I was able to get through the entire Masters pattern with no issues on the 5S 3,000 mah pack. Even though it lacked a little power, it performed comfortably. When I landed each cell was at 3.82 a cell, so I was very pleased with that. I then decided to throw the 6s 4400 pack in it. All I can say is that the power difference from 5 to 6 cells is very drastic, and Masters can be performed as big as you want it to be, with no issue on power ! After I flew a large " Big Sky " Masters sequence my cells read on average 3.8 a cell as well. The temp outside today was 65, and after I landed the Batts, Motor, and ESC averaged out 70-75 degrees F. 

 I was a little concerned 
initially with the small landing gear and wheelpants flying off of 
fairly tall grass, but it had no problem what so ever. The stall 
characteristic is very mild just as a typical patternship. Having just 
under ten flights on it now, I am growing very comfortable with it and 
feel it is not going to take a whole lot more tweaking to get it dialed 
in.  I like this plane so much, I think I am going to buy a second one 
to have just in case they discontinue it, or etc... I own a Great planes
 Sequence and have flown many flights on a 62" Osiris, and I must say 
that this thing locks in better and flies 10 times better than those. I 
highly recommend this plane for anyone looking for a good practice plane
 and or contest plane for Sportsman or Intermediate ! If I had to in a pinch, I would not think twice about flying it as a backup in Masters. 

Please let me know if you have any detailed questions, and I will try and answer them. 

I will be doing a field and bench review on this for my next K-factor article.

Matthew E. Finley

Key-Note Piano Tuning and Service
(614)272-2604 Business
(614)557-3846 Cell
Key_note_piano at yahoo.com

> From: vanputter at gmail.com
> Date: Sun, 27 Apr 2014 12:20:27 -0500
> To: nsrca-discussion at lists.nsrca.org
> Subject: Re: [NSRCA-discussion] tooooo quiet!!!
> 
> Not me.  I'm at the flying field.
> 
> 
> On Apr 27, 2014, at 11:02 AM, gseeling wrote:
> 
> > any one home???
> > _______________________________________________
> > NSRCA-discussion mailing list
> > NSRCA-discussion at lists.nsrca.org
> > http://lists.nsrca.org/mailman/listinfo/nsrca-discussion
> 
> _______________________________________________
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