Corona44
Senior Heliman
Location: Sydney,NSW Australia
| Well after the wild storms of the last 2 odd weeks here in Sydney the weather was fine though cold yesterday so with batteries charged the Trex and my new Multiplex Funjet (gotta have something to build when the weather is crap) headed out to my favourite flying field south west of Sydney.
Installed a Air Thunder in the Rex and took off for some fun flying.
First couple of full power vertical climbs while ok didn't seem anything special and puzzled about this for a while, then the old grey matter started computing and I realized it was the ambient temperature which was around 12deg C, that's pretty cold for Sydney.
After about 1 minute the packs had warmed up I guess and things are getting seriously fun, vertical collective stick pumping produces great response and I continue to be amazed at just how well a Futaba 401 gyro works to deal with such sudden and brutal forces and using only a 65MG servo!
I continued to fly the pack until my Quark 33A hits the low voltage point which is signalled by it causing a "misfire" like throttle response, this was at about 200ft up, dropped the collective and commenced a Auto towards the ground, by the time it was down to about 20 feet I raised collective again and as expected the Quark gave me normal power again and I continued to fly around and hover until low voltage caused the Quark to say enough is enough and landed (well was actually forced down by the Quark stopping the motor altogether)
Flight time was a tad over 12 minutes with about 7 minutes of hard collective movements and the rest easy flying.
A second Airthunder as installed in the Funjet which is running a 450TH motor and 5.25 x 5 prop, this pulls 35 amps full throttle and is so fast I can't fly the thing myself at those speeds so I let a mate fly it who is a much more experience fixed wing pilot. Again the Air Thunder worked very well producing unlimited rolling verical climbs till the aircraft is a speck in the sky which is around 1500 ft.
The Funjet was flown until the Align 25A ESC could be heard pulsing the motor then landed. Now this is a "foam" airframe which is a good thermal insulator for the battery which as expected was hot but with no signs of swelling or distress.
Both these batteries were balance charged last night when I got home and both have taken around 2250 & 2380mAH back in, so I think it's fare to say I used them till they were basically "flat"
I have purchased a eFlight datalogger but forgot to pack it in my parts box so I don't have any hard inflight data to share at this time.
So far I think it's fare to say I am very happy so far, I am looking for batteries that I can "just fly" without needing to run a stopwatch on to prevent damage and puffing. In the Trex its easy to feel when the cells are past their best power and then one can choose to land and change battery or keep "easy flying" and enjoy the extra flight time without having to worry that the cells will be permanently damaged.
I don't have any intention of deliberatly abusing them but if I buy a 2200mAH pack I want to get roughly that much out of it. So many of you are flying 2100 or 2200 packs and stop flying after 4,5 or 6 minutes and only putting back 1200-1300mA, that's to short for me and not what I had in mind when I started this Heli stuff last year.
A mate and I have just placed orders for a pair of Hurricane 550 Pro helis which are just coming onto the Australian market next month.
Choose this heli over the 600 Rex because it uses 2 Trex 450 size packs in series, ie 2200mAH in a 6S1P config and I think the Air Thunders will work really well in this much bigger bird.
Flying, crashing & having a ball. |
