Flying Information
PsychedUP
Electrics, A New Setup Style
By Mark Fadely
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Evening at IRCHA 2006 |
I hope everybody had a good year of flying
in 2006. It was an exciting year for me and
I’m really glad to be in the hobby right now.
There is a lot of development going on and
new products are being released at an unprecedented
rate. This is especially true
with the new electrics. I had a chance to fly
the new Miniature Aircraft Razor at IRCHA
06. Wow! Was I impressed. This little 50 size
EP really rocks! I put it through some demanding
maneuvers and it chewed right
threw those and asked for more. Many
thanks again to Eric Larson for letting me
have a go with the prototype model. The Razor
should be available to the public by the
time you read this.
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Align's 600 in a blue sky over IRCHA |
Align has their 600EP and Thunder Tiger
has released a Raptor EP as well. Mikado has
the Logo 14, and it has been flown in the
2006 XFC. The 50 size electric market is certainly
growing by leaps and
bounds. If you haven’t flown
one of these machines you really
should. They are a blast
and the clean raw power is
amazing. They perform much
like a 90 glow model for first
few minutes of a flight. At IRCHA
06 many electrics were
demonstrated, signaling the
future direction of our hobby.
With all the hype and
great performance of the new
electrics a lot of pilots are wondering
what direction to go for
their next model. The electrics certainly
have a lot of nice features but there are
some downsides too. You do have to charge
the batteries and the power output degrades
as the flight progresses. The batteries are
expensive and can be damaged in a crash. By
the time you invest in all the charging equipment,
batteries and other up-front costs of
EP powered helis you could have a nice
glow machine for less ... but then you have
to buy fuel.
For most of the pilots that fly the new
electrics, it’s not so much about cost as it is
convenience. They like the fact that you
don’t have engine tuning issues or a messy
heli
to clean up after flying.
I have found that
most of the pilots that
own a 50 size electric
also have a glow heli or
two as well. Some of the
top pilots that I know on
the Miniature Aircraft
team have a Stratus and
a Razor and they like
both for different reasons.
Currently I fly a Tempest
FAI w/YS91 power.
After I flew against some
of the new breed of 90s
during this year’s XFC I realized I needed to
make a change in my
equipment. For 2007
I will be flying a Stratus
90 with OS-SZ
power. I also switched
to V-Blades in anticipation
of needing a really
rigid blade for
handling some of the new flying styles. I’ve
been flying V-Blades for the last couple of
months and they are great blades, and
they’re tough. Check out the flex in the
blade during a scrape in the picture on the
front cover!
There is a new setup that is becoming
more popular among top pilots with their 90
size machines. The main thing that is different
from previous thinking is the collective
pitch has been maxed out at almost
14 degrees! The cyclic pitch is running 8 degrees.
These numbers are incredible and
this is what’s allowing these super light
machines to be thrown around like rag dolls.
The new powerful engines and special mufflers
are enabling gobs of thrust to be extracted from the machines. You really
have to experience how they fly
to believe it. Now, everything that
impressive comes with a price. The
key to making this setup work is
collective management. You can have
no cyclic input if you are maxed on
collective and you have to re-learn
how you fly so that you won’t be
constantly bogging the engine.
This type of control setup is definitely
not for everyone but I’m going
to give a try for next year and see
how I like it. The blade noise, super
quick movements and the ability to
make sudden stops at any speed are
what appeals to me. For instance, say you
have your machine setup to run at 10 degrees
full collective and are using an older
less powerful engine and a lower rotor rpm.
You will find that there is a large “mush
zone” when changing direction. What I
mean is that when you get the heli traveling
in one direction pretty fast and then
you want to really jerk it to a stop, there is a delay or mushiness to the stop. It’s not crisp
and precise. The reason is lack of pitch, power
and overall weight of the machine. When
you fly a really light helicopter that has all of
these attributes it opens up a whole new flight
envelope for the pilot. Needless to say I’m pretty
excited about it! I just need to make sure to
bring a couple of extra trash bags to the field to
bring my heli home in, (LOL - ED).
Since it’s time for the flying activities to
wind down for most of us I hope this gives
you something to get excited about for next
season. I hope to see some of you at the EFest
in February. That event was a blast last
year and it’s going on again in Champaign Illinois
(www.gpe-fest.com) just like last year.
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