Hovering HobbyKing/Nitroplanes 3D Hawk for 4.5 min. Straight, at night!
My RC Site: http://electricrcaircraftguy.blogspot...
WARNING: THIS IS DANGEROUS. DO **NOT** TRY THIS AT HOME WITHOUT EXTENSIVE PRACTICE FIRST IN A SAFE, LARGE GRASSY AREA AWAY FROM TREES AND HOUSES. Actually, I suppose I can't recommend ever trying this at home. ALSO, THE PROP IS VERY DANGEROUS AND IF IT STRIKES YOUR EYES, IT CAN MAKE YOU BLIND AND CAUSE PERMANENT FACIAL SCARING. EYE PROTECTION HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.
This is me flying my RC plane at night. The plane has no gyros, so all control is completely manual. Due to the low lighting I had to keep it close to myself. Also, I wanted to see how long I could hover it so I ended up just trying to hover the whole flight. I have had this plane for about a year now, and probably have 100+ flights on it. It has taken me this entire time to be able to hover this well, and I have only been able to repeatedly hover like this for a few weeks now. My next step will be to learn torque rolls, which are extremely difficult.
Here are some specs on the plane, and a few descriptions where necessary.
-Plane: 3D Hawk. I purchased it from HobbyKing here: http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/st....
However, it is also available here on Nitroplanes: http://www.nitroplanes.com/91a-3dhawk...
-Motor: stock
-Propeller. The stock GWS 7x3.5 prop was very flimsy and poorly balanced, as well as the wrong shape for a plane with RPM's this low. A high diameter, low pitch "Slow Fly" spoon-shaped prop is more desirable for 3D flying and high thrust at this RPM range, so I switched the prop to a Tower Pro TP Slow Fly propeller 8x3.8 found here: http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/st...
-Battery: Turnigy 800 mAh 20-30C 2S LiPo: http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/st...
-Airplane weight (no battery): 207g (with about 20g of that being extra hot glue and tape from about a dozen repairs)
-Airplane all-up flying weight: 256g
-CG: 57mm from leading edge of main wing at root, near fuselage
-Power & Current (with TP 8x3.8 prop and 2S LiPo): 10.5A, 70W continuous (at full throttle at 6500 ft elevation); 11.9A, 85W peak (at 6500 ft elevation); 12.2A/81W Cont. at 700 ft elevation, 13.7A/98W Peak at 700 ft elevation.
-Power Loading: ~144W/lb in this video (due to 700 ft elevation). Honestly, this is a bit low due to my 20g extra weight from glue and tape due to many crashes and repairs. I'd prefer something more like 155+ W/lb.
-ESC: stock 10A
-Servos: HXT500 5g servos from HobbyKing.com on the rudder and elevator, and HXT900 9 g servo on the ailerons.
-Rx (Receiver): Orange brand Futaba FASST-compatible $30 Rx from Hobbyking.com: http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/st...
-Tx (Transmitter): Futaba T7C (awesome radio), from TowerHobbies.com: http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin/...
-There is also a 3x2 mm hollow carbon fiber tube hot glued/taped to the bottom of the main wing to prevent the wings from collapsing during forward flight and acrobatics.
Plane flies very well and battery, ESC, and motor are all only slightly warm to warm after normal flying. After this video, however, the motor was hot after hovering so long, but not too hot to touch. This battery/ESC/prop combo. is excellent for this plane, and the ESC does not get hot nor is in danger of burning up despite the higher (greater than 10) peak amps this plane is capable of pulling.
If you can tell from the video, I have also doubled the size of the ailerons by hot gluing a piece of 6mm Depron foam on the back of each aileron. This works awesome, and allows me to hover this plane well with a battery as large as 1000 mAh, while still having the aileron authority to counter the torque roll!!! It also gives me a lower (more favorable) wing loading and better forward flight, as well as much cleaner and better flat spins.
I absolutely love this plane, and am very impressed with its build, quality, value, and flying ability!!!