New Live Wire

[scottm]

I don't know if any of you dumb car guys are interested but I finished a plane kit that has been sitting around in my living room since Septemer, a Wattage Live Wire. It is a pattern/3d hybrid, meaning it will do sport aerobatics and also extreme aerobatics (so called 3d) like hovering, blenders, waterfalls, etc.

It was pretty weak with the stock motor and a 2 cell lithium polymer so I put on a 3 cell and burned out the stock motor in 1 minute. It now has a GWS 350c motor, and works well on the 2 cell. It flys for 20 minutes and almost hovers.

With 3 cells it literally accelerates straight up. The GWS can take 3 cells for a few seconds at a time, and if it burns out new motors are only $4.00

Check out the micro servos. That is a JR reciever with the cover off to save weight. I left the stickers off to save weight too. As it is shown with a huge 2100 2 cell lipoly, it only weighs .945 lb, or 15.1 oz.

Here is a link to wattage:

http://www.globalhobby.com/public/gallery/128435.asp

 

[Error401]

Looks good Scott. Does it track good? I used to compete on the pattern circuit, so I love a groovy plane.

I finished a Crazy Max, but haven't gotten to test fly it yet. Gonna run a NiMH 8 cell and stock motor. I just hope that it's worth the effort.

 

[lillightingboy21]

Looks good. Have fun fling it........Nick

 

[scottm]

Thanks Error! I'm real happy with it. The live wire is descended from the crazy max I think. You will like it - I can fly anywhere anytime, like the lot across the street from work. It is a pain to take my big nitro plane out to the field.

Tracking varies big time with the center of gravity. Since I am using light li-polys, I had a hard time getting the cg forward enough. When it was back too far, it was hyper sensitive to pitch, and slight wind currents sent it popping all over the place. Plus it was hard to land, I had to force it down at half power. I got the new gws motor forward enough and now it works great.

lillighting, I 'fling' it every time - I like a good hand release!

Error, here is the crazy max page. If you can keep it at 12 oz, it should be a blast

http://www.globalhobby.com/public/gallery/128432.asp

 

[Error401]

Sweet. I gotta put the radio back in it though. And then I gotta do some programming on the Tx (heli radio) to get the ailerons to work right. But as soon as it gets warmer, I'll give it a whirl.

Ya try flat spinning the LW yet? Aft CG and big surfaces are a must, but it looks pretty sweet when ya get it to do it. I had a fun fly called the Predator that would do it all the time. Just flattend out and spins on the CG like a leaf. Just be sure to try to get out of it with alot of altitude till ya get to know how fast it recovers.

 

[scottm]

Be sure to set up your ailerons to work as flapperons with two independant servos. WHat are you using for servos? Cirrus has a new one that is amazingly small.

I have been working up my skills and nerve to try a flat spin (blender). I scared myself pretty good trying it with my Funtana. The whole plunge-straight-down-snap-roll thing is disorienting. And the ground comes up fast. But I am flying once or twice a day, and that helps a lot.

 

[Error401]

It's all about the balance. On my Predator, I'd just enter a normal spin (stall, drop a wing, normal spin), then slowly cross control the ailerons. If you do it right and the plane is set up right, it'll flatten out. I had to mount a header tank on it because the fuel would slosh to the front of the tank and starve the engine.

I'm gonna run JR micros, and the wing was built for dual servos. Getting the heli radio to do the flapperon mixing right is gonna be a trick. It's the only radio I have with a mico Rx.

 

[Error401]

I found the only known pix I have of my Predator. This is the second fuse, but the wing and tail feathers are from the original. This one I powered with an OS 46 SF with the muffler bored out, the first one had an OS 48 4 stroke (and was a bit under powered).

 

[scottm]

Thats sweet error, s that your own design? Two things stand out - does it have enough rudder for knife edge? And does it roll good with the high wing?

 

[Error401]

The roll rate is unbelievable. But unfortunately the design has alot of roll coupling in the rudder and knife edges require alot of aileron input.

The kit was by a company called GTGenerix. I don't know if they're still in business. After my dad destroyed the first fuse, I think I got one of the last kits they had of that model (might have gotten it off ebay or at a swap meet) and used it for patterns. When dad planted the first one, the fuse from the trailing edge forward was toothpicks, and the wing had 1 small hole from the engine muffler, but the tail feathers were fine. So, I cut another fuse and rebuilt it. added some 1/64th ply to the weak area (mentioned above) and hung a hot 2 stroke on it. This design rocks for the fact that you can take the wing off, unlike most funflys. Also, the design is such that you can build it high or low wing.

The other thing is the radio, computer all the way. I had a Futaba Super 7 in it. Boatload of Expo on all channels, and had the gear switch set up for spoilerons. It would pop both ailerons up about 20 degrees and the thing would pitch up about 15 degrees and just about hover at idle. All up weight around 4 Lbs with 800 sq inches.

I love that plane, but I retired it since I was getting the feeling that something bad was gonna happen to it (flying style). Oh yeah, almost forgot, I nearly killed 3 small rabbits with that plane.

 

[scottm]

I started playing with my live wire again lately. I was getting tired of it a few months ago because the lipo batteries weren't working as well as they should have. My best battery was a Thunderpower 2100 mah that I bought in February. It worked great at low throttle, but at full throttle it would dump after only 5-6 minutes and only take 600-700 mah on recharge. That indicates the discharge rate was too high for it, but the motor was only drawing about 6 amps. So the battery was only able to deliver less than 3C rate, which is lame.

Well it turns out there has been tremendous improvement in lipos in the last 6 months. I just bought a new thunderpower 1320 mah 2 cell battery that is capable of 10C discharge with a loss of just 20% capacity. 1300 ma into 6 amps is only 4.6C, so it easily delivers what my plane needs without a loss of capacity.

The new 1320 is also .8 oz lighter. The combination of better power delivery and lighter wieght made a huge improvement. It now hovers (barely) on the 2 cell, and flies for more than 10 minutes at high throttle. In addition, the lighter battery in the front moves the plane's center of gravity back about 1/4 inch. It now floats down like a parachute with power off, and does perfect elevators with full up flaps. Sweet!

The new battery is the lower one. The good high-C batteries have a yellow stripe on the label. My older ones with the blue strip are already on ebay.

 

[scottm]

Oops! Live Wire down! I crashed onto the roof of my workshop, but it is repairable. Now I have an excuse to shop for a new small plane.