Quorneng
RCTalk Member
- Messages
- 26
- Reaction score
- 75
- Points
- 43
Some recent warm calm weather encouraged me to see just how long my sub 250g 40" span Super Cub could fly using its 1000mAh 2s LiPo,
The result was a remarkable 37 minutes 16 seconds. The cells were each showing 3.72V when at rest suggesting the battery was fully discharged.
Doing some sums this flight represented an average current of 1.8A or 14Watts. This sounds quite impressive but as the Super Cub is so light (242g = 0.53lbs) it actually represents a not so impressive power consumption of 24Watts/lb.
This is a figure much higher than I achieved with a plane actually designed for endurance.
Bigger and heavier (it was also carrying 250g of ballast) it achieved a power consumption of just 8W/lb meaning it could fly for a full hour on a 1000mah 2s!
Clearly the rather draggy airframe of the Super Cub requires significantly more power to fly.
Many electric planes fly well enough but I do wonder if folks realise just how much of the battery power is wasted overcoming an "untidy" installation of the electrics!
The result was a remarkable 37 minutes 16 seconds. The cells were each showing 3.72V when at rest suggesting the battery was fully discharged.
Doing some sums this flight represented an average current of 1.8A or 14Watts. This sounds quite impressive but as the Super Cub is so light (242g = 0.53lbs) it actually represents a not so impressive power consumption of 24Watts/lb.
This is a figure much higher than I achieved with a plane actually designed for endurance.
Bigger and heavier (it was also carrying 250g of ballast) it achieved a power consumption of just 8W/lb meaning it could fly for a full hour on a 1000mah 2s!
Clearly the rather draggy airframe of the Super Cub requires significantly more power to fly.
Many electric planes fly well enough but I do wonder if folks realise just how much of the battery power is wasted overcoming an "untidy" installation of the electrics!
