I was able to fly the E Carrier plane again today and had some good results. Since I only have one battery I only got a few short flights in but I learned from them.
I replaced the switch that I had between the utronics controller and the ESC with an arming plug. This a high current plug that is easily connected or pulled out to arm the system. It goes in line with the battery. For flights, the ground person just holds the plane, inserts the arming plug and after the ESC chirps that its ready the plane is set for take off. Works very well. Its a bit bulky on a 15 size plane, I may have to try and come up with a smaller unit for future models.
I used a 9X6 reverse rotation prop this time. Time from launch to 8 laps was 29 seconds or 62 mph. Not too far off the 70 mph max for 15 carrier. After high speed I tried to get it into a hang. Two things made this difficult. The throttle response at mid range was abrupt so when I would get the tail down and then throttle up the transition was too quick. I should be able to fix this with a longer arm on the throttle pot so the travel is longer. That should make the transition smoother. The other issue I had was due to the airplane itself, normal carrier flying. To hang I have to give a lot of up elevator. The elevator needs to be bigger or I need to adjust the pivot on the control horn to give more up control. Nothing new on this airplane.
I flew it once for a full high speed and then a minute or two trying to hang it. Next flight I did get it into a hang but with the throttle response the way it was it was difficult to keep it there for more than a lap or so.
One last flight for some pictures and then the battery ran out of power.
So I'll fix a few bugs and try it again. I believe the basic functions are there and just need to fine tune it further.
I added a couple of new pictures at this website:
http://community.webshots.com/album/558463249GjpkDEAny questions? let me know.
Bob