Well, as the title foretells, I had my first flights on my electric converted Gieseke Nobler.  Until recently, it was equipped with a great running Brodak 40 and a carbon 10.6 x 4.9 Werwage prop, weighing 39.5oz dry.  I had some IC related torque and vibration problems develop due to the lack of any doublers in the nose.  I elected to convert the plane to electric to rather than have the plane destroy itself.  To that end, a Cobra 2820 970kv motor, Castle Creations Edge Lite 50, Hubin FM-9, Thunder Power 4s/2800, and a APC 11x5.5 tractor prop have taken their place in the nose.  Weighs 45oz with the battery installed and added .5oz tail weight.  Same 66ft .015" lines (handle to the center of the plane) as before.

So, off to the park on a fantastic sunny fall day with Gordan Delaney and my son for engine/prop/pipe/tank testing on his piped ship and to experience some electrickery in my own plane.  To start off, we put in several 2 minute flights to adjust RPM/lap time, add tail weight and adjust the leadouts forward, ect.  Felt, really, good on the first flight and better with each tweak.   Used only 28% of the battery on each of those flights.  I decided to fly those batteries from the 2min flights twice, as there was obviously plenty of juice left. 

Four 2 mintue test flights and three 6 minute, full patterns flights at 5.2-5.5 lap times depending on RPM settings.  9482 rpm and 5.2 felt very comfortable to me on the last flight and battery consumption was around 1960ma from 2800ma, with 30% left in reserve.  Just unbelievably fun!  The power is so smooth and instantaneous.  It felt like I could just attack the corners very aggressively and it would power through them with zero hesitation.  Very cool to feel it drive up and around the top on the vertical eight and on the hourglass.  The maneuver time/speed seems to be extremely comfortable.  Gordan and I were both able to hit the 2nd and 3rd turn across the top of the hourglass very hard and it turned better than it ever has.  Even Gordan was impressed, and he is a hard sale on the IC vs electric topic if you know him!  He is well known for his great running IC engines in all the popular flavors and events.  After my first hourglass flight, he commented, "man, you really nailed that hourglass..."  That was nice to hear!  I had him fly it next and although the handle setting was off for him, he flew a pretty deadly clean, impressive pattern.  He and I are both quite impressed.  There is a bit of hunting that still needs to be trimmed away, but overall it's a joy to fly.  Flats sections are flat, rounds are round, and it starts turning and stops turning very nicely.

Though it is trimmed in orange tissue, this plane was no pumpkin with the Brodak 40 engine.  It was very well powered, light, nicely trimmed and had great flight characteristics with no bad habits other than the nose related problem.  The new bionic enhanced-electric version is just WAY better!  No joke.  Perhaps it's the honeymoon phase, but I feel that I can fly it harder and better after only 3 full electric patterns than previously on glow power.  This is going to be a game changer for me at least.  My stash of nice IC engines is now feeling nervous, conspicuous and vulnerable. 

Do pay close attention to the special orange duct tape Stunt Tape™ cowl strap shown in the pics.  I left the proper cowl sitting on the bench at home, 20 miles from the field (&%$#@.)  Stunt Tape™ to the rescue.  Also useful for affixing tail weight.  Keep some Stunt Tape™ in the trunk, folks. 

Good report on your plane.  I see in the pic you have a young lad ready to take control of the handle and start out flying you.

    This is why electric has the possibility to transform people's performance......  Electric does what we have worked for easily, and it's hard to make it run any other way

    Note that this is why people don't use Brodak 40's, Stalker 51's, etc, in serious competition, and spend a lot of time adjusting IC setups. You can make it run the same way, or better, than electric (particularly, governor-only electric), with the most advanced IC systems that are adjusted correctly.  This is the sort of run we have been working to get on IC for 30+ years.

    The difference is, of course, that it's dead easy to get that on an electric system, it runs that way by default, instead of requiring decades of experience to make it that way and keep it that way. Ultimate performance is probably a wash between the very best electrics and the very best IC system, but almost no one has the very best, or even a competitive, IC system. Look at the posts in the Engine Setup forum, most of it is arranging the deck chairs on the Titanic, and no one even discusses competitive systems, sticking with ancient equipment and even more ancient ideas from the dim mists of history*.

    This is why electric has the possibility to transform people's performance. Tuned pipes were a similar level of breakthrough, and even the very first competitive systems were a quantum leap - for those who paid attention. You still had to know what you were looking for, and then work toward it (you should have seen what I saw at the 93 NATS - people struggling everywhere with long-solved problems and who refused to change it). Electric does what we have worked for easily, and it's hard to make it run any other way - although with Igor's system, you can certainly screw it up if you don't know what you are doing.

     Brett


*p.s. I just checked, and there isn't a single thread on the first page of the Engine Setup forum that has anything to do with a competitive engine system, and only one that vaguely relates to competition engine setups  (i.e. PA series, RO-Jett, and OS VF). I don't fault anyone for asking about what they have and are interested in, but it is striking that there is essentially no activity associated with any competitive system.