Top Flite Nobler Conversion: to Electric & Profile Fuselage

[Kafin Noe’man]

I have a scratch built Top Flite Nobler that I crashed earlier last year. It damaged the fuselage, however the wing and stab+elevator are still intact. After it’s been sitting untouched for more than a year, I have been thinking to convert it into an electric and a profile fuselage to make the fix quicker. So, does anyone here have any plan/ideas for the conversion? What electric setup should I get? Etc.

Looking forward to hearing your ideas!


Best,
Kafin

[Motorman]

E-Flight Power 15
Thunder Power 4S 2800 mah
Hubin FM9
Castle Creations Ice Edge 50
APC 11x5.5 tractor
9200 rpm

Enjoy,
MM

[Steve Helmick]

Design the nose so that the battery is on the inboard side of the fuselage. Mounted on the outboard side, they tend to go flying off into the weeds. Don't trust Velcro too much. A stunter flying without the battery crashes hard! I've been witness to several of these circumstances and none ended well. Steve

[Dave Rigotti]

Mine are always on the outboard side held with velcro battery straps. Hundreds if not over a thousand flights without issue.  Maybe you've been doing wrong?

Design the nose so that the battery is on the inboard side of the fuselage. Mounted on the outboard side, they tend to go flying off into the weeds. Don't trust Velcro too much. A stunter flying without the battery crashes hard! I've been witness to several of these circumstances and none ended well. Steve

[Ken Culbertson]

I too put the battery on the outside using Velcro.  Lots of folks have had bad experiences with velcro but it is mostly from using it wrong.  You need to use the kind in Dave's picture.  The battery on the outside does two things.  It lets you have a full balsa doubler fared into the spinner and it places the battery weight outboard saving tip weight.  Keep in mind that you will not have the full body to hide all of the wires so do a little planning.  I fly with Dave's evil twin and the nose of Crist's pathfinder just as well laid out and professional.

Have you drawn up plans yet?  It is easy to just take a Blue Box set of plans and cut a slab to match the outline but keep one thing in mind, The Nobler Aft Fuselage is very large and very light.  Your profile will be heavier and less rigid unless you hollow it out and put in bracing.

[Motorman]

I seem to remember someone producing a profile Nobler.

https://brodak.com/nobler.html

[Carl Cisneros]

Kafin;
a couple of pics of my profile Time Maching.
I had an 80amp esc at the time. been replaced with a smaller one tho.
I used a Brodak Conversion for the set-up.
Think it was for a 38 Special.
Hope this helps

Carl

[Dennis Toth]

The profile Nobler is easily made from two pieces of 3/8" balsa sheet laminated with 1/16" plywood doubler use maple mounts as normal between the doublers but drill lighting hole in the back 70% of the length. Use 1/4" or 3/8" balsa triangular fillets to stiffen the tail, fuse mount the gear and add hardwood mount block between the double near the bottom of the fuse in front of the wing. For the motor mount there are some clean printed mounts available Okie Air Model Products (https://okieair.com/shop/ols/products/printed-motor-mount/v/PRNT-MNT-PRF-FSL-BAD-ASS-222).

I like the battery on the outside with two Velcro straps that go through the fuse and a separate piece of Velcro on the pack to the fuse. The fuse side Velcro keeps the pack from moving for/aft and also adds a little extra safety of it pulling off. I do this on my full fuse ships also. I get the industrial Velcro from Home Depot and have not had any failures in over 8 yrs of flying electric.

I have found a setup that uses a BadAss 2814-870Kv motor with a 10x6.5 APCE prop (10x5.8 pitched up) and a HobbyStar 5S - 1650mah pack (this pack is only 70mm long and fits nicely where the IC fuel tank goes), Castle Creation Talon 35 ESC, set to fixed rpm at 9700.

Best,    DennisT