Flying High With Electric Power! The Ampeer ON-LINE! April 1998 The Club Newsletter of the Electric Flyers Only, Inc AMA Charter 2354 Walled Lake, MI, USA Editor: Ken Myers Fly the Future - Fly Electric!

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Ken Myers	Richard Utkan	Debbie McNeely	Jim McNeely	Jeff Hauser
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Mailed Ampeer subscriptions are $10 a year U.S. & Canada and $17 a year world wide. FREE on-line!		The Next Meeting: Date: Thursday, April 2 Time: 7:30 at the Dublin Community Center, Union Lake, Mi, just north of the village of Union Lake, on Union Lake Rd.

What's In This Issue?
Voltairs 10th Annual E-Fun Fly	Chuck Hollinger	Radio Shack Multimeter w/Computer Interface	The Institute of Silent Flight
Thoughts from George M. Myers	The January EFO Meeting	New Sanyo RC1700	DEAF/Ezone Electric Expo
Modelair-Tech News	The February EFO Meeting	KRC '98 Update	R/C Electric Powered Interactive
News from New Zealand	Some corrections	Where to get some thick foam	ECO Helicopter Info
Upcoming Contests - Use the BACK button to return to this page			FOR SALE

Please Note: the F-86 Review appearing in last month Ampeer was via the great Electric Flight UK, all other info was correct. Thanks Gordon! Loved it!

Voltairs 10th Annual Fun Fly

The Voltaires of Central New York will be holding their Tenth annual All Electric Fun Fly on Saturday and Sunday July 18 and 19, 1998 at the Grenadiers Field, Caughdenoy, NY. This is a medium (25 - 35 pilots) size event with the emphasis on FUN! We run about 10 to 12 events each day and give prizes for the events, door prizes and a drawing for really nice grand prizes. The site has a paved runway, clubhouse with power and plenty of room for camping but no hookups. The quality of this event has produced a very loyal following, or maybe it's because we feed the pilots lunch both days. Contact Garret Wikoff or 315-695-4271, or Gordon Wheler, 5 Old Farms Ln., Cazenovia, NY 13035.

Ken,
First it is old model test time. Do you remember the "Cruiser" a high wing rubber model from about '45 or '46 (Published in what was to become Model Aviation)? My friend Paul Mcllrath had one and I saw it about 15 years ago and had to have one. It looked "right" with elliptical tips, fin and stab and nice curves to the body. I built mine and told Paul it was neat to have built something from the mid 40's. He said not mid 40's but late 30's and produced an ad (1938 or 1939 MAN as I remember) that had the same photo used in the magazine layout.
All of this brings me to the designer, Chuck Hollinger, who is now an avid designer and flyer of electric models. They are winners of AULD and weight lifting contests and they look GOOD. He is an artist and it shows. I am going to send you the letter he wrote to me and some pictures of his current electric (PUN) planes. As you will gather from the letter he designed the Hollinger Cub that was published (a friend built from that plan) and later to Berkeley and is the basis of the current SIG Cub.
I just talked to him on the phone and he did lose the new Cruiser SOS. He said you can use the photos as you wish. He lives in Costa Mesa CA which is about 60 miles from the Sea World flying site of the San Diego group. I hope to see Chuck there at their midwinter electric event.
Again don't know if you have any use for the photos but in any case the models look great.
His Address: Chuck Hollinger, 2538 Carnegie AVE, Costa Mesa CA 92626 —- Phone 714-545-3364 He does not have E-mail.
Plenny sent along two letters from Chuck, and I thought that I'd pass along some interesting information on him. km

To this day, Chuck is interested in low-speed airfoils, and continues to design them. His weight lifter, pictured here, has lifted 12.75 pounds of payload plus the 4 pounds of model weight, including the 7-cell 1400mAh pack. Power is an AF 6-turn FAI 05 with a 3.5:1 gearbox. The prop is a carbon fiber 18" diameter of his own design. Initial amp draw is in the 60-65 amp range. Span is 96 inches with 960 sq.in. of wing area. He noted that the flying can be a bit twitchy without the payload added, but it smoothes out with the payload. This model won the Astro Championships two years in a row, lifting 10.75 and 12.75 pounds. The photos show it in "seaplane" configuration. It has also been used to win a club AULD contest, minus the floats. A Few Other Interesting Facts about Chuck In 1938, Chuck and Jim Hopkins set up a hobby shop in Tacoma, WA called H&H Model Aircraft. It was then that he designed the "Cruiser", which they kitted in 1939. During WWII he served in the Coast Guard. After the war he teamed up with Hank Cole to open a hobby shop in Seattle, calling it Aerocraft Models. When the shop didn't do to well, he went to art school under the GI Bill and started working at Boeing. It was then, 1949, that he sold the "Cruiser" construction article to Air Trails. In the early 50's, Dick Schumaker convinced Chuck to try R/C. Chuck then drew up plans for his first R/C, a J-3. (Which would someday end up as the basis for the Sig kit.) Dick didn't think that a "scale" plane would make a good first R/C plane, but it did! It was a great flier, even on floats. The drawings and construction article were sold to Young Men, formerly Air Trails. After hearing about Paul's "Cruiser", Chuck decided that he ought to build a new version, but he had loaned his copy of "Air Trails" to a young fellow, who never returned them. He found a hobby shop owner who had a collection of old magazines, and knew of the Hollinger Cruiser. It took several days, and $3 for Chuck to get a copy of his article. After he'd paid and thanked the shop owner, he introduced himself! The shop owner then offered to return the money, but Chuck turned him down. (That would be a bit shocking, to find the designer buying his own article!) Chuck built his "new" model, with great pleasure. The only surprise was the sticker shock of things like Japanese tissue! I've also included a photo of Chuck's "Voltera". There was a note attached to the photo that Plenny received that said - "... 1986-87 'Voltera' - geared 05 7 cell for F3-E competition....." Thanks to Plenny, Paul and Chuck!

When I saw the flyer ad, I knew I had to have it—a digital multimeter with an interface cable and computer software for displaying and recording whatever the meter was reading. Obviously, this was made for electric fliers! After all my struggles with nicad packs, this would tell me how well a pack would perform. The ad said it sells regularly for $140, but it was marked down to $99. (RS Cat. No. 22-168A)
Software is included for either Windows or DOS (sorry, Mac), and installs easily. It's not a big program. All you need is a serial port. I installed it in an old 386 laptop with Windows 3.1 and a monochrome screen, and the scope display shows up clearly. It also works in Windows 95.
I've used it to monitor charging and discharging cycles for my motor packs. You can record all the data in addition to watching it in real time on the scope-like display. There's also a data logging mode, if you're not interested in pictures, and a plain display mode that shows you on the computer what you have on the multimeter display itself, with the addition of minimum and maximum values measured.
Scales on the scope display window are settable, with a 1-second sampling rate minimum. Each division contains 10 subdivisions. If your process takes longer than can be displayed in a single screen, there's a Repetitive Sweep mode that wraps at the end of a screenful, beginning again at the left side and erasing the previous data as it continues. If you record the data in scope mode, you can play it back as soon as it's completed, and watch the data being displayed on the screen. In playback mode, you can use your mouse cursor or arrow keys to select any point on the display to see the numerical value at that point.
I hooked up my AstroFlight 110XL peak charger to a 7-cell pack and plugged in the multimeter leads to the connection. For the full charge at 5 amps, it took about 19 ½ minutes. The display was on its third screenfull when the pack peaked out and the charger shut off. The figure shows the screen at the end of the charge. (The trace to the right of the vertical cursor line is from the previous screen.)

What: Sport/Fun Fly with User Friendly Competion - Anything Electric Goes!
When: June 26 (symposium) & Flying June 27/28
Where: Irving RC field
Proposed Events:
Speed: Fastest time between two pylons. Dive down, etc. and make "level" timed flight.
Aerobatics: Will be a simple short routine. Scoring method to be determined
Most flight: 2 minute minimum each flight. Honor system log in of # of flights
Smallest Airplane to make a 2 minute flight: "Small" = length of wing + length of fuselage
Biggest Airplane to make 2 minute flight: "Big" = lenght of wing + length of fuselage.
Stand-Off Scale: Pilot vote on best stand-off scale plane.
Speed 400 Pylon: 300' leg x 50' base. Man-on-man. 10 laps. Duel elimination.
Weirdest/Most Unusual: Pilot vote on "oddest" aircraft
Fun Fly: Shortest time to take off, do 3 loops, 3 rolls, land intact.
Youngest Pilot: Certificate to youngest person to fly a plane.
Oldest Pilot: Certificate to oldest person to fly a plane.
Greatest Distance Traveled: Certificate for person traveling longest distance to attend meet.
Ugliest Plane: Certificate awarded to ugliest flying plane. CD picks ugliest
This will be a low cost ($10 or less) meet. We've you to decide on when the events will take place. Everyone is welcome to come out and just fly, gab, etc. More to come in next DEAF notes (and Ampeer km). Please contact Frank Korman (214) 327-8411/email: FSKorman@aol.com or Jim Bourke (972) 680-1220/email: jbourke@ezonemag.com
Also visit the Ezone web site for the latest updates (info from DEAF Notes, Jan. '98)

In the bare bones

The February meeting was held at Ken's house. Jack Lemon shared photos of his "PuddlePBM" twin, which is almost ready to fly off the lake at his house. As you can see, it uses a PuddleMaster hull, with modified wing and tail. Power is provided by two AP-29s.

	Next Ken discussed converting the venerable Eaglet 50 to electric. Ken had already converted the 8.2 oz. liteply fuselage to a 4 oz. balsa fuselage. Several of the EFOers commented on the motor mount, which Ken calls a hanging "H" mount. It is very simple and can be used with kits that use beam mounting for a glow engine. The closeup of the hanging "H" mount shows it sitting, but not screwed onto the beams.
	Next, several members practiced building on glass. This is a great way to build anything that is flat. Don, Larry and Ken Welch can be seen building in the picture.
	Of course no project can continue long without the supervisors. Ernie, Ron and Jack discuss how to make things run smoothly. Actually, they were discussing electric motors and power systems for electric flight, as Ron, in the middle, was a new member that evening.
	During the building session, refreshments were also served. The last picture shows how the members left the wing when they were done with about an hours building time. The only thing left to do is sheet the top of the center section and cover. Great job folks! Lots of fun.

In the February issue of the Ampeer I mentioned Steve's article on making spinners. Unfortunately I gave the wrong source! Here's Steve's correction:
"Thanks Ken, glad to help other people with their projects. And of course, it is good to support EFI (especially now that it is monthly!). However, the article wasn't sent to EFI - it appeared in EF-UK (the newsletter of British Electric Flight Association).
Steve Kerry - Yorkshire, UK"
Also, in that issue
From Al MacDonald, of Toronto, who edits the EMFSO newsletter Electric Model Flyer - "Just a minor thing in your Feb. issue. My postal code is M1P 2S8"
It should be:

Darwin has purchased some 1lb. density white Styrofoam and had it sliced into 3" and 4" thickness and 2'x4' panels. He will be using it for some Garrison Aerodrome development projects and custom wing cutting stock and is making the foam available for everyone at a reasonable cost.
Prices are: 4" x 2' x 4': $16.00 --- 3" x 2' x 4' $12.00
Shipping was a big question at the time of this notice.
Contact Darwin at:
Garrison Aerodrome R/C Model Enterprises
Phone: (219)486-2889 Fax: (219)486-9761
E-Mail: garrison@rc-aero.com
WWW: http://www.rc-aero.com

The following is the latest version from Carl Blaurock. Following Carl's contribution is Russ Tront's (Vancouver, Canada) short contribution as a first time heli flier on building and flying an Ikarus Eco, and a few comments on Carl's letter.

Hi, Ken -
First off, heartfelt thanks for all the time you spend on the Web site and the Ampeer. It's helped me immensely over three years of primarily electric flying.
I hope you'll be interested in some information on the ECO electric helicopter. I've been dreaming about an ECO for about two years now, and I finally gave in during one of the recent Hobby Lobby sales. I would have liked to have a little more info before going into it, though, which is prompting me to write you in the hopes that it'll reach a few people who need it. I don't have the discipline right now to write out a full article, so I hope you'll accept this email with a couple future updates as I get more experience with the heli.
Some background on my experience level with helis -
I've been flying an LMH-100 for two years, and have gotten as far as nose-in hovering. I bought the ECO in August and have finally gotten the time to put it together this January.
On to the ECO. A few words about the construction. I have no complaints about the instructions. They're clear and for the most part accurate as far as they go. The exception is the pushrod lengths which set the main rotor pitch range. By following the instructions I ended up with -4 to +5 degrees on the main rotor, where 0 to +9 would be more suitable. The latter is where I set mine. I can't give you the lengths I ended up at. More on this later though.
The manual seemed to pre-suppose quite a bit of knowledge on the part of the builder. I would say that a good book such as Ray's Helicopter Manual is mandatory in addition to the Ikarus manual. Also mandatory is a pair of ball link pliers, and a good set ($35, no kidding) is actually worth the money. Heli paraphenalia such as the aforementioned pitch guage, a rotor blade balancer, and a good set of metric ball drivers are also very helpful. Try to borrow them if you don't want to buy them yet. Even though Hobby Lobby markets the ECO as a good beginners' machine, and I think it is (for example there's less to align and balance than in a glow machine which has a clutch and fan), it still requires all the skills and knowledge of the glow machines.
In addition, the heli really benefits from an experienced flier to take her up the first time. He or she can trim the heli out, check the blade tracking, and double check the balance of all the rotating parts. This is all best done while the heli's in a hover. Tying the heli down will make for larger amplitude vibrations than if the heli is free to vibrate, which will be liable to damage something. And the heli is almost certain to need blade tracking, which will really throw it around.
I won't say much on the actual construction of the heli since it's basically all driving screws in, and the end product is certainly airworthy.
Instead I'd like to go straight into my specific setup, so people have a point of reference. I'm using an FMA micro receiver, 4 Hitec HS-80 servos, and AF 210 ESC driving a stock AF615 (the sport cobalt 15 motor) on 10 cells. Since the 210 is non-BEC I have a separate 270mAh pack.
On the motor I have a 16 tooth pinion, which gives me a head speed of about 1400 RPM (the Hobbico tach only gives the nearest 100RPM - my recommendation if you're looking for a tach is to try the new GloBee tach). I used the Ikarus 1/8" (3.2mm) pinion from HL, and bored it out to 5/32" for the 615. The pinion is not hardened so this can be done with a regular drill bit.
I also splurged on a CSM ICG360 piezoelectric gyro. I have no idea if this is really worth the $250 it costs (including the computer interface software), over some of the other $100-ish piezo gyros out there. I went with it mainly because it uses a control scheme which tries to match the heli's yaw rate to the pilot's command, instead of just damping all yaw motion including the pilot's commands (CSM calls it "yaw rate demand philosophy", I call it a rate servo). The ICG360 also has a heading hold mode which sounds kind of fun, although I haven't played with it yet. On the downside the CSM is heavy. I think weighs 1.5oz, which is 1 oz more than Ikarus' gyro.
Which reminds me: the setup called out on Hobby Lobby's web page does not include a gyro. I would not try to fly the ECO, or any heli, without a gyro.
I also should mention that I used the mechanical mixer included with the kit, instead of electronic swashplate mixing, aka CCPM, that some of the pricier transmitters will do.
On the other hand I mounted the tailrotor servo on the tail, since I do have revolution mixing on my JR 622. This should remove some slop from the tailrotor control.
The upshot of all this is that the heli is heavy - 56oz versus the published weight of 43 oz for an 8 cell ECO using one of the Ikarus motors. The AF motor is heavier by 2.5oz, the Rx battery adds 2oz, the AF ESC is almost 1oz more than Hobby Lobby's JES30H, the ICG360 may be 1oz more than Ikarus' gyro, and I have two more cells for 4oz total. This accounts for 11 of the 13. The mechanical mixing tray may add the rest.
My heli programming setup is very basic at this stage. All I'm using is a pitch curve (60% at half stick, 100% at full). Throttle is at 100% at half stick. No revolution mixing or anything else yet.
I only have 9 flights so far, and not much forward flight, but my general impression is that the ECO flies very nicely. The heli has good control power at that head speed. Climb was positive. It also seems quite stable (as a side note, if your only experience is with the simulator, you may find out the real thing is more stable than the sim - it may be a perception thing).
Keep in mind that a lot of people will be running at lower head speeds which should give longer flights for learning. This'll reduce responsiveness as well as stability - by how much I've no idea. But flying in calm conditions is a good idea at first anyway.
I couldn't spare a hand for a stopwatch, but I think I was getting 5 minutes of hovering. I rubber banded my AF Whattmeter to the skids and measured 13A draw at hover, which is right where it should be at this voltage. Count on 150W input to hover.
The maiden flights were conducted at work in an unused office. I like electric ...
On the subject of current draw, heli flying is pretty demanding of the Rx battery. You're on the sticks the whole time. Plus the gyro is sucking down power and working the tailrotor servo.
Heli fliers use 1000mAh packs. I mention this because I didn't think about it at the time. The little 270mAh pack only lasted me 5 and some flights. I was lucky to go home with a whole heli. On flight #6 I noticed some twitching in the controls so I set the heli down. It was the Rx battery just _dumping_. By the time I walked over to the heli, it was done. It couldn't move any of the servos. One more reason to go to a BEC controller, so you'll know the radio has power. But make sure you don't get an autocutoff controller .
A few closing thoughts: I went with the AF 615 motor because I had one sitting around gathering dust. The Ikarus motors would be really nice from a convenience and weight point of view. They are pricey, though, for a non-ball bearing, ferrite motor. Russel Tront has posted a bunch of really good info on the eflight mailing list, regarding alternative motors for the ECO. I thinkan Astro Flight FAI 035, with a special order 10 turn armature, is the motor to beat.
If you have or can afford a CCPM radio it's a good idea to use it. It'll save weight and get some slop out of the system. I'm waiting for the FMA Direct transmitters to debut, although I have to go all the way to the T300 or T400 to get CCPM. One thing to note is that JR radios are not delivered in the US with CCPM enabled. They have to be special ordered or sent to the US distributor to have the mode enabled.
IMPORTANT: Russel Tront indicates that there are several flavors of CCPM. The ECO needs 90 degree CCPM, not 120 or 180 degree CCPM. Since the US distributors are not as conversant with CCPM as the Europeans, be prepared to do some digging to find a radio that will work. The JR 642 and 783 will NOT work (the 8103 will but has to have the mode enabled), and unfortunately that's the only solid info I have.
HL has a funny mailorder policy. Shipping and handling was $6.90 for a $7 pinion. This is an issue because if your learning curve goes like mine you'll be mail-ordering a fair number of parts. I deal with another mailorder heli shop and the shipping costs range from $2.50-3.50 (by Express Mail, which always reaches me in 2 days).
In summary, I'd give the ECO two thumbs up so far. I hope you will find this information useful enough to post. If so, I'll be in touch with a little more info as I get more experience. I plan to go to a BEC ESC, probably the Jeti JES30H that HL sells, among other things.
Addendum 1: I switched motors and ESCs to save some weight. I'm now using an Astro Flight FAI 05/15 motor case with a stock 15 armature (the Kv of the FAI is too high for the ECO). This saves 2oz. I also purchased the JES30HE that Hobby Lobby sells for the ECO, saving 0.5 oz over the AF210. Additionally, the JETI is BEC, saving the 2oz Rx pack. This last purchase turned out to be a bad move though. The BEC is only rated for 3-4 servos, NOT for the gyro in addition. This does not seem to be a problem for people flying ECOs on 8 cells. Since I'm using 10 cells, the BEC has to dissipate more power and as a result the thermal cutoff kicks in on me.
A further note along these lines - I've since tested this controller to see if it has an autocutoff (so I can use it in an airplane). It does, which kicks in at about 6V. It doesn't shut motor power off completely, instead starts to pulseit (as will be familiar to most people using recent controller designs). I don't think ECO fliers need to worry about their helis falling out of the air since at the voltage the cutoff occurs, the heli will no longer hover. Note, forward flight requires less power so I can't comment on whether anyone is likely to hit the motor cutoff in forward flight.
I am considering going to the Ikarus Helicontrol 2000 ESC which is rated for 2A BEC draw. I will let you know how this unit performs if I do get one. At this point, the unit is not available from Hobby Lobby - it must be special ordered or ordered direct from Ikarus.
Carl Blaurock, Mide Technology Corporation, 247 Third Street, Cambridge MA 02141 tel: (617) 441-9207 x11 email: carl@mide.com - web: http://www.mide.com