EDF E-Flite Ultra micro Mig15

[zenmetsu]

I just picked one of these up to get back into fixed-wings. The thing got pretty good reviews online and I couldn't really say no to the price. I am looking forward to the maiden tomorrow.

Anyone with one of these have any suggestions for a good starting point for travel settings? The manual recommends 70%, but it still looks like it has a LOT of throw even at this level. I guess I can just try it and hope that my reaction time is up to par.

Pretty sweet little bird for $150, I must say.

 

[Tony]

Make sure you have some expo in that plane. And remember, it will not float. YOu have to come in for landings pretty hot. good luck and get it on video!

 

[Lee]

Lets see pics of it.

 

[zenmetsu]

Here she is...


As far as not floating Tony, there is much information to the contrary online. The trick is to maintain high alpha on the landing and use elevator to control speed and throttle to control altitude, like they do in the real world. EDFs do not have a slow thrust response and people tend to overcompensate, resulting in hotter landings.

When I land, I keep the downwind leg slow with the nose up a bit. When I turn in for the final, the head wind slows the ground speed. I just ease back on the elevator to bleed speed and give it a little throttle to slow the descent if need be. I think that this is standard procedure, and I don't know why an EDF would need a different approach. I know that there is no propwash over the control surfaces, but that shouldn't make TOO much of a difference.

Back in the day when I flew balsa+monokote models, I'd even get in the habit of coming in inverted, downwind, and then give full down elevator to flip the plane right-side up and punch the throttle. Often the tail would touch down and the plane would just ease down on the landing gears with zero forward speed. Of course, I botched this maneuver on several occasions. I scraped the vertical stab on the runway very lightly a few times and pulled it off, but anything more than a feather touch of the stab against the pavement resulted in the props slamming into the asphalt.

 

[zenmetsu]

But expo is a good point... i'll dial in 20% to start.

- - - Updated - - -

I just checked on my balance, it comes in at 2.75 oz with the 240mAh 2S Hyperion battery installed. This will be the lightest R/C model I have ever flown, lol.

I taxied it a bit just to make sure that the steering was straight, it has NWS It was perfectly trimmed right out of the box. I'll try to get some video sometime this week.

 

[Lee]

Looks like a cool little plane

 

[zenmetsu]

Yeah, it is pretty cool. I just got back from the maiden. I had a run-in with the local wildlife.

Any tips on dealing with birds, specifically red tailed hawks? They seem to think that small RC planes are food. Second battery and the hawk came in out of a dive and almost took out the plane. This thing really does not have vertical performance at all, but luckily it was a bit better than the bird's flight envelope; but there was no way to out-turn the bird and dive speed was about a draw. I got the plane to the ground in one piece and called it a day; luckily without talon marks on the tail feathers.

Aside from that, the roll rate was pretty spectacular... perhaps a bit too much for me to handle at full travel. The small size made orientation at distance difficult, and I had left my sunglasses at home so I almost lost the plane twice in the sun while trying to get away from the hawk. The plane has really good glide characteristics, but the combination of light weight and low power resulted in it bleeding off airspeed very quickly when going vertical. Also, the lack of momentum causes drastic changes in ground speed when transitioning between headwind/tailwind conditions.

Despite putting it down on the mains, I took a nasty hop on the second landing (I blame the hawk), and I was surprised by the gyro. The gyro kept the plane's nose in the same orientation, so it was really just a matter of closing the throttle and it settled right back to the ground.

 

[callsign4223]

Ohhh, why couldn't we have had video of that, it would have been awesome.

 

[zenmetsu]

I expect that I will have no issue trying to have a repeat occurrence. You'd think that birds would be frightened by the noise, but apparently this is not the case.

I am more concerned with engaging in a "dog fight" with birds of prey; this may be seen as harassment and I might lose my hunting license and be subject to hefty fines if the wrong person were to observe this. Might just have to get a bigger plane.

I'll try to get a GoPro up and running so that I can get my future flights on video.

 

[Lee]

I flew a couple of days ago with my Quadcopter next to a huge flock of Eagles. There were 45+. I decided very quickly that it was probably not a good idea to get to close. For one thing, they would probably attack my Quad, and second, my quad could probably do some damage to the bird, the species of which i couldn't tell. Would hate to have injured an endangered eagle and lost my precious quad at the same time.

 

[zenmetsu]

If only I had a rear-facing camera... it would have looked something like this I bet. LOL

 

[Tony]

i have had these run ins with birds. Mine was with my 3D planes and I would just snap it back and go the other way. the birds were pissed lmao. I think it's fun to play with them. but with your plane being that small, the bird could carry that sucker away lmao.

 

[zenmetsu]

Hell, a pigeon could carry this thing away if it wanted to. Luckily pigeons are not aggressive, because they can outrun hawks in level flight and my little miglet will struggle to hit 50mph, let alone the 70mph top speed of a pigeon.

I am ordering another set of foams... wings, fuse, and tail feathers. My lady will probably lawn-dart the thing once or twice. Eventually I will put a micro FPV system on it; there is one out there that weighs about 3 grams with camera and 5.8GHz transmitter. That will be a blast!