Projects Converting An Old Flight Star 40 To Electric

[Jon Henningsen]

Just watched your YouTub #8 on Programing the Spektrum 8 which I just got. I'm interested in the plane he was using. That is just like the 25 to 30 year old Flight Star 40 that I'm converting to electric. I've burned out 2 - 30 amp ESCs and a 2000 kv motor using a 3000 mAh battery. What motor, ESC, battery and prop is he using on that plane? Any information will be will be a great help. Thanks, Jon

 

[RandyDSok]

Welcome to the forum Jon...

While I'm not a forum admin or mod here... let me start with something that is just forum related ( to all forums, not just this one ). It is strongly recommended that you don't ever post your email address publicly on forums or elsewhere like you did. What happens is that spammers ( or more likely their "bots" ) will scan for email addresses and you end up getting a bunch of spam in your email because you did that.

If you can edit the post and remove your email address please do so ( if you wish to ). If you can't ( there is often a time limit on when you can or can't edit )... then just ask and a mod or admin can then edit it for you.

One other little issue... This is a community based forum... It's not just Tony that helps, in fact, everyone tries to help everyone if they believe they can be helpful. In addition, Tony has a real job ( truck driver ), so he's not always around at times just so you know ( and don't get offended if it takes a while for him to answer if something is directly in his ball court )


So now for some questions first so others can help with your situation.... What is the weight of your airplane? What size engine where you originally flying before you decided to convert? What is your ground clearance that you have with your landing gear? What type of flying do you prefer?


Why the weight question you ask... Nitro and gas engine models are typically made heavier than their electric counterparts so they'll often need a stronger motor than one designed for electric to start with.

Why the question about your prrevious engine? ... That will help in recommending an equivalant electric motor that is similar in performance.

The ground clearance question is so a prop size can be estimated.

Flying style... different flying styles have different power requirements...

 

[Jon Henningsen]

Thanks rdsok. I did edit the email address and last name out. I dont know what the gas engine was, it was over 25 years ago. The weight is over 5 lbs without the battery. I've got 9.5" to the prop shaft with the present tail wheel. I converted it from a trike to a tail dragger because it was soo long. I may put a lower tail wheel on it and want to ad flaps in the future. I'm 75 years old so my flying style is low and slow. Plus I concider I'm a beginner. I originally bought this plane when I was half my age and thought I knew everything. I had it in the air 3 times but never landed it. Had no experience but it did fly even though it was mostly uncontrolled flight. Now I've got some pilot friends that fly electric RC and I am really into it including wanting to "build" one in the future. Thanks again for the responce. Jon

 

[RandyDSok]

It probably took a .40 sized motor... OS .46 were pretty popular in the day so I wouldn't be surprised if it may have been that or at least a similar one. An E-Flight Power 46 would be an equivalent but I think the recommended prop will be an issue and I'm uncertain what to suggest because of that. These typically will use a 11-14" prop. Perhaps a 10x10 prop with 5C batteries may work but clearance will likely need to be addressed. A motor of that size, would use about a 60 amp ESC

I'm not sure I'd have switched that one to a tail dragger since trike gear ( to me ) were always easier to steer when on the ground... but I digress...

You'll want to measure for the prop when the fuse is level with the ground, not when the tail is sitting down otherwise you'll be clipping the ends off of the prop when it starts to take off and the tail comes up. So maybe a 6.5" - 7"... measure it and then subtract a little for clearance ( in short, don't take my wild guess for it ). You may need to get some longer landing gear due to what prop the motor I mentioned earlier will likely need to swing.

There are also other brands of motors that would do as well, they will still have similar specs and use a similar prop as well. Others here will likely have some alternate motor brands but the one I mentioned is a place to start from.

 

[Tony]

Hey Jon, as Randy stated, I'm away from home all week and only get one day off to catch up and do everything I need to do lol. Yea, it never all gets done...

The plane in that video (if you are talking about THIS video) is the Rc-Help Trainer V1. It is a plane based off of the Telemaster kit. On that plane I used just cheap blue 9 gram servos for all controls. The ESC was a hobbywing 40a which is my go to ESC on planes like this. Cheap and works great. The battery was a 2200mah 25c pack and the motor was just an Optima 450 size brushless motor. It's heavy, but the V1 needs nose weight since the plane is tail heavy. It is a 130w motor so it is perfect for this plane. The 40a ESC is overkill, but again, I use the 40a in all of these planes. Remember, the motor pulls the power it needs, the ESC and battery will not push it. So for this plane, the motor is only going to pull about 12a which is almost nothing. Pair that with a 10x8 prop from APC and it will pull vertical all day long.

One thing to remember, this plane was built out of foam board. I don't think I ever weighed this plane, but I'm sure it is way under 5lbs which you are stating. So you may need to move up to a much larger setup, maybe even something like I have on my 55" Edge 540 which is a .10 size motor (I think lol) and a 60a hobbywing ESC with a 4s battery.

This will just depend on what your setup is and what you want the plane to do. We are here to help so definitely post up and let us know.

And a big thank you to Randy for looking out for the members. The only way we can stop the crawler bots from stealing email addresses posted is to make this forum completely private so you have to log in to see anything. This would be bad for the forum since it would never be put on a google search. So we just try to let everyone know that it is out of our control on what happens with the email addresses once posted to a public forum. This could be our forum or it could be the millions of others out there, they are all the same in that aspect. So thanks Randy for looking out for the members.

I hope this helps at lease a little bit.

 

[Jon Henningsen]

Thank you gentlemen. After researching I've ordered a Eflite BL50 - 525 kv outrunner, Eflite 5000 6S 30C Bat. and Eflite 60 amp ESC Pro Switch. It may be a little over kill, but I shouldn't be burnning anything again. Don't know yet, but I'm thinking I'll try a 12x6 prop. Thanks again. Jon

 

[Tony]

Let us know how it goes!