I read somewhere else on someone's comparison to the flight characteristics of this plane and they said it's more aggressive than the 3dhs 71" Slick... any comments about that?
Now that 3dhs no longer makes the Velox I'm looking for a nice light ~68-70" electric plane that comes in under 10b with a 6s5000 type setup, and flies wild and aggressively. The Velox fit that bill perfect, and when I eventually wear mine out or crash it I will need something to replace it with... and this caught my eye. Need to hear more about what it flies like. The EF 64" MXS is similar to the Velox as well. Very pitch authoritative, and agile, and fun to fly fast pop tops and crankshafts with.
Haven't flown the 3DHS Slick (or any 3DHS airplane ever) so I can't comment, but here is what I think of this airplane:
My first impressions with this airplane is that it was an awesome sport flying airplane. It would do awesome aerobatics on low rates and track straight as an arrow no matter where you pointed it or in which attitude it was flown. Very stable airplane that stopped whenever you let go of the sticks, has almost no bad tendencies no matter what you do. The power the Hacker A60-6XS and Xoar 19x10 PJN propeller delivered was excellent- it's plenty for 3D and has just the right amount of kick on 6S 5000 packs when you need it without being way too overly powerful.
Flick the rates to high and it transforms from a docile 'no-bad-characteristics' sport plane to a fun and extremely capable 3D animal. ZERO coupling at all on knife edge!! I was thoroughly surprised to see that this airplane tracks straight as an arrow in knife edge and locks right in no matter how hard you push that rudder over. The side area on the fuselage is huge so it's almost no surprise that it does so well on its side. It will do tight or big knife edge loops or spins- I was surprised to find out that even after several violent spins at the top of a knife edge avalanche loop that it still locked right back in when I released the sticks and gave it rudder again. My other airplane all like to snap out, this one locks in as though it's on rails.
Elevator authority is MASSIVE! This thing will damn near stop on a dime from level flight if you pull into a wall. It does elevators exceptionally well also, just floats down very flat and very uneventfully. Flat spins are kind of funky as the elevator is so huge it won't allow the airplane to spin smoothly on the downline without working the elevator a bit and feeding in aileron. Crankshafts and poptops are also smooth, fast, and crisp. The airplane will literally rotate within the length of itself. Waterfalls can be as smooth or aggressive as you want them to be.
Roll rate is also fantabulous with this airplane. It rolls very smoothly, stops when you let go, and will change directions as fast as the laws of wind resistance will let you. Rolling harriers are a total blast, locks right in with your rhythm and will go all day long as long as your fingers can keep up! It's not overly fast, but it's also not slow either. It will harrier upright and inverted all day long with totally predictable results and nearly no wing rock at all. Landings are always smooth and uneventful if you can ever get the airplane on its wheels- it will glide forever, harrier landings almost mandatory!!!
I love it, the only gripes I have are the hardware with the kit wasn't super high quality like I like it to be, but it does work very well and Aerobeez provides plenty of hardware with the kit to make sure you can complete it. But I won't let my extreme stinginess over the hardware ruin how awesome this airplane really performs in the air. It is an excellent aggressive 3D airplane that does everything you want it to and exhibits none of the characteristics that can sometimes ruin an airplane. Goes where you point it, locks right in, won't stop until you stop.
I have a new Thunder Power 6S 5000 55C pack I am going to be flying with this weekend, very excited to see how it performs in the air!
Some tips for the masses:
-The Hacker motor likes to run a bit hot, I was measuring about 120*F on a warm day after hard flying. Hacker says they can be run up to 150*F without damaging the motor, but I'm not one to risk it so I took precautions to help keep motor temps down. The first of which was fitting a Taildragger RC electric flow through spinner. These spinners have cutouts in the spinner cone as well as cutouts in the backplate that allow air to flow through. Supposedly it also sucks air in to help cool the motor.
-I fitted a baffle to the port side of the cowl to blow air directly over the bell of the outrunner to help keep things cool even on hot days. I did not fit a baffle to the starboard side of the cowl so that airflow will pass directly onto the ESC.
With these additions/modifications I was able to lower the motors temps to around 105*F on a hot day. Those are temps I'm more comfortable with especially since summer is here.
