Switching a 31 Club Pylon Racer to E Power

[Jetpainter]

Back in the late 90's the club I used to belong to held pylon races for .10 size airplanes. The only rule was you had to run a stock O.S. .10FP with the stock muffler. The racing was a blast and I still have my scratch built plane I flew back then, but I don't like the idea of glow so I think it's time to switch it to electric.



The airplane has 31" span with a balsa fuse/ply and a balsa sheeted foam wing. It's glassed and painted and weighed in at 24.4 ounces dry in glow trim.



Here is what I have;



Cobra C-2213/12 Brushless Motor, Kv=2000

Cobra 33A ESC with 3A Switching BEC

APC 5.25x4.75 Speed 400 Propeller

APC 6x5.5E Propeller

Cobra ESC Programming Card

2 Turnigy 2200mah 3s 20 LiPo's

Spektrum AR400 Receiver



Everything has shown up already except the batteries. I've also already had to send the motor back because the prop adapter does not fit the motor. It seems the factory has changed the front of the motor on the last batch to a different style adapter and are including the wrong one. It also sounds like the distributor Innov8ative Design doesn't have the one I need, so there going to swap out the front of the motor to the old style.



With any luck I'll have everything soon and I can get this thing flying. I always enjoyed it with the .10 and it should be faster this time around.

20344=13035-10 Racer.JPG]

 

[Do-rag]

Jetpainter;20344 wrote: Back in the late 90's the club I used to belong to held pylon races for .10 size airplanes. The only rule was you had to run a stock O.S. .10FP with the stock muffler. The racing was a blast and I still have my scratch built plane I flew back then, but I don't like the idea of glow so I think it's time to switch it to electric.



The airplane has 31" span with a balsa fuse/ply and a balsa sheeted foam wing. It's glassed and painted and weighed in at 24.4 ounces dry in glow trim.



Here is what I have;



Cobra C-2213/12 Brushless Motor, Kv=2000

Cobra 33A ESC with 3A Switching BEC

APC 5.25x4.75 Speed 400 Propeller

APC 6x5.5E Propeller

Cobra ESC Programming Card

2 Turnigy 2200mah 3s 20 LiPo's

Spektrum AR400 Receiver



Everything has shown up already except the batteries. I've also already had to send the motor back because the prop adapter does not fit the motor. It seems the factory has changed the front of the motor on the last batch to a different style adapter and are including the wrong one. It also sounds like the distributor Innov8ative Design doesn't have the one I need, so there going to swap out the front of the motor to the old style.



With any luck I'll have everything soon and I can get this thing flying. I always enjoyed it with the .10 and it should be faster this time around.

Nice looking plane be interesting to see what the speed difference is.

 

[BalsaDust]

Looks awesome.

 

[Jetpainter]

cbarnes0061;20494 wrote: Looks awesome.

Thanks!



I've weighed all the old components, and if the listed weights for the new ones are correct the airplane should lose about 2 ounces if I can get the balance right without adding any weight.



My two biggest concerns at this point are how to secure the battery and how to get some air flow over the ESC and battery.

 

[BalsaDust]

NACA ducts should really help with airflow.

 

[Jetpainter]

cbarnes0061;20552 wrote: NACA ducts should really help with airflow.

That's a great idea. I'll have to do some thinking.



I did figure out some basic ideas for mounting the battery and ESC that I think should work well. I'll post some pics when I get some things going.

 

[Jetpainter]

Well I used @cbarnes0061; idea of naca ducts and built one for the front of my airplane. I also cut some slots in the bottom hatch to let the air out. I still need to do some sanding and painting, but you get the idea. The motor is on the way back from Innov8tive Designs and should be here soon.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Jetpainter]

I finished the electric swap the other night I flew it today. It's certainly faster than it was with the OS.10 glow. It's a lot of fun!

 

The Naca duct in the nose and the slots I cut in the bottom hatch to let air out did a great job keeping the battery and speed controller cool.

 

 

[Do-rag]

Glad the remaiden went well. Also good to hear it was faster any idea how much faster?

 

[Jetpainter]

Do-rag said
Glad the remaiden went well. Also good to hear it was faster any idea how much faster?

Hard to say since I haven't flown it since 2011 and since it's so much quieter now it's tough to tell.