Aeroic Corsa C108 Electric

[Steve C]

Thanks to Red and James I have the opportunity to test the first electric Corsa.

Servo installation is coming along nicely. I would recommend 8 or 9mm servos in the tail but you can make it work with stuff that is a little thicker as I have done. My elevator servo is 10mm and the rudder one is 11.9mm. I used Tomas Liu linkage for the elevator but I'm sure you could do something with a z bend and a ball link.

 

[Steve C]

Here's the wing control horn installation. I use a rotary tool mostly and some of those permagrit type files to fine tune. I had the clevis on the horn when I glued it in. That way I know for sure it's in the right place.

 

[Steve C]

After the horns are glued in, I made sure they allowed full movement. I had a little epoxy get in the way of the hinge on one so I popped the clevis off and cleaned it up with my Proxxon. That's like a Dremel but in my opinion, so much better!

Next screw a pushrod in, move the control surface all the way one direction and mark the pushrod. I used tape. Then I move it the other way and see how far it moves. I measured about 10mm of travel on the flap pushrod, so that's how I know where to put the hole in the servo arm.

Drop the servo in the hole and mark the pushrod again to see where to put a z bend in it. With these short throws, you either need a z bend or something like Tomas Liu linkage because it allows you to have the hole really close to the output shaft of the servo. A regular clevis will hit unless you grind it out.

 

[Steve C]

Once I dry fit everything to make sure the length of the pushrod is correct and the servo arm position on the spline is right, I flip it upside down and apply thickened epoxy on the bottom of the servo tray. The z bend is already hooked up on the servo, so once glued up, fip it back over and into the hole. I have a servo driver hooked up so I can move it if needed. Have some paper towels and some alcohol handy to clean up any mess.

 

[Steve C]

I chose a Hacker A30 12xl that was in my cabinet. I like to mount outrunners on the back so I pushed the shaft out the other end and cut some G10 for a mount. It's drying overnight using West System G flex epoxy.

Once dry I added pics with the motor in. Mounting this way keeps all of the spinning bits in front so the battery and wires can't get caught up in it.

 

[Doc J]

Steve, I will collect all your great narrative and pictures and make an E-Manual for the three converted models: Corsa, Forza and Sessanta as they are all very similar. I have good pics from Red's Forza fit up to add too. Should be areally useful document.

Cheers,

James.

 

[Steve C]

Sounds good.

She's ready to fly.
Probably would have been done yesterday but my tx had the little button cell go bad so I wanted to take care of that first. Had to go to 5 stores before I found a cr1220!
Today the weather is nice and cool so I'll get out in a bit for some flights.

The mpx style connectors are epoxied in. I do the fuselage ones first using the other side to hold it square till it dries. You want to pull it off when the epoxy is firm but not rock hard in case you get any where it doesn't belong.

The wing servo covers get trimmed and taped on. I taped the motor wires along the side of the fuse with blenderm and the esc is in the back so I have lots of room to adjust the cg with the battery. I'm using 4s 1800 and a 14x10 prop.

The Aeronaut Z spinner isn't great so probably won't be buying more of those.
Steve C

 

[Red]

Good luck! Looking forward to hearing how it goes.

 

[Steve C]

Good luck! Looking forward to hearing how it goes.

Thanks!

 

[Wayne]

Very nice! Should fly like a bat out of heck.. LOL I loved the speed the Corsa carried in glider form, this should be the same.

Interesting motor mounting. Agreed on keeping the wires out of the way.

 

[Doc J]

Thanks!

Hope it goes well Steve!

Cheers,

Doc.

 

[Steve C]

Thanks Wayne.
Got a couple flights on it today. My esc wasn't cooperating with the brake function, so gliding was a bummer. I flew a little like a power plane and did some square loops and such, but it's a little over propped for continuous running so had to keep it short. I will get out again as soon as I figure out what the deal with the brake is.

It's a sporty plane that's for sure. Gonna be fun!

 

[Wayne]

Excellent!

I tend to forget to set my brakes on first flights.. Always a bummer.

 

[Steve C]

Excellent!

I tend to forget to set my brakes on first flights.. Always a bummer.

I set it by programming box and by stick and by calibrating end points and by spinning on one leg with my eyes closed or anything else I could think of. Lol! Finally got the firmware in the esc re flashed and now it works. I guess something in there was corrupted.

Working on electric Sessanta today.

 

[Steve C]

Some changes were made. I moved the esc to the front and put a 4s 2200 in the back. The servo wires are sitting along the bottom of the fuselage with some tape over the top to keep them out of the way. I installed a 13.5x7 prop and this turns out to be a great combo. It will climb nearly vertical.

The only reason I didn't spend any time thermalling is because it would be tiny on the video. It certainly will thermal though.

 

[Jarron]

My esc wasn't cooperating with the brake function

I had problems with the Gecko escs as well.

 

[Hawaii Sloper]

I set it by programming box and by stick and by calibrating end points and by spinning on one leg with my eyes closed or anything else I could think of. Lol! Finally got the firmware in the esc re flashed and now it works. I guess something in there was corrupted.

Working on electric Sessanta today.

Please post how it goes with the Sessanta! I won't get to fly mine until next time I'm in CA, which could be next May for Sunset. I didn't quite have enough time to get it air this year when attending Sunset.

 

[Wayne]

Not sure you posted up where you have the CG set..? It may just be me, but it would appear to be bleeding off speed pretty quick for that airframe, you may still be rather nose heavy. I've had a few of these in slope form and they carry their energy really well with the CG pushed back pretty far. When nose heavy they can burn off a good bit of the energy pretty fast.

Pushing the CG back will probably make thermal hunting a little more dicey.

 

[Doc J]

Please post how it goes with the Sessanta! I won't get to fly mine until next time I'm in CA, which could be next May for Sunset. I didn't quite have enough time to get it air this year when attending Sunset.

No flying in Hawaii Kelly?

Doc.

 

[Hawaii Sloper]

No flying in Hawaii Kelly?

Doc.

Yes, some. But very limited access like many places. No sites accessible that are suitable for anything like most of the Aeroic line. Landing zones are mostly straight up gravel or gravel and large lava rock. Would be instant destruction for a moldy plane if you aren't an expert pilot that can hover that thing to the ground in any environment.
There's a saying in Hawaii "If you're standing on grass, you're on private property"
I bought the Sessanta from @Wayne knowing I wouldn't get to fly it this year. Just no time to get it set up when he finally caved and sold it to me on Sunday morning of the event. @thenated0g and I had to pack up our camp and get going by noon, so not possible. It was an incredibly reasonable price and apparently one built by Mo Culver I think, (flown once or twice that I can determine from online posts) so I just couldn't pass up the chance to own one of your models. Otherwise I don't think I could ever justify sending one here to Hawaii. A bit of a unicorn to me at least. Worth owning just for that.
We went to Tick Point right from Sunset and we considered doing a basic program to get it in the air but it was just ripping and we decided against it. Some other pilots were there and had some nice words to say about it. Very distinctive model. One pilot immediately said "That's got a lot of dihedral" lol. Looks like the production models have almost none.
Anyway, I can't wait to fly it next year (or hopefully sooner), along with the Sequoia I bought that @Red built. That's the afore mentioned "Honda" version in Red's picture from the Sequoia thread/post. He also made me a great deal on that plane. Both planes will live in Nate's shop. We had rain and really light winds most of the event and I procrastinated enough that I didn't get that plane set up either, so no fly zone for me on both counts! Lesson learned. We did get to fly a bunch of smaller stuff, including some home brew stuff Nate and I did, so it was still great fun.