Successfully maiden'd the Geek Star this week! (Geek Star = MyGeekShow version of the Easy Star) It flew very, very well, better than I anticipated. Its still a little tail heavy due to servos being placed so far in the tail, but that can easily compensated for.
I'm going to use the Easy Star's wings for a while, but will eventually move to a total scratch built airplane.
It flies pretty solid at half throttle and can really climb/cruise at full throttle and after landing, the electronics are very cool.
Motor: http://www.hobbypartz.com/75m42-optima450-2220-950kv.html
ESC: http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/uh_viewItem.asp?idProduct=13429
Batt: http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/uh_viewItem.asp?idProduct=6306
Comments
@Gary Mortimer: Good idea... I don't have any others sitting around to test, but will invest soon and show the results.
@Brian: Very true! My original reason was that pushrods I had were pretty weak, and that kind of distance would just bend them (I'm going to be getting piano wire soon, so that won't be a problem), but I hadn't fully appreciated that the servos out of the way would be helpful when the FPV day comes... At any rate they are very light. Thanks for the heads up! I may just keep them where the are.
Nice! Great job, but I wouldn't be too quick to move the servos from the back. Are you not going to have stuff up front like the autopilot, camera, battery, sensors? Their weight and location could be used to counter the tail heavy platform. My NitroPlanes 003 RQ-11 is totally tail heavy. W/out planning the location of the extras it would fly bad, but with their weight part of the setup I can achieve CG and have great flights.
Motor does play into it w/a pusher. I've had to swap motors because I nicked the wires on the original Exceed-RC 480 (1020kv) so I put in an Electrifly Rimfire .15 outrunner. That BAM has so much juju that if I push it beyond 3/4 throttle it changes the attitude of the plane w/just thrust. I like the power but you must know it will happen and understand what the plane will do when you need to use more than normal power.
Again great job, I'd weight the other gear you have and plan on where they'll be mounted and then see how it will fly w/them mounted.
Well done, if you are going to test endurance next you might want to think about a selection of props and even maybe a different KV/motor prop altogether.