Artech/ego cessna 182 mods??

[jaskel]

hi guys, ive got the electric cessna 182 4 ch plane and I am looking at doing some mods...what have you done to yours to make it better, faster more fun etc...

I have seen some guys saying they have installed brushless motors, lipos etc...I am very interested in brushless options but dont know what way to go about it....if you have any ideas, pics, instructions on anything please let me know as i am keen as to try some stuff with this.

The first mod I found made a difference is the nose cone....remove that and it flys faster....

Thanks in advance

Jason

here is my plane;

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v234/jaskel3/RC%20Stuff/plane1.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v234/jaskel3/RC%20Stuff/plane2.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v234/jaskel3/RC%20Stuff/plane3.jpg

[Leo L]

Go to RCUniverse / electric planes / foamies / Art-Tech(ParkFlyers) Cessna thread. You will find all of the mods that you could want.

[jaskel]

yeah ive looksed thru there but just thougt id make this one to let people condense their mods.

[Leo L]

On my first flight, the Cessna barely took off and stalled at about 3ft. up. It crashed, breaking the prop and wing. After replacing the prop and gluing the wing, the plane won't fly. I've had it taxi for over 100ft., barely get up to about 2 ft. and then slowly settle back to the ground. I've changed the motor and speed control and checked the battery. Still won't fly. Any ideas?

[jaskel]

have you tried a hand launch?? I had simalar probs so now i am looking for a better motor

[Leo L]

I hate hand launches. I find that take-offs are an important aspect of the overall flying experience. I just ordered an eight cell 900mah battery from ParkZone that should fit perfectly in the battery compartment, but should give considerable more speed to the motor (hope the motor doesn't burn out). I'll post how the plane performs as soon as I receive the battery and fly (?) the plane.

[jaskel]

ok great, yeah let us know...I am trying to find out any good mods i can do to the motor etc to get it going faster.

[Leo L]

Before I found the battery, I was considering switching to a brushless motor for more power. The E-flite 450 seems like a good match and should fit with minimal modifications. However, the motor costs around $65 and requires a new speed control, which costs around $55. I'm not sure that this plane is worth an investment of $120 at this point, so I'm hoping that the $27 battery does the trick.

Besides the original cost of the plane, I've additionally spent more than $50 on replacement motors, speed control, props and aluminum spinner; and I have yet to get a single good flight out of this plane. I hope that the new battery gets the plane flying, because right now the plane is simply a bottomless money pit.

[jaskel]

lol....when you get it going and have some nice flights you will know it was worth it...ive had a couple of nice flights and it went really good!.

[jaskel]

ok, flew the Cessna today...worked out that the plane is really underpowered with this motor... i was there with a guy who has flown for 20 years and he suggested that the plane would fly great if i installed a geared motor on it....or even a brushless.... i think I am going to find a geared motor that fits on it and see how it goes...if no good then i am going to buy a GWS E Starter that comes with a geared motor and all i need to do is add my radio gear...80 bucks as a ARF isa good price.

Has anyone had a geared motor in their cessna??? how did it go and how did you mount it??

Jas

[jaskel]

Here is some pics of the geared motor so far;

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y125/canada2005/RC%20Stuff/gearedmotor.jpg
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y125/canada2005/RC%20Stuff/gearedmotor1.jpg
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y125/canada2005/RC%20Stuff/gearedmotor2.jpg
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y125/canada2005/RC%20Stuff/gearedmotor3.jpg

[Leo L]

Jaskel,
Looks good. Let us know how it flies.

I had some good experience/bad experience this morning. The good experience was that I finally got the Cessna off the ground. Using a ParkZone 8-cell 1000mah battery, the plane took off quite nicely and I was able to make several circuits of the field before - the bad experience. Motor and controls started glitching so I set it down in a rough landing. Only damage was bent landing gear. Straightened out the landing gear and tried again. Same results. Tried a third time. This time that batery was starting to run low, so the plane barely took off. I landed it at the opposite end of the field. As I walked over to pick it up, I heard, and then saw, all of the control surfaces moving uncontrollably. As I got within 20 ft of the plane, all of the movements stopped. The transmitter was on, but the antenna was all the way in. I'm guessing that its time to invest in some decent electronics.

I've been flying for one year now, always at this field and in the early morning hours. All of my other planes are HobbyZone/ParkZone and are on 27mhz. I've never had a problem with their signals.

I must say that flying a 4-channel plane for the first time was a lot of fun. I'm thinking that if I bite the bullet and go for good electronics for the Cessna, I might as well go all the way and go brushless and lipo. Has anyone made such modifications? If so, what motor, speed controller, and transmitter/receiver did you use? Did you also change out the servos, or are the original servos decent enough to retain?

[jaskel]

im also looking for a brushless mod...

Forget the std motor, better to go the geared motors or brushless!

[HyFlyer]

I've just installed a Sacker brushless (A30-22) in my Cessna, and it is fast!
I'm using a 3 cell Lipo, so have lightened the load by around 100gms. I've added 15gms back in, just to keep the nose down.
I've only tried a 7x4 prop so far, as that draws 18 amps and I've only got a 20 amp esc.

I've had to put a carbon rod across the wing to give it some strength, and also wrapped the whole fuselage in the thin 'wing-tape' (not sure what it's actually called) which gives the fuselage some protection against minor bumps.

Mounting the motor, I used 4 x 50mm hollow carbon tubes (6mm), and 4 x 60mm M3 hex bolts with locknuts. I drilled 4 new holes into the front bulkhead only, 35mm apart to give the legs a slight spread outwards towards the back. The bolts are only long enough to go through the front bulkhead, and then 4 self tappers to lock the front and rear bulkhead together.
This picture shows the mounts when I first used 75mm threaded rod through both bulkheads, but some dickhead forgot to check his elevator servo's after installing new radio gear and up suddenly meant down :mad:
Half throttle on the brushless, straight into the ground nose first from a hand launch. Motor was OK, but bent two mounting rods. Thats when I changed to 60mm hex bolts, through one bulkhead so it's easy to remove and adjust if necessary.
http://www.rickp.net/nb/motor.jpg

[jaskel]

nice job...I also have now updated to Brushless....man it is now a flyable plane...im loving it...

[AUCHRBEN]

I've made a steerable nose landing gear for the EGO Cessna 182, i think the below link will take you to the video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rg_r50cB3sk
or just youtube search chris bentvelzen for all my EGO Cessna videos
I'm currently planning on making this mod with suspension to make it more smoother, just some more time and money!

[jaskel]

my cessna is now RIP...too fast for the design..it broke up and died