Electric Flight Times NOT Enough!

[George J]

Haven't flown my 700 v3 DFC for a while so thought i'd stick a new motor in it with a higher KV to give it a bit more guts, went up the field earlier to try it out and did all my packs. Yes, the new motor and set up was much more like it, spot on in fact, had bags of punch at 2100 but the ridiculous low flight times are so bloody annoying. Less than 4 minutes and that's it, just getting into it at 4 mins! Didn't help that the plankers were out in force so when you're having to wait for a slot only to then have a 4 min flight gets beyond a joke.

If there was ever a day that for me has sealed the deal with nitro, today was that day!

[Guest]

As you know G I can stretch to 5:00 mins on 14s but routinely, 4-4:30 flight times. Yes you can get 6+ with some combo's and headspeeds however our style they just can't do long flight times. Dentman can get all the flight time he needs with his style. Just one of those things. I'm out of big electrics until battery tech makes the next level as in winter the situation only gets worse.

All personal choice of course :-)

MJ

[Planehazza]

I have my timers set at 6:45 (inc spool up and spool down) on my Fusion 50 and 5:30 on my Rush. I'm only doing basic 3D and sport flying, but my packs come down usually between 20-25% according to the cell checker. I know that's not the correct way to measure % used (as it goes of capacity used/left which you can't measure). Cells come down at 3.75v and only warm immediately after landing so I don't think I'm overdoing them.

But yet I see the frustration. Even 6:45 is considered a short flight on a nitro bird. Stuart frequently gets 12 mins on his Raptor G4 running an OS105.

[moyesboy]

All we seem to get is more and more power and the same duration from these electrics.
It must be possible to have the same power as 2 years ago with more duration surely?!

[michael_fly_more]

I think the best flight times I've ever had has has to be from a TDR still no where near a nitro but still better than most electric helis

also a lot of people are going lower head speed but no where near as fun but can be relaxing

as for packs your right MJ things need to get better and last longer

the packs at mo are just getting higher c rating but same weight but not lasting longer

and as we see with the align kits even the 450 and 550 that's just come out the kits are coming with bigger and bigger motors so that's not helping packs and flight times more fun though G as you say with your new motor
but then the fun is taken away when you have to land earlier

just my thoughts

[ChrisB]

5.30 on my 700E DFC
6 to 7 mins on my Logo 600(depending on packs I use)
6 mins on my 550DFC 12s

These are lower HS times mind you.But still fully capable of what I want.

Personally I am dead against the newer powerful motors and agree want more MAH for same weight and size 30c does me fine too so I wish lipo makers would stop this mines longer than yours with their ever higher C ratings.

[dogbiscuit]

I just about cope with 5 mins on the 550.Any less and I would not bother. The 500 is not such an issue at 5mins though as I have 10 packs for it, so you still get a good days flying for not a massive expense in packs.......... but yes compared to the nitro at 8 to 9 mins easily, electric is still pants !

[rachel]

to put this in perspective a lot of the guys at Helimasters were worried in case they got in to a fly off position, as that would mean an extended round of 3mins 30 seconds not three mins ,..... some could not make that .
But I totally agree 4 mins is looking about where its at, if you run a high head speed and fly hard.l

Try lowering your HS with a flybarless heli you will be surprised how agile it can be on a lower head speed...

I practice with a Nitro but will be competing with an electric ,.....

[George J]

Less pitch and lower head speed is really the only thing you change, less weight of course helps, but I don't want to compromise HS or pitch like that as it's not the way I fly, the occasional flight maybe but not all the time.
And as you say Mj the problem only gets worse in the winter months, we were regularly flying with 6 inches of snow on the ground last year.

Lucky we've just ordered a shed load of nitro then!

[ChrisB]

The only thing I find is the crud DFC heads on my two Aligns cannot handle much of a headspeed reduction before they start nodding all over the place due to the damping etc but the Mikado heads and SAB HPS heads don't punish you one bit.

I would swap the DFC heads out but the helis are not worth the extra expense to me I would rather change the whole airframe.

[Andy from Sandy]

Have a go with a new 450L. I have heard the flight time is even worse for the stick bangers! lol.

[Rob Barnes]

Ive nearly always been electric and so much depends on head speeds and quality of your packs. I had a TDR and managed 8 mins at a low head speed approx. 1600 , But then when I wound it up to 2200 doing speed runs at Stainburn we were depleting packs in 2.5 mins runner 16 degrees of pitch. My 600N DFC runs a 55hzr and I get approx. 7mins max on idle up 2 . There are so many variables but on average 3.5 to 4 mins is about right for moderate 3D .

[milly0812]

When I get down my club on a Sunday and there about 6 of us, I can look to be flying 3,4 maybe 5 times and I like that it's fair all round but id soon get peed orf if that was cut in half due to everyone flying for 10 mins

I'm not anti nitro in any shape or form but 4.40 of head banging is plenty for me and I welcome that rest between flights lol.......but then I am getting on now

[trillian]

All we seem to get is more and more power and the same duration from these electrics.
It must be possible to have the same power as 2 years ago with more duration surely?!

Yeah with flybarred nitro .90s you would aim for 1900 ish and you're limited by engine rpm on the high end and flybar paddle response on the low end (and how stiff the dampers are). With FBL and electric we're really liberated from those constraints but if you want high headspeeds it's gonna consume a lot of power.

I'm always trying to optimise my electric helis to have just the amount of punch I want but the longest flight times I can get. I've just bumped down one tooth on the pinion on one of mine and I think I have gained about 45 seconds of flight time but I'll know for sure when I recharge. I had someone tach the headspeed and it was lower than I expected so it was reassuring to learn I didn't need quite as much speed as I thought. Soooo, now what I want to try is upping my collective pitch range for the lower headspeeds, the idea being that I'm not using power when I don't need it but +/- 10 or 11 won't get you very much punch unless you have a fair amount of headspeed - it's a whole different way of looking at it.

[George J]

When I get down my club on a Sunday and there about 6 of us, I can look to be flying 3,4 maybe 5 times and I like that it's fair all round but id soon get peed orf if that was cut in half due to everyone flying for 10 mins

I'm not anti nitro in any shape or form but 4.40 of head banging is plenty for me and I welcome that rest between flights lol.......but then I am getting on now

Fair point Don but if everyone were flying for 10 mins you wouldn't end up with less flying, maybe one or two less flights overall but the same flight time but totally understand what you're saying and is different at a hell only club......I wish!

For the most part we pretty much fly on our own so this isn't an issue as we go to which ever field suits us depending on the time of day, weather etc, so that we avoid the planes. Heli flyers are very much the minority in the clubs we're members of and one of the better fields the plankers have priority over helis so if there are others there flying planes a short 4 min flight is a waste of time as it could be half hr before you fly again and although we fly pretty much every flyable day when i'm not offshore we don't get long there, 2 hrs max, but normally an hour, so flight time is more important.

But having said all that I still really enjoyed flying the 700 but just not anywhere near as much as my nitros.

And yes Don you are getting on.......