My new toy! Top Flite Cessna
 

I picked this up today at our clubs swap meet. Only flown once and in like new condition. Complete and ready to fly all the way to the transmitter.

Top Flite 81" Cessna 182. Rimfire 120 motor, 60 amp ESC, 1 3s 3350 and 1 2s 2250 lipo in series. Futaba T7c Transmitter and RX All Futaba Servos.

Can't wait to get her out to the field!!

Let me know how she flies with the Rimfire. I got the ARF spread out on my living room floor right now about 1/2 way complete. Looking for suitable motor standoffs and working on the wiring. Hopefully airworthy in a month or so. (I had a .60 equiv motor on hand that I chose to use, but of course it's mounting holes dont mate with the recommend motor mount so once again, I have to improvise.) Good luck with your first flights!

Hi Bill
Outstanding
Congratulations:D
Shes a beauty :$ very nice
May she bring you much joy
Take care dear friend
Yours Hank

That Looks sweet, Nice find Bill :) Take care and have fun, Chellie

I want some "stick-time" on it at SEFF!!!!!bubsteve

You got it Stevie!:cool:

Top Flite 81" Cessna 182. Rimfire 120 motor, 60 amp ESC, 1 3s 3350 and 1 2s 2250 lipo in series. Futaba T7c Transmitter and RX All Futaba Servos.

Can't wait to get her out to the field!![/QUOTE]


she's a beauty for sure bill....quick question,when running batteries in series i always thought the packs should be matching mah and c rating. different cell count wouldn't matter. but drawing power from 2 different size packs might damage the lesser pack. i just thought i read that some where ,but could be wrong. i run 4 cells in parallel [2200mah 20c's]to get 4400mah,and run 3cell 4000 mahs in series to gain 6cells. let me know. :ws:

she's a beauty for sure bill....quick question,when running batteries in series i always thought the packs should be matching mah and c rating. different cell count wouldn't matter. but drawing power from 2 different size packs might damage the lesser pack. i just thought i read that some where ,but could be wrong. i run 4 cells in parallel [2200mah 20c's]to get 4400mah,and run 3cell 4000 mahs in series to gain 6cells. let me know. :ws:[/QUOTE]

oops, that should read 3350 for both packs... big fingers and little keyboards do not match!

Good catch Stu.:cool:

Oh, I should also add that this aircraft was built by a 5 time Master Class winner at Top Gun, and two time Mr. Top Gun!

Yeah, it's built right!:D:cool:

I picked up that same airplane last fall from a club member who had to quit because of health issues. It's pretty much put together, just a few minor things left to do.

Power is a Hacker A60-5, prop will be either an 18X12, or a 19X12, batteries will be 10S2P A123's, ESC is a CC 80 Amp HV ICE series. I'm waiting for Castle Creations to return my HV ICE ESC after a factory recall.

Question, what size prop does your Rimfire motor have on it?

Had to extend the landing gear to provide for prop clearance though. Oh well.

That is a very nice model. I did put together a little microcontroller circuit board that allows turning on or off the LED lights with a spare servo connector on the receiver.

Got my vinyl graphic made up for the new reg number. This is the same number from the Aircraft we are taking lessons in at our Aero club.

Dennis, I'd like to have a way to turn off the landing lights independent of the nav lights. Need to figure out a way I can do that. I am not an electronics expert by any stretch, any ideas?

Hoping the weather allows me to get her up in the air this weekend.:cool:

Turning on or off the LG lights is not a real problem, electronics wise. Take a look at the attached, it just plugs into a spare servo channel, flipping the corresponding transmitter switch will turn it on or off.

I've got two outputs on this unit, one just turns the LED on or off, the other flashes the LED. You won't need the flasher output and its corresponding FET driver, it's built into your Cessna lights.

Not much to put it together, I've got to program the little microcontroller to do the job. I could build it up for you for a few $$$$, plus parts. Parts are about $10 or less.

Let me know if you're interested.

Bill, that is a sweet bird. I've never flown anything that big :) Well a full size with an instructor with me.

Thanks and LOL, That's not my biggest one! That would be my 1/4 scale Piper PA-12 at 106 3/4" span.

Me and my Son are in ground school now, almost done and ready to start our full scale lessons too!

I'll be starting mine later this year.

cool!:cool:

my idea did not work. I think I'll take you up on that offer!

Sounds good.

I've responded to your private email for ship to addresses and so on.

Took a photo of the finished electronic switch. It switches off with the pulse width less than 1.5 milliseconds, and switches on with the pulse width more than 1.5 milliseconds.

The FET is rated at 15 Amps at some 100 VDC, but without a heat sink, I'd limit it to a few amps at 50 VDC max.

SWEET!:D

(too bad I can only push the thanks button once!)

Nice thing about those little microcontrollers. They come in all physical sizes, this project used a standard 20 pin dip configuration. Easier to solder into a circuit board. You can do almost anything with them. Even a 555 timer type design is easy to do, and their timing is accurate from anywhere from a few microseconds, to seconds, to hours, to days, if needed.

This little microcontroller has both analog and digital inputs and/or outputs, that can be programmed as either. As an example, it can be programmed to measure battery voltage and display it on an LCD display. Some 5,000 times a second!

Funny thing, this microcontroller assembly language stuff to me is easier than trying to remember different club members names. (Some of my programs are over 30 pages long)

AWESOME!
 

Got it in today Dennis and put it right into the plane. It works like a champ! Thanks again for hooking me up.

Hoping to go fly tomorrow afternoon.

Hi Bill, that looks great!

Questions.

I'm assuming those wing struts are required for flight?
Where did you put the battery connectors for powering up the plane?

I'm debating about putting them behind the bottom hatch, but they would be difficult to access when the model is put together.

We just got six inches of wet heavy snow last night. That, and I'm still waiting for my Castle Creations 80 Amp HV ICE ESC to be returned from CC. It was sent in over a month ago. have not hear anything from them, don't even know for sure if they got it. (The package was insured) I guess CC is way behind in their recall repairs.

DennyV

Denny I don't know if they would be totally required but without them it just wouldn't look right I don't think. There are only two screw holding each of them on so they can't be too much in the way of structural units.

The battery connector simply rests in the tray by where the batteries go. It'll have to be plugged in from the bottom before each flight. Hatch is magnetic and comes off easy enough. Good strong magnets too so should hold well in flight.

Crazy 40 knot winds all day kept us from the flying field. It's supposed to calm down tomorrow so am hoping to get her in the air tomorrow afternoon.