The Zombie flight profiler is the premier timer for small brushed motors and features two user adjustable power/time phases, 4- amp speed controller, built-in battery charge indicator with low battery shutoff to protect Li-Po cells from over discharge and an on-board on/off switch. An automatic power ramp-down feature is available for phase 2. The Zombie is not supplied with connectors. You need to solder up your own to match the battery and motor. This makes for neat custom installations.
PHOTO: BONNIE SIMPERS
Andy Septon is holding Derek Knight’s 14.5-inch span, 72-gram Hawker Hunter (above), and is discussing it with him. Westland-Hill PterodactylMk VII awaits judging on top of its documentation (below).
Since there is a delay start feature, the timer can be buried in the model. A broken wire and lack of a field soldering iron pre- vented Doug from making a third flight at- tempt, although the tray mounting system provides good access for repairs. Note to fliers: a battery powered soldering iron should be in your tool kit at big contests. There were other electric powered mod- els at the meet. Nine contestants flew eleven models in the Old Time Gas Replica event. The winner is determined by the lowest deviation from the target time. Most fliers used an electronic timer to control motor run time and servo DT with Li-Pos and a modern motor. Al Timko flew an old Trenton Terror with an Hi-Line Mini-6 with a Pico timer and viscous DT. This flew around tens of feet off the ground to come in third.
PHOTO: DAN DRISCOLL
Of particular interest to me were some new 24mm ducted fans from KP Aero. Derek had these in a couple of models that he did not have trimmed out well enough to enter in the contest. He did fly them. This 24mm diameter fan has a static thrust of 40 grams on 7.5 volts at 3.7 Amperes. These are smaller and lighter than anything else on the market. The weight is 8.9 grams, the outside diameter is 26.5 mm and its length is 35 mm. With 120 mAh 25C 2S Li-Pos (7 grams total) and 6-amp brushless ESC (5.6 grams), and a KP controller (1.1 grams), the power system weight is 22 grams. A 50 square inch, 50-gram model will have a wing loading of 5 ounces/square foot and fly like a Rapier powered model. A larger 20–24 inch span, 100 square inch model with lower wing loading would be more to my liking.
PHOTOS: BONNIE SIMPERS
Don Srull is seen here launching his winning Pterodactyl (above) to another successful flight. Don (at right) with his winning Pterodactyl.
FLYING MODELS 45
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