...so you don't break your prop The 1.5m Fox from R2hobbies comes fitted with a 30A Flycolor ESC, the default setting of which is "unbraked". Unfortunately I only realised this as the Fox came in to land off a short approach, with the prop still busily whirring.
The Flycolor ESC is a Shen Zhen Electronics unit, with manual available here. As far as the setting the brake is concerned, it's the second noise-tone heard after you power-up the ESC, with transmitter throttle stick having been set to full "up" beforehand. Flipping the throttle from fully "up" to "down" at this second noise-tone should change the ESC setting from "unbraked" to "braked", what you need for a glider. Additional setting changes can be done as required, following the table on pages 5-6 of the manual...
...tail-heavy no more I took the Phoenix out for a fly this afternoon, not having flown it for a while, and took the opportunity to try the flap mix which was something I'd overlooked when I first got the transmitter. I'd set the Phoenix up for flaps when I'd first got it, but have never particularly liked flying with flaps as it makes the Phoenix fly tail-heavy, dampening what are generally immaculate flying manners.
This is because the wings are in a high-lift configuration but the tail is not, causing it to dip at low speeds associated with flaps. The other day, flipping through the menu's when setting up the Stinger, I came across the flap mix menu and suddenly it made sense.
The mix is very simple, allowing you to dial in a dose of elevator with the flaps. Now the trick is, to cure tail-heaviness as in the case of the Phoenix, you don't want positive elevator, as this would just push the tail down more and increase the angle of incidence of the wings.
What resolves the issue remarkable well is negative elevator, effectively working as a flap for the tail. On the Phoenix I set negative elevator at 20 for a flap setting of 10, which I tried out this afternoon and which works brilliantly well. Highly recommended on the Phoenix...
...it's the second tone you want My recently acquired Phoenix 1600 came with a new blue ESC (compared to previous unidentified yellow in the Phoenix 2000), accompanied by an instruction booklet which, amongst other things, provided instruction on how to set the brake on the ESC. It does seem odd that the default is set to "brake off" when most of their products are gliders... Anyway, my attempts at finding the three beeps proved fruitless and had to resign myself to rather compromised gliding, with the large prop whirling busily in the breeze, and with the risk of doing the prop in on landing. Fortunately I came across this forum post #58. To summarise succinctly, the crucial moment is when one hears the second musical tone. Don't bother with trying to identify the tone amongst the myriad sounds the new unit makes, you'll just end up reprogramming random settings like I did. Anyway, I am happy to say, that after the first attempt with the new instruction, the ESC brake is now on and I can look forward to a bit of gliding tomorrow morning. And, by the way, if you were wondering, Volantex is the new Lanyu...
