Hobby Lobby Free Bird Mini-Warmliner
12-04-2008, 05:32 AM
#1
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Join Date: Jul 2008
Location: Pflugerville, TX
Posts: 2,338
Hobby Lobby Free Bird Mini-Warmliner
Anyone out there in WF land have one of these? I ordered it last Friday and have since read in a couple of places that it is a dog.
I'm hoping to get some decent performance out of it - I don't want to thermal for 3 hours and I like the aerobatic possibilities, but I'm just looking for some insight from someone who might have grabbed one before me.
Planning to put a Turnigy 2217 1050Kv motor in it which should give me just under 30oz of thrust spinning the recommended 9x5.5 CamCarbons.
Any thoughts or wisdom to impart before I get it in the air is much appreciated.
GRU
I'm hoping to get some decent performance out of it - I don't want to thermal for 3 hours and I like the aerobatic possibilities, but I'm just looking for some insight from someone who might have grabbed one before me.
Planning to put a Turnigy 2217 1050Kv motor in it which should give me just under 30oz of thrust spinning the recommended 9x5.5 CamCarbons.
Any thoughts or wisdom to impart before I get it in the air is much appreciated.
GRU
12-04-2008, 12:09 PM
#2
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Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: Denver, Colorado
Posts: 5,455
What's In A Name?
Hello GRU,
I don't own this plane, but do have a few thoughts about "Warmliners" in general.
Since true Hotliners are one of the most admired examples of the potential of electric flight, it's no wonder several manufacturers have brought smaller, lighter or less-expensive examples to the marketplace.
Nothing wrong with that, but the problems arise when these aircraft are asked to do the same things that a fully-composite F5B model is capable of.
One glaring example is the very-high-speed power-off dive and pull-out, followed by a whistling low-altitude flyby, at 100 mph or more.
Or a stick-wrenching hairpin pylon turn.
Another crowd-pleaser is the climb to "Spec" altitude in less than 10 seconds.
But I don't believe a model built with sheet-covered balsa, balsa sub structure wings, or in the case of the Siren, completely built-up film-covered wings, can withstand the G forces imposed on it during these maneuvers.
There's a good reason Hotliners of only slightly larger size weigh about twice as much; More carbon fiber, fiberglass, kevlar.
Or cost 2, 3, even 4 times as much; Fully vacuum-molded surfaces, hollow molded, carbon-capped, kevler "D" tube, nearly unbreakable (under flight loads) surfaces.
So, to sum up, the Free Bird is a moderately high-speed 1-1/2 meter powered glider. It will do some of the things an F5b can do, but at a lower speed and may be a decent introduction to Hotliners and Pylon racing.
If you keep your expections at this level, you won't be disappointed. It will climb rapidly, glide, thermal, do reasonable aerobatics, all at a higher speed than most gliders, possibly excepting slope gliders.
JMO,
Ron
I don't own this plane, but do have a few thoughts about "Warmliners" in general.
Since true Hotliners are one of the most admired examples of the potential of electric flight, it's no wonder several manufacturers have brought smaller, lighter or less-expensive examples to the marketplace.
Nothing wrong with that, but the problems arise when these aircraft are asked to do the same things that a fully-composite F5B model is capable of.
One glaring example is the very-high-speed power-off dive and pull-out, followed by a whistling low-altitude flyby, at 100 mph or more.
Or a stick-wrenching hairpin pylon turn.
Another crowd-pleaser is the climb to "Spec" altitude in less than 10 seconds.
But I don't believe a model built with sheet-covered balsa, balsa sub structure wings, or in the case of the Siren, completely built-up film-covered wings, can withstand the G forces imposed on it during these maneuvers.
There's a good reason Hotliners of only slightly larger size weigh about twice as much; More carbon fiber, fiberglass, kevlar.
Or cost 2, 3, even 4 times as much; Fully vacuum-molded surfaces, hollow molded, carbon-capped, kevler "D" tube, nearly unbreakable (under flight loads) surfaces.
So, to sum up, the Free Bird is a moderately high-speed 1-1/2 meter powered glider. It will do some of the things an F5b can do, but at a lower speed and may be a decent introduction to Hotliners and Pylon racing.
If you keep your expections at this level, you won't be disappointed. It will climb rapidly, glide, thermal, do reasonable aerobatics, all at a higher speed than most gliders, possibly excepting slope gliders.
JMO,
Ron
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