Friday, August 6, 2021

EPIC Evo / Hacker C54 / D3 Update

The Invitation G3/C50/D3 combination served me well at the Texas City contest.  I have not done much flying since then for various reasons.  Wifey and I spent a week in Jamaica, there were multiple days of heavy rain which made the Space City Club runway unusable plus I have been avoiding the late July Texas heat.  Seeking a place to fly in the morning when it's cooler I decided to rejoin the SPARKS RC Club which recently upgraded the runway to a hard surface and is a 10-minute drive from my house.

For the last two weeks, I've been logging air time with the EPIC Evo at SPARKS.  I recently redid the elevator controls to reduce the amount of mechanical travel volume.  I felt the pitch response was difficult to manage due to flying with more exponential than I prefer to use. This helped but I still felt there was room for improvement. Pushing into and out of vertical lines plus elevator input during rolls and inverted flight segments was inconsistent.  A friend and fellow pilot suggested to aggressively move the motor battery forward by an inch or so.  This dramatically changed the pitch feel.  In the flights that followed I began sliding the battery incrementally back towards the original position until I achieved the desired pitch response I was after. This confirms recommended CG position by the designer is simply that, a recommendation. One must experiment with the CG position to their particular flying preference.

The EVO now feels very comfortable, now it's a matter of logging practice time on the Evo to adjust to the different visual queues it presents and fine-tuning flight conditions to my liking.  Overall I am very pleased with this design and selected power system.

EPIC EVO

  • Motor: Hacker C54 2Y L
  • ESC: Debowski D3
  • Battery: TP 10S 5000mAh
  • Prop: APC carbon 22x13
  • Radio: Futaba 32MZ, HV servos
  • Landing gear: Falcon gear and pants
  • RTF weight: 4756gr

SPARKS Runway



EPIC Evo







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