Big Skyvan

[Derek]

A few months ago, my buddy came to me and asked me to help him design and build a large plane with a cargo dropper. This is what we came up with.

https://youtu.be/ICSfKI6Kf3E

[Graham Lawrie]

Thats really cool Derek:)

[Derek]

Thanks Graham!!!

[DOG]

That's was too cool. Awesome job again Derek. Thanks for sharing .

[Derek]

Thanks man! It flew very well but we've discovered it's underpowered. We ordered new motors yesterday that should give us nearly 3 times more power. The next flight should be even better. The cool thing is that we've proven that the plane is flight-worthy!

[Derek]

After that maiden flight and successful landing, the motors were quite hot. They weren't super hot but they were hot enough that I didn't want to keep my fingers on them for very long. We get the Skyvan back to the shop and begin researching. We probably should have done the researching during the build, and not after, but hey....lessons learned.

We used two motors from a previous X-Class Quad build. They were Vondrone 4114-400kv motors on 8S. During our researching, we discovered that those motors put out about 502 watts of power with a 15x5.5CF prop on 6S (couldn't find any data for 8S numbers). Now...502 watts times two (two motors) is only 1004 combined watts. We weighed the Skyvan and it's a bulky 26 pounds. I actually find it quite amazing that the plane, at 26 pounds was able to get off the ground, at all, with the Vondrone motors. I imagine we were able to achieve rotation and flight because of the angle of attack that the wing has and the generous amount of lift that was produced from the airfoil shape.

I'd love to just be able to purchase two motors with mad power with cost not being an issue but.....cost is always an issue. After searching around a bit, we found that Value Hobby offers a motor that is equivalent to the Eflight Power60 motor. It's a GForce G60 brushless outrunner. According to the specs on the Value Hobby site, their G60 5065-400kv motor recommends an 80amp OPTO esc (which we have installed on the Skyvan) will spin a 14x10-16x10 electric prop on 6S and generate up to 1200 watts of power. So, we ordered two of these motors yesterday and hope to have them installed by this weekend.

[Graham Lawrie]

Well done in getting it in the air in that case!

[Derek]

I just got an email notification. The new motors should be delivered today. I think we'll have to fabricate new motor mounts but the Skyvan should be ready to fly again in a few days. We have a camera mounted on top of the fuselage. I just need to remember to turn it on lol