florida_meerkat
Heliman
Location: Tallahasse, FL
| I had a talk with one of the sponsored MA pilots at my field and learned several new things about the Ion. I was hoping that maybe some of you could elaborate on these things. I have my Ion on backorder at Heliproz, and can't wait for it!
Battery packs
Are the MA124-160 - IX8000 battery packs that MA is waiting on Thunderpower generation 2 or 3? I've heard that with generation 3 packs, the problem of decreased performance after 4 minutes or so is nonexistant. Can anyone elaborate on this?
Governors
Also, I've been reading electric forums for a long time and have owned several micro electric helicopters. I've always heard that using the governor built into the speed controller was a bad idea because it's hard on the motor and also results in decreased flight times. I'm not too familiar with the Helimaster-77 (or whatever it is that the Ion comes with), but is its built in governor any better than the traditional Schulze, Hacker, and Castle controller governors made in the last few years?
If it isn't, would a GV-1 do any better at regulating the throttle? Is it possible to set the GV-1 to a higher percentage of tolerance for error... say 5-6% instead of 1%?
Hovering
Finally, I'd like to use my Ion for hovering class I and II - but I've heard that the ESC can actually burn up if it's not run close to wide-open throughout most of the flight. I'm not sure what % open would be required for a 1400rpm hover, but I'm sure it's nowhere near the top. How have all of you Ion owners approached this so far? Lower voltage battery packs perhaps? Or is there any way to ensure more effecient cooling of the ESC? Alternatively, is there another ESC that would be able to handle this better than the stock MA one?
Thanks for reading! And extra thanks in advance for answering. : )
Danny M |
