X-Fire

Purchased June 2002 flown end of July

I decide to have a go at electric flight. At the time I had just had a traumatic split from the Basingstoke Club following a disagreement on how to handle a noise complaint matter and I was flying with the East Berkshire Club but I was unhappy with the site as it was being 'surrounded' by polytunnels. At the time I wrote :-

With hind sight this was probably not a very good set of reasons, more negative than positive, and the resulting success (or lack of) may possibly be attributed to this poor start.

So having decided to take the plunge it was then a question of what to built. Lots of internet searching turned up lots of advice much of it conflicting and most of it as much use a poke in the eye with a sharp stick. I guess that's because the power to weight ratio is so low (relative to i.c. engines) that all the various parameters become worthy of consideration. Its not a case of slapping this motor and these cells in this size model...its is a bit harder than that.

I had bought and flown an Easy Pigeon for my father to learn with and while this was 'Easy' to get going it convinced me that I didn't want anything so mind numbingly boring. I knew I had to be able to fly some reasonable hairy batics. I toyed with the idea of making a slightly smaller and lighter version of Tempus and seeing what I could do with that, but in the end decided to buy a proven package. Eventually I was persuaded to purchase X-fire (pronounced crossfire sic) as it seemed to be getting a lot of good publicity.

It was designed by Howard Metcalf, and having seen other HM models I know that guy knows what he is doing! An article in the BMFA news said that a Jeti brushless system gives out of sight vertical performance, and this was confirmed by the current distributor of X-fire Peter Ross. Great - but a motor and a speed controller were circa £100 each at the time, which is a bit high for experimentation. So I decided to fit a 'hot' 600 motor and a 3000mAHr 7 cell pack to start.

sorry about the flesh it was a stonking hot day in July!

Building the model was a relatively frustrating experience. Once again we have a kit that  is poorly put together and instructions that hinder rather than help. I'm sorry if this is begining to sound like a 'soap box' campaign but I do genuinely get very frustrated by these things. However there are people who can put together good kits and instructions, see my Glens Extra. I won't put all the details here but if anybody want to read more about my experience with the construction follow this link :Building the X-fire

First flight - a disaster! In  the model ended up looking like this : no nose!

My earlier worries about battery duration were clearly a waste of time as the entire flight lasted 5 seconds.

Further investigation after I had taken the bits back to the workshop showed that suspicions at the field were correct. I had taken off with the ailerons reversed. I will repeat that for those who cannot believe the stupidity involved......I had taken off with the ailerons reversed. I then remembered (with the clarity of hindsight) carefully checking the amount of movement but never the direction. What a plonker!

However the breaks were quite clean and the model was repaired. To see how follow the link to X-fire Rhinoplasty.

"my models got no nose "

"how does it smell?"

"Terrible"

So what did it fly like I hear you say ............... adequately I reply !

It did most things OK, but nothing that requires 'knife-edge' performance, there isn't enough fuselage or power. It managed do about two rotations vertically, rolls were a bit barrelly but it generally moved around nicely.

Landing was easy provided you don't try and bleed too much speed off. Flight times were generally 9-11 minutes depending (obviously) on how much wellie you give it. To save you scanning back up to check I have used a 'cooking' 600 motor, a 7 cell 3000mAhr sub-C Sanyo NiMH pack, and a CAM 9x4 prop.

My Dad with X-fire and cows waiting for the battery to recharge. Even the cows were bored.

Would I recommend it to anybody? - only if they had the patience of a saint to deal with the niggles in the kit, plan and instructions. It's too fiddly by half for me.

Did I achieved what I set out to? - yes in so far as I had an electric model that didn't bore me to tears flying (Waiting for the battery to charge was another matter) and that I can fly outside my back garden.

Did it convinced me to ditch all my IC stuff and go electric? - NO WAY!!!!!!!!

I eventually sold this on, in October 2002. I found that the battery charging was too much trouble for me, and I had joined Aldershot Model Club by then and we don't have too many issues with flying good old i.c. stuff.

I think that had the cheaper out runner brushless motors and LiPoly cells been around at the time (they were only just making and appearance then) I might have found the experience more enjoyable. As I write this (Feb 2006) I am begining to think about having another go with electric - this time a Shock-Flyer or similar. If I do I'll post something on this site.