Moving from the Piccolo to ECO 8

[eytan]

I am flying A piccolo for 2 months now.
Hover with no crashes.
3 questiones:
1) How does ECO 8 servives crashes?
2) will it be easier of harder to hover with ECO 8
3) what is the usual flight time?

Thanks

[andys]

Hi Eytan

If you can fly Piccolo perfectlly you can fly ECO. But a lot more to setup and tune.

It flys a lot better than Piccolo, you will be amazed.

But you cannot crash it like Piccolo. A minor crash will be bent boom, flybar, blades, undercarrage. about $30-40 in spares. Major crashes it is cheaper to buy new kit.

Flight times of 7-9 minutes is easy. My personal is 11min. This is on basic Sport motor. I am building another one with X250-h motor + 10 cell and i have read on forum that 14+ min possible.

Get spare battery.

Best of luck.

Andy

[giheli]

I have been flying my eco ca. 1.5 years. Only one minor crash, but I am quite conservative in my flying. With a few of the upgrades the eco is impressive. You can get in a hover "groove" like that of the gas powered heavier machines. I get off on the precision flying*that an airplane just can't do. The eco is an egg shell. You can't just slam it down to earth to land and you have to bring rotors up to speed in a smooth even manner. Yes its a good idea to order a second kit for major crashes.
My biggest complaint is that the kit needs up grades that really should just come with the packaged kit. These are, and you should order these outright; Hardened Blade bearing, main and rotor shaft, auto rotation gear and the aluminum rotor pitch bearing. Darn near 90$ in parts. You will end up ordering these anyways. The hardened main shaft and auto rotation (sprag clutch) are ABSOLUTELY mandatory. I would have preffered that Ikarus just include these and raise the kit price accordingly. "If I were King!"
The LMH converted to epower is an absolute tank, so if you crash prone check it out. I like the complexity of the eco mechanism and favor it but I live in mortal fear of the crash that grounds me. Just a thought,

--Giheli

[Sture Smidt]

What is Hardened Blade bearing?

------------------
Sture Smidt
RC Pilot
Norway

[andys]

Hi giheli & sture

I can guess that these are the hardend main shaft and tail rotor shaft.

http://www.ikarus-modellbau.de/Ikarus/english/index-e.html.

I have seen several post which complain about the standard on in kit. They have sometimes arrived not "true" and cause a lot of vibration. I agree that it is a shame that all these have to be extra. I put a dent in the very thin alum boom while loading in my car. it was a lite tap and was surprised at the damage. I ordered a a carbon one from MS Composite. My second ECO has all these bits and would be finished soon and I will post the results.

Can you advise me on LMH. All agree of its toughness. I would like to practice harder manuveres on it before the ECO.

I would like to know where is a good place to order these. Can i change to gas if I change mind on electric. Is it possible to use normal micro gyro or is the special system provided OK.

Thanks for any help.

Andy

[3dben]

What tube did you get from MS Composite and what is the URL?

Thanks!