Official E-flite 650mm Convergence VTOL Thread

[Aros]

Motion RC is pleased to announce the release of the E-flite 650mm Convergence VTOL. This is the official message thread to post photos, videos, flight reviews and any questions about this aircraft.

[xviper]

BNF - https://www.motionrc.com/products/e-...nt=30153262156
PNP - https://www.motionrc.com/products/e-...nt=30154743052

This is a continuation of the original thread from here: http://www.hobbysquawk.com/forum/rc-...ect-first-look
I've copied the last couple of posts in that thread for continuity and hope to use this more appropriately titled thread as a place to add comments about this model's flight characteristics as seen through the eyes of it's owners.
I won't go into any details of the specs on this plane or any videos as these can be found on the Convergence page at MotionRC and the Horizon site and the thread from which this is a continuation of.

3 of us picked up our Convergences today. One fellow was so excited, he built it and flew it several times already in the freezing cold. He says it's a great model and we're all going to have lots of fun with them.

I have one of these coming soon also and I'm excited to hear your group's thoughts on flight performance. I'm most curious about its performance in forward flight. I've also heard some chatter about adjusting the tilt arms to chase out any forward creep in the hover position. Also, apparently the model transitions from forward flight to hover mode if the battery gets lots, but if you're in hover mode already when the battery goes low, a little later it will just cut off and drop to the ground. I'm curious if the flight time is truly only five minutes.

Alpha, lots of private reviews and opinions on the 'net. The ones I'll post here will be from our little trio. First off, my buddy says this thing is "fast" in airplane mode, perhaps faster than he's comfortable with. He's an intermediate RC pilot and a real professional airline pilot. He's flown mostly RC Timber, Eflite crop duster, 3D plane and small CP heli, but flies them really well. I have never seen him crash to date.
There is a slight stutter with the nacelles on transition but it seems to work itself out with subsequent flights. It does drop like a stone in airplane mode when you shut the throttle down. It's my opinion that the CG is possibly incorrect and I'm going to play with moving the battery back little by little in hopes of making it stay level at throttle chop. Yes, it does have forward creep in hover mode and my buddy is going to adjust the nacelle linkage more vertical to try and eliminate this. Will see what happens.
Yes, when battery detects LVC, it will go into hover mode (if in airplane mode) and activate stability mode (if not already) and give about 1 minute for you to land. If in hover mode when LVC happens, don't know what will happen. If it's anything like my Blade QX350, it will go into a default slow decent and land itself wherever it may be. I hope this is the case. One of us might try it if we have the nerve. Will let you know. As I don't post at RCG, all our findings and videos will be posted here. I'll likely start a new thread with a more revealing title.

Quick note: I addressed the issue of forward creep in hover mode and the lack of reverse speed by maxing out the servo travel on UP elevator. It will still creep forwards if you let the stick go but it is now easily controllable with the stick and backwards speed is quite acceptable. I did not adjust the nacelle position yet. This was hovering in the basement in limited space. I will know better once I get it to the field in a couple of days. It's very cold and I'm a bit of a wuss when it comes to flying in the cold.

Go to post #54 (page 3) to see some tweaks and flying suggestions to make this plane work better.

[xviper]

Here's a vid my buddy made of his flight in very windy and cold conditions. Winds gusting to over 20mph. Also, attached a picture of the wind sock at the time. His Convergence also had the servo travel on the UP elevator maxed out to 150%. He says it flies great with good reverse authority in hover mode. Neither of us had any trouble binding them to our DX transmitters. I've yet to fly mine. Been too chicken to brave the cold. The 3rd one should be ready by the weekend. We hope to get all 3 in the air together but will depend on the conditions.

[TiredIronGRB]

That is pretty cool.

[OV10]

Hello XV.............that wind noise on the vid and the sock in the pic definitely indicated a 4-5 Beaufort. ;)
A minimal joy day for normal fixed wing.

[xviper]

We usually fly together but that wind really spooked me. Mind you, that wind sock is not a full sized one like you'd see at an airport. It's a smaller version meant for RC flying fields. Still, we rarely fly when the thing is standing straight out like that but my buddy couldn't resist flying his new plane a couple more times. He's good enough nothing bad happened.

[Brandon Moon]

Woo Hoo :) ...just got shipping notice that mine is on it's way :)

[xviper]

Maidened mine this morning in the cold and slight breeze. All went well. Took off and hovered a bit and transitioned to airplane flight - smooth as silk. Flew around in Stability mode and yes, it can cover a lot of area doing a circuit IF all you're used to is "bank and yank". Throw in hard rudder and it can be flown in a very small area. Put it in acro/airplane mode and the thing is extremely maneuverable and can be flown in very small area. It'll loop and roll with the best of them. I flew it with the battery about 1/2" back of where it's supposed to be and it flew great. I didn't trim it at all (even though it could used a little bit of trimming), just flew it as is to get used to it. Transition back to hover was flawless and a thing of beauty. With 150% dialed in on servo travel UP elevator, it could move in any direction in stab/hover mode although the response is slightly delayed. It was like the stick was very numb even at full pull. I did NOT yank the sticks around in acro/hover mode but I'm sure it will be very responsive in all directions. Yaw control was not an issue and it spun around effortlessly.
Someone reported than this plane in stab/airplane mode would drop like a rock when the power is shut down. With my CG 1/2" back, it did not do this to any extent and the plane did glide (although poorly) for a short distance. Glide was much better in acro/airplane mode.
I am using the Admiral Pro 2200, 3s and the fit was a bit tight. I may have to auger out a little foam so the lid can close more solidly. It closes but not with a solid magnet click that I'm used to. I don't know how people are doing it with the 3000mah batteries.

One thing of note: My buddy did NOT fare so well (the one in the video above). His rear motor pod came unglued at the seams and his Convy crashed. It was a clear case of poor or hurried workmanship at the factory. I hope Horizon will make it right for him. Myself and the 3rd Convy owner will strengthen the rear motor pod seams with CA and hinge tape before we fly again.
I am reminded of that whole fiasco with the initial run of Radian XLs, where Horizon had to tell many of their buyers to do some re-gluing of critical areas of the plane that were done badly at the factory.

[PappaBear]

The Convergence has generated an amazing amount of interest. I've had several calls about it. However I can't claim to have flown it, but it does look like a lot of fun and it's something different.

Martin.

[xviper]

It is a lot of fun and a really neat thing to observe for by-standers. It is for "intermediate" pilots who are somewhat well versed in multicopter AND fixed wing flying. The pilot must be able to switch mindset fairly quickly when doing transitions.

[xviper]

Now reports are coming in that the ball links on the motor nacelles are a concern. The ball, after a few flights, can slide through the ring easily and result in loss of control. A few crash reports are starting to come in. Uncertain if it's an equipment fault or pilot error. It may be that a few people got these who perhaps should have flown multicopters a bit longer.

I flew mine today again in very windy conditions. I extended the servo travel on the nacelles - AUX1 in airplane mode to 110%. This made the nacelles face forward more level. The plane flew really well and chopping the throttle did not result in quite as severe nose drop as before. I will increase to 120% for the next flight. I still think this plane should be able to glide far better than people have reported it as doing. It's an experiment in progress. I prefer to call it "fine tuning".
Remembering that most twin engined planes have a slight bit of down angle on the motors. This thing comes naturally with some up angle. I believe this was left like that on purpose because to utilize 0 to 100% travel on the transition of the nacelles, they set it up so that it hovered well with just a little forward creep and this prevented them from being level during airplane mode. Extending both ends of the travel gives 1. more authority to stop the creep and to reverse and 2. allow for better nacelle angle for airplane flight, hence reducing the natural tendency for nose dive on throttle cut.
So far, I really love this plane.

PS. Transition to airplane flight should be done with hovering throttle. Below this and the plane will drop too much. At transition, the flight controller automatically bumps up the revs a bit to compensate for this but if the throttle is too low, the compensation won't be enough. This is particularly important if you try to transition from the ground or a table. It's got to have enough lift to begin with to hold the weight of the plane when hovering. This is approx. 1/2 throttle or more. So, if taking off and immediately transitioning, raise throttle to at least 1/2 before throwing the switch or your plane will either fly itself into the ground or fall off the table.

[Bajora]

A few photos of my first Convergence sighting! Shot a video of one of his flights too. This little bugger is pretty swift when in forward flight!

[Alpha]

I flew one of these today for a newcomer to our field. He was very nice and I talked to him about it for a few minutes about what he liked and didn't like, and what he hadn't tried yet, mostly due to nervousness. I went back about an hour later and he was still there, and he offered me a flight on it. I will say that the aircraft feels like it has a lot of potential, but yes there is a learning curve, so approach it as something new and be on the lookout for quirks and new lessons of how this specific aircraft wants to be flown. I recommend lots of open space when you first transition to forward flight. It can really move! As xviper2 said, having adequate throttle before transition is imperative. Overall, points for not making another P-51 or Cub! I only got one flight on it but it did get me excited to fly mine whenever it arrives.

[Brandon Moon]

Looking forward to giving it a whirl :).... Mine should be here tomorrow or Wednesday

[xviper]

People are debating about how to lock down the props. Back and forth about not using Loctite, using it with care, etc. Simple solution is to use a small dab of FoamTac on the prop adapter threads. I've stop using Loctite on anything on my flying models.

[Brandon Moon]

Well, I ordered the Full PNP version and I received mine today. I was a little disappointed to find that the right motor pod servo horn was disconnected and the servo horn screw was missing...not a good first start right out of the box. The instruction on the binding process are less than favorable as well as setting up the FPV gear, though I was able to figure it all out because of my experience from others and past FPV planes I've done.....

The ball linkages on both forward motors are very sloppy and pop off way to easily IMO....this will need to be fixed.

I found several screws loose on the wing nacelles and the hatch magnet on the hatch lid was not even glued in.

Over all first impressions of quality and assembly are not good. I will report back on more after I've finished setting it up and had it out to fly?

[xviper]

Brandon, this is not god news. Best to check everything. I've mentioned a few things in my past posts that are of concern and these are on units that were better than average. If you're using newer Spektrum gear, binding shouldn't be an issue, however, binding with older gear and non-Spektrum has proven to be a bit of a hair puller. Best of luck.

[Brandon Moon]

I'm using a DX9 TX. set up per the manual. however I noticed they reference a spectrum set up file on the spectrum page, but I couldnt find it there?

[Brandon Moon]

I got it bound...playing arround with it now....

[xviper]

I don't think they ever got around to putting the file on the Spektrum page. I've looked.