Avios/Hobby King 1600mm C-130 Hercules

[icepirate3]

So the maiden of Fat Albert didn't go so well. It passed the range check and the throttles all calibrated fine. Took off and it flew great, only needing a little nose up trim due to the heavier battery (3000mah). Flew for about 3 minutes doing turns and climbs just like any other maiden.

Dropped the gear, did a gear check and turned downwind. Dropped the main flaps to takeoff and it felt fine. Just after the turn to base, there was a strange, high pitched sound and I lost all throttle response. Had full control otherwise so I setup to land in the weeds. Didn't have enough altitude to get the gear up unfortunately although I did hit the switch. It came down nice but I do live and fly in the desert. It came down in thick tumbleweed and ripped the doors off. And it's scratched up pretty bad as well.

Got it back to the table and everything works as it should. I ran the throttles up and cycled every surface, gear, and flaps and the engines never quit. The 4 small bullet connectors were fine and everything was plugged in snugly to the receiver. (Lemon 10ch+ satellite) The battery had 68% left in all cells and only has a couple cycles total.

I don't know and have put it in the shed for the foreseeable future. Not going to guess on what caused it but I'm not a happy camper at the moment. I will get it out in a week or two and see if I can figure out what caused it. Spent 6 hours putting clear gloss coats on the last 2 nights and now it looks like it flew through flak. I should have known not to waste more money on this but i really wanted to give HK another shot. Oh well. Live and learn.

Only have a couple before pics.

[xviper]

I flew mine again yesterday and noticed that due to the narrow spread of the main tires, the plane doesn't like any crosswinds on take off or landing. It is easily blown off kilter and will touch a wing tip and scrape along the ground. On grass, it does the same thing except that the outer propeller will also act as a lawn mower. A near perfect heading into the wind is best.
With time, I'll learn to apply lots of opposite AIL and get the thing rolling up to speed to counter.

[icepirate3]

Finished assembling my BA and there's definitely some improvement. The landing lights inside of the main gear shut off when the doors close. Which is nice. The wing landing lights stay on but that's ok with me. The wiring is basically the same with the main gear being the only lead that's labeled, at least in mine. The rest are simply taped up. I did notice that the 4 screws holding the main gear were not even close to tight. They were finger tight at best so make sure to check them!! I ran all of the control surface servos for about 8 or 10 minutes each and so far so good. No heat and they felt smooth.

The flaps do in fact work MUCH better. Overall I'm pretty happy with the improvements and kudos to HK/Avios for making changes. Just wish they would have been made before it was ever released. Just my opinion though

[icepirate3]

So I just opened up my new BA and so far, I like what I see. The flaps sit nicely in the wings and should work perfectly out of the box. The finish looks much better than the original grey version I received and all of the decals are straight and right side up. The ramp now just has the 2 rods that go through a horizontal piece and have a couple covers at the tops to limit it's down travel which is a HUGE bonus improvement IMO! What a pain it was to line up the two sets of rods when they became separated. The wiring does look a little cleaner but i haven't pulled the main gear yet to check everything yet. The rudder does still need a little trimming at the top but does feel like you might be ok without but I'm playing it safe. I am planning on running all of the servos with a tester for a while before assembly as well.

I wasn't planning on putting gloss coat on but it just doesn't look right without so the "build" will have to wait. I'm not going the spray can route this time so I need to get to the store tonight and hopefully get at least one coat done.

Will post pics of the changes later tonight in case anyone is curious.

[icepirate3]

Great shots!! Avios did a wonderful job making this plane look the part and it flies pretty nice as well! Just wish they took as much pride in the electronics IN the plane as they did with the how well it looks and flies.

[Bajora]

More flights this AM ... this time with a camera clicking away!

[icepirate3]

My "V2" BA will be arriving today. After my experience with the "V1" I didn't think I would ever even consider getting another one but want to give HK/Avios another chance. I am mostly just very curious about the changes/improvements to the flaps, wiring, etc. I won't be customizing this one at all with the exception of a couple small walls on the ramp to hold paratroops (had one get hug up on my LC-130) and keep them from going forward or getting hung up.

If everything works out with this one, it will be the one I fly and have fun with and will only bring the LC-130 out on rare occasions and may even work on skis and fairings for it in the winter. I too am starting to have ESC problems and really don't want to tear into that can of worms so for now it's grounded.....again.

I will most certainly give a side by side comparison of the two once I get a chance to get started on it. Fingers and toes are crossed in hopes that everything works and fits properly on this one.

[xviper]

I use a Turnigy Graphene 2200, 4s. It's equivalent in weight to other ~2500 mah batteries and mine was nose heavy but also flew just fine, so that's what I will continue to use. I fly a bit more briskly and with timer set at 5 minutes, I measured about 3.75v/cell afterwards. I can see if a bigger battery was used, the battery bay would have to be moved aft, requiring some foam de-augmentation.
Like Bajora, I was delighted and pleasantly surprised at what a terrific model this is. I know why it took me so long to get one. I'm wondering why Bajora took so long to get one. Perhaps just as well as the first edition was not entirely "flawless".

BTW, does anyone know what that "blister" thing is that's planted on the left side of the tail section? I didn't put mine on as I thought it looked weird and made the plane look lopsided.

[Bajora]

I'm wanting to buy this plane and I'm interested in longer flight times. Can anyone recommend a bigger sized 4S lipo (higher mAh rating) that is a good match for this plane?

And how long of flight times would you say you're getting with the batteries you're using now? Any links for those batteries?

Thanks!

I used a 4S 2700 and a 4S 2450 ... positioned them on the tray and though she was def nose heavy per the recommended number, I thought she flew fine. Six minute timer with 35-40% spare juice left in battery.

[Bajora]

First flights on mine this morning. WOW! Just WOW! This one exceeds my expectations in so many ways. Appearance and in-flight performance to name two. I did not need to apply even one click of trim to any control axis. Flew it for five to six minutes on 4S 2450 and 2700mAh packs. Sadly, I was alone and so did not manage any in-flight photos. I cannot WAIT to get it back out for more media ... Here are a few static shots. Though I had planned on going with Callie's Coast Guard scheme, when I started vetting it out a little ... which I should have done that BEFORE I selected the scheme ... you think I would have realized/remembered that the base color for that scheme is white. And that means a repaint. So for now, we went with one of the included sets of water-slides. Which are indeed quite nice on their own merits.

[xviper]

So XV, did my info steer you in the right direction? LOL I was sure hoping you didn't get a piece of junk, instead of one like I received!! :Sweating: Glad it flies well!! I am going to try and finish mine soon. Just out of time and my knees are bad!!! :Straight-Face: Hard to build when you are hurting all the time!!! Blessings Bro!

Yes, it was enough for me to hit the "buy" button. Had you told me that when you opened the box, it was in disarray and pieces looked damaged or bent out of shape, I would have waited till you got a bit further into the assembly. So, thanks for that.

[Hardway]

Love that camera position. Got my decals from Callie also. One day, I might get the Fat Albert. Must thin the heard down a bit first.
The first couple of videos from private owners didn't look promising. I'm happy to discover that my C-130 flies astonishing well - nothing like the roller coaster rides and wing stalls from those early vids. Credit where credit is due. Great value, thumbs up to HobbyKing.

So XV, did my info steer you in the right direction? LOL I was sure hoping you didn't get a piece of junk, instead of one like I received!! :Sweating: Glad it flies well!! I am going to try and finish mine soon. Just out of time and my knees are bad!!! :Straight-Face: Hard to build when you are hurting all the time!!! Blessings Bro!

[xviper]

Glad your maiden went well Xviper. It is a fun plane.

I flew mine over the weekend. It is from the first batch and is still flying fine.

With the improvements in the new batch I am tempted to get another and have Callie make a set of decals for it.

Love that camera position. Got my decals from Callie also. One day, I might get the Fat Albert. Must thin the heard down a bit first.
The first couple of videos from private owners didn't look promising. I'm happy to discover that my C-130 flies astonishing well - nothing like the roller coaster rides and wing stalls from those early vids. Credit where credit is due. Great value, thumbs up to HobbyKing.

[wvrailfan]

Glad your maiden went well Xviper. It is a fun plane.

I flew mine over the weekend. It is from the first batch and is still flying fine.

With the improvements in the new batch I am tempted to get another and have Callie make a set of decals for it.

[uscanuck1xa]

Glad your maiden flight went well! Nice to see that CC-130 flying in those Alberta skies!!

[NoDirt!]

Looks like a great maiden xviper! Glad it worked out well.
My timer is set to 4 minutes with 2200's and they come down at 3.80 or so.

[Woodcock]

Looks Great Xviper! I'm proud of ya mate.

Best Regards
W

[xviper]

Finally got a chance to maiden mine. Grass had just been mowed quite short. Take off was easy - no flaps. Landing was text book- no flaps, looked just like a real C-130. Grass didn't pose any problems. However, it was very gusty and turning on the ground was difficult as it weather vaned and tipped onto one wingtip but it will eventually turn. This plane is from the latest batch (V2?) and everything on it worked perfectly. It looks beautiful in the air. Using a 2200mah, 4s Graphene battery, I got 5 minutes but each cell went down to 3.75. I'll reduce time to 4:30 from now on. For once, I'd say this plane is NOT underpowered. I would consider this model to be MAGNIFICENT!

Here's a video I tried to get with my hat cam. Unfortunately, it cut out part way through the flight, but you get to see it roll on the grass and take off and do almost 2 circuits.

[NoDirt!]

3 Fat Albert flights for me yesterday morning.
And 3 paratrooper jumps! 1st was eh, 2nd and 3rd we're pretty good though.
#3 jumped a bit too high and landed in a tree 50yds across the parking lot! :Silly:

[Having Fun]

I got one and then had to send it back. I had it all set up and was fine tuning the flaps when the electronics went poof! HK took it back without any squabbling and refunded my money. The foam body is BEAUTIFUL! 9 gram plastic geared servos all the way around seems weak. I was going to swap all the servos out until the poof event. Hey MRC, make a great C-130 with quality, the market is asking for it. By the time I upgrade electronics with time and materials I have spent another $100-$125. Sure was sad to send it back...