Thought On A Pilot Laser 67" ??

[dilligaf76]

Has anyone owned a Pilot Laser 67"?

If you have what are your thoughts, is it any good?
I am thinking of getting my first petrol motor which they suggest a DLE 20-RA and I would like to know if it is powerful enough for things like prop hanging?

[ChinoDiablo]

I've owned the 67" Pilot Extra NG and the Slick. My flying buddy owns the 67" Laser. Beautiful plane.
The NG is bigger all around but with the same wingspan. The Slick is nice and light as is the Laser.
I stuffed an RCGF 26cc engine into the Slick and had all the power I wanted. The DLE 20cc is good enough once it's broken in but not nearly as impressive as a 26cc with only a modest weight gain.
The key is to keep the weight down to about 9lbs dry (but including batteries). Batteries can add up 8-12+ oz or as little as 5oz depending on your preference of switching out smaller capacity batts more often in favor of larger ones that are good for 5-6 flights.
Make sure your system is consistent in power requirements. Going High voltage servos and a receiver that can handle 8.4v makes it easy; however I highly recommend a power bus that separates power to the receiver from power to the servos. I made the mistake of passing all power to the servos through the receiver and learned the hard way (twice). Once I learned how to wire up a power bus (not that hard) the power to the receiver is nice and clean as is power to the servos.
A Tech Aero IBEC for the ignition will allow you to use only one battery instead of two if using an opto kill switch.
The learning curve for gas RC, while not steep, it can be frustrating when compared to flying electric.

[dilligaf76]

Thank you for all that info, it has given me some more to think about for sure and it all helps. I don't know much about the IBEC for ignition so I'll have to look that one up and why do I need a opto kill switch what ever that is, Is it just a normal switch on your model that you just turn on and off?
I am hoping to use just one 6v 2600mah NIMH receiver battery for the ignition and Futaba 3010 servo's which I know are pretty much standard but they have served me well in the past for models of this size and obviously I am trying to keep the cost down if I can.

[ChinoDiablo]

You definitely need a kill switch.
The most affordable option is the RCExel opto kill switch for about $20. This is so you can flip a switch on your Tx to stop the engine completely.
If using only 1 battery the Tech Aero IBEC ($45+) does the same thing but uses power through the receiver to power it unlike the RCExel opto which requires a separate battery.
However, it’s not that hard to devise a 2nd output from the battery: 1 to power Rx/servos and the other to power the opto switch.
1 flight consumes about 250-300mah so you’ll get a comfortable 4 flights per charge.
A side mounted switch is optional but convenient. You can merely unplug the battery from the system to turn things off or you can have a switch between the battery and the Rx to turn things off from the outside.
Keep in mind that especially with you gas, you want to eliminate failure points and a switch is one of them.

[dilligaf76]

I have a button on my transmitter that I press on and hold down for a few seconds and that totally closes the throttle and stops my methanol engines, well sometimes it does anyway hehe.

I can see from what you're saying that by having a kill switch it will totally cut the power to the spark plug thus stopping the engine immediately which is a good thing for safety, I will be getting one of them as you suggested for sure and I'll feel better knowing I can just flick a switch on my TX.

I guess one has to be careful though not accidently flick the switch whilst flying unless I wanted to purposely do a dead stick landing of course.

Thanks again for the info you've been a great help ;-)

[ChinoDiablo]

One nice feature of the opto switch/IBEC is that there's an LED indicator light that you can externally mount where ever you want and you can see if it's on or off.
And to you're second point, I've accidently flipped the opto switch while in flight but I did it fast enough such that the momentum from the prop allowed it to restart without a problem.
Try not to do that :)
On some radios like mine, a RadioMaster TX16s, I can set it up such that the ignition main switch needs a simultaneous flip of a momentary switch to activate/deactivate ignition.

[dilligaf76]

Ah that sounds cool with the LED indicator, makes life easier I reckon.
That was lucky then, I guess the engine still had momentum and the air pushing on the prop help kinda jump start it again into life, I'm glad its happened to others because those are the kind of things that would happen to me lol.
Actually my faithful Futaba T6EX I believe has a sprung lever switch I could use for that so I'll put that feature onto that I think.

Oh what was the make of that 26cc engine you said you used?

Thanks again for your time and replies it's been a great help :-)

[ChinoDiablo]

RCGF 26cc Stinger

[dilligaf76]

Thanks buddy 👍

[ChinoDiablo]

Before you order it, know that you will need to do some slight modifications to fit the engine because it is slightly bigger than a DLE 20cc.
If this is your first gasser, then it might be a better idea to get a DLE 20cc and stay the course as the plane is designed.

[dilligaf76]

Thanks you might be right. I found an interesting read on flying giants about the RCGF 26CC Stinger and wondered if you ever come across this, I'll paste the link...

https://www.flyinggiants.com/forums/showthread.php?t=278307