George Gassaway
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If you have ever wanted to try out flying R/C, but held off due to the cost and/or odds of destroying the model in a crash, this story may be for you. How about a small R/C electric plane for $30 (plus six AA batteries) that is almost indestructable?
At NARAM, George Rachor showed up one day with a neat little electric R/C plane. It was an "Aero Aces" biplane, by Air Hogs.
It's a very small plane driven by two tiny electric motors, whose two propellers make the model turn left or right by making one engine turn faster and the other turn slower, to produce more propeller thrust on one side than the other. So, turning control without use of servos or aerodynamic control surfaces. Battery power is by a small Li-poly battery onboard, which is charged up via a short cable from the transmitter (Transmitter is powered by 6 AA batteries). Flying time is around 10 minutes, depending on throttle use. Radio range is about 300 feet. If it runs out of radio range, then it glides down free-flight.
It is 2-channel, the other channel being throttle. It is set up so that when trimmed correctly, at full throttle it will fly nose-up in a climb to gain altitude. Reduce the throttle, the less it climbs. There is no elevator control. Whenever it stalls, it tends to pull out of the dive pretty quickly.
I had read a bit about these planes a few months ago in an e-mail electric plane forum, but hadn't really understood how neat they could be, for the price. Seeing George Rachor's flying around, a few other people at NARAM got one at the local Target, including Chris Taylor and myself. At first, George Rachor's stalled too much as it tried to climb on throttle. Mark Bundick was familiar with these models, and suggested the "penny fix" he had read about - to add a penny to the nose to move the CG a little bit more forward. That worked out well. The model also pulled to one side, the transmitter has a little trim adjustment knob which adjusts the throttle balance between the two motors, to help even out either slight performance differences between the electric motors or some aerodynamic imbalances in case a wing is warped a bit.
The models are made out of EPP foam. Some of you might think, oh, never mind, foam models are FRAGILE. Well, just the opposite. EPP foam is very resilient. It's the same sort of foam that "swimming pool noodles" are made from. These models are so small and light that it's very difficult to break them in a crash. Indeed, most likely you would lose the model before you would break one in a crash.
Before I flew home after NARAM, Ed LaCroix and I went out on two occasions and flew two Aero Ace models at a small park. It was somewhat windy both times, which made the flying somewhat difficult. At any rate, Ed got the biplane up on a really nice flight, higher than he'd been able to get it to before. It started to get going downwind, and he tried to get it to come back, but the wind was too much. And, it was not only just going downwind, it was going...UP! Yep, the little biplane got sucked into a really big thermal. OK, so it glides better than a space shuttle, but not that much better, so it was quite a thermal to take that model away like that.
After getting home, I did some more research into these models. A Google search brings up some interesting links for sources and info:
https://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=air+hogs+aero+aces
https://www.wattflyer.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2453
https://zx81.isl.uiuc.edu/camilleg/rcfly/aeroace10.html
Some made modifications to the biplane. First, to cut off the lower wing, to turn it into a short-winged monoplane. Others have taken the removed lower wings and taped them to the tips of the upper wings to make a long-span model. Here is a photo of one that was converted to a long wing monoplane:
https://www.wattflyer.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=12920&d=1150301208
Now, more recently a new "jet" Aero Aces model has come out. I got one of those too. It flies better than the Biplane does. It needs a little noseweight, but not too much, a single 6/32 nut taped to the nose was sufficient to prevent excess stalling while allowing for a decent climb angle.
Yesterday morning, when it was calm, I took both models out to do some calm-weather flying. I had modified be Biplane by removing the lower wing. It flew much better than in original form as far as climb and general flight. Though some might like the original Biplane design for the slower flying and more maneuverability. I then taped the lower wings to the upper wingtips, to make it an extended span monoplane. Did a hand throw first, and it nose dived. It dived because I had taped the tip panels on so they were even at the leading edge all across, which made the trailing edges of the outer panels a bit higher, to purposely produce some wash-out in the wing to prevent tip-stalling. The lower wings have about 1/4" less chord, and the airfoil is undercambered, so that is hay the outer panels had a bit lower angle when taped to the upper wingtips with the leading edges even with each other. The fix was easy, to bend the elevator up, and add a little bit more noseweight as the required amount of up elevator left it with a bit of a need for a bit more noseweight.
Anyway, that flew pretty nicely. Slower flight, not as maneuverable but then that made it generally easier to fly. The effective washout form having the outer panels at a little bit less angle of attack as the main wings, that worked out very nicely, the model did not tip-stall which was an issue with it in its original biplane form.
Having said so much about the biplane model, I really recommend the Jet version. It's not easy to come up with an online photo of it, but here's a site selling it which has a photo (click on the thumbnail of the silver and blue plane):
https://www.lukesrcplanes.com/pb/wp_42030990/wp_42030990.html
The Aero Aces Jet flies better "out of the box" than the Biplane does, though it will need a little bit of noseweight.
If the store you go to has the biplane but not the jet, I suggest trying some other place to get the Jet. They "got it right" with the jet, the biplane (which came out first) is just a bit too finicky to get trimmed out well.
There are other Air Hogs models out there, including an F-117, but those are not Aero Aces models. But the F-117 apparently only flies for about half as long, the really good reason to get these is to have fun flying them, now whether they look like an F-117.
So, if you've read this far, you probably want to know where to get one. Target, Wal-Mart, and Toys-R-Us have them, as do a few other stores. My local Wal-Mart has the Aero Aces biplanes, but not the Aero Aces Jets. Target and Toys-R-Us have the jets. Oddly, while Target stores in Arizona have the Aero Aces for $30, the local Target here (Alabama) charged $40. While at Toys-R-Us and Wal-Mart, they are $30.
The planes are on three channels, all on 27 mHz. For some reason, all the Target stores we checked only had the biplane on Channel C. Wal-Mart had some on other channels. The Jets had a decent mix of channels available. Of course, the channels wont matter if you dont know anyone else who will be flying these models. It was an issue at NARAM though, everybody's models were on channel C so no group flying was possible.
If you do get one, some tips. Do not fly it in a lot of wind. The smaller a model is, the more wind afects it, and the slower a model flies, the more the wind affects it. And these models are quite small and fly relatively slowly, so wind affects them a lot. You'd definitely not want to try to learn to fly it when it's windy. In calm, it will be a lot easier to learn, and it's not hard to fly these so you should learn pretty quickly. The biggest problem of learning to fly R/C is when the model comes towards you, the steering control is revered. If you wan it to go to your left, you need to give it right stick, because if you give it left stick it will go to your right (model's left). If you have done R/C cars before, you will have already learned about that problem.
If you are in trouble, shut the throttle off and let it land unless its over a really bad area. The model is tough, better to land when you can decide to let it land, than have it crash on its own.
The range is 300 feet. When the model runs out of radio range, it goes into a glide. It's not a great glide, but you don't want to end up with the model high in the air, pointed towards the woods or roof of a building (or in risk of being blown downwind to the woods or a roof), and then run out of range. The idea with these isn't to fly it far away from you, it's to learn how to fly them well, by turning here and there.
An ancient piece of advice from the MIT Rocket Society, about R/C - never fly over any place you do not want to land in. For these, don't even let it get anywhere near a place you do not want it to land in, which includes anyplace it might glide to if you ran out of control or if you kept trying to "bring it back" and it got away from you.
Dont let it get downwind, ever, unless its not very far downwind and its not THAT windy (generic advice where you are learning to fly these little Aero Aces or learning to fly a 6 foot wingspan plane. I dont ever like letting any R/C model get significantly downwind, regardless)
Don't fly really high, there's no big need to. 100 feet is plenty. The higher it climbs, the more you are using up the battery needlessly. Throttle it back, so you just maintain altitude. If you fly very smoothly, so you do not lose a lot of altitude by overcontrolling, you will find that you can fly on as little as 1/4 throttle to maintain altitude, which will allow the battery to last for many extra minutes of flying, way beyond 10 minutes. Where by contrast, flying on max throttle most of the time will result in a lot less than 10 minutes of flying time
Fly smoothly. One of the big problems with learning to fly any R/C model is overcontrolling. With these Aero Aces, it's hard to do an extreme overcontrol to the point of crashing. But you can easily overcontrol to the extent of not getting it to steer where you want it to go. So, don't give full left or right stick and hold it. Try "blips" of left or right, and keep on blipping it to get it to go where you want. As you get more experience, you can learn to do less blipping and fly more smoothly by using very small stick movements.
Since these models use propeller thrust control instead of aerodynamic control, response can be a bit sluggish. So, that is another reason for using blipping to learn how to turn them.
The throttle cuts out at a little under 1/4 throttle, so the model goes into a free flight glide. When that happens, you can't turn it at all. That's one thing I wish was different on these models that when the throttle is off, if you move the stick left or right it would power up one of the motors to make it steer. But it doesn't do that, if the throttle is off then the model will not turn, at least not turn in response to you, it may turn if the aerodynamic trim is off a bit to make it naturally turn left or right. So, don't expect to make really accurate landings. Just go for landing somewhere safe. Of course, when you are learning, you won't usually be landing "on purpose" as much as you intended to.
Now, how do you use these models for an R/C Rocket Boosted Glider? Well, you don't. OK, so in theory you could strap one or two of the jets onto a carrier rocket that would take them up around 300 feet or so, have them come off, then fly around on electric motor power for 10-15 minutes. But due to the nature of these models, you can't hack up the R/C gear and use them for a custom-made glider, since, well, these use electric motors and props for thrust turning, there's no means for steering in glide. The usefulness of these models is to get a taste for flying R/C, for a really low cost. Maybe you'd like them enough to decide to get into R/C RBG's, get some dedicated R/C gear and move up to an "Arcie-II", or maybe something more later.
- George Gassaway
At NARAM, George Rachor showed up one day with a neat little electric R/C plane. It was an "Aero Aces" biplane, by Air Hogs.
It's a very small plane driven by two tiny electric motors, whose two propellers make the model turn left or right by making one engine turn faster and the other turn slower, to produce more propeller thrust on one side than the other. So, turning control without use of servos or aerodynamic control surfaces. Battery power is by a small Li-poly battery onboard, which is charged up via a short cable from the transmitter (Transmitter is powered by 6 AA batteries). Flying time is around 10 minutes, depending on throttle use. Radio range is about 300 feet. If it runs out of radio range, then it glides down free-flight.
It is 2-channel, the other channel being throttle. It is set up so that when trimmed correctly, at full throttle it will fly nose-up in a climb to gain altitude. Reduce the throttle, the less it climbs. There is no elevator control. Whenever it stalls, it tends to pull out of the dive pretty quickly.
I had read a bit about these planes a few months ago in an e-mail electric plane forum, but hadn't really understood how neat they could be, for the price. Seeing George Rachor's flying around, a few other people at NARAM got one at the local Target, including Chris Taylor and myself. At first, George Rachor's stalled too much as it tried to climb on throttle. Mark Bundick was familiar with these models, and suggested the "penny fix" he had read about - to add a penny to the nose to move the CG a little bit more forward. That worked out well. The model also pulled to one side, the transmitter has a little trim adjustment knob which adjusts the throttle balance between the two motors, to help even out either slight performance differences between the electric motors or some aerodynamic imbalances in case a wing is warped a bit.
The models are made out of EPP foam. Some of you might think, oh, never mind, foam models are FRAGILE. Well, just the opposite. EPP foam is very resilient. It's the same sort of foam that "swimming pool noodles" are made from. These models are so small and light that it's very difficult to break them in a crash. Indeed, most likely you would lose the model before you would break one in a crash.
Before I flew home after NARAM, Ed LaCroix and I went out on two occasions and flew two Aero Ace models at a small park. It was somewhat windy both times, which made the flying somewhat difficult. At any rate, Ed got the biplane up on a really nice flight, higher than he'd been able to get it to before. It started to get going downwind, and he tried to get it to come back, but the wind was too much. And, it was not only just going downwind, it was going...UP! Yep, the little biplane got sucked into a really big thermal. OK, so it glides better than a space shuttle, but not that much better, so it was quite a thermal to take that model away like that.
After getting home, I did some more research into these models. A Google search brings up some interesting links for sources and info:
https://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=air+hogs+aero+aces
https://www.wattflyer.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2453
https://zx81.isl.uiuc.edu/camilleg/rcfly/aeroace10.html
Some made modifications to the biplane. First, to cut off the lower wing, to turn it into a short-winged monoplane. Others have taken the removed lower wings and taped them to the tips of the upper wings to make a long-span model. Here is a photo of one that was converted to a long wing monoplane:
https://www.wattflyer.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=12920&d=1150301208
Now, more recently a new "jet" Aero Aces model has come out. I got one of those too. It flies better than the Biplane does. It needs a little noseweight, but not too much, a single 6/32 nut taped to the nose was sufficient to prevent excess stalling while allowing for a decent climb angle.
Yesterday morning, when it was calm, I took both models out to do some calm-weather flying. I had modified be Biplane by removing the lower wing. It flew much better than in original form as far as climb and general flight. Though some might like the original Biplane design for the slower flying and more maneuverability. I then taped the lower wings to the upper wingtips, to make it an extended span monoplane. Did a hand throw first, and it nose dived. It dived because I had taped the tip panels on so they were even at the leading edge all across, which made the trailing edges of the outer panels a bit higher, to purposely produce some wash-out in the wing to prevent tip-stalling. The lower wings have about 1/4" less chord, and the airfoil is undercambered, so that is hay the outer panels had a bit lower angle when taped to the upper wingtips with the leading edges even with each other. The fix was easy, to bend the elevator up, and add a little bit more noseweight as the required amount of up elevator left it with a bit of a need for a bit more noseweight.
Anyway, that flew pretty nicely. Slower flight, not as maneuverable but then that made it generally easier to fly. The effective washout form having the outer panels at a little bit less angle of attack as the main wings, that worked out very nicely, the model did not tip-stall which was an issue with it in its original biplane form.
Having said so much about the biplane model, I really recommend the Jet version. It's not easy to come up with an online photo of it, but here's a site selling it which has a photo (click on the thumbnail of the silver and blue plane):
https://www.lukesrcplanes.com/pb/wp_42030990/wp_42030990.html
The Aero Aces Jet flies better "out of the box" than the Biplane does, though it will need a little bit of noseweight.
If the store you go to has the biplane but not the jet, I suggest trying some other place to get the Jet. They "got it right" with the jet, the biplane (which came out first) is just a bit too finicky to get trimmed out well.
There are other Air Hogs models out there, including an F-117, but those are not Aero Aces models. But the F-117 apparently only flies for about half as long, the really good reason to get these is to have fun flying them, now whether they look like an F-117.
So, if you've read this far, you probably want to know where to get one. Target, Wal-Mart, and Toys-R-Us have them, as do a few other stores. My local Wal-Mart has the Aero Aces biplanes, but not the Aero Aces Jets. Target and Toys-R-Us have the jets. Oddly, while Target stores in Arizona have the Aero Aces for $30, the local Target here (Alabama) charged $40. While at Toys-R-Us and Wal-Mart, they are $30.
The planes are on three channels, all on 27 mHz. For some reason, all the Target stores we checked only had the biplane on Channel C. Wal-Mart had some on other channels. The Jets had a decent mix of channels available. Of course, the channels wont matter if you dont know anyone else who will be flying these models. It was an issue at NARAM though, everybody's models were on channel C so no group flying was possible.
If you do get one, some tips. Do not fly it in a lot of wind. The smaller a model is, the more wind afects it, and the slower a model flies, the more the wind affects it. And these models are quite small and fly relatively slowly, so wind affects them a lot. You'd definitely not want to try to learn to fly it when it's windy. In calm, it will be a lot easier to learn, and it's not hard to fly these so you should learn pretty quickly. The biggest problem of learning to fly R/C is when the model comes towards you, the steering control is revered. If you wan it to go to your left, you need to give it right stick, because if you give it left stick it will go to your right (model's left). If you have done R/C cars before, you will have already learned about that problem.
If you are in trouble, shut the throttle off and let it land unless its over a really bad area. The model is tough, better to land when you can decide to let it land, than have it crash on its own.
The range is 300 feet. When the model runs out of radio range, it goes into a glide. It's not a great glide, but you don't want to end up with the model high in the air, pointed towards the woods or roof of a building (or in risk of being blown downwind to the woods or a roof), and then run out of range. The idea with these isn't to fly it far away from you, it's to learn how to fly them well, by turning here and there.
An ancient piece of advice from the MIT Rocket Society, about R/C - never fly over any place you do not want to land in. For these, don't even let it get anywhere near a place you do not want it to land in, which includes anyplace it might glide to if you ran out of control or if you kept trying to "bring it back" and it got away from you.
Dont let it get downwind, ever, unless its not very far downwind and its not THAT windy (generic advice where you are learning to fly these little Aero Aces or learning to fly a 6 foot wingspan plane. I dont ever like letting any R/C model get significantly downwind, regardless)
Don't fly really high, there's no big need to. 100 feet is plenty. The higher it climbs, the more you are using up the battery needlessly. Throttle it back, so you just maintain altitude. If you fly very smoothly, so you do not lose a lot of altitude by overcontrolling, you will find that you can fly on as little as 1/4 throttle to maintain altitude, which will allow the battery to last for many extra minutes of flying, way beyond 10 minutes. Where by contrast, flying on max throttle most of the time will result in a lot less than 10 minutes of flying time
Fly smoothly. One of the big problems with learning to fly any R/C model is overcontrolling. With these Aero Aces, it's hard to do an extreme overcontrol to the point of crashing. But you can easily overcontrol to the extent of not getting it to steer where you want it to go. So, don't give full left or right stick and hold it. Try "blips" of left or right, and keep on blipping it to get it to go where you want. As you get more experience, you can learn to do less blipping and fly more smoothly by using very small stick movements.
Since these models use propeller thrust control instead of aerodynamic control, response can be a bit sluggish. So, that is another reason for using blipping to learn how to turn them.
The throttle cuts out at a little under 1/4 throttle, so the model goes into a free flight glide. When that happens, you can't turn it at all. That's one thing I wish was different on these models that when the throttle is off, if you move the stick left or right it would power up one of the motors to make it steer. But it doesn't do that, if the throttle is off then the model will not turn, at least not turn in response to you, it may turn if the aerodynamic trim is off a bit to make it naturally turn left or right. So, don't expect to make really accurate landings. Just go for landing somewhere safe. Of course, when you are learning, you won't usually be landing "on purpose" as much as you intended to.
Now, how do you use these models for an R/C Rocket Boosted Glider? Well, you don't. OK, so in theory you could strap one or two of the jets onto a carrier rocket that would take them up around 300 feet or so, have them come off, then fly around on electric motor power for 10-15 minutes. But due to the nature of these models, you can't hack up the R/C gear and use them for a custom-made glider, since, well, these use electric motors and props for thrust turning, there's no means for steering in glide. The usefulness of these models is to get a taste for flying R/C, for a really low cost. Maybe you'd like them enough to decide to get into R/C RBG's, get some dedicated R/C gear and move up to an "Arcie-II", or maybe something more later.
- George Gassaway
