Hobby King Bixler Powered Glider

A while back I bought a Bixler powered glider at Hobby King. I bought the kit, so could swap out all the inferior components that come in the ARF (almost ready to fly kit).
It had been laying there, carefully planning how I would build it, but last Sunday it was finally finished!
The maiden flight went perfect!
A few flights later, I almost killed my sister though 🙂

These are the things I did:

• Bixler kit
• ESC: TURNIGY Plush 30A Speed Controller*
• Motor: Turnigy2836 brushless Outrunner 2350kv
• Motor mount
• Propellor: TGS Sport 6x4E Precision propeller
• HXT900 9g / 1.6kg / .12sec Micro Servo
• Battery: ZIPPY Flightmax 2200mAh 3S1P 20C
• Nylon hinges
• Control horns with self tapping screws
• 4 mm carbon fiber tube to strengthen the spar
• 3 mm carbon fiber tube that fits in the antenna slot on the bottom, to reduce the flex in the body

* This ESC is too weak! It overheated after a few full throttle loopings and fly-by’s (see below). I will be moving the ESC to the outside of the body to cool it down, or swap it out with a 60A ESC that’s currently underway.
This prop/motor combination gives these results: 412.7 W and 36.69A!

I use my Spektrum DX7 with AR7000 receiver. I have it configured for flaperons, which softens my landing.

This is a movie of a perfect flight:

Of course, the whole video is interesting, but I reckon it’s quite long, so here are the highlights:
0:43 fly-by
2:00 looping
2:58 fly-by
3:15 flying high and then throttle off
4:31 I want to do a looping, but have too little power, so I stall
4:50 looping in the distance
5:07 low pass
6:00 low pass!!!!!!!!
6:47 low pass
7:27 fly-by
9:00 low pass!!
9:36 looping in the distance
10:40 throttle off, touch and go
11:43 fly-by
11:57 fly-by
12:43 low fly-by, just above the ground
13:44 close fly-by
15:47 low fly-by
16:45 landing

And this is a video that shows what happens when an ESC overheats: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aOJGKcaA9J8