100KM

Techpod review

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Techpod is a special design FPV with hundred of hours of computer calculation and simulation went through during the design stage. With a high aspect ratio glider like wings, it is capable of long flying time. The designer claim for more than 4 hours of flight time with 2 pieces 6S 5000 mah battery in parallel.

I build this plane for aerial photo purpose. I’m looking for a flight time of about 90 minutes. Longer flight time means more battery, thus weight to carry which may affect the quality of flight control.  My current camera ( Canon S100GPS ) battery life may not last more than 70 minutes of continuous shooting at 3 seconds interval.

The build

Kit arrived in double box protection, upon unboxing, I found all the components are neatly pack with plastic bag and no damage. The furnishing of the EPO parts is above average with smooth wings top surface. The fuselage side surface also smooth make this kit looks good.

HobbyUAV web site provide a very detail building video tutorial so I’m not going to repeat here. This is certainly not a beginner kit. Your may face some difficulty if this is your first time building a radio control airplane. If you have some experience under your belt, you’ll good to go.

I highly recommend you watch a few time of the video, lay out all the components and dry fit it to see if you need to sand some parts to get a proper fit. This will also prevent you from fitting the wrong parts at wrong place which is difficult to reverse.

My kit go together well with some sanding here and there. Pay special attention to the T tail structure and make sure the stabilizer is perpendicular to the tail fin.

I don’t like the motor to be permanently mounted to the firewall. I use a motor extension so I can remove the motor easily if needed.

Radio and power set up

Because most of the servo need long extension, It will be a good idea to use heavy gauge (26#) twisted servo wire as your extension wire. If you can do some soldering job, it is good that you make your custom extension wire for neat installation.

You’ll need 6 pieces, preferably digital 9 gram micro servo for all the control surface. You can use a 15 gram mini servo for elevator control if you like it or feel not so comfortable with a micro servo controlling the elevator. I’m using Savox SH 0257 MG with good result.

The recommended motor is Turnigy G10 Brushless Outrunner 810kv but since I have a Turnigy C 4250 700KV motor on hand, may be a little overkill for this plane. I just used it for the initial test flight. I’ll change to some dish type motor like T Motor 4008 340KV in the future. Speed control is 50 A Turnigy ESC. I’m using a external BEC ( CC 10 A BEC ) to supply current for the electronic. The build in BEC from the ESC may not able to handle those long servo wire. An APC 12x6 propeller and 4S 5000mah battery finish the power package.

Wings hold down modification

The default wings hold down method is by clamping the center section with two pieces thick plywood and a long screw. I don’t have much confident with it so I do a simple modification as shown in the picture. Now I’m sure the wings will not give way in any flying condition. The modification is quite simple. I cut two lengths of plastic tube, cut off some foam and glue them into the wings as shown in the picture. Next I insert a 3 mm music wire into one end of the tube, tap and use a 3 mm screw to secure it permanently. The opposite site also use a 3 mm screw but it will be removable  After I plug in the wings, I can secure the wings with the screw from outside.  I have to stretch that the default method should work well as per design, this is just my personal opinion to make it feel more secure.

Test flight

After about two week on and off building, now the moment has come to test flight the plane. As a radio control airplane hobbyist, we always get excited whenever we fly a new plane for the first time.

Double check all the control surface, CG and all wiring connection, a fellow RC buddy lightly toss it into the winds while I have about 70 % throttle and a little up elevator. The plane climb up with authority at this throttle setting. Once reach about 100 meter altitude, I bring it to the end of the runway, make a procedure turn and do a straight and level flight to trim the aileron and elevator.  I just need “some” trim and I am able to let it flying straight and level hands off. The elevator control feel solid and very responsive but the aileron control  feel a little sluggish. I think this is due to the fact that it had a long wingspan. The response of the aileron input is a little slow especially when I want to level out the wing from turning. At time I had to apply full counter input to bring the wing back to level. On subsequent flight I increase the ATV of the aileron and it responds better.

Landing the Techpod is very easy, it has a very good glide ratio and also very graceful low speed handling. Just set up the final approach about 150 meter away and into some head wind with altitude about 50 meter, the plane will glide down gracefully , you may control the descent rate with small throttle input.

For those of you who never fly a sail plane, you may not comfortable to see the wings “ flap “ during flight. The designer had assured us that the wings is plenty strong and the flapping action of the wings is by design. He had a video to show just how strong and flexible the carbon wings tube is.  

One must remember that this is a FPV plane, not a pylon racer. It will NOT handle high speed, high G maneuver well and may cause flutter. Don’t ask me how I discover this.... : ) but I can tell you my plane is still flying.

Overall, I am very satisfy with the performance of the plane in full manual mode. No significant bad habit show up in the test flight. I am also confident that with a proper size motor, the plane will fly equally well in auto mode.

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Comments

  • any updates? Where did you get your stand?

  • 100KM

    Sorry, I didn't measure the weight because it is so light with my current set up. I think the all up weight is about 2 Kg. I'll install APM, RDF900 and a camera when these items arrived. Then I'll have a more practical weight and other useful parameter to share.

  • What is the wing loading?

  • 100KM

    Thanks for all the kind words. I'll upload some more picture.

    Wayne, since I modify the wings hold down method, there is no need to cut the center carbon tube into half. Just plug into the fuselage wing root and epoxy it. I use normal foam glue from hobbyking which work very well. You should have no problem if you use foam compatible CA, but normal CA may give you some trouble.

  • 100KM
    Hey Keeyen, thanks for the awesome review. I like the camera dome you have upfront.
    I noticed you did not install the black nylon spar end pieces. The nylon tube needs to be cut in half and glued on the ends of the spars. Ill post some picteres. Did you use gorilla glue? How does is work for the spar? Does it push the spar plug out when it foams?
  • Interesting review.

    Can you post a picture with the motor mount? What mount are you using?

    I have a glider with prop in front and i want to put is back for FPV purpose and aerial pictures.

    Effectivelly I was thinking to put 2 smaller motors instead of one, but I need to see some mounting.

  • Thank you for posting this,I`ve been waiting for a review of the Techpod.

  • thanks for the review 

    great work 

    thank you Techpod for a great machine !

  • Admin

    Nice, detailed, comprehensive review.

    Regards,

    TCIII

This reply was deleted.