Extra 300L – 1.1m
Not just another park-flyer! That is a small scale Extra 300L. With very light wooden construction and its wingspan of 1.1m it weighs a bit more than 600g. It’s equipped with 4 servos, 2 of them are installed in the fuselage for the rudder and elevator, and other 2 in the wings. With one servo in each wing there was also an option for the flaperon mixer. This type of plane doesn’t necessarily need flaps but it’s a cool visual feature to have at the field and beside all it also supports slower approach speeds. It might not look like but it flies pretty fast!
And finally the last few shots before its maiden flight. Despite the fact grass at sports field was freshly trimmed a day before the wheels on Extra 300L just weren’t large enough to coupe with the surface friction and it was necessary to make a hand launch. Everything went pretty well with minimum trimming on the controls, CG was at the right spot, power was sufficient, it was flying just great but then all the sudden receiver signal was lost! Such a shame!
“Air crash investigation” revealed the BEC on a faulty ESC unit has stopped providing a sufficient power to the electronics half way into the flight when it became only a little warm!
Lesson learned! For certain items, such as vital electronics, powerboxes, receivers, servos, engines, etc., spending the extra money up front will save you money in the long run!
Another very good solution to cope with an unexpected power failures is OptiPower ULTRA Guard 430 backup power system. It is very light, weighs only about 40g and is extremely easy to operate. Plug it in to a spare receiver port and forget about it. When connected the unit charges itself from the main battery pack and maintains a voltage of 4.0V per cell. Should it become necessary for ULTRA Guard to take over powering the electrical system, that happens in a split second when sensed voltage drops below a certain level. It provides uninterrupted power to the electrical system for only a fraction of the cost of your new model.
