I quickly learned that the Cessna is not lacking power as this is
about 15 feet from where I started the take off.
CESSNA 170 Maiden Day
Free Bonus: Simultaneous wind test day
Text, photos, and video by Tom Hintz
Posted – 9-24-2020
As maiden days go, this one could have been better. The sun was nice, temperatures not bad, but the wind was gusty and often blowing dead across the runway into my face. I was confident the Flex Innovations CESSNA 170 could fly in the wind. However, a calmer day might have given a better overall look at the flight envelope. It turns out that being a light weight foamy allowed the wind to bounce and rock it occasionally; but the Flex Innovations CESSNA 170 remained easy to control.
Perhaps most surprising was that my petulant SoloShot 3 worked, most of the time. You wouldn’t think such a slow plane would fake out this “high-tech robotic cameraman” but frequently it did. The good news is I “had to” fly more batteries out to get the enough usable footage. Woe is me.
Going Basic
The Cessna also likes the rudder. Here I have it as crooked as I could
get it yet it was easy to control.
I decided to maiden the Flex Innovations CESSNA 170 in its “box stock” configuration, including the standard presets in the factory installed Aura 8 fight control system. While I fully intend to reconfigure it for the hyper-aerobatic “extreme wing” eventually, it makes sense to do the box stock version first, so the information gained applies to more pilots.
Do not get the idea this is a grandpa plane. I flew it on a 6S, 5000mAh battery with the timer set to 4 minutes and found it has plenty of power, plus had around 50% of the battery capacity left. The controls are surprisingly crisp with the Aura 8 off and in the mild and 3D stabilization rates.
Ground Handling
With the large “tundra-style” main wheels it was not surprising that the Flex Innovations CESSNA 170 drove around on the ground easily. The only issues with driving the Flex Innovations CESSNA 170 on the runway is that the tail comes up with surprisingly little speed, go a little faster and it wants to fly. Go slow on the ground, fast in the air.
Rudder
The Flex Innovations CESSNA 170 likes the rudder a lot with some of that coming from the Aura 8 flight control system. However, with the Aura 8 turned off, the Flex Innovations CESSNA 170 reacts to the rudder predictably. I love sliding a plane around the final turn towards the runway with rudder and a bit of aileron cross control and in that, the Flex Innovations CESSNA 170 is predictable and easy to manage. I was a little surprised at how the Aura 8, does not interfere with rudder as some gyro systems do.
I even made a couple passes down the runway with the Flex Innovations CESSNA 170 as crooked as I could get it holding a bunch of rudder, with equally drastic aileron and elevator counters. It felt surprisingly stable even with the gusty wind blowing on the top of the wing.
Flaps
My Flex Innovations CESSNA 170 needs some tweaking in the relationship between the flaps and elevator. Part of this can be “blamed” on how slowly the Flex Innovations CESSNA 170 can fly without the flaps. Lower the flaps to their landing position and the Flex Innovations CESSNA 170 redefines “floater”. I made a couple approaches letting it slow down and sink but it stays just a bit too level which worries me a bit about stalling. Add a little down elevator, as we must on many planes with flaps, and the Flex Innovations CESSNA 170 flies to the runway predictably with full control. For many pilots this is the better fix rather than holding down elevator on landing.
Aerobatics
I intentionally withheld aerobatic testing until I configure the plane with the “extreme wing” configuration in the Aura 8. The Flex Innovations CESSNA 170 has a huge flight envelope and I want to give beginning pilots information on the basic setup they can use until experience (and confidence) is gained. In coming segments of this Review, I will step up the performance so we can get a clearer look at those capabilities.
Conclusions
From everything I had heard about the Flex Innovations CESSNA 170, I expected a great flying plane with capabilities to satisfy nearly any level of pilot skill. Particularly those who do not possess the knee-jerk reaction of turning their noses up at high wing planes.
Of all the giant scale planes I have flown, the Flex Innovations CESSNA 170 could be at the top of the list for planes someone new to flying could, with help, learn to fly. The capabilities of the Flex Innovations CESSNA 170 mean it could replace two or three traditional step-up planes, saving the fledgling pilot a ton of money in the process.
The Flex Innovations CESSNA 170 is also a good fit for the new direction I want to take FlyingRC.net. There is a huge demand for planes outside the giant scale realm, even when, as does the Flex Innovations CESSNA 170, the airframe technically is a giant scale. This time the price tag is well under giant and that is always a good thing!
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