OK, fair warning here: Once you tweak one out with premium equipment there's no turning back.
There's no need to hot rod this plane, but some of us just can't help ourselves. One really good part of this is that all of the premium equipment for these planes is not that much more money. If you pick your servos carefully you can even save a few dollars and have a better flying plane.
Only a slight amount of hyperbole there. No one is going to get killed, but the level of performance, reliability and durability now goes off the scale. I've done this with 60" planes too and it's really good, but the 52s respond and improve much more like this. I think it's the most improvement for the least amount of money. Who doesn't love that?
~3DHS 52 Edge 540__Deadly Serious II from Doc Austin on Vimeo.
~3DHS 52 Edge 540__Deadly Serious from Doc Austin on Vimeo.
Electronic Stability Systems
Without getting into brands too much for now, you can get a good ESS for as cheap as around $20, and those units work really well. That or you can spend $100 on an Aura and get more flexibility and adjustability than you probably even need. People either love ESS or they hate it, but there is no longer any doubt they make the plane fly better, track better and they help the pilot crash less.
Special attention to the last part. If a gyro saves you one crash, it pays for itself five or six times over right now and will probably save you again.
A lot of my friends love the $20 Eagle Hobby unit. It goes against some people's grain to trust a $500-600 plane to a $20 electronic piece, but I have never seen one fail. While they work well, they are limited in adjustability, but they do offer the opportunity to try an ESS on the cheap, just to see how you like it. Like I say, my friends love it.
Better are the more expensive units, but the only one I have any experience with is the Aura. I plugged it in, programmed and loved it, so there was no reason to experiment with any other units. Now it's just a matter of experimenting with the unit's stick priorities and getting the most stability that doesn't interfere with the agility, but I think I am really close.
Gyro Settings
I only have experience with the Aura, so that's all I will talk about here. People ask for my config files all the time, but there are too many variables for that, plus I fly Futaba too, and most people are Spectrum. However, the best place to start is the config tool wizard and choose the "generic 3D" template. That gets you really close except the gains are way too much and you can get into shaking so violently it can damage the plane. My personal gain settings are 10 for all surfaces for 52" and 60" planes. This is not maxxed out to the absolute last percent, but it's close enough and still offers a mind blowing amount of stability. You can dial in the rest yourself if you want to tweak it out.
Stick priorities (SP) for the Aura is where most people trip up. They are a way to measure how far out on the stick travel the gyro assists you. For instance, if you are doing a tumble you don't want the gyro correcting you, so a high stick priority is not useful here. However, for 3D you want a high stick priority because most of the time you are using a lot of deflection. This is why people use multiple modes...high SP for 3D and low SP for snaps, tumbles spins, etc.
The low mode SP from the template are 40 aileron, 25 elevator, and 100 rudder and this works so well I stuck to it and use that full time. The generic 3D template gives you a high mode SP of 100/100/100, which is awesome in 3D but really mutes the violent stuff. 40/25/100 works really well as an all around SP and I don't spend a lot of time worrying about the switches.
Now, if you want to run multiple modes, having different SP modes can be really useful, but I prefer to use one mode, forget the gyro is even there, and concentrate on flying the plane.
Gold Plated Mega Supreme Servos
The recommended servo for the 52" series is the Hitec 5087MH, which is a really good servo, but it's still an ordinary servo. As an upgrade, Extreme Flight sells the MKS HV69 High Torque Micro Servo. While MKS has an excellent reputation and I am sure it's a fine servo, I have no experience with them. Same with Hitec's new D series hall effect servo. Right there you have the choice of two brands of high end servos, as well as ProModeler's excellent DS100 and DS150. I'm not sure if KTS makes a servo for these planes, but if they do it's probably excellent. We will probably see a few more new entries because the 52" lineup is expanding and the market will demand it.
These mega servos offer so much speed and torque, plus excellent centering that they will take your 52" to the next level, and they are not that much more money (and sometimes the same or less) than the standard servos. Since it's only a small increase in investment, it makes sense to get the most out of your plane and buy the best servo that fits your budget.
Click To Enlarge
Again, I only have experience with the ProModeler DS100 and DS150 servos, but those make such a startling difference I was sold after a single lap around the field. The precision centering alone made the switch worth it because now the plane goes exactly where I point it and stays where I put it every single time. If you have poor centering, it's like fighting an out of trim plane, and we all know how much fun that is. While we have had good centering for awhile, having dead on centering is the difference between staying ahead of you plane and hopelessly chasing it. You can't fly precisely and confidently if the plane is diving, climbing, rolling or yawing when you come out of a maneuver, and prefect centering makes such an incredible difference you will never again be able to go back. I knew centering is important, but this was a good lesson that it's really crucial to great performance.
The DS100 has a stump pulling 100 ounces of torque, which is nearly double what we have been using, and the DS150 has the massive overkill of 150 ounces! I think we had enough torque before, but with both these servos more torque means they are significantly under stressed, which will go a long way toward making them live longer.
We are also getting into more speed, especially with the DS150. The DS100 is more than fast enough, and faster than what we have been using, but where the DS150 shines is use with an ESS. With their faster speed, they react to the gyro faster and stabilize the plane more quickly. Having considerable time on both servos, I still have a hard time quantifying the differences, but perhaps the most accurate description is the plane feels better and more locked in. It's a subtle thing, but you can feel how much more connected you are to the plane. Sorry that's not very scientific, but it doesn't need to be as long as you feel more connected to the plane, and it feels better and more locked in.
Nail
You can take a 52" out of the box, use the recommend servos and no gyro, and have a really nice, solidly flying plane. These plans are actually superb like this, but premium equipment turns all of them into deadly serious performers. They fly bigger because the gyro adds big plane stability, and the premium servos add big plane precision, all without giving up any of the small plane agility. For sport 3DXA pilots, I don't think these planes give up anything to any plane, any size.
