Since then I have had about 15 flights on the plane using my Thunder Power 4s 2700 Pro Power 30C series packs. It's fair to say like this the MXS is a completely different airplane. It is not a hard airplane for the experienced pilot to handle. In some ways it is actually a little easier because you can use the power to carry momentum into tumbling maneuvers, and to pull you through them. Having extra grunt to pull you from alpha back up to flying speed is also very confidence inspiring.
While the MXS doesn't really become any more difficult with the extra power, it does accelerate and go much faster than before, and you have got to stay on top of it a little more. The more serious a plane becomes, the more attention you have to pay.
On 4s the MXS becomes a very serious high performance airplane.
Acceleration is nearly blinding and it takes a little adjusting of the flying style to keep the MXS from blasting out of a hover or harrier when you aren't ready for it, sort of like trying to drive a really fast car slowly. At full speed she covers ground pretty damm quickly, so you had better stay on top of it.
With the Extreme Flight Torque 2814, the MXS just wants to run. The 2814 has always been one of my absolute favorite power plants. This motor runs incredibly smoothly on 3s. It is almost like a fine watch. Very smooth, quiet, sophisticated. With the jump to 4s, though, the 2814 just becomes a rabid, screaming, firebreathing little monster. It's an odd transformation to see this become two completely different motors with just a little extra voltage. Having flown my fleet of 2814 on 3s for awhile, it was frightening to fire one up on 4s again and hear it's beautiful primal electric scream.
I spent a few days jumping back and forth between the 3s Extra EXP and my 4s powered MXS. The difference in performance was startling, but if you are used to high performance planes you can adapt pretty quickly. It is funny that after I fly the Extra, and go back to the 4s MXS and jam the throttle forward, it always surprises me a bit at first, and I say to myself "Holy schnitt!"
Besides the blinding speed, the most obvious improvement is in increased high speed tracking. With the extra speed, the MXS absolutely locks in and tracks beautifully straight. I love to do super long slow rolls with this plane because it makes me look good. At higher speed the plane is less apt to veer off the intended path, and more resistant to wind moving it around. It just sort of blasts through like an arrow and nothing can effect it's course.
Tracking in loop type maneuvers and vertical lines is also much improved. Speed brings stability. While the MXS was designed to offer better snapping and tumbling than the longer Edge EXP and Extra EXP models, the extra speed gives the MSX a new level of precision that I wasn't expecting.
At the slower end of the spectrum, with this kind of power the MXS will accelerate hard out of a hover or other maneuver. I like to go from alpha right into knife edge, even at low altitude, because with full throttle the MXS blasts off so quickly that it is in stable flight almost right away. What makes the MXS so impressive in the air is it's ability to do wild 3D, and then accelerate away into a beautiful high speed precision maneuver like a slow or point roll.
It is a little harder to balance the plane on the power in harrier, hovers and such, but we knew that was going to be the case. If anything, maybe the MXS was a bit too easy on 3s, but on 4s it is the right kind of challenge. The plane still 3Ds beautifully, though not as effortlessly as it does on 3s. This is just the nature of all these 3D beasts. Less power, to a point, is easier. More power is harder, but more rewarding.
On 4s the MXS remains a potent 3D weapon, though now with a substantially raised "wow factor." In general the 4s MSX has me rethinking my theories about lower power. For some planes it seems to be just the ticket, but this is a very different kind 3D plane. This is one bad ass plane that deserves a bad ass power system.
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