iwan_canobi's Z3

[Billy_boy_2010]

very impressed you managed to get it back without a ground recording. and bad luck.

but look at it this way- your z3 airframe is now worth about  £10. So it's far more expendable now which will probably make you enjoy it more.

had you programmed the z3 to RTH if it lost rssi? if not perhaps this is what happened? as you say you may never know without a GS recording.

I intend to reinforce the nose of my z3 considerably before the maiden. If I can get a setup which is dead reliable- I will pack the remaining fuselage with foam in the hope it strengthens it further.

[mutley2]

Gutted for you mate, give it a day or two and you will be sortin it out I'm sure. Looks like it went in hard with that ground strike, chuffed you found it though.

[MarkLloyd]

Add me to the bust nose Z3 club .....   and I haven't even manage to successfully launch  the bloody thing yet   ( 3 times)    >:(

Having sat untouched in disgrace for about 7 months it is now recently fixed and looking good again after much boiling water, fiberglass rods and lightweight filler. It has been treated to a motor with a bit more grunt and a bigger prop .   In the meantime I built my  Venturi Evo,  echoing the thoughts of Iwan, that maybe cheap and fast, low and fun was the way to go (which it has been a success on every count)  :D

I really want the Z3 to be a success for me though.  It potentially ticks so many boxes, fast, fun and compact ... easy to break down and store in a house where I compete for space with 3 young children.   

If other people are having problems launching them, I do wonder how easy the bigger drak will be to launch single handed.   I keep seeing these vids of helpers  throwing them two handed backwards over their shoulders which is great if you have a helper  ..... but it  seems a great way to slash your throat or face open with the prop if you make a slip......    :+

[mutley2]

Hey Mark, I've been flying the Z3 now for about a year and not had any issues with launch, that said I've been flying los since I was 5 yrs old (45yrs ago) so I have hand launched a plane or two. CG, a good 30 degs launch angle, full throttle and confident throw, everyone's a winner.
As far as the Drak goes, she will get the same treatment and if I can't launch a plane on my own I would sell it.
Stick with the Z3 because it's a hell of a plane, and a joy to fly.
Great looking plane you have there Mark, just like Iwan's will be again in a week or two.

[CurryKitten]

Ouch - sorry to hear about that.

The worst crashes are the ones you struggle to explain, as you wonder if it's going to happen again.  Can you gather any clues from listening to the footage back on the on board camera ?  When I had a very weird spiral once on my Falcon (which I had to guess was some external rf interference) I could pick out the noise of servos going hard over despite my frantic wiggling trying to get them to do anything else

[iwan_canobi]

Add me to the bust nose Z3 club .....   and I haven't even manage to successfully launch  the bloody thing yet   ( 3 times)    >:(

Having sat untouched in disgrace for about 7 months it is now recently fixed and looking good again after much boiling water, fiberglass rods and lightweight filler. It has been treated to a motor with a bit more grunt and a bigger prop .   In the meantime I built my  Venturi Evo,  echoing the thoughts of Iwan, that maybe cheap and fast, low and fun was the way to go (which it has been a success on every count)  :D

I really want the Z3 to be a success for me though.  It potentially ticks so many boxes, fast, fun and compact ... easy to break down and store in a house where I compete for space with 3 young children.   

If other people are having problems launching them, I do wonder how easy the bigger drak will be to launch single handed.   I keep seeing these vids of helpers  throwing them two handed backwards over their shoulders which is great if you have a helper  ..... but it  seems a great way to slash your throat or face open with the prop if you make a slip......    :+

Thats looking good once fixed! I'm not sure I'll be able to get mine as neat as that but I'll give it a go! Launching has been ok for me with a one handed overhead toss. It does dip down pretty close to the ground but once it gets speed up its off like a rocket! I think when I rebuild I'll go up to an 11" prop, should make it even easier.

[mutley2]

After hundreds of flights and a year of abuse the Z3 is still my go to FPV airframe, it's still the best airframe I've flown for either cloud surfing or mountain bombing, loads of power and rock solid inflight. IMo

[pk-surfing]

+1 from me for the Z3, it's a very smooth wing and a pleasure to fly it.

PK  :)

[AdamG]

After hundreds of flights and a year of abuse the Z3 is still my go to FPV airframe, it's still the best airframe I've flown for either cloud surfing or mountain bombing, loads of power and rock solid inflight. IMo

I will be interested to hear your comparison of the Z3 vs Drak once you've had some experience with the Drak

[mutley2]

I will be interested to hear your comparison of the Z3 vs Drak once you've had some experience with the Drak

Will do, I got the Drak on the strength of how well the Z3 flew so it's a lot to live up to.

[Billy_boy_2010]

I will be interested to hear your comparison of the Z3 vs Drak once you've had some experience with the Drak

I would too. But I'm not sure they can be easily compared. The drak being double the price, being much much bigger- at least 1 foot bigger- some would say they weren't comparable- and therefore having both was very viable :D

But I suspect the z3 will be phased out perhaps. It's great I'm sure- a collapsible wing with a nose that allows multiple battery setups is a huge advantage. It's weaknesses are the limited flight time, fragile nose and some minor negative stall characteristics.

The solution is a bigger design which can carry more battery, a more robust material and a forward swept wing to help the stall issues. AKA THE drak.

If they made a drak in a 40-45" version I would snap it up. There's talk on fpvlab of a mini drak after a video of Chris flying one cropped up. Ritewing have noted the demand.

I'm going to run my z3 on a 11" low pitch prop for easy launching. at least until it's dead reliable, pack the nose 2ith reinforcement and foam and then I will start upping the pitch and reducing he diameter to gain a little flight time.

[MarkLloyd]

Hey Mark, I've been flying the Z3 now for about a year and not had any issues with launch, that said I've been flying los since I was 5 yrs old (45yrs ago) so I have hand launched a plane or two. CG, a good 30 degs launch angle, full throttle and confident throw, everyone's a winner.
As far as the Drak goes, she will get the same treatment and if I can't launch a plane on my own I would sell it.
Stick with the Z3 because it's a hell of a plane, and a joy to fly.
Great looking plane you have there Mark, just like Iwan's will be again in a week or two.

Hi Mutley, thanks for the comments and advice, much appreciated. I'm certainly hoping the Z3 becomes a success, I put such a lot of effort and money into putting it together.  I'll have to re-acquaint myself with the complexities of the MFD I put it in.  I used the simpler FY41 from my dead Z2 in the Venturi. 

I've replaced the NTM 35-42 1000kv 700w on a 9x6 prop  that was in the Z3 with an NTM 35-36a 1800kv 875w motor  .  I was wondering what prop recommendations anyone might have.   I haven't been very scientific with my prop selection in the past ,  using the  "hmmmm that looks about the right size" method.  I'd like to achieve max thrust from a standing start to get the Z3 in the air, preferably without twisting it into the ground with torque.    :+

[FPVSteve]

The Venturi does look more "waggy" on the yaw axis though, spoils the footage a bit.

[FPVSteve]

I think we can all agree a Bixler is better than both a Z3 and a Venturi though, right? ;)

[iwan_canobi]

TBH there seems to be waggle in some Z3 vids I have looked at. May not be as much but that is to be expected due to weight so it will be slower. Do you have any launch to landing uncut Z3 vids?

regards
Andy

Absolutely, I'm not saying it doesn't do it at all, for me its just much less pronounced. It's the best wing I've tried in terms of stability, thats all I'm saying. I'm still tempted to go back to a Skywalker or something similar as nothing ever gets close to those for stability.

Here's an early flight I had the file for handy, I was still tuning throws etc so there is a lot of over correction going on to begin with. Nothing spectacular but there are a few lowish runs along the river, and some full throttle passes. I test the AP at about 3 minutes in which is why it goes a bit mental for a few seconds. It needed the gains reduced quite a bit. It still does wobble and bounce, just not as much as I found others doing, and when its smooth its really smooth.

! No longer available