New Hyperion 25% Extra 260 Electric Build

[1bwana1]

I have been flying Hyperion's 74" YAK for over a year now. This has been an excellent plane, and I have really enjoyed flying it. It has performed well in both freestyle, and the EMAC precision series. However, there is no question that I am an Extra fan. I have a 40% ZN-Line Extra 330S as my IMAC plane, an Aeroworks 35% Extra 260 as my freestyle plane, and a 58" EF Extra 300 that I fly at least 3 times a week at my local electric only field. I love these planes, and have been keeping my eyes out for a designed for electric, mid-sized plane to compete in the EMAC series with. No one was making one, until now, and here it is.




The first shipment arrived just a couple of weeks ago, and the distributor says they have all sold except 3. Apparently, I am not the only one who has been waiting for an Extra of this size. I am very excited to have finally found an Extra of this size and weight. Mine should be here on Monday, and I will do a complete build thread over the next week. I picked mine up from www.allerc.com, you can find them there and probably your local hobby shop/Hyperion dealer.

[iflyrc3Dstyle]

Sharp!

[1bwana1]

Here are the specs on the Hyperion Extra 260 120e. Hyperion calls it a 120 size, which I believe is the glow engine equivalent, with the "e" to designate it as a "designed for electric" model. This is important, because Hyperion spends a lot of time optimizing the construction for electric power. Most other models this size are gas or glow models, that we must convert to electric. This requires a lot of work to do properly, and my experience is that the planes usually come out a little heavy, and have difficult to live with battery placement, and motor mounting compromises. The only specs I could find on line at this time are all metric. I have done my best to convert these to standard units. Feel free to correct me if you find an error.

Hyperion Extra 260 Specs

Wingspan - 1854mm, 73"
Length Rudder to Cowl - 1737mm, 68.5"
Length Rudder to tip of Spinner 1735mm, 71"
Flying weight 4.5 - 5 KG, 10 - 11 LBS

Although Hyperion refers to it as a 120 size, based on the wingspan of 73" it equates to a 25% in Giant scale terms.

[1bwana1]

One of the reasons I am so excited to find an Extra 260 of this size, is that I really like the way big planes fly. Hey, bigger just flies better, particularly when flying precision. It's about an hour, round trip, for me to get to my gas field. There is a beautiful electric only field just 5 minutes from me. It's easy to break away for an hour or so and sneak in a few flights. Plus, I really enjoy competing in the all electric EMAC precision contest series we have here in San Diego. However, the economics of big electrics can be a deterrent for many of us. The cost of the airframe, motor, servos etc. is the same, it's the batteries that bring the costs up. I try to maximize my battery inventory, and this plane fits in perfectly. My 58" Extra weighs about 5 1/4 lbs, and has awesome performance on a single 5S 4300 battery. The performance I get is equivalent to any gas setup I have. I have accumulated 8 batteries of this size. This new plane should weigh about 10 1/2 lbs, so I will install a power package that uses two of these 5 cells in series, for 10S. Depending on my mood, I can fly 8 flights on the 58", or 4 flights on the 73", or some mix of the two, without recharging. While the batteries are not exactly cheap, choosing a hanger that allows multiple planes to use the same batteries in different configurations is reasonably economical.

[Chris Puckett]

Very nice. Do you know if the have ditched the Chinacoat? I have the 25 Su-31 and the 60 Chipmunk. I stripped the Chippy down as soon as I got it and recovered it in Ultracote. This is the only thing that has kept me from buying more of their kits. Build quality is great, glass work is nice but spendy if you need a replacment as are the canopy's.

[1bwana1]

Chris,

Luckily, I have never had to buy any replacement parts for my Hyperion 73" YAK. I have been flying it for over a year, and it is holding up very well. I believe this plane is being built at the same factory as the YAK was, and it is covered in Ultracoat, so I'm betting the Extra is the same. I'll let you know, when it gets here.

[diveredd]

Nice looking plane, looking forward to the build. If I need a replacement for my EF 74" Yak, this will be it.

[ben_beyer]

I'd like to try to get some EMAC going here in TX. Maybe next year...

[1bwana1]

Ben,
EMAC is a lot of fun, it's low stress, friendly competition, without the big budgets of 40% planes. Let me know if I can help you get it started out there.

[1bwana1]

So now a little about my planned setup.

I will wait until I get the plane to decide what parts of the included hardware to use. Recently, Hyperion has upgraded their included hardware package, to include phenolic horns, ball links, and generally first class parts, so I anticipate using most of it. I will probably upgrade the control rods to the H9 Titanium Prolinks because I just love working with them. I'll let you know about the rest after I see it.

I recently bought some Hitech 5985 Digital servos on super sale at Servo City, so I will use them on all surfaces. I've had good luck with these servos in the past, they are probably a little overkill for a plane of this size, but have found that by programming them, I get really accurate throws, and a precise setup with no sub-trims on the radio.

I will use my JR x9303 2.4 radio, with the JR 921 RX, and two satellite receivers. I have one in a drawer all ready to go. I love this radio system.

For power, I will use a NUE 1515-3D motor with a 6.7:1 gearbox I already own. For my speed controller, I will use the same Castle Creation 85 amp programmable one that I have already been running with this motor. I have a carbon fiber Mejzlik 20 X 10 E prop, that I have been running on this setup with great results. On 10S batteries I should draw about 70 amps, producing 2,600 to 2,800 watts. If the plane comes in at the expected 10.5 lbs, that will be over 250 watts per pound. Ballistic power!

I don't want the additional weight, and hassle of separate battery pack for the RX. Still, I want to makes sure I have plenty of power for the RX (especially since it is 2.4) and servos. The Castle 85 does not have an integrated BEC. For the past year I have been running switch mode regulators from Cool Flight Systems directly off my lipo packs. They only weigh 20 grams and I have never had a failure using them.

The motor box has been designed for a direct bolt on of a rear mounted Hyperion outrunner. It will probably require a little modification to accept the Nue inrunner/gear box power plant. Other than that I expect it will be a pretty straight forward build. I'll keep you guys posted, with pictures as soon as the plane gets here.

[1bwana1]

Ed,
looking at your signature, we have a lot of the same planes, AW260, DW Foamies, and the 74" YAK. Looks like this might be a good one for you as well.

[Simpleton]

Do you know if it has a removeable motor cage?

[1bwana1]

Not yet, it is so new that no pictures, or manual is available on line yet. I will post that answer as soon as I get mine.

[wollins]

subscribed

[1bwana1]

Well UPS did it's job over the weekend, and my Hyperion Extra 260 ARF arrived this afternoon on a big brown truck. UPS also managed to put a few big holes in the shipping box as usual, so I was expecting the worse when I opened it. Fortunately, Hyperion has done a great job with packing this ARF, and the plane sustained no damage.

The first thing I always do is go over the parts carefully, taking a look at completeness, quality, and to be sure there is no damage. My first impressions are very positive. The color scheme is simple, and traditional, just how I like them. To answer an earlier question, the covering looks to me to be Ultracoat, mine was perfect when it arrived, not a wrinkle on the plane. The paint is also very well done, with the colors matching the covering perfectly. It is clear that this truly is a "designed for electric" ARF. The laser cutting is very well done. Unlike a glow conversion, all possible lightening has already been done. This plane would definitely be too fragile for a glow motor, but should be plenty strong for an electric. The canopy, and hatch is large, allowing easy access to the included battery tray, and equipment. It is secured by the cowl and two tabs in the front, and by magnets, and a spring loaded latch in the rear. The canopy itself is lightly tinted, something I really like. This is a first class ARF in every respect.

Here is a picture of what is included in the box. Click to enlarge!



Pretty much what one would expect from a well done ARF.

The wings and stabs are easily removable, for transport.

Carbon tubes for both wings, and horizontal stabs.

The main gear are painted aluminum, and have a very nice scale shape. Often I replace the included gear in planes this size for lighter carbon fiber after market ones. But these look so nice, and only weigh a hair over 4 ounces, so I think I will use them.

Quality wheel pants are included, along with very nice matching cuff for where the gear meet the fuse.

The hardware package is of good quality, and unlike many kits, I will probably use almost all of it. It includes, good quality wheels and axles. A tail wheel setup that will probably actually work. One nice surprise is the high quality phenolic control horns that include servo arms. I am particularly happy to see the arms for the pull, pull rudder setup. It is often hard to find a servo arm that is matched to the rudder horns. I am hopeful that the included set will provide the perfect geometry. The kit also includes decent quality ball links, and push rods.

Of course all screws, bolts, nuts, washers, blind nuts (most are preinstalled), and other bits are included in well organized packages.

Another surprise, is a pair of side force generators. I guess there are those that might want them, but I will not be installing these for sure.

There is an included decal package. I will probably not use many of these as I like a pretty simple look. Normally, if I do put decals on a plane, they are custom ones.

The biggest shortcoming I see so far is the included manual. It is of the "international picture" variety, and is missing almost all detail. At this point, I have built enough ARFs that I really don't need a manual. But if you are new to this, you will be frustrated by this one. In my opinion, the two companies that produce the best manuals are, Aeroworks, and Extremeflight. Luckily, this plane will go together almost exactly like either the ExtremeFlight 74" YAK, or the 58" Extra. If you need very detailed instructions, I suggest you go download one of those manuals. Either one could have been written for this model.

All in all, this is a very complete kit. If I were going to use one of the recommended Hyperion power sets, I'm thinking, I could have this plane flying in three comfortable evenings of building, without ever making a trip to the hobby shop. However, since I am using a Neu In Runner with gear box, I will probably spend more time and effort building a strong, light, motor mount than I do assembling the rest of the kit.

This evening I plan on completing two easy tasks. First I will remove the covering from all the needed openings. I use a soldering iron to do this. It is very easy, fast and neat doing it this way.

I will also attach the ailerons and elevators to their appropriate surfaces. This kit uses fabric hinges with CA to attach the surfaces. Actually, I would prefer mini Robart style hinges on a plane of this size. However, I have never actually had a fabric hinge fail on me, so I will go ahead and use them. In order to get as good a bond as possible, I drill a very small hole in the hinge slot on both surfaces to help the CA wick up the hinge fully. I also pin the hinges on both sides to keep them straight, and evenly divided between the two surfaces. I use high quality thin CA, my favorite is Mercury Adhesives CA. It has the perfect viscosity to ensure the hinges wick properly, and believe it or not, the bottles really don't clog!

More picture will follow as I make more progress.