If you have a HobbyKing Skyfun and are wanting to do an upgrade on it, see how to do it pretty cheaply by reading on.
I upgraded on of the SkyFun planes with the one of the cheap brushless motors I bought off eBay and a new CC Phoenix 35 ESC. The RC-Timer 2826/6 motor is rated around 340 watts of power at 2200RPM/Volt. I ran the setup off the same 1800mAh pack I used for the original SkyFun power system setup and it worked great. It was quite a bit faster of course, I think the stock motor is rated around 250 watts or so with an 18 Amp ESC on the version I got, but it looks like the current version they’re selling comes with a 35 amps speed control and better motor. I forgot my box of propellers at home so I didn’t have a chance to try out some different props, I was just running the stock propeller that came with the SkyFun originally.
Below is a photo of the RC-Timer 2826/6 motors I bought off eBay, they cost around $12 each including shipping, which was a great bargain.
RC Timer BC-2826/6 Back View
The new motor fit the same bolt hole pattern as the stock motor, so it’s not too hard to upgrade. Although the new RC-Timer motor hangs off the back of the plane, as opposed to the stock motor resting over the trailing edge of the wing. This doesn’t cause any problems with the setup, and the new Phoenix 35 fit in the same position as the old speed controller so no problems there either. I used my Turnigy 1800mAh 30-40C 11.1v 3S pack on the setup.
I’m pretty happy with the results and so were the guys at the field. I had a serious trim issue with the plane on the launch, I needed to put in a lot of left aileron to counteract whatever had happened to the trim settings. Perhaps it’s a torque issue with the motor or something, but after some help from my buddy on the trim tabs it was flying
great. You could probably buy a motor like this with a 30-40 amp speed control for under 30 bucks. Low cost upgrades are the best!
Here’s a video of the first flight, check out that crazy launch!
And here’s one from May 2012, I mounted the GoPro Hero 2 on the wing without the hard case. The first flight was short and wayyy out of trim but I fixed that and the rest of the flight went well.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xHpMQeYHc20
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