Ripmax EasyStreet 2

Nice one Tim, glad it went well

Thanks for making me buy it David!!

Cheers,

Tim.

Here is mine with new U/C, just got to fit the tailwheel and re-paint the legs and spats.

Bought one myself this very day from Steve Webb's at Frodsham, the reason for my purchase was lack of wheels for rough Winter fields.

Got plenty of models with wheels on.

Where did you get your spats from Ron? All the ones I have in stock are too bulky for the ES.

They were fitted to the U/C which was a spare for my eFlight Ultimate 2. They’re foam so are really light but will be susceptible to damage! I will probably coat them after I’ve repainted them to give them some sort of protection.

First flights today with danglies on. No dramas apart from the need to replace the tail wheel with a stronger one! AUW about 3lbs 3oz that is with a 3000mAh 4S Turnigy battery on board so landings are a bit on the quick side especially today with no headwind to slow it down. Flew for 6 minutes and had 65% left in the ‘tank’ and that was with some WOT passes plus big loops, rolls etc. Had to turn the aileron rates down as it is very responsive to the ailerons. Colour scheme not so good for a day like today, very grey, dull, overcast sky.

So, all in all, quite satisfying.

Nice one Ron!

I have to agree with you on a couple of points - I too found the low rates mentioned in the manual quite exciting enough for me! Secondly, I aborted a flight on Thursday as I just kept "losing" the model against a featureless, dull grey sky. I can't wait for the next good flying day to get it up there again! Lovely model.

Tim.

I don’t think that it needs full length ailerons so I’m thinking (only thinking at the moment!) of cutting them down and creating flaps to try and slow it down for landings.

The copy of the original I built years ago started with full length ailerons. I soon cut these down to half size. Wish they would at least test fly some of these ARTF`s before marketing them since in many cases I can think of they cannot have done.

Given how responsive it is to aileron input I would tend to agree with you Martin.

Flew the ES2 again yesterday in 15 - 20mph winds, it handled them with no problems! I also moved the battery fully back so that it is against the wingbtube and that made a lot of difference, much better handling and takes offs are now much better with better rotation. In fact it gets off the ground in about 10 feet. Boy is it quick on full throttle a real adrenaline rush but now I’m looking to change the prop to a slightly smaller one as I’m running a 10 x 7 so am thinking of a 9 x 8 or even a 9 x 9 but will have to check the figures for those to make sure I don’t burn something out! With the existing config, after a 6 minute flight a lot of which was at WOT I was showing 34% left in the ‘tank’ with the 3000mAh 4s batts slightly warm.

Everyone whio has seen it reckons it looks much better with the U/C on than off, maybe Ripmax should think about producing one with them, in the meantime I’m renaming mine to Easy Street 2.1

Right, got my Easy Street ready for the field. Then I found that the Canopy latch is broken, or at least non functional.

The operating arm has slid forward along the pin so that the pin is no longer able to engage the canopy.

I can see the fault from the air exit holes on the bottom of the fuselage, but without major surgery it is inaccessible to affect a repair.

I can do a work round with a couple of rubber bands over the canopy to custom fitted retaining pins on the sides of the fuselage.

That this canopy retaining pin is sub standard is, in my opinion, disgraceful.

And while I can cope I feel that to anyone not experienced in assembling an ARTF this could be a major setback.

My canopy latch dropped off the other day, it's just CA'd to the top sheet. It's a right game juggling it back into place without getting CA onto the moving parts!

Can you use an L shaped strip of aluminium or whatever to hook behind the latch and pull the pin back through?

Mine isn't too good either but is useable! I had a similar problem with a HK Estrella and that really was a right pain to fix for the same reasons. Nearly gave up in favour of a different type of fixing!

Got round to power checks on the ES2. With a 4s battery, 10x7 prop - 39amps 600 Watts, 9x7 prop - 34amps 530 watts, 9x9 prop 36amps 560 watts. Going to try it with the 9x9 prop tomorrow. Original esc gave up the ghost so have now fitted a 60a Plush esc.

Bob, I did as you suggested and pulled the pin forward, but it came right out and the spring and operating lever fell off. I might mount it on a plinth.

That aside, there was no cowl mounting rails, one of the plastic clevises lacked a pin and the supplied motor (as specified by Ripmax) was short of four mounting screws out of eight needed.

You can bend up a canopy latch from thin (20/22) gauge piano wire or even thinner wire. Basically a triangle with an elongated loop base.The nose of the triangle pointing outwards. This nose engages in a slot cut in the canopy and the long looped base C/Aed inside the cockpit edge.Or Epoxied for greater strength.I can't send a drawing I'm afraid but a bit of thought and experiment will show the way.These gauges are easy to bend with a couple of pairs of small pliers..The canopy is released by pushing the nose of the latch in to clear the slot..It engages by just pushing the canopy down over the latch so the nose engages in the slot. If done small and tidy it won't be noticed.

If all else fails with the canopy latch ,what I have used before is half a small servo arm, this is screwed with one small screw to the top of the fuselage just behind the back of the canopy, with the canopy in place you just turn the half servo arm through 90 degrees to engage over the top of the canopy, to remove the canopy just turn the arm back through 90 degrees, maybe not as good as the catch provided but it gives a positive fix for the canopy

Only had a limited time to go flying today. Amazing what a difference to the handling the new esc made, being ¼ oz heavier than the old one made it very nose heavy! Going to have to remove the battery tray just in front of the wing tube and move the esc back there. Whilst still quite quick I didn’t think that the 9x9 prop was as good as the 10x7 sonfurther experiments to follow.