Scratch Built "e-knife" with HACKER POWER
by Tom Pierce

I've been flying the "Morris the Knife" profile fun-fly for some time now and absolutely love that little sweety. This prompted me to attempt a scaled-down version of it on electric power for park-flyer and indoor flyer situations. Here's the story on my adventure with the "e-Knife."

I finished this little "e-knife" at about 60-65% scale of the original version and it comes in at only 6 ounces without the motor and battery! I tried my Acro Speed 280BB with an 8 cell 720 pack on it and it flies just like it's big brother... SWEET! Good 3D aerobatic performance, slow-flight capability and very stable. But... it didn't have the vertical I needed, so I eventually changed over to HACKER POWER!

I put a Hacker B20 15L 4:1 on it which give me the unlimited vertical I was looking for. I'm running 3000mah LiPoly batteries which give me about 20 minutes of great hovering power. While the Hacker motor, brushless controller and big LiPoly pack added about 5 ounces to the flying weight, the performance/flight characteristics are now as good as the full-sized, 46FX-powered Knife, including the vertical! I've found it to be even easier to hover than it's big brother, although it requires pretty light wind conditions due to it's light flying weight and low wing loading.

"e-Knife" Specs: Length: 28" Wingspan: 29" Wing Chord: (w/ail): 11" Powerplant: Hacker B20 15L sith 4:1 planetary gearbox Batteries: 3000mah LiPoly flat pack (2 cells in series) Speed Controller: Comm Pro TMM 18e+ 3ph brushless Prop: APC 11 x 7 e-prop Receiver: Cirrus MRX-4 Servos: 4 Hitech HS55's Total Current Flying Wgt: 15.3 oz

---