HobbyKing / Avios Lockheed C-130 Hercules PARACHUTE DROP and ESSENTIAL RC FLIGHT TEST

HobbyKing / Avios Lockheed C-130 Hercules PARACHUTE DROP and ESSENTIAL RC FLIGHT TEST
AVAILABLE HERE: (Blue Angels) (Military grey)
At last! The C-130 has arrived and what a fun model to fly. At 1.6m wingspan this is a big model but still at a convenient size for fitting into an estate car or taking the wings off and putting on the back seat. Assembly of the kit is quick with a just a small number of decals to apply and small plastic scale details. You can be ready to fly in about an hour!
Our assembly tips:
Pre-fit the 2 screws into the vertical stabiliser before fitting to the fuselage. This will open up the holes and reduce the risk of stripping the head off the screws when you screw them through the holes under the fuselage. If you did strip the head of the screw it would be very difficult to remove.
Take care setting up the cargo bay door. It is easy to burn out a stalled servo. Be ready to change the end points on the AUX channel controlling the door.
We found that when trying to drop parachutes they would get easily tangled in the cargo bay door or the supports. So we created a simple cardboard box so the chutes could be dispensed more easily without resistance.
The holes in the servo arms for the ailerons, flaps and elevators all need opening up slightly to take the Z bend in the push rods. Do this as little as possible to ensure minimal slop in the linkage. For the flap servo arms put the Z bend through the 2nd inner most hole in the arm to get the best mechanical advantage from the setup.
Use UHU POR to fit the scale plastic fittings. For the windscreen widers use a sharpie to remove the paint in the slots before gluing.
Our flying experience:
After plugging in the flight battery we recommend you cycle the retracts once to ensure the retracts are working together with the sequenced gear doors. You don't want to find out you have an issue in flight. On take off you will find you have no shortage of power. With immediate full power, half flap and some elevator input after gaining speed you will get in the air and be able to climb out steeply with ease.
Watch your flight time if using a 4S2200 pack. The relatively small capacity across 4 motors needs to be managed. You don't want to hit low voltage cut-off (LVC) on one or more of the electronic speed controllers (ESCs) and end up trying to land with differential thrust! Keep your initial flights short and check your voltage after landing to determine duration of your next flight. Better still...use a voltage alarm or telemetry to get an accurate measurement of your flight battery voltage.
We found that you must use rudder to turn this model. Just using ailerons and elevator won't give you tight enough turns. Consider mixing aileron to rudder on your transmitter to make life easier.
We *loved* the ability to descend from altitude with the air speed being limited by the braking effect of the four propellers running at low power. Just like the full size Hercules this model performs in true STOL fashion.
Filmed at our local BMFA affiliated model flying club by Caz, Al and James for the 'Essential RC' YouTube channel using the Panasonic AG-UX180 Pro 4K camcorder, GoPro HERO7 Black (for slo mo at 240fps) and the Insta360 ONE action camera for onboard clips. Dom Mitchell infront of camera and on the sticks.
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