Baron’s Hobbies – Online Hobby Magazine

Flying The Split 280 With A Modern Power System

Posted on July 13, 2009 by aaronredbaron

In my last article I introduced you to the Split 280. This little “Nerf” plane was a popular choice a few years ago, and I thought it would be fun to hop one up when a complete kit surfaced. My friend who I acquired the plane from had already painted some silver markings on the bottom of the wing, and I found a perfect home on top of the wing for a WW2 nose-art type of sticker which had been floating around. The construction was very simple and straight forward; that’s why they were popular! Instead of using the included fiber tape for the aileron hinges, which had lost its tackiness, I used my preferred hinge tape, Blenderm tape. Everything lined up pretty nicely as I expected, although the fuselage was slightly crooked. I accepted the misalignment because the wing and tail were both off the same amount and were lined up with each other. Lets just call it character! After reading the old review of the Split at RCGroups.com (Click here to see the review) I decided to install a carbon fiber wing spar. I glued a 3mm wide by 1mm thick flat carbon strip vertically in a slit along the intended CG.

I had no problem changing the motor over to my brushless option. My motor choice was actually a few years old itself, but is still a power house. My Hacker B20-22s inrunner brushless motor has a kV rating of 4100, which makes it limited to a small prop (4-5 inch) on 2 lithium cells, direct drive. If I were to buy a motor for this application instead of just trying to make what I have laying around work, I may have chosen something different. Other options would include going with a lower kV motor (around 2000 kV) and using a 5-6 inch prop on 3 cells. I just so happened to have a integrated prop adaptor/spinner which turned out to be a perfect fit for the front end of the plane. With a 5×5 prop, the tiny Hacker would be pulling nearly 20 amps in a burst, so I used an old speed control which I think was a 20 amp unit. Its sticker has long since been pulled and I can’t remember the brand name, but the speed control found a perfect home mounted flush into the side of the fuselage. It didn’t take me more than 4 or 5 hours to have the plane all buttoned up, balanced out, and ready to rip!

The first flight was a little bit sensitive because I had too much elevator travel available, and there was some slop in the elevator linkage to boot. The slop caused the airplane to not track well; the elevator would never center accurately, and thus it was difficult to fly a straight line. With reduced elevator travel and the slop eliminated, the Split flew much more locked in. It does not track as precisely as some planes I have flown, but it’s a pleasure. It rolls axial and quickly, and it flies well inverted with a moderate amount of down elevator. I testing its durability with a few cartwheel landings, and other than popping the motor loose once I haven’t hurt it. Considering it’s such a durable airplane, it flies very light and clean. It does tend to change elevator trim with differences in speed, which is normal for a flat bottom wing, but the advantage is the wing produces gobs of lift. You can glide the Split in with no power and it floats very nicely. Other than the prop, its pretty much bullet proof, but I am cautious to only fly it over grass because I don’t want to break or bend the motor shaft.

My motor is more than enough for the little plane, which came in at 8.9 ounces. On a two cell 800 mAh LiPo, the “Boink-Zoom,” as it was nicknamed, will provide me with an easy 15 minutes if I am judicial with the power. It has more than enough juice at around half throttle, but even little bursts of full throttle reduce the flight time considerably. At half throttle it has enough power to loop endlessly or climb at a steep angle. With the original power system it would have had barely enough power to cruise around and do basic aerobatics. I am very satisfied with the Split 280, and it performs much as I expected. Perhaps a different power system would have been more efficient, but my setup has ample power, and with judicial use of power it provides long flights times. If I were to buy a motor for it my selection would have been different. But as it is, I was able to get it airborne using parts I had laying around, and without any trips to the hobby shop!