Electric Flight in Australia
 

Le Crate - sports cabin flier
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Peter Pine
PO Box 1050
Kingscliff NSW 2487
Phone (02) 6674 0397
Fax (02) 6674 2037
E-mail: ppine@northnet.com.au 
  
 
 
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Le Crate cabin model Le Crate specifications:
  • 1.48m wingspan
  • 1.23kg weight
  • Leisure stock motor
  • Leisure 3:1 short gearbox
  • APC 11x7E prop
  • Orbit 50A BEC controller
  • 10 x CP1700 cells
Le Crate by Peter Pine
This Bill Winter design is a delight. This is my second Le Crate. The first had a long career, but met its demise at Wangaratta chasing a thermal downwind in an attempt to beat Jeff Irvin in the Sports Cabin event - it didn't work! I flew so far away I couldn't fly the Le Crate back and it crashed.
 
Now rebuilt from memory (couldn't find a plan - had to draw it up from the bits), it is just as great a flier as I remember. With this power set-up, you can execute as many consecutive loops as you want, but throttle back to quarter power and it stooges around the sky for ages. I am using it on buddy cord to teach some new fliers, and it is more gentle than a glow-powered trainer.
 
I have flown it with 7xPUNCH3000 NiMH cells and 7x2400SCR cells, as well as 10xCP1700. With the PUNCH cells I managed 28 minutes of flying time in the Electric Scramble at Cootamundra.
 
For anyone after a great sports model I recommend a set-up like this. The Le Crate is no longer available, but plans for Old Timer designs are available from Astropower-Leisure Australia. I recommend the MG-2; 1.75m wingspan for geared buggy motor power.