Senior Telemaster

Getting into electrics has a catch 22...you are going to have to get a special type of battery, a speed controller and special charger for the batterty...in the end you will spend a heckuva lot more than if you bought a 61 and fuel and starter and such. We have a couple flying at our club field and it is a fine flyer and a nice ARF..but all use gas...any old 60 is MORE THAN ADEQUATE for this plane. If you need nose weight use the Evolution...otherwise any other type, even a 51 will fly it. The Evoluteiion is a good engine but heaver than its counterparts. We fly them with old 60's here and mostly at half throttle...biggest mistake with any Telemaster is to overpowerit. It just ain't necessary..... Good luck. Frank

The electric power system will cost you an additional $300 to $400 or so, when all is done. The under $200 price is just for the ARF. Believe me, that is a good deal. Yes, I have all of it except their radio. Nice set up.
Ed Cregger

Oops, forgot to answer the rest of your question.
The Sr. Telemaster is kind of like a scale model of a J-3 Cub in that it is not a great trainer. No auto stabilizing features like a good trainer. It isn't difficult to fly, but it is different from a trainer in important ways.
If you have an instructor on a buddy box to help get you through the first few flights, you'll be fine. Coordinated rudder and aileron turns are just about mandatory, unless you increase the dihedral significantly, which I would not do.
I bought my latest Sr. Tele ARF to carry still digital cameras aloft. It is a beautiful model and well built. There is a long thread on RCU about people flying this ARF along with some mods and pictures of the mods. Nice choice.
Ed Cregger

The Telemaster is a great plane! I've not seen the ARF but I have two of 'em and my favorite is powered with a Featherlite 25cc gasoline engine converted from a $59.00 Walmart leaf blower. Takes all of an hour to convert. Turns a 16x8 prop just fine and flys for an hour on 10 oz of gas. Cheap power.Cheap fuel and no trips to the hobby store for fuel!
Factually, Telemasters are GREAT trainers. If you can't fly a Telemaster, you can't fly. In fact, one of my big gags is to turn off the xmitter and pass the plane off to someone or simply trim the plane in a circle and go get a softdrink while the plane flys itself.
You can't go wrong with a Telemaster.
Ed Cregger wrote:

I've been watching a lot of people biased against electric flight, i.e. it costs to much, etc. However looking at the EPA post and the apparent noise complaints (RE: Florida Posts) I wouild not be supprised to see that in less time that you think only models that are flown from special locations and on special occasions will glow/gas engines be allowed. Lets face it with lawmakers writing laws to protect us from ourselves (we are a bunch of idiots that don't have sense enough not to go into a resturant that allows smoking if we are non-smokers!) The latest, You can be arrested if you smoke in your car with children present! Just an example of lawmakers going berserk! Better get off my soap box now! PS I'm a non-smoker, however I don't like the rights of other people taken away, cause they will be after my rights next!
Roy

I am presently flying the Telemaster Electro ARF with the recommended AXI 2816/12 13 X 6.5 E-prop and it is great, particularly with flaps. I'm sure the larger version would be just as good if not better. I was impressed with the building and covering, could have done without the advertising graphics but what do you want for $109 sale price. I don't think there is a better trainer to get back into R/C with or a utility model that can fill many roles.
Red S.

As others have mentioned, the motor isn't included. Mine is powered by a dirt cheap 3520-7 Tower Pro motor, Electric power 4S 4400mah 15C Lipos( I use two in parallel, but one is adequate, I just like flying 30min between charges) and a Hyperion ESC. If you shop around, you should be able to get the whole power system for about $260 with a name brand ESC, or $225 with a TowerPro.
I maidened mine at SEFF this spring and have had a blast with it.
PCPhill

Look into electric conversion costs again.
AXI 4120/18 135.00 (on sale) Jeti opti 77 less then 100 5S2P 8000 mah 10c discarge 170 delivered (TrueR/C)
So up front I'm paying a bit more but I never have to buy gas and my airframe will last forever. My lipo pack should last for 500+ cycles. I'm getting 45 min of flying on one charge and I'm sure if I wanted I could push it to an hour or more.

I'll say again, hard to beat a cheap leaf blower engine ( 59 bucks) and gasoline for fuel for the Telemaster.
PCPhill wrote:

Hey Mike Freas, be careful with your electronic speed controller (ESC
choice. You want to install the "Jeti 77 Advance Opto Plus" they ru about $180. If you run the Jeti70 or the 77 without the advance opt plus part you may burn it out with the 18.5 volts you get from a 5 lipo pack. Since I've done this I know its an expensive moment. I've converted the Senior Telemaster to electric with a Axi 4330 motor 8s lipos and a 15" APC Prop. It is easier to fly than my Nexstar traine (epowered too). As for cost, FMA's Greg Covey ha published a number of articles documenting that electric planes ar cheaper than glow/gas. The electric cost is all up front so that i what stings in the lower right buttocks region
-- LaxLif ----------------------------------------------------------------------- LaxLife's Profile: this thread:

| Look into electric conversion costs again. | | AXI 4120/18 135.00 (on sale) | Jeti opti 77 less then 100 | 5S2P 8000 mah 10c discarge 170 delivered (TrueR/C) | | So up front I'm paying a bit more but I never have to buy gas and my | airframe will last forever. My lipo pack should last for 500+ cycles. | I'm getting 45 min of flying on one charge and I'm sure if I wanted I | could push it to an hour or more.
Well, to be fair, you'll probably want at least one more battery pack unless you already have some that will work, so you should factor that into the total price. Though really, $170 for a pack like that is an extremely good deal. An incredibly good deal -- have prices really dropped this much in the last few months?
Where exactly are you finding this deal?
The cheapest LiPo batteries I've seen lately have been from buying the Milwaukee power tool packs for their 7s1p 3000 mAh emoli cells for around $100 each.
If your flights last 45 minutes, that's just over 1C, so your batteries will indeed last longer than somebody who's doing 10C, but 500 cycles still seems pretty optimistic.

The conversion sounds interesting. Is the conversion documented on a website, or do you know of any other resources for the instructions? Ken.

I must be missing something here. The original Sr. Telemaster, which is veritually unchanged, except the original had barn door ailerons and nowit has strip ailerons, was flown with an old 60 two stroke. I had one and have had them which I have built over the years. I have flown them with 45 to 60 engines and never needed anything more. In fact, with a plain old 60 and 12/6 prop, the durned thing will take off on a runway with high throttle trim...and with almost full power, I can loop from level flight. I suspect you people who are putting big engines and weed eater engines on this plane are truly overpowering it. I worked at Hobby Lobby in the mid seventies and we NEVER recommended anything larger than a 60 and truly none was needed.... I suppose you big engine types are the ones who say, "Oh, well, I can always throttle back..."....and never do... Regards to all, Frank Schwartz AMA 123 in Hendersonville, TN....who does not over power his planes..... "go and do likewise"......

If you really are going to overpower a Sr. Telemaster with a weed eater engine, please go back to the original postings and read my latest response.... Frank

The conversion is rather " res ipsa loquitur" once you get the plastic off. Seriously, it's the easiest I have ever seen. You really don't need any instructions. And it does not "overpower" the Telemaster. Plenty for short take off and climb out but nothing excessive and it keeps one from having to load the nose up with lead.
If you need pics, email me and I'll send you some.
Kenneth D. Schill> The conversion sounds interesting. Is the conversion documented on a

| The conversion is rather " res ipsa loquitur" once you get the plastic | off. Seriously, it's the easiest I have ever seen. You really don't | need any instructions. And it does not "overpower" the Telemaster. | Plenty for short take off and climb out but nothing excessive and it | keeps one from having to load the nose up with lead.
I never did understand this extreme concern with `overpowering' something.
Sure, it can fly in a very non-scale way, and perhaps it can go so fast that the airframe can't take it if you pull back on the stick all the way or something, and perhaps it can fly with a lot less power, but beyond that, what's the problem?
Unless you're in a scale competition, I just don't see the problem ... most of us fly for fun, and if flying around with just enough power is fun, great!, and if flying around with 4x as much power as you need is fun, great too!
Speaking of being overpowered, I was trying the RFG3 Expansion pack 1's `Hotliner' glider at the hobby store the other day. THAT thing is grossly overpowered! In hand, the simulator said it was drawing 2000 watts at full power (and around 1000 watts in flight), and when you let go it would go straight up at 90 mph! (Or do level flight at 100 mph -- obviously a smaller prop and maybe a higher pitch prop/lower gearbox ratio would be appropriate if you wanted it to be a racer.)
Not that this was a problem, but I was just amazed at the performance. I wonder if many people really have planes like that with quite that much power. I guess it makes sense, when your contest only allows 30 seconds of power ...

The Senior Telemasterr is a great trainer to have. For beginners I always suggest the Sig Lt. 40 as a trainer with glow. However the Senior Telemaster is a plane that should not be over powered and meant to be a lazy, floating plane that does not get ahead of a new pilot. Still it is something that you want to buddy cord with to get used to the flying habits and approach to landings. The plane just want to keep flying with its big wing area. Doc Ferguson

Doug,
I agree with your comments 100%, but one fact you cannot ignore when dealing with "weedeater" conversions is even though you're able to throttle the engine, these small 2-stroke gassers are designed to run at or near their maximum RPM, and will quickly develop carbon problems in the exhaust ports and/or the head, if not allowed to do so. They NEED to run fast to stay clean. So run a low pitch prop to keep the speed within reason, yet keep the RPM up. Your engine will thank you, and the Tele will fly realistically, too
Cheers,
Bill

Probably 150 flight on one of these engines and zero problem with carbon buildup. Using decent oil in the fuel mix will take care of all of that. I've always used Valvoline and have no buildup to speak of. Certainly nothing that would in any way hamper operation. When people get buildup they are generally using a "cheaper" oil and far too much of it. Just mix to directions and everything seems to work. I've played with the Ryobi engines. ( too heavy) and for general "stuff" the 18 and 25cc Featherlites seem to be the way to go.
Bill Fulmer wrote: