Wattage Oddyssey Astro 010 Brushless
Conversion
By Irvin Cooper ijcooper@juno.com
The Wattage Odyssey is available at: http://www.hobbypeople.net/
This ARF kit is a great value - for $49.95 it is truly an ARF. The only things left for you to do are to screw on the Horisontal Stab, Glue the wings together, install the rudder & horizontal stab control horns & install the servos and push rods. Everything else is done including hinging of all the flying surfaces, installed aileron linkages, & installed push rod guides to the tail feathers.
To convert to the 010 Brushless Drive you must:
Brushless Step up includes - Astro Mighty Micro 14 turn 010 Brushless Motor with the Micro Super Box 3.3:1 ratio, 3 Cell Kokam 1500mah Lithium Polymer battery pack, & an APC 10X7 SloFly Prop.
Re-inforce the firewall motor mount. I used Polyurathane Glue with some cut up polyester fibers mixed in and used it in generous amounts around the fire wall to build up a small fillet between the firewall and the fuselague.
Of course remove the supplied 180 drive system and drill out the firewall to accept the Astro 010 gearbox mounting.
Bend up a new a longer landing gear to accomodate the bigger APC Prop (10X7 Slofly). You need .078" Dia Music Wire, I used the supplied lite weight wheels.
The above is a shot of my completed Odyssey with the supplied standard ailerons. I increased the throw on the ailerons and the roll still was not as agressive as I wanted.
The below picture shows the widened ailerons to get the roll rate I wanted. I did this in my hotel room while on our winter trip to Southern California (Note the non standard hobby work table). So I just cut the ailerons back and glued on extensions and sanded smooth. That way I did not have to re-install the aileron control rods or the hinges. I used Zagi tape to give me ailerons with a red top and yellow bottom for easier to see orientation in the air.
With the changes including the installation of a 1500mah 3 Cell Kokam Lithium Polymer battery pack the 010 Odyssey weighed in at 11.6oz ready to fly
With the Brushless setup the plane needed very little roll out, has unlimited vertical and performs most manuvers with ease. I have flown it in 25 mph winds and it does well.
This is a nice travel plane, the landing gear pops out of its push-in slot, the wings come off and its just two screws to remove the horizontal stabilizer. So it packs really nice. At this point the Odyssys has become a permanent member of my travel flying fleet.