About a year ago i bought the Art-Tech Minimoa. After 9 or 10 months of pain and money I have finally found a way to make this plane fly great.
The first problems aroused during a very hot weekend. after about 45 minutes of flying i lost all throttle response. Fortunately for me it happened on approach so was able to stall it over a fence, just. Once the plane was on the ground I removed the hatch only to see smoke coming from the front of the plane. The motor had burned out which then caused the ESC to overheat and catch fire. This happend due to a design fault, At-Tech did not think about cooling for the plane so after about 4 or 5 minitues of continued motor running the motor will over heat and burn out.
After putting the fire out I began surgery on the nose of the plane. The Minimoa is designed as a RTF aircraft and not to be modified so if you do decide to follow my example be warned, it does damage the air frame which may result in structural failure if the correct precautions are not carried out.
Using a dermal i cut out he stock plastic motor mount as shown:
(note this photo is taken after a motor replacement hence the glue around the edge of the nose)
Once removed proceed to cut a circle the size of the nose out of alloy or ply wood to fit over the nose of the aircraft.I used wood for mine. once done drill a hole appropriately sized to fit your motor shaft through. The proceed to drill holes for your mounting holes to fit to. Once that is done screw your motor mount to the front of your motor to check it fits. I recommend drilling two or more cooling holes in the new motor mount as well.
Slide the motor inside the fuselage to check it fits easily if not file away the plastic where required. Once this is done proceed to frill four large holes in the plastic around the cowling. This is for cooling purposes.
Once that is done find some strong glue such as a 12 hour epoxy and put a thin layer around the edge of the cowling and slide the motor and motor mount into place, be careful not to let the glue touch the motor. Once done clamp the mount to the front of the plane and leave to dry.
Once the glue is dry hook up your ESC and battery and go fly, you should no longer have any problems of cooking your motor.
Willem Moseley, Hampshire, England
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