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| The following is a review of the carbon fiber frames by Panzoa.net. Initially some pictures of the frames before assembly : |
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| On opening the packet you are presented with some very nicely cut upper
and lower frames, a front battery tray and some tie wraps. The frames are
constructed from 1mm carbon fiber sheet. Also included is n exploded view
of the frame assembly which serve as instructions for the build. The frames are rather neatly inscribed with 'X400' at a couple of strategic points with no strength in the frames lost from this inscribing. The pictures above show the inscribing rather nicely. The side frames are almost identical to the eCCPM frames produced by ARK with some minor modifications. Firstly the holes for the motor mount are slots and allow the whole mount to be slid backwards/forwards to achieve a good gear mesh. This works very well and I prefer this to the usual process of trying to adjust mesh using the actual screws for the motor into the motor mount. This method allows the gear mesh to be adjusted much more easily without having to fiddle with allen keys in awkward places. Another change to the standard ARK frames is the addition of a small battery tray that fits into slots at the front of the frames. The frames are drilled to accept both HS56 (four screw) mounted servos and single screw mount servos such as Futaba S3107. The only minor issue on my frames being that the tail servo mount for the left hand side of the frames was drilled for HS56 mounting whilst the right hand side was drilled for the Futaba style mounting. I prefer to mount my servo away from the advancing blade, so an extra set of holes was drilled with ease by the application of my own power drill. However, it should be noted that this is great design by Panzoa as they are catering for both servo types they just hadn't figured on my rather paranoid mounting habits :) Also worthy of note is that the frames contain some slots just below the elevator servo mounting position. These are for using the supplied cable ties to hold the servo wires out of the way. I didn't use them myself but it's a nice feature. Once built the frames are as rigid as the metal ARK eCCPM frames but considerably lighter. The ARK metal frames are 38g in weight, the Panzoa frames weighed in at 18g giving a 20g saving in total, which is certainly a significant saving and would be noticeable in flight. Here are some pictures of the built frame with all gear installed and ready to fly : |
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| Having built the frame it was time to see how it would fly. Bear in mind
that this is no different to the stock ARK CCPM frames except that it is
now 20g lighter, rigidity of the frame is almost identical. So I wasn't
expecting vast improvements in flying. As expected the response of the
machine was almost exactly the same as the stock eCCPM frames with the
one difference of the machine feeling slightly more reactive to collective
pitch inputs, which is down to that 20g weight saving. Overall his is a nice frame set, it is beautifully cut, everything is drilled correctly and slots together nicely. Frame rigidity is good and it gives a 20g saving on the stock eCCPM frames. If you are looking for a nicely manufactured set of carbon frames then the panzoa.net frames should suit your needs quite nicely. The frames are now available through www.modefosheli.com. |
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