Classic Top Flite Contender Goes Electric
Jerry Smith ([email protected]), from Acworth, Georgia, submitted this photo of his Top Flite Contender, a classic from the 1970s. Jerry wrote:
"I have built two of these Contenders in the past and this time around I decided to convert it to electric. Battery space was somewhat limited, but I was able to do it. The motor chosen was a Hyperion 700 Kv running on a four-cell, 5-amp/hour battery, 80-amp ESC, turning a 12 x 6 propeller. The current draw was 60 amps with this prop, which gave me close to 1000 watts.
"The Contender weighed 6 pounds ready to fly. This gave me excellent power with good verticals. What a great-flying airplane! The Contender was covered with white Solarfilm and trimmed in orange UltraCote. Panel stripping was done with 1/16-inch black trim tape."
Jerry used a Nikon D5100 with a 32mm focal length for the static shot. The image was taken in Aperture Priority mode with an f-stop of f/14 at 1/250 second and an ISO of 400. The inverted flying image was taken using a Nikon D300 with a focal length of 260mm. Jerry shot this photo in Shutter Priority mode, with an f-stop of f/10 at 1/250 second and an ISO of 500.
Email your high-resolution "Viewfinder" photo and a short note telling the airplane or helicopter story to [email protected].
Transcribed from original scans by AI. Minor OCR errors may remain.
