Selecting a Brushless Motor, ESC, LiPo Battery and Prop for an RC Airplane 

All the other tutorials online expects newbies to already know the desired Kv and use their charts. Thank you for providing that Kv formula as a function of wingspan.

Excellent Beginners RC Airplane Setup Tutorial... Bookmarked.👍

I'm really thankful for this fantastic explanation!

Absolutely fantastic, thanks so much!

Bravo, this is absolutely amazing!

Thanks for your lesson I really learned much

Great video, I love this format

My thoughts when deciding this is how much room does the plane have for a battery, how big and how many cells in series will fit first than I look at flying weight how much wing do I have to support a given weight for decent flyer and a medium to slow approach for landing. motor and prop combo is important you need to have enough power to climb and enough clearance for the prop. luckily there are many choices to make power.

Thanks very much for this information.

Informative

Great video for people getting into this stuff. Is there a book or source you used for your calculations?

For pitch, how do you arrive at " Prop Diameter/ 1.57"? There are many Pitches' for various Props and your Calc will always be the same for any given Diameter. For example: Your Calc will always give 6.37 (or 6 ) for a 10 inch Prop. However, there are 10x6, 10x7, 10x8 ... etc props out there. Please let me know.

Im gonna have to make some assumptions on how this can be applied to a less traditional design: -for a super low aspect ratio of close to 1, i imagine you would double the real wingspan to get to the "effective" wingspan ballpark. For example, a wing of 24" span, but a 1:1 AR would have wing area more similar to a 48" conventional aircraft. Extremely _high_ aspect ratios seem like they would need less conversion, though dividing by 2 for AR above 10 or so might make sense -for multi engine planes, my guess would be that the wingspan dependent numbers dont change, just the power you want per motor to achieve your desired power loading, potentially with a small fudge factor to make up for any inefficiencies caused by multi engine design

Think it's better to figure it in this order.. Determine approx weight. Determine approx watts needed based on weight. 80-150w per lb Pick a ballpark prop size based on wingspan. Look for motor that supports your needed wattage with a prop that is in your size range. Motor choice will dictate esc and battery needed. It will also recommend prop pitch.

Hey man, this video was awesome! I'm building an RC air BOAT, the Dumas Swamp Buggy. Would you recommend a high or low KV/RPM for such a task? For reference, it's recommended to use a .40 up to .60 gas engine. I figured an electric motor will probably work fine in this modern age!

I’ve had this question for a while now, I have a 300a esc I wanted to put or pair with a 940kv brushless motor. Did a little research and I found that it’s a bad idea and the (ztw) 300a esc can only handle 800kv brushless. Is that really that big of a difference from 940kv & 800kv to damage the esc..?

So great video it helps a lot do you have any videos explaining diameter and length in correlation to KV and why the length or width of a motor matters when the kv is the same with a Narrow but long VS a short and wide other than fitting it to plane

Great vid. question though! I have a 3d performance, 31-inch WS, yak that weighs less than 0.5 lbs. and uses 2s 600mAh. Correct me if I'm wrong but using your calculations I should be in a 4-inch prop? I'm using 15791RPM from (0.04896 x 961) - (162.66 x 31) + 20786 = 15791 and Prop diameter -0.002 x 15791 + 35.607 = 4.025 The reason I'm asking is because the plane came with an 8040 prop but is severely lacking in power. is this because I should move to a 4x2 prop?

For smaller Rc plane I think it would be different. As you said 2s battery for the wingspan of 30-40in, but 2s small batteries can be also used for smaller brushless planes like 20in wingspan.

Awesome Video !!! May I check one calc to be sure I got it right? I input 48 inches WS, 1.5 lbs., 100 watt/lb., 3s 1500 mAh Lipo. My results were 14 Amp Motor, 16 Amp Esc, 18C Lipo, 14,106 rpm, 1271 Kv and a 7x5 prop. Do you get the same ? Just want to make sure I got it right. You use a good number of constants/factors. Many Thanks

Have you built this calculator into excel or other spreadsheet? If so, is it available? Are there updates to the constants based on other airplane types?

I have an esc that says it is 3s capable, but the motor has to be 8.5 turns or greater. All the motors I have are rated in kv and not turns, how do I know what motor I can use using kv rating alone?

Hey, thanks for making this video. I just tried applying it to my first plane, a conversion of a 39“ Wingspan foam chucker. Unfortunately when I got to step 5 my prop diameter came out negative. Any ideas for what prop to try with a 250g flight weight, 2s battery, and 2700kv motor?

Hello.Great videos. Could you (or do you have a video on the 2s+ battery to the receiver and esc. Also, a question about the thin wires for the jr connection; and if they need a thicker awg. Appreciate it.

can i use.. in my cesnna topfligh 182.. 2 batteries 4 cels 10.000 with my spectrum esc 80 amp (avian spmxae1080 smart) with 1.2 motor s[ectrum ? esc and motor resist for 8 cels? thank you

Sir, can I use three 18650 batteries instead of 3s lipo battery? Is there any clear downside to it? I don't want to buy a li-po battery because I already have dozens of 18650 batteries

do you think spinners are necessary for electric rc planes? I have a Turbo Timber Evo. and it seems that the ESC would get better airflow if the spinner was not installed.

Do you have any videos comparing different brands of lipo batteries? People are always arguing over what brand of lipo is the best. Zee vs Gens Ace vs HooVoo etc…. I have yet to see a video where someone actually compares different 2S/4S/6S RC lipos (not just an on the road test), showing power draw / delivery, how long the battery will last under load, voltage drop under load, etc, with actual computerized measurements / results. Maybe this type of test can be done with some sort of desktop setup, so that all of the results will be pretty accurate.

What category would you consider an RC plane that will be towing a 5lb payload behind it? Would this still be a "basic trainer" but we just add the weight of the payload along in the calculation?

My aircraft is around 1.5 LBs with a 30in wingspan. So according to the formulas, I need a 2s battery pack with a 150W 2200 Kv motor but I can't find that kind of motor. suggestions?

Hi there, this was a lovely video, I was wondering though how you derived the equations you have for RPM and Prop diameter? Can you point me to a text or something that tells me where each of the terms comes from or are these equations you personally have derived out?

hello brother, by using your calculation i am getting a C rating around 3.76 while including 10000 mah li-ion battery with 3C. am i good to use this battery ??

Hello. I am trying to build an RC glider but I don't know where it belongs on the power performance level chart. Could you please help?

Is there any difference between all up weight and maximum take off weight of an aircraft?

Great video!! Helps me out so much with my low wing project. Cant get out of my head that you sound like Kermit.. I’m sorry!😅

Só uma dúvida e melhor montar um kit 6s ou 3s

Please make a same video on Long range rc plane ❤️❤️♥️♥️🔥🔥🔥

could you share excel to calculate ?

I think this calculation would be more useful if you used wing loading (LBS/SQ. IN.). This way it would be easily applied to any plane model.

Would you be interested in throwing all of this in an excel sheet?

...FS-i6 for airplane