AXI Gold 5330/24 Outrunner Motor

In 2006 my wife and I celebrated our 25th wedding anniversary. I bought her a beautiful diamond tennis bracelet. She was so pleased, that she offered to buy me anything I wanted. I asked her if it would be all right if I bought everything I needed to build and fly a quarter-scale model of a Piper Cub. She happily agreed. (Great planning, don’t you think?!)

Anyway, I bought a Dave Patrick quarter-scale clipped-wing Piper Cub (no longer available) and a power system that was to be strong enough to fly the plane with authority. I purchased an Axi 5330-24 brushless motor, a Jeti 77amp speed control, and 2 packs of 5-cell 8000mah lithium polymer batteries. This is a big and heavy motor, easily dwarfing everything else powering anything in my fleet.

This was the biggest and heaviest model I had ever prepared for flying; it had a wingspan of 88 inches and weighed 16.5 pounds, and a 22inch (10 inch pitch) propeller sat up front. I had never seen such a big propeller before.

A friend met me at the club to help calm my nerves while I flew this beast for the first time. What impressed me immediately was the wonderful and smooth sound coming from the Axi motor and propeller, and the amazing volume of air being pushed back so forcefully. I was awed at the amount of raw power I was about to control.

The big plane taxied at just a click or two of throttle, and then was able to takeoff at a third throttle. I never exceeded half throttle on that first flight, as I had never flown anything so powerful.

Since that first flight, I have flown the plane nearly 100 times, and I am always so impressed by the motor. Everyone in my club is impressed every time it is flown. This big Axi motor easily pulls this plane straight up (for a while anyway), and through the biggest round loops.

The plane seems to be getting a little tired and scratched, but the motor still functions like new and I see no reason why it shouldn’t last a good ten years or more, and without any maintenance. It’s a bit bigger than what is recommended for Hobby Lobby’s Pilot-1 PA-12 quarter-scale ARF airplane, however the plane’s lower wing loading combined with this Axi motor, along with the speed control and batteries, would probably yield more than a half-hour of enjoyable flight time, or 3 solid 10-minute flights.

With such powerful and reliable electric motors available, I have no idea why anyone would want to mess with those dirty and noisy glow and gasoline engines anymore. I’m often on my second or third flight while some of the other guys are still trying to start or tune their engines.