Hangar 9 Showtime 50

Hangar 9 has been my favorite airplane manufacturer for many years now because of their quality of covering, lightweight (yet solid) laser-cut construction techniques, and innovative approaches designed to ease assembly and ensure success. Whenever they team up with world-class aerobatic pilot Mike McConville I know that the airplane that results will always fly as well as it looks! The new ShowTime 50 was no exception with its built-in vertical stabilizer, flying stab surfaces, and innovative Side Force Generator (SFG) technology for added rudder authority and precision tracking during aerobatics.

The ShowTime 50 is beautifully covered with four different UltraCote colors and can be powered for either glow or electric with pre-tested setups. Although the manual only describes the 2-stroke and 4-stroke glow-powered setups, the Horizon Hobby Web site now offers a recommended electric-power setup that was used for this review. The SFGs are optional and removable which makes the ShowTime 50 a perfect 3D trainer!

Assembly

This electric conversion project uses the E-flite Power 60 outrunner motor and Castle Creations Phoenix HV-85 ESC. The Power 60 package includes the mounting plate and mating connectors. The two Thunderpower 3-cell, 11.1v, 4200-mAh (15C) LiPo packs are connected in series for a 6S total voltage.

My review and flight-test will use the E-flite Power 60 outrunner, Phoenix HV-85 electronic speed controller (ESC) and two ThunderPower 3-cell, 11.1-volt, 4200-mAh LiPo packs in series. Note that a Phoenix 80 Brushless ESC will also work here, but an HV-85 ESC was in stock, so it was used. The radio system used was a Spectrum DX7 transmitter and receiver, in conjunction with five JR 537 standard servos.

The assembly starts with the aileron and servo installation into the wing halves. Everything fit perfectly and the manual had great instructions with photos. All the hardware was supplied in the kit and you only needed to add a 12-in. servo extension cable for each aileron servo.

The vertical stabilizer comes built into the fuselage, so you only need to glue the horizontal stabilizer in place. The main wings were then attached to help determine proper incidences, as they are perfectly aligned by the aluminum joiner tube and the pins near the trailing edge. The model’s horizontal stabilizer fit perfectly without any modification needed.

The elevator halves are each controlled by a separate servo. Having separate channels for each elevator servo does make trimming the airplane a little easier. Alternatively, you can also use a JR Matchbox on the servos, as it will allow you to trim them independently as well as reverse their direction if needed. My Spectrum DX7 AR7000 dual receiver has seven control channels so I simply plugged the second elevator servo’s lead into channel five (gear).

The rudder installation uses a pull-pull cable system driven by a single servo. This servo also controls the tailwheel assembly, which was installed with the rudder. I found it easiest to first glue the tailwheel bracket into the rudder hole and channel, and then glue the assembly to the vertical stab while inserting the other two cyanoacrylate (CA) hinges. Once the 5-minute epoxy dried, I then secured the other two hinges with thin CA. The two steel pull-pull cables installed easily. I was able to feed the cable into the fuselage from the tail slot and grab it from the hatch opening. The servo arm ends were connected first and the cables were crossed inside the fuselage per the manual before attaching them to the rudder.

Once the tailwheel was installed, you can then install the gear mains, wheels, and pants. This was a straightforward and strong installation without issue, but I prefer a slightly larger wheel on this size airplane as they handle the grass strips better. The fiberglass pants looked great and added a nice touch to the ShowTime 50 design along with a steerable tailwheel!

After lightly sanding the touching areas, I attached the canopy to the main hatch using Pacer Poly Zap™. It is a high-performance formula designed to work on space-age plastics: Lexan™, Delron, polycarbonate, nylon, and rubber. Poly Zap is ideal for clear canopies and all almost-ready-to-fly (ARF) kits because it dries clear and is non-fogging when kicker is not used.

The only fit problem I had was when trying to secure the main hatch to the fuselage. The holes in the fuselage needed to be elongated in the up direction before the screws could meet the threaded aluminum posts.

Motor Mounting

The ShowTime 50 comes with pre-installed 8-32 T-nuts for the glow-engine mount. I left the bottom one as built and relocated the other three T-nuts to match the X-mount pattern on the E-flite Power 60 motor, which were centered around the large hole in the firewall. After first drilling larger 5/32-in. holes in the X-mount, the Power 60 motor was then easily mounted using 4-in. long 8-32 screws with two 1-in. long spacers on each screw to extend the motor base from the firewall by 2 inches. The 8-32 screws and spacers are available at most home improvement stores. Note that 3-in. long 8-32 screws would work here also.

Before mounting the motor, 3/8-in. holes were drilled into the firewall to provide airflow into the fuselage to help cool the batteries. The Castle Creations Phoenix HV-85 ESC was positioned in between the motor-mount spacers and held with a single plastic cable tie. In this manner, the incoming air from the cowl openings will flow directly over the motor and ESC before entering the fuselage holes or exiting the bottom scoop built into the cowl. Note that the motor wires were also wrapped around the mount to prevent them from rubbing up against the rotating can. To facilitate an air exit for the battery cooling, the covering over the 5-in long opening in the fuselage bottom just aft of the wing trailing edge was removed. For proper airflow cooling, the exit hole size should be two to three times the size of the entry hole(s).

Final Setup

There was plenty of space in the fuselage for the Spectrum AR7000 dual receiver. I mounted the second receiver 90 degrees to the first and about four inches away from it. This ensures it gets a somewhat different RF environment when the main receiver has a signal fade. Further, the 2.4-GHz radio system is immune to car ignition noise and other radio frequency interference that are commonly created in a much lower frequency domain. The result of this so-called diversity reception has proven to be the most bulletproof, glitch-free performance on the RC market today.

The two ThunderPower 3-cell, 11.1-volt, 4200-mAh LiPo packs fit perfectly just behind the firewall, which made the recommended center of gravity (CG) easy to obtain. They were held in place with industrial strength Velcro (purchased at Home Depot). They are also easily accessible for recharging by simply removing the canopy. Note that these packs have node connectors on them to keep the individual cells balanced. I highly recommend a balancing charger or balancer to keep the packs healthy and safe.

To connect the two 3-cell (3S) LiPo packs in series for a 6S voltage, a cut-off portion of an old series connector module was used, which is sold by FMA Direct. A better solution is to use a series Deans U 2-to-1 adapter.

3d Testing

The model was outfitted with an APC 16x8 e-prop for flight-testing. To mount the prop on the spinner, the propeller was drilled for an 8-mm hole (5/16-in.). It was then hand drilled for the outer section of the rear side of the hole to 10 mm. This provided a snug fit onto the E-flite collet prop adapter for 6-mm shafts.

After connecting the two ThunderPower 3S2P 4200-mAh packs in series, the measured current was 55 amps (or 1200 watts) at full throttle. On this 7-lb ready-to-fly (RTF) airframe, that was a power level of 171 watts / lb, which provides excellent 3-D power!

The control throws were all set to about 45 degrees. Usually my models are set to 50% exponential on the ailerons and elevator, but not the rudder. On low rates, they are set to use 70% of these throws with 30% to 40% exponential depending on the control authority. These settings are my personal preference for 3-D flying, and cover my intermediate skills as well as when I let a national caliber pilot fly the airplane.

My buddy and I had a great deal of fun test flying the ShowTime 50. It needed only a few clicks of down elevator to be properly trimmed, so we immediately jumped to testing the power level. The airplane has plenty of power to hover and even pull out! On vertical runs, it seems to accelerate as it goes up. Although it was not equipped with the recommended long (3-D) servo arms, the model’s roll and recovery rates were very fast!

It was difficult to stall the ShowTime 50 as it can slow to a crawl before dropping its nose. Recoveries are quick from a stall, as little airspeed is needed to start it flying again. The wheels were a bit small on the rough grass though. This time of year (late December), we are just thankful not to be knee-deep in snow!

The reduced latency (stick movement to servo movement) of the Spectrum DX7 over the DX6 made for fast response times and good control feel as any other 72 MHz PCM radio system. The airplanes only control limitation was that of using the JR 537 standard servos on a 4-cell receiver battery pack.

Summary

Although the ShowTime 50 is the little brother to its popular 90-size Hangar 9 model, it incorporates the same innovative features that Mike McConville added to the original design. The smaller 50-sized ARF still has a low wing loading due to the lightweight laser-cut wood parts. Its optional SFGs provide extreme rudder authority to help add lift for slow knife-edge passes and the two-piece wing bolts together quickly for easy transport. The four-color UltraCote trim scheme provides excellent flying orientation and gives the ShowTime 50 a very beautiful look!

For extreme 3-D performance, I recommend spending a few dollars more per servo for the JR DS821 digital sport hi-torque servos, and using a 6-volt (5-cell) receiver battery pack like the Integy, which is also available from Horizon Hobby. This combination will provide the servo speed and torque required for 3-D maneuvers.