Have you or have you heard of anyone successfully doing an electric conversion on the Chrysalis?

From : Don Stackhouse

Quite a few, both the HLG and 2-meter versions.

For a nice, simple sport electric 2-meter, shorten the nose of the 2-meter Chrysalis by 3 1/2" and install a Speed 600 with a folding 8" x 4.5" Graupner folding prop and a 7-cell battery. Use about 5 degrees down thrust and 2 degrees right thrust. Put the ESC behind the motor, put the battery on the C/G under the wing, and the Rx and servos behind the battery. Use two small servos out in the wing for the spoilers, one on each spoiler, so you don't have servos or linkages sticking out of the underside of the center section ot interfere with the top of the battery. Use a small separate battery pack to run the receiver (BEC's are not wise on soaring models).

For more performance, use a planetary gearbox and a larger prop. We're presently doing some experiments with an Astro FAI 035 Cobalt on 7 cells and a 14" x 9.5" CAM prop. Just don't try to level off with the throttle wide open!

The HLG Chrysalis does well with a Speed 400 and a 6' x 4" folder on 7 cells. If you're not planning to soar with it, you can also use the GWS drive out of an old LiteStik, with a wooden post sticking out of the front of the nose block for a mount. It's possible to make this arrangement convertible between sailplane and electric mode. Unfortunately, the drag of the windmilling prop dramatically reduces gliding performance, and we haven't had any luck yet finding a folder that performs well with this motor.

We do have a couple of other variations we're investigating, and we're hoping to eventually have an official "factory" version of electric conversions for both sizes of Chrysali. However, I don't know how soon those will be available. In the meantime, it's not difficult at all to convert the existing sailplane kits if you are a reasonably experienced builder.

Don Stackhouse
DJ Aerotech