For nearly 30 years, all of my field support needs have been met using my blue, 1976 vintage AeroTrend field box. This extremely light, under 3 pounds, fiberglass field box supports the airplane, holds the fuel, fuel pump, 2 draws worth of tools, electric starter, 22-amp battery, power panel, two fast chargers for the aircraft’s on-board battery, tachometer, battery tester and a host of specialty devices.

Photo 1       Photo 2

It has been upgraded and redesigned over the years as my flying needs have changed. At 31 years of age, the darn thing still looks new and still performs most of my glow powered field support tasks. However, it is not easily portable at a contest since both air-plane and starting equipment must be quickly set in position and the engine running within three minutes. So, Ole` Blue (photo 1) has passed its contest tasks off to the Silver Case (photo 2).

Both “field boxes” do the jobs they have been designed for very well. But now that my “fleet” includes several electric-powered aircraft, both Ole` Blue and Silver Case just can’t carry everything needed for a relaxing day pushing electrons around the sky. Something more was needed for that task.

I was planning to get some 1/4-inch finished plywood at Loews or Home Depot, crank up the old jig saw and make an electric field box of my own design. I had already done that to make a charging box that held two 22-amp dry cell batteries from an old telephone back up power system. But this was just a charging box and held few tools and no equipment. It no longer met my growing electric-power needs.

I was going to make my own electric field box until I visited my local hobby shop. There, right in front of me was the new ElectriFly Ultra E-Box. It was very reasonably priced at $40, held batteries, chargers and lots of equipment. I was in a hurry to complete another project but picked up the box and, judging from the box photo alone (usually a dangerous thing to do), put it in my shopping cart. The box listed the Hobbico TorqMaster LC 12-volt, 7-amp Battery (photo 5) as the recommended power system so I also bought two of them for $18 each plus some wire and banana plugs.

I thought I had bought a field box kit similar to many of the field box kits out there for glow power. But even a kit would be easier to construct than my own concoction. The Ultra E-Box kit sat there for about a month while I worked on other projects.

Finally, I had some time to build the Ultra E-Box kit just for my own personal E-Flight sessions. I opened the box, removed the contents and actually stood there a little bit stunned. Look at photo 6 above. Exactly what you see there is what came from the box. The entire field box is completely built. It is not a kit. The electric plugs, switches and all wiring are already factory-installed. The two drawers are built and fit well. All the dividers are in place. The laser cut plywood parts fit together perfectly. How can they do this for $40 retail?

There is one, and only one construction step for the “builder” to complete. Click on photo 7 to enlarge it and notice the four small hook and loop fasteners located on the four factory-installed tabs; one at each corner of the opening. These fasteners are the “white strip” seen in photo 6. Cut that strip into four equal pieces, remove the protective paper from one side and affix the strip to the corner tabs.

Then remove the protective paper from the other side. Position the vented cover as shown in photo 9 and press into place. That’s it; the “kit” was built. Using the hook and loop fastener system allows the battery cover to be quickly removed for charging the box batteries or for access to the interior draw.

Remove the vented cover and the drawer. Note that there are two sets of wires in the battery compartment. Connect the longer of the black and red wires to the battery terminals of the left battery as shown in photo 11. The shorter wires go to the right side battery. All the internal wiring is done for you.