Next Plane?

[r/c basher]

I know Ive been doing a bad job of giving updates on this build, but I got it done last night and took it out for its maiden. I have to say it flies. I can't comment on much else because it was thundering off in the distance and then I saw a lightening strike near by so I immediately landed. I only got to fly it around the field a couple times.

This morning I woke up and took it out it was a little windy and the grass was wet, but I tried anyway. But it was to windy so landed and again can't comment to much on how it flies. Its a pretty responsve plane I had to dial in 50% expo on the ailerons and 80% dual rate.

It reminds me more of a Great Planes Rifle than an Ultra Stick. I think I made the wing a little on the small side because it doesn't glide real well. But that means that it will go faster with the shorter wing. Overall dimensions are a 25" wing span and 24" length.

Hopefully tonight I'll be able to fly it more through a whole battery.

Heres some pics-

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[r/c basher]

Heres another-

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[r/c basher]

And last but not least-

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[19000rpm]

Nice looking build r/c.

[akent]

Good job!
That plane looks great!
Kent

[r/c basher]

Thanks guys. But it doesn't look very pretty any more. lol

Well I don't know where too start. The good, the bad, or the ugly. Cause this plane has seen it all tonight. Took it out today and crashed it into the ground. Partly because of the wind and some other things that I'll get to later. Smacked her real good the fuse was split in two and alot of chunks of foam were broke, but 10 minutes later and a little hot glue and hocus pocus and its in flyable shape.

Took her out this time no wind, was coming in for a landing and smacked her right into my jeep. The prop broke right in two. Put a new prop on her and took her out for a third time and actually got to fly it. And then tried a loop which ended up in a death spiral and had a rough landing and the wood motor mount broke.

I've come to the conclusion that it flies like poo, no stability at all. Tried doing a loop but it just gets all squirrely and death spirals to the ground. Out of 4 tries, 3 of them have ended in crashes/damage. This plane just doesn't have any stability. My Extra 300 is flat wing also but that has tons of stability and same with my Stingray. Maybe the KF-2 airfoil?

[akent]

Humm, maybe it's time to start building with EPP foam!
I have a Yak that I built from plans off of RCGroups. It is two years old now. About a million crashes, too.
It still flies awesome!

You can get EPP from www.RCfoam.com and a few other places. The 9mm stuff is what is normally used. You can use hot melt, regular CA, and Welder (the best) on this foam. You can paint it with almost anything. Almost nothing eats it.
Because it's not a stiff foam, you will need to stiffen it up. You can use Kevlar thread (available at most fishing supply shops), thin carbon fiber sticks, etc. They sell carbon fiber at RC Foam, too.

You can find plans that are ready to be printed on regular 8.5" x 11" paper over on RC Groups. You then tape them together for 1:1 plans.

Just an idea.

I posted somewhere here the Yak and also F-22 mid engine jet plans. These are awesome flying planes.

I can't seem to find those threads. Humm...
Kent

[Solitaire]

In "Videos". Kent.
Here's the F-22
www.rchelitalk.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=plankvideos&action=display&thread=2825

and the Yak
www.rchelitalk.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=plankvideos&action=display&thread=2824

[19000rpm]

It could be the airfoil, but it sounds like it may be tail heavy. That will make if very squirrelly.

[akent]

Thanks Sol!

Kent

[r/c basher]

Thanks guys.
To Akent, I just watched your video of your EPP yak 55 and thats impressive at how flexible it is and it doesn't break. If I ever find a good plan that I like the way it flies I'll try making it out of EPP.

I flew it again last night for 4 minutes and still acted the same. I was thinking that maybe it could be that the vertical stab is too small and doesn't have the authority to let the plane track straight.

To 19k, it could be the CG even though that when I power off the plane tends to point its nose down and landing ends in the nose landing first. I'll try moving the CG forward. I noticed that the plane balances in the middle of the wing.

I'll experiment with this plane some more but if I can't get it to fly right in the next few days I'm scrapin it. I really want to get my stingray up and flying again, now that, was a fun plane.

[r/c basher]

He!! YEAH! Just got back in from flying it. I modified the vertical stab and made it bigger and now it flies great! Its amazing how one little piece of foam can change the flying characteristics so much. I can't believe at how well it flies compared to before this is how it should fly. Its a completely different bird now. To bad that it already has all these battle scars. I just can't believe the difference, I did some loops and they were nice coordinated loops with no sign of going into a death spiral. The rolls were nice to and no sign of it getting squirrely. I just can't believe it. I'll definitely be keeping it.

[r/c basher]

Ok I need serious help. I was just searchin the net for my next dollar tree build. Lol Looked at Rcpowers site but didn't see anything their.

[19000rpm]

Nice fix on the rudder. I don't know why you couldn't build RCPowers or any other flat foam plane out of dollar tree. What are you looking for exactly?

[r/c basher]

I should of rephrased that I didn't see any plans that looked interesting to me on rcpowers. And Im not going to spend $10 for a plan when their is so many for free all over the net.

I flew the mini stick last night and had a rough landing and broke the motor mount off. I think its seen better days between all these crashes from learning what was wrong with it. The fuse has been split in two and pieced back together. It flew pretty fast, kinda scary almost considering that its made out of dollar tree foam, and held together with hot glue.

I'm thinking of building a simple sport plane, basically a smaller version of my Extra 300.