Christmas is Coming! Challenge
- Thread starter Blackbeltrrf
- Start date
Air Foil Sleigh
Thanks LocalFiend
Would adding an air foil to the sliegh help it fly more level/balanced? That would change the CG all up.I suppose the added weight would make balancing even harder though. I'm still a bit new, but the lift vector should help right?
The Big Question, is can you land it on a roof?
Maybe that's the FT challange?
Thanks LocalFiend
Would adding an air foil to the sliegh help it fly more level/balanced? That would change the CG all up.I suppose the added weight would make balancing even harder though. I'm still a bit new, but the lift vector should help right?
The Big Question, is can you land it on a roof?
Maybe that's the FT challange?
dengar256
Member
thank LocalFiend I am defiantly building something like this. I excitedly explained the idea to my wife on Friday and she gave me the "our neighbors already think your crazy" look. I might try and make is a little bigger as I don't have any of the mini motors. The smallest I have is a B pack.
You could probably fly more level with an airfoil. Of course, I could fly more level with things as they are now, but I was too busy goofing off.
Give an airfoil a shot and see what happens. If anyone is interested in testing different things out, you could probably use mostly solid pieces for the sides, no need to do all the detail cutting work for a prototype as I don't think it matters much.
I think that if you wanted to fly level more slowly the best way would be to scale the whole thing up some. I though about airfoils, and maybe widening things, but didn't want to spoil the look.
I can scale up the plans to B/C pack size. Should hopefully be easier to balance with lower wing loading at the larger size. I'm playing with an 8 foot version in CAD now and am doing weight calculations to see if my Tacon Bigfoot .46 motor will have enough power. Pink XPS foam from Home Depot should do the trick if things are light enough.
Stick an FPV camera on it. Would be awesome.
No problem.... I did that with the spider too.
Shouldn't be too hard to put a pico FPV setup on yours too. Something small like the all in one cams used on the tiny whoop can be used to FPV just about anything. You need one more reindeer in the front, with a spinning nose. LocalFiend, the spinny nosed reindeer.
Cheers!
LitterBug
No problem.... I did that with the spider too.
Shouldn't be too hard to put a pico FPV setup on yours too. Something small like the all in one cams used on the tiny whoop can be used to FPV just about anything. You need one more reindeer in the front, with a spinning nose. LocalFiend, the spinny nosed reindeer.
Cheers!
LitterBug
Extending out the spar and gluing another reindeer to it would certainly make things easier to balance. Might be a good option for those that want Rudolf at the smaller size. A big red spinner would be hilarious.
dengar256
Member
I can scale up the plans to B/C pack size. Should hopefully be easier to balance with lower wing loading at the larger size. I'm playing with an 8 foot version in CAD now and am doing weight calculations to see if my Tacon Bigfoot .46 motor will have enough power. Pink XPS foam from Home Depot should do the trick if things are light enough.
Scale up to B/C pack would be fantastic and I would definitely build it. And the 8 foot version would be very tempting and I just happen to have a spare .46 motor kicking around....
Here you go:
* Added non tiled plans to pdf
Swappable Size Santa's Sleigh Beta v.1 - AIO
Increased the size by 60% which is pretty typical for a MM to C pack size difference. That puts it at 50 inches long, so still smaller than an explorer/sea duck. It moved from 2 sheets to 5. I think with the center spar it will be strong enough, but doubling up foam for the center section might not be a bad idea. Or you could just run a piece of wood or cheapo carbon arrow down the the backside of the reindeer for more stiffness.
Wing loading will be really light, even if it takes two 2200mah batteries to balance. I think you can dump a lot of weight into the nose of this thing without affecting flight performance.
A standard size swappable power pod will fit right over the center spar. Or you can just use a simple firewall. Remove as much of the forward spar material as you want to give room for your electronics.
Should look a lot more like Santa and his Reindeer at this size from a distance, and should be able to float along instead of zip around.
I also got some graphics from Rasterize which I'll be using to draw up a different set of side plates. Should make it really easy to have it be awesome looking.
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Adding an airfoil should give you more lift at lower speed and above a certain airfoil thickness also more drag, helping you to fly slower, which in my opinion is far more interesting. Localfiend's design built extra light with fat shell/hollow airfoils might be usable indoors - great for that winter/christmas meet or the like
Localfeind: What kind of CNC rig is that? Homebuilt? I've been looking into the MPCNC design for a while myself.
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Adding an airfoil should give you more lift at lower speed and above a certain airfoil thickness also more drag, helping you to fly slower, which in my opinion is far more interesting. Localfiend's design built extra light with fat shell/hollow airfoils might be usable indoors - great for that winter/christmas meet or the like
Localfeind: What kind of CNC rig is that? Homebuilt? I've been looking into the MPCNC design for a while myself.
It could help, but at the size of the version we're talking about you'd have to move away from foam to accomplish it.
Maybe keep foam for the side plates and sleigh. Remove paper from both sides and then when the bare foam is flat glue another sheet/graphics onto just one side.
For the airfoil I think some strategically placed BBQ skewers could form the curve and add support. Once they're glued into place wrap the airfoil shape with some saran wrap or other lightweight see through plastic. You might still want to have a cross plate of at the bottom of the airfoil up front to mount the motor and battery but it should be easily doable.
Here's my CNC machine:
http://forum.flitetest.com/showthread.php?29213-1000x1000mm-C-Beam-ACME-Driven-CNC
localfiend would it too much to ask to have the non tiled plans? I have them printed out at a local printer and saves time . Can't wait to start this
Nope, I'll try and get those done this evening. Need to move the c pack over to another copy of my template so that I have room in the non tiled printing section.
I'll also try and see if I can't get the skinned version all ready to go. It should be less complicated to cut out, and it'l be pre-painted.
Here's the B/C pack version with the non tiled stuff included.
Swappable Size Santa's Sleigh Beta v.1 - AIO
Swappable Size Santa's Sleigh Beta v.1 - AIO
After poking around in a few stores and not finding anything of the appropriate size or weight, I will probably go down the path of cutting out your templates and adapting them to my quad. May add a 3D push/pull prop on an aux channel with the ESC in 3D mode to make it possible to fly level. May try out with a "tiny" version, on the Tiny Whoop for some indoor fun too.
Cheers!
LitterBug
Cheers!
LitterBug
I cut mine out and assembled it last night. Ran into a few minor issues. I messed up on the spar sizing. It's the size of a power pod, so one won't fit around it. On the other hand, the big size made for a very sturdy structure so you should be fine building it as is. Just fabricate a firewall or really short pod out of some scrap foam. The other issue I noticed is that I forgot to resize the tabs length on the main "wing". No big deal, just trim them down to the width of a piece of foam so they fit into the side plates.
It balanced quite nicely with a 2200mah 3 cell before I put on the gear, so wing loading will be super light. The wheels I added are rather big. I think I'll swap out the gear for something smaller after the maiden. Or glue some retracts to the side of the spar, I have a few cheapo ones from hobbyking that would work well.
Haha, a little tiny version would be hilarious.
dengar256
Member
I got the plans printed out and my elf's are busy cutting them out. My hope is to have them ready for foam by the end of the evening. My wife even got me some bells for the Sleigh to show her support for the project.
Who needs a CNC when you have child labor.
My goal is to have it built and ready to fly by the weekend.
Who needs a CNC when you have child labor
.My goal is to have it built and ready to fly by the weekend.
I got the plans printed out and my elf's are busy cutting them out. My hope is to have them ready for foam by the end of the evening. My wife even got me some bells for the Sleigh to show her support for the project.
View attachment 77561
Who needs a CNC when you have child labor
My goal is to have it built and ready to fly by the weekend.
Haha. Why didn't I think of that. Should have checked for an elf rental service before building my CNC.
Got a chance to maiden the bigger version today. Flew great, and was able to go a lot slower than the small one. I'll get video uploaded eventually. Internet is running at a crawl.
Think I'm gonna swap out the wire landing gear for retracts this evening, and If I don't get distracted finish the graphics version.
dengar256
Member
I got a later start than I hoped this evening. I have the plan roughly cut out on poster board but I am not sure I will be able to get it on the foam tomorrow. Still hopeful for a weekend flight all depending on the weather. It is snowing and blowing at the moment. We got 6 inches of snow over the last couple of days.
as a side note localfiend you have become part of our home decor. My oldest (the one in the elf suit) will sometimes take shapes and logos from the planes he cuts out and puts them on his bedroom wall. You are rate beside the three bloody wonders flight combat.
Starting to wish I had a CNC but cutting by hand is all part of the fun right? Thanks again for these plans. The whole family is getting in on this build and I cannot wait to see it in the air.
as a side note localfiend you have become part of our home decor. My oldest (the one in the elf suit) will sometimes take shapes and logos from the planes he cuts out and puts them on his bedroom wall. You are rate beside the three bloody wonders flight combat.
Starting to wish I had a CNC but cutting by hand is all part of the fun right? Thanks again for these plans. The whole family is getting in on this build and I cannot wait to see it in the air.
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