Flite Test - Baby Blender v.2 - BUILD

Villalji

Scratch build fan
I build a v1 and I had tons of fun building, flying, crashing and re-building, mine has now 4 braces in the wings, 2 carbon rods in the lower wing, and several othe mods, flying with a 300W motor, a 2200 3s, and still around 675 grams, is a blast to fly!
I would love to buy some of the parts in the store, but the 41 USD to ship to Germany is a killer....
 

ferret

Junior Member
For those of you that didn't make this a swapable- can you show me how you mounted your motor? Thanks!
 

Chiron

Junior Member
I cannot believe how much fun I had building this plane; a credit to the Flite Test team in creating these plans and build videos. I am waiting for the control horns and firewall from FT and the motor/electronics from HK. I lucked out as I dropped by a sign shop looking for colored vinyl and they gave me a roll of scrap material that was more than enough for the plane. I also built a Old Fogey for my son.
DSC_9471.jpg DSC_9474.jpg DSC_9476.jpg
 

serial0l0

"Say what again..."
I've built and maidened my speed build BBv2 and it is awesome. It does feel kind of slippery in the air for lack of a better phrase. It gets literally turned around in a bit of wind but it's a ton of fun flying it. I now have 4 swappables; the bloody wonder, ft flyer, BBv2, and the ft3d. I think the bloody wonder is my favorite to fly even though my build was sloppy and ugly with black $tree foam board. ;) Thanks FT.
 

jhitesma

Some guy in the desert
Mentor
Third try's the charm right? Decided to build a BB v2 the other day but had a few false starts on my fuselage:
2013-04-20 10.04.13.jpg

First one came out great, made it out of a board I had already covered in tape. Then right after I glued it I noticed...I had printed the V1 plans instead of the V2 plans by mistake. Doh!

Yeah, I could still make a nice plane out of it...but I had planned on the V2 with it's upgrades. And it's just a 1/2 sheet of dollar foam board. So I printed out set of actual V2 plans...

And proceeded to mess up one of the folds gluing it as a B instead of an A. Actually half is A half is B. It slipped as the glue was drying and the glue had already set enough I wasn't able to correct it. Grrr..

Third set of plans. Finally a nice V2 fuse!

2013-04-20 13.42.57.jpg

All built up, now for some wings!

BTW - Not sure if that motor (http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/uh_viewItem.asp?idProduct=18544) will be enough for this plane or not. I don't remember what I had in mind when I bought it. I'm guessing either an F/22 or an experimental air noob tube. I have the recommended NTM 28-26 on order but it won't be here for another week or two. So not sure if I'll give this motor a try or not. Also debating if I'll need a different battery. I have several 2200 3S bats on hand...but I think I'd rather pick up some 1300's just not sure if 3S or 4S would be better to go with at that point. Based on the specs I'm thinking this motor on a 3S will be pretty close to the 28-26.

Won't be flying for a week or two anyway. Want some linkage stoppers but my LHS is moving this weekend so they're not open so it will be a few days until I can pick them up...may just end up ordering some along with a few new batts...
 

baronbernie

Member
After I finish building my FT Old Fogey, plan on beginning the speed build Baby Blender V2. I have a Rimfire 370 28-26 1000 Outrunner Brushless Motor just waiting to be used. Is it acceptable to use this motor for the Baby Blender?

Baron
 

jhitesma

Some guy in the desert
Mentor
Well I finished it, maidened it and crashed it. Now to repair it :)

I ended up drawing the wings out by hand since it seemed easier than taping together the printouts:
2013-04-20%2015.28.44-L.jpg


Since I had a week to wait for some linkage stoppers I went ahead and painted the fuselage...didn't bother to paint the wings as being a fairly new pilot I figured they wouldn't last very long:
2013-04-26%2019.13.44-L.jpg


The L2210-1400 motor seemed more than powerful enough...in fact it kind of caught me off guard at how powerful it was. With a 8x4.3 prop the plane lept off the ground in just a few feet. Pitch control felt great...but I forgot I didn't have it on low rates and first time I banked found out the ailerons were more responsive than I expected. Instead of a nice gentle bank like I was expecting I sent it straight into the ground...oops. Fully my fault not the planes - plane felt great for the 20 seconds or so it was in the air :)

Damage wasn't bad. Bent a slow fly prop, aileron servo (TGY9) seems to have stripped a gear, both upper wing supports broke, forward former took a bit of abuse and the piece connecting the two halves of the elevator broke. All fairly easy to repair. Suspect I'll be able to fly it again tomorrow morning if I have another nice calm morning like I did today. Only next time I'll be more careful about being on low rates and I'll know that it will react a bit faster than I expected!

Thankfully I also had my swappable nutball with me so I was able to fly out a few batteries. Let's see if I can crank out a FT Flyer today and get this repaired.
 

jhitesma

Some guy in the desert
Mentor
Repairs last night were fairly easy. Wing supports were fairly clean breaks and easy to glue, seems just as stiff as before so I didn't even give it any extra reinforcement. Aileron servo is stripped, so replaced that. Glued the elevator back together in the middle...but think it's going to need more reinforcement still...maybe some cut up gift card. Only other damage seemed to be cosmetic. Gave it a once over and decided to try again this morning if the wind was calm.

Woke up to still air! Dang, should have charged my heli bats last night. No biggie, I've got a FT Flyer I tossed together yesterday ready to maiden, the nutball is flying well, and the BB is ready to go. Park is deserted, air is completely calm. Woo Hoo! Instead of learning from my mistakes I decide to taunt them and pull out the Flyer to maiden. But it goes great. Fly through two batteries, don't break any props, and have a handful of smooth landings and a few touch and gos. Blown away by it. I did finally have a hard landing that resulted in fully breaking my firewall (the first FT laser cut firewall I've broken yet!) It was a crash with the nutball yesterday that broke the firewall...but it was still holding together well enough that the motor was good and solid. So still feeling good from the flyer flying so nicely I pulled out the blender.

Went over it again. Everything seemed great. Set it up...started to taxi...and the prop flew off. Not a fan of this prop saver. I had actually loctited it this time...but it still came loose immediately. Ok, back to the tailgate..bit of work and it all seems good and really snug now. Repeat. Repeat. For real this time, that prop is ON there. Check everything again. All looks good.

Try again. Gets about ten feet out, feeling a little twitchy still but think I can handle it...and looses power. Yep, the motor mount screws let it loose this time and it twisted up it's leads with one of the factor solder joints at a connector pulling loose (pretty cold looking joint.)

I didn't so much land as the plane fell out of the sky, just kind of belly flopped right down like someone pushed on it from above. And when I picked it up I found that the skewers at the front of the pod had pulled through the foam and come loose. I need to find some smaller batteries, the 2200 3cells are just to big and amplifying my mistakes.

I also really need to build better landing gear or get a friend to hand launch me. Coat hanger wire just isn't strong enough for this plane. It barely works on my nutball and the flyer. LHS is still in the middle of moving though so waiting on them so I can get some real wire. I think it can fly on this motor...but I think I'll wait to try and fly it again when the motor I ordered for it gets here, USPS has picked up the tracking on that so it should be here soon. This motor mount just seems like if I get it tight enough to hold the motor securely then it binds the bearings and I'm sick of fighting with it for now. May have to bash up another flyer before the girls get back, I promised that one to my wife but liked it so much I want one. And the 24g firewall replacement should be done soon, typing this up gave the glue gun time to heat up ;)
 

sidneylopsides

Junior Member
Just took mine out for a maiden, I think I must have got the CG wrong. I marked it on the wing supports during the build had it all balanced out, but it wasn't great to fly. I'll have to try re-trim everything and measure the CG again.
Seemed tail heavy, needed a lot of elevator trim to stop it pulling up, it also wanted to roll left a lot. 3 flights, each with a hair raising hand launch as it dived and rolled.
Once up in the air it was controllable, but the slightest gust seemed to throw it around. It doesn't like fighting the wind, and seems to loose a lot of control at lower speeds. A couple of times it felt like it wasn't going to turn back into the wind, finally ending up with a tree top landing where the best it would do was stay level, even with full right aileron.
Moved the battery as far forward as it would go, thought I'd try a rolling take off...

New prop, hand launch, felt a bit better but still a scary launch, only flew 30s and brought it don to land, did actually float in nicely.

Another flight, scary launch, power and altitude. Found a trim that kept it stable, though it still rolls at will, this time either way.
It was more fun to fly, loops and rolls are great, very axial on the rolls, can hover into the wind, but I don't feel like I have quite the same level of control as my Bloody Wonder.

If it's just trim and balance that's made it difficult, I think I'll really enjoy flying it. I'd love it to fly like he BW, just direct and accurate.
 

baronbernie

Member
Started building the BB and decided to build along with the build video SLOWLY. Sometimes I catch myself wanting to build the plane in to much of a hurry, or when there is a fast tune is playing, I may begin to step up the speed of the building process. When I become this way, it is time for me to STOP, move away from the table and take a look at the progress that has been made and takeing a sip of either coffee, tea, soda and bring myself down.
 

jhitesma

Some guy in the desert
Mentor
I keep seeing notices of new posts in this thread...but they aren't showing up. Hopefully the board goofiness sorts itself out soon.

Got my NTM 28-26 yesterday and had calm air this morning so I got to try the BB again. First had some fun with the Delta I built last week felt way underpowered on a 2s but good on a 3s - Unfortunately one somewhat hard landing and I broke the firewall. Bummer, I've only broken one firewall since I started using the FT laser cuts and they've handled abuse like champs, this one must have had a bad grain line right across two mounting holes because it broke cleanly right across the top screws after a fairly easy hit. But that gave me an excuse to switch over to the blender.

Felt much easier to fly on this motor. Was able to make a few circuits of the park successfully. But my landing gear proved to be basically just decorative, and I found the elevator servo is acting goofy (may have broke a tooth when I broke the elevator the first time I had it out I'm guessing.) Add in the wind suddenly coming back and from a direction I didn't expect - and I wound up in a small tree with broken wing supports again.

Unfortunately I don't have any more spare servos on hand, and the half dozen I ordered showed up today...while I was at lunch so I couldn't sign for them :( (Hate when that happens. On the plus side they showed up surprisingly quick, I ordered them a full week after I ordered the 28-26 but they showed up just 1 day apart all the way from HK. In other odd shipping news the pack of FT control horns I ordered still hasn't shown up, but was shipped, while the pack of FT firewalls and control horns I ordered a few days later has shown up already despite being shipped later. Our mail service here is wacky.)

So the blender is on the bench for another week it looks like. Hopefully next weekend I'll have more luck. On the plus side I'll have my 24g power pod repaired tonight (and a second pod made to go with it as a spare.) So the Flyer, Delta and Nutball will be in the air tomorrow morning. Just wish I hadn't missed that pack of servos - then my Fogey and Bloody Wonder would be ready tomorrow too :)
 

serial0l0

"Say what again..."
Just took mine out for a maiden, I think I must have got the CG wrong. I marked it on the wing supports during the build had it all balanced out, but it wasn't great to fly. I'll have to try re-trim everything and measure the CG again.
Seemed tail heavy, needed a lot of elevator trim to stop it pulling up, it also wanted to roll left a lot. 3 flights, each with a hair raising hand launch as it dived and rolled.
Once up in the air it was controllable, but the slightest gust seemed to throw it around. It doesn't like fighting the wind, and seems to loose a lot of control at lower speeds. A couple of times it felt like it wasn't going to turn back into the wind, finally ending up with a tree top landing where the best it would do was stay level, even with full right aileron.
Moved the battery as far forward as it would go, thought I'd try a rolling take off...

New prop, hand launch, felt a bit better but still a scary launch, only flew 30s and brought it don to land, did actually float in nicely.

Another flight, scary launch, power and altitude. Found a trim that kept it stable, though it still rolls at will, this time either way.
It was more fun to fly, loops and rolls are great, very axial on the rolls, can hover into the wind, but I don't feel like I have quite the same level of control as my Bloody Wonder.

If it's just trim and balance that's made it difficult, I think I'll really enjoy flying it. I'd love it to fly like he BW, just direct and accurate.

I have had the exact same experiences flying my speed build BBv2 nearly word for word. I couldn't have put it any better. As a matter O', I described it in a previous post as feeling almost slippery in the air. That was all I could come up with. I am using the recommended motor/prop for the FT3d in the BB with a 2200mah batt. I use the same pod on the FT bloody Wonder and it flies like it's on rails. The FT3D feels like it is right between the two in that respect.

Something about the baby blender feels like it is nose heavy and tail heavy all at the same time. I guess it could be my build or my setup. But I can't help but to think it may be better all around as a longer or bigger wingspan plane. Then again maybe it is just because it is my first biplane. I don't know.
 
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Chiron

Junior Member
Took the Blender out for the maiden flight on the weekend and found the motor underpowered (waiting on the recommended motor to arrive in the mail). Swapped in a different motor and it flew better but looking forward the the new motor. I also had to put the battery as far forward as possible but she seemed to trim out okay.

I had so much fun building this plane and it looks great in the sky. Thanks FliteTest!


 
Another Baby Blender Build

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Attached are my photos of my first Baby Blender MkII build.

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Big shouts out of thanks to flynron1964 for the inspiration to paint her in interwar USAAC “Yellow Wings” color scheme, WizzyWiggs for information on the instrument panels and alibopo for information on the windscreens.

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She is made out of Office Depot white foam board (item no. 454-157) since no one sells Adams’ foam board here in Hawaii (weight is 5.56 oz / 20”X30” sheet, sold in packs of 3). She is powered by Turnigy 1300 maH 3S batteries, powering a NTM Prop Drive Series 28-26A 1200kv / 250w motor controlled by a Turnigy AE-30A brushless ESC and driving a 8X6E APC-style propeller.

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I lowered the rear turtle deck to match the height of the forward turtle deck, extended the fin and rudder to giver her a tail skid and put on a hook and loop strap around the power pod to help secure better the battery. Other than that, she is stock.

Keep'em flyin!
 

FlyingMonkey

Bought Another Trailer
Staff member
Admin
That looks great! I'll end up having to build one of these, and I have too many planes for the limited space I have as it is.
 

puzzleflyer

Junior Member
... it wasn't great to fly....
Once up in the air it was controllable, but the slightest gust seemed to throw it around. It doesn't like fighting the wind, and seems to lose a lot of control at lower speeds.

WOW. I have built 3 of them, and so far the last one (a BB v2) is the best, but the performance is still very much like you have described. I don't think my winds were any more than a couple of mph and I further doubt that there were any gusts. I even tried adding some dihedral to the top wing but it still seemed unstable in the air. I thought it might be trims, but it would yaw slightly in BOTH directions. I was constantly having to make corrections and was very surprised when it did a ROLL without my input. I have certainly had several hair raising experiences flying them. I look forward to trying some of the other planes, but for now the BBs that I have may make excellent ceiling decorations in the work room. :) I am hoping that they come out with a BB v3 that flies like its on rails. I would also like to see one that flies FAST on RAILS. That Viggen looks nice, but very involved with cutting templates and foam. Plus it's not a swappable so I would need more equipment. If any one at Flite Test is listening to the forum I'm begging. FAST, STABLE, ON RAILS, SWAPPABLE, AEROBATIC. For comparison (Parkzone T-28 Trojan). Perhaps the Spitfire will fill that need, but you can't have too many of those. Please know that Flite Test has made an IMPACT, and a very good one. Thanks to all of you. Your dedication, knowledge, and enthusiasm are greatly appreciated.
 
Just Another Baby Blender Maiden Flight

I maiden the Baby Blender MkII this evening. The winds were calm and I use the low throw rates (~65% dual rate setting) and 30% expo.

Take off took about 2 inches as the BB MkII leaps off the ground even on short grass. Then things get interesting.

As noted by Sydneylopsides and puzzleflyer, the BB MkII is a bit squirrelly in the air. Even with the 1300mah 3s moved all the way to the front, she was still a bit tail heavy. I added 7g to the nose and that seemed to help but she is still a bit of a handful: controllable, but a handful.

"Landings" on short grass were less than beautiful, both resulting in roll-overs. Good thing is that the Baby Blender is rugged as she survived both with minimal and easily repairable battle damage.

Also, at least my Baby Blender likes to run at 2/3 to 3/4 throttle; at 1/2 throttle, she was on the edge of stalling. This may be due to the fact that she is made out of the slightly heavier OfficeDepot foam board and not Adam's Dollar Tree foam board, which is not available here in Hawaii. Still, I was hoping she would be more of a slow flying cruiser.

A couple of suggestions for the BB MkII:

* Add clear packing tape to the front edge wing tips of the lower wing. These got a little crunched on my less than beautiful landings.

* Reinforce with Extreme packing tape the front holes for the barbeque skewers used to secure the wing to the fuselage. Also consider moving the forward holes for the forward wing mount a bit higher on the fuselage than as stated on the plans as they come under a lot of stress in less than perfect "landings."

* The 2mm landing gear wire is still a little too weak for the BB. However, you can bend it back easily to shape but a thicker wire may provide a more sturdy landing gear.

* If anyone knows how to do it for an Armin wing, add dihedral, if possible, at least to the lower wing. With short, stubby, flat wings, the Baby Blender does not self stabilize.

As others have said, the Baby Blender is a fun plane to build and is quite maneuverable. I was hoping for a more stable, sedate, slow-flyer, which the BB MkII is not, but she is still a fun plane.

All in all, not too bad a plane.

Keep'em flyin'!:cool: