FT Cruiser - BUILD

[DDSFlyer]

Whew! What a maiden...talk about hair raising! First off I thought CG was on but it was WAY tail heavy and what a handful! Barely got it back on the ground safely...
First issue I need to resolve are the wheels, I'm probably going to heat shrink them on there since the hot glue didn't stick but was able to maiden with some gorilla glue wrapped around the ends.
Second, I turned down the throws to 75% (eventually going to 80-85% after she trimmed out) and 30-40% expo. That made her flyable. I definitely have some tracking issues due to the right aileron trim is needed to get her to fly straight but that's no big deal.
Third the props are so much POWER! I think I'm gonna go with the 8x4.5 slow fly props I got instead of the master airscrews because my motors were getting a little warm and it just climbed with power but dropped down fast without it. Plus it's sucking the juice pretty good out of the 2200mAh and 2650's that I put in.
Fourth, and the biggest, is I've gotta find some better CG fix. It is tail heavy, so I put a AA battery in the bottom of the nose all the way forward just to help her out. I don't like making the plane any heavier but I don't see much of an option yet. I may see if I can push the ESCs farther forward in the pods, but I to get some lead weights to add forward to get this thing to center better.

As far as it being my first scratch build I'm super happy with it coming home in one piece. Two really scary flights and what some would call landings and 3 more trimming flights with actual landings later and I'm home trying to let off the "shakes" of excitement of maiden flight!

 

[DDSFlyer]

OK...I just picked up some dollar tree foam board and WOW! What a difference in quality from the Elmer's foam board. And the WEIGHT! No wonder I had such a hard time with this board. And no wonder my plane feels so heavy! Oh well, guess I'll build my speed build kit now after flying my scratch build awhile. I also see how the dollar tree foam board would suck up the minwax layers and make it stronger.
The Elmer's foam board pretty much has Poster Board thickness paper while the Dollar Tree board has maybe construction paper thickness and consistency for paper covering.

 

[Mirabile Visu]

Here is a file for differential thrust that I use for a DX8. It has none for F.Mode 0, 50% for F.Mode 1, and 100% for F.Mode 2.

This is for one motor in Throttle and the other in Gear. You will prolly need to take out all the Offset in Mix 1 b/c I forgot to calibrate the 2 ESCS. I just set the Offset to make it work....too lazy, I guess.

http://www.mediafire.com/download/drl7619e1r9v3r4/07FTCRUZ.SPM

Thank you so very much for this file. I've tried designing mixes on the DX8 before, with random and unpredictable results. I'll let you know how I get on !
Cheers,
Trevor

 

[Rbeedude]

Hi. Just wondering what material you guys use to build the plane out of? Because I am making my own plane and it's similar to the ft cruiser. Or if you guys have any places where I could by some good material to build planes that would be great. I live in New Zealand so it's hard to find good material. By the way is there a video that shows how to connect two motors and esc s to a battery.

Thanks.

 

[xuzme720]

Hi. Just wondering what material you guys use to build the plane out of? Because I am making my own plane and it's similar to the ft cruiser. Or if you guys have any places where I could by some good material to build planes that would be great. I live in New Zealand so it's hard to find good material. By the way is there a video that shows how to connect two motors and esc s to a battery.

Thanks.

Try the videos in the first post of this thread. They go over all the items you have asked about except where to get foamboard in NZ. That one I can't help with except to say a lot of people use 4-5mm depron if foamboard isn't available. Packing tape can substitute for the paper if you need to go that route.

 

[Smok1n]

Has anyone built this with removable wing tips? I am planning my scratch build now, but need to make it transportable in my smallish sedan's trunk. Feasible? Suggestions?

I was thinking the best place to separate would be at the outboard edge of the nacelles. I realize I will have to shorten the aileron servo leads and plug/unplug them in the vicinity of the the nacelles, and also that I will have to come up with an improved main spar. I am considering an aluminum arrow shaft for the spar, with a length of carbon fiber tubing from the wing tips. I would then add a BBQ skewer indexing pin at the trailing edge in front of the aileron, and finally, lock the tips in place with a bit of Velcro or with magnets.

If you have any better ideas I would love the help. Thanks.

 

[Flynn]

Has anyone built this with removable wing tips? I am planning my scratch build now, but need to make it transportable in my smallish sedan's trunk. Feasible? Suggestions?

I was thinking the best place to separate would be at the outboard edge of the nacelles. I realize I will have to shorten the aileron servo leads and plug/unplug them in the vicinity of the the nacelles, and also that I will have to come up with an improved main spar. I am considering an aluminum arrow shaft for the spar, with a length of carbon fiber tubing from the wing tips. I would then add a BBQ skewer indexing pin at the trailing edge in front of the aileron, and finally, lock the tips in place with a bit of Velcro or with magnets.

If you have any better ideas I would love the help. Thanks.

Since the bottom of the wing is flat, no dihedral, I think you would be able to cut the top of the wing and have it fold under. If you make each side the same and have two spars that meet in the middle, you should be ok. I don't think you would have to unplug your servos then, just make sure there's some slack. You can also check out Ed's design on youtube. Just put in "Experimental Airlines". He did a foam wing with an area in the middle of a foam spar to which he placed a carbon/wood dowel.

Let us know how it goes

 

[Smok1n]

Since the bottom of the wing is flat, no dihedral, I think you would be able to cut the top of the wing and have it fold under. If you make each side the same and have two spars that meet in the middle, you should be ok. I don't think you would have to unplug your servos then, just make sure there's some slack. You can also check out Ed's design on youtube. Just put in "Experimental Airlines". He did a foam wing with an area in the middle of a foam spar to which he placed a carbon/wood dowel.

Let us know how it goes

Flynn,
Folding under isn't possible since the nacelles would be in the way. Folding up though, that could work, if I make the outer spar removable. I'll give that some thought. I vaguely remember Ed's design, I'll review it. Thanks!

 

[Smok1n]

Flynn,
Folding under isn't possible since the nacelles would be in the way. Folding up though, that could work, if I make the outer spar removable. I'll give that some thought. I vaguely remember Ed's design, I'll review it. Thanks!

OK, after watching Ed's video on the removable wing design, I am going to go that route! I have some 5.5 mm carbon fiber tubing that will slip fit nicely if I make a box cross section spar setup like Ed's. Printing plans now, let the build begin! Thanks Flynn.

 

[Yogenh1]

I just got my speed build kit and have started to build it.

 

[Benny]

A friend was trying to explain to me that with a dual engine plane I will need to either install two different propellers or have them spinning different directions or something to that effect. I didn't find anything in the build videos about this and the link to the recommend propellers only had one style. Could anyone please explain what will be necessary for this application? Thanks -Benny

 

[DDSFlyer]

Because of the twin motor design, the torque of the motors will have double the effect on the aircraft. Having counter rotating props will help cancel each other out and have the plane react more stable. I'm sur it's possible to fly with two same rotating props though, just with tendencies to roll when punching the throttle

 

[Yogenh1]

It will fly just fine with them going the same way. I fly been doing it that way all the time. I fly them with gas and that it the only way you can have them.

 

[Davidoff]

how to make cruise crazy mode

Hey Guys,

Can anyone tell whats setup is nessesary to create de cruiser with crazy mode?
I tried to search the forum but cannot find it.
I read more questions about this but i didn't find an awnser.


Josh said, that David used 1600kv motors.
But in the build plans it says, 1450KV.....

Are the 1450 enough for the crazy mode??

 

[makattack]

Crazy mode requires you setup your Cruiser powerpods with differential thrust, and simply requires mixing the motors and rudder in such a way that full rudder action will result in 100% throttle on one engine and 0 on the other... When I have non-crazy mode, I have about a 30% difference in throttle with full rudder.

 

[Davidoff]

Crazy mode requires you setup your Cruiser powerpods with differential thrust, and simply requires mixing the motors and rudder in such a way that full rudder action will result in 100% throttle on one engine and 0 on the other... When I have non-crazy mode, I have about a 30% difference in throttle with full rudder.

Alwright. Thanks. Cristal clear.
So you have used just the 1200kv motors?

 

[Corbarrad]

torque issues are usually mitigated by the fact that the two points where the force is applied are set some distance apart.
the worst you'd usually expectwould be some lateral movement.
in reality however weird things can happen due to the fact that the fuselage is usually close to the props and working as an air dam. The prop tzat swings toward the fuselage will stuff air underneath the wing while the one that's moving outward on the bottom will draw air out of that pocket, reducing lift on that side.
depending on the size of the props even counter-rotating props can lead to problems ir fthey beatoutwards. I think i read something about them having to change the direction of the props during thedevelopment of the p-38 lightning
That said, the cruiser should be fine with the intended prop size, no matter what the rotation pattern.

 

[makattack]

I personally have two SunnySky 1100kv motors on mine and it flies great. I have never flown it with crazy mode though, because the Cruiser build is my most expensive build in cost -- both in cost of hardware and time to build. It's quite a heavy build, and I'm just afraid of what the stress would do to the airframe. I'm also using it more like my platform for experimenting with the Pixhawk (actually a ReadyToFlyQuad RTFHawk).

For that reason, I had to switch the power setup to remove differential thrust, and just use a Y servo cable to connect the motors to the flight controller.

 

[nagromnewo]

Hi

I'm about to start building one of these now. I'll shorten the powerpods like I do on my other planes, which will give me the opportunity to make the nacelles more scale like and I'm thinking retracts. I'd also like to make the nose more pointy. What are you guys using for batteries and where do you place them? I have a bunch of nano-tech 1600mAh 3s. I'm thinking maybe two in parallel? Would she benefit from a larger undercamber area at the wing tips, more like the spitfire? Also it looks like there is no dihedral? Finally, has anyone successfully done a removable wing?

Owen

 

[fr0sti]

Hi there,

Just finishing my FT-Cruizer, and I've got a weird thing about the engine setup.
It's my first Twins engine model, so I've read a lot of forum about the setup and the radio mixing, I'm using channel 3 and 7, and set the 7 as throttle slave. When I put the throttle on, the two engines are ok and runing well, but when I stop the throttle, only one engine is directly stopping, the second one is still turning with the impetus, and at least, it stop.

It looks like one engine don't have brake .

I've tried to change ESC (F-20A) and engine (NTM 28-26A), but the issue is still the same.
So I thing that this could came from my Radio mix setup (T9X), But I don't know where to search, any body got clue about this kind of issue?