- Type
- Build Plan (PDF, AI, etc.)
Good afternoon everyone,
This is my TW-1 Night raven, a tractor style wing trainer compatible with power pack A&F.
It’s a simple to build. Nicely preforming wing I had designed to teach myself how to fly bank and yank style wings. It ended up becoming this great airframe I thought I’d finally put on the forums.
It’s my first truly digitized plan being originally hand drawn with nothing but a pen a ruler and a calculator to do the math.
With help from the community at flitefest it’s transformed from a paper set of plans I couldn’t replace to real PDFs and I’m excited to put this out there!
It as a few small build quirks so I’ll also add my recommendations for building these.
BUILD TIPS
Printing
print as tiled poster at 100% scale.
This can be done with acrobat reader if needed.
MOTOR
I personally recommend power pack-F as you can give a light to moderate push when launching the plane by the tail. It’ll accelerate and rapidly to enter a flying state.
Power pack-A requires a much harder launch to get the plane flying.
(If it starts to spin on launch, it can either be insufficient launch force or its missing motor angle from my findings.)
“The very first prototype spun like a helicopter without that standard power pod motor angle.”
Power pack F on 2s is plenty of power for this little guy and you can push the limits with 3s. Though the fuselage can be a bit tight for a 3s lipo.
Cutting the plans.
I recommend taping the servo wire lines on the paper plans back together after using them so you can use the plans later on the bottom side of the wing.
This way you can apply the control surface bevel cuts to the bottom of the wing.
“It’ll fly fine with them on top but I much prefer them underside for clean looks.”
SERVO DUCTS
On the plans there are two lines from the servos to the center of the wing. Cut down to the bottom paper and use the wide end of a bbq skewer to open these up wide enough to stick your servos wires into there.
You can then tape over the nested servo wires with standard scotch tape or just vinyl over them if coloring your build with vinyl or colored packing tape for a very smooth and aerodynamic servo connection.
(This should happen before fuselage installation as it will go on top of the lines to some extent)
Leading edge Laminations-
There are areas that are crosshatched on the plans. For these take the foam off and fold and glue the paper over the leading edge. This extends the life span when belly landing.
Folding the kf-2 airfoil-
I recommend doing this before attaching the wing halves to each other.
Treat it like a Flite test wing. Cutting a double bevel cut and folding it over.
You can add a bbq skewer into the leading edge fold to improve wing strength. Just add it in and fold the wing over it to set the fit. Once done put it on top of the glue in the double bevel cut before final fold together and hold.
In Josh Bixler’s kind words “use the table as your friend” when folding the wing I recommend having the top surface table side down when holding the glue and press down on the bottom surface. This make it easier to hold while the glue sets. Once the glue is dry find your servo holes and cut out any foam obstructing them.
SERVO ARMS
I recommend using the thicker two direction servo arms and snipping off one end. It’ll help prevent slop in the elevon movement.
Pre-Trimming
Use control stoppers on your centered servos. Apply a single sheet of foam below your control surfaces so they lift up a bit and tighten your stoppers. This will help the wing stay at a nice level attitude.
The Hatch
The night raven uses a punjet style tape hatch.
Just wrap tape around the end of the hatch and on the tail side of the hatch. Then just put a small piece of tape with one end folded over on it to allow you to pop it open and shut.
That should be all of the notes for now though. Hope it helps allot! It’s a bit different but nothing terrible. I’ve built lots of these so if there’s further questions, I’ll help the best I can.
Happy flying!
This is my TW-1 Night raven, a tractor style wing trainer compatible with power pack A&F.
It’s a simple to build. Nicely preforming wing I had designed to teach myself how to fly bank and yank style wings. It ended up becoming this great airframe I thought I’d finally put on the forums.
It’s my first truly digitized plan being originally hand drawn with nothing but a pen a ruler and a calculator to do the math.
With help from the community at flitefest it’s transformed from a paper set of plans I couldn’t replace to real PDFs and I’m excited to put this out there!
It as a few small build quirks so I’ll also add my recommendations for building these.
BUILD TIPS
Printing
print as tiled poster at 100% scale.
This can be done with acrobat reader if needed.
MOTOR
I personally recommend power pack-F as you can give a light to moderate push when launching the plane by the tail. It’ll accelerate and rapidly to enter a flying state.
Power pack-A requires a much harder launch to get the plane flying.
(If it starts to spin on launch, it can either be insufficient launch force or its missing motor angle from my findings.)
“The very first prototype spun like a helicopter without that standard power pod motor angle.”
Power pack F on 2s is plenty of power for this little guy and you can push the limits with 3s. Though the fuselage can be a bit tight for a 3s lipo.
Cutting the plans.
I recommend taping the servo wire lines on the paper plans back together after using them so you can use the plans later on the bottom side of the wing.
This way you can apply the control surface bevel cuts to the bottom of the wing.
“It’ll fly fine with them on top but I much prefer them underside for clean looks.”
SERVO DUCTS
On the plans there are two lines from the servos to the center of the wing. Cut down to the bottom paper and use the wide end of a bbq skewer to open these up wide enough to stick your servos wires into there.
You can then tape over the nested servo wires with standard scotch tape or just vinyl over them if coloring your build with vinyl or colored packing tape for a very smooth and aerodynamic servo connection.
(This should happen before fuselage installation as it will go on top of the lines to some extent)
Leading edge Laminations-
There are areas that are crosshatched on the plans. For these take the foam off and fold and glue the paper over the leading edge. This extends the life span when belly landing.
Folding the kf-2 airfoil-
I recommend doing this before attaching the wing halves to each other.
Treat it like a Flite test wing. Cutting a double bevel cut and folding it over.
You can add a bbq skewer into the leading edge fold to improve wing strength. Just add it in and fold the wing over it to set the fit. Once done put it on top of the glue in the double bevel cut before final fold together and hold.
In Josh Bixler’s kind words “use the table as your friend” when folding the wing I recommend having the top surface table side down when holding the glue and press down on the bottom surface. This make it easier to hold while the glue sets. Once the glue is dry find your servo holes and cut out any foam obstructing them.
SERVO ARMS
I recommend using the thicker two direction servo arms and snipping off one end. It’ll help prevent slop in the elevon movement.
Pre-Trimming
Use control stoppers on your centered servos. Apply a single sheet of foam below your control surfaces so they lift up a bit and tighten your stoppers. This will help the wing stay at a nice level attitude.
The Hatch
The night raven uses a punjet style tape hatch.
Just wrap tape around the end of the hatch and on the tail side of the hatch. Then just put a small piece of tape with one end folded over on it to allow you to pop it open and shut.
That should be all of the notes for now though. Hope it helps allot! It’s a bit different but nothing terrible. I’ve built lots of these so if there’s further questions, I’ll help the best I can.
Happy flying!
