0.8m BumbleBee DLG

[BlockerAviation]

After flying a few ready to fly discus launch gliders I thought I would try to build one of my own. It's made entirely out of balsa and plywood the only carbon fiber on this plane is for the elevator pushrod. The wing is made of 3/32" balsa that has been sanded to have an airfoil, and the tailplane is made of 1/16'' balsa which has been sanded as well. The fuselage should've been made with carbon fiber but I used 1/4" square balsa instead, I just don't launch it very hard. Overall this glider is a fun little glider for small field flying.
(I plan on getting some flight footage soon)

-Pilot Blocker-

 

[rfd]

cool li'l DLG!

initially, i thought the dihedral was quite shallow but the last pic shows ailerons.

what's the AUW?

 

[BlockerAviation]

cool li'l DLG!

initially, i thought the dihedral was quite shallow but the last pic shows ailerons.

what's the AUW?

I don't know the weight of the airplane, but it flys heavy. On my next glider I'll use foam reenforced with carbon fiber instead of wood to save weight, and with the foam I'll be able to form a better airfoil to improve the glide slope.

 

[rfd]

six or so years ago a feller on the rcgroups forum hand launch glider board literally perfected the foam board (DTFB adams board) DLG. uber lightweight, very stiff wing panels, simply amazing thermal flights. i've built a gaggle. they are nothing short of amazing. there are no spars needed and their build is utter simplicity. there are lots of variations, but all will perform quite well. do consider!

 

[BlockerAviation]

I'll definitely have to look into that design. The wing on the bumblebee is definitely the main drawback in my design.

 

[rfd]

boa2110 put out a few vids on the wing build. the lamination part is the basic core, but the TE and LE have more than a few variations.

lovely glider action ....

 

[Paracodespoder]

@flyboa and @bracesport May be able to help.

 

[rfd]

a 1.5m DTFB DLG wing, my take on the official "boa wing build".

top panels have TEs sanded down to the paper skin from mid chord, bottom panels lightly sanded at the TE. panels joined with GG under lead ingot compression, 30lbs per wing half. after the panels cured they were held together at the sanding station to knock off the GG squeeze out and true both LEs and TEs. 1" strip of paper removed from each panel top LE and 1/2" removed from each panel bottom LE. exposed LE foam airfoiled with 80 and 120 grit abrasive. ailerons created, bottom paper skins removed and the foam tapered. all paper coated with polyU, 2 coats to seal and well waterproof.

i created DTFG jigs for the 6* panel airfoil chord sanding and a 12* jig to mate the two panels with epoxy and 1-1/2" wide fiberglass dry wall tape, that's now curing.

the boom will be 6mm CF, tail feathers 1/16" balsa that are waterproofed with polyU, with the rudder one piece, the elevator under the boom and operated with a pull-spring that has its line inside the boom tube. the ailerons will have separate push-pull control and all servos will be emax es9051 (4.4 grams). the RX will be one of two newly acquired spektrum 4ch 410 that are decased and weighs 4.3grams, the battery will be a 1s lipo and it's mah will depend on the need for CG forward weight. the RX/servo/battery platform will be 1/32" aircraft plywood. the controls pod will be rolled translucent plastic folder sheet (shout out to a_filos!) and the nose cone is styrofoam coated with epoxy.

 

[rfd]

a simple 1m R/E DTFB DLG ala boa is a relatively easy build. pull-springs are the way to go to save weight.

 

[BlockerAviation]

Just got some flight footage of the Bumblebee. We were flying at dusk do the air was dead but it seems to glide well.

 

[bracesport]

@BlockerAviation - nice - flies fast, but glides well - I too am really enjoying the DLGs and that first launch is a buzz! - there are plenty of balsa DLG ships that are not to be underestimated - I am waiting to maiden my DTFB DLG head to head with a carbon BAMF so I will keep you posted how that goes - Oh, my ships are about 235-250g

 

[rfd]

good going, BA!

 

[BlockerAviation]

Hey, This past week I rediscovered this little bird hiding under some of my other failed projects and decided to give it a new life. When I first built this little bee, I was unimpressed with its flight performance and for good reason, because at best, I could only get about 30secs out of it. This was down to a few reasons being that it was overweight, incredibly flexy, had no airfoil, and didn't have powerful enough servos. For the past few weeks in between building my 109" Champ, I've been trying to fix these issues with some success. So far I've been able to give it an airfoil, and make it stiffer but I haven't been able to save any weight. My inaccurate fish scale says that it weighs a little over an ounce.

Another thing I've done is that I got rid of the ailerons and added the rudder to cut down on the number of servos. The wing is just the original that has been cut up and has an airfoil added to It. I also skinned the fuselage with basswood and plywood witch made it very strong. Anyways, I'll post some more updates when I get the wing covered, in the meantime, let me know what you think!

 

[bracesport]

I am looking forward to seeing your continued progress

Hey, This past week I rediscovered this little bird hiding under some of my other failed projects and decided to give it a new life. When I first built this little bee, I was unimpressed with its flight performance and for good reason, because at best, I could only get about 30secs out of it. This was down to a few reasons being that it was overweight, incredibly flexy, had no airfoil, and didn't have powerful enough servos. For the past few weeks in between building my 109" Champ, I've been trying to fix these issues with some success. So far I've been able to give it an airfoil, and make it stiffer but I haven't been able to save any weight. My inaccurate fish scale says that it weighs a little over an ounce.
View attachment 194313
Another thing I've done is that I got rid of the ailerons and added the rudder to cut down on the number of servos. The wing is just the original that has been cut up and has an airfoil added to It. I also skinned the fuselage with basswood and plywood witch made it very strong. Anyways, I'll post some more updates when I get the wing covered, in the meantime, let me know what you think!
View attachment 194312

 

[Paracodespoder]

Hey, This past week I rediscovered this little bird hiding under some of my other failed projects and decided to give it a new life. When I first built this little bee, I was unimpressed with its flight performance and for good reason, because at best, I could only get about 30secs out of it. This was down to a few reasons being that it was overweight, incredibly flexy, had no airfoil, and didn't have powerful enough servos. For the past few weeks in between building my 109" Champ, I've been trying to fix these issues with some success. So far I've been able to give it an airfoil, and make it stiffer but I haven't been able to save any weight. My inaccurate fish scale says that it weighs a little over an ounce.
View attachment 194313
Another thing I've done is that I got rid of the ailerons and added the rudder to cut down on the number of servos. The wing is just the original that has been cut up and has an airfoil added to It. I also skinned the fuselage with basswood and plywood witch made it very strong. Anyways, I'll post some more updates when I get the wing covered, in the meantime, let me know what you think!
View attachment 194312

I love it, it looks very much like what I always shoot for with my dlg build but was never able to capture. I will be watching your progress. Well done!

 

[BlockerAviation]

So, I have some good news and bad news. The good news is that I got the wing covered and did some test glides and can say that it will defiantly fly. The bad news is that I thought I could get away with just covering the foam but the covering did not take well to the foam and slightly melted it in some areas. Anyways, I plan to see this project through, and if it flies well, Ill do what I should have done in the first place and build a new wing from scratch. I also couldn't find the covering that I used on the original so the color schemes don't quite match up the way I wanted them to.

As for the electronics, I have a couple of micro-ish servos that will work nicely with this build but I haven't found a rx that is dsmx and will work with 2s or 1s that is at an affordable cost, so If any of you now of any, please let me know!

 

[Paracodespoder]

I

So, I have some good news and bad news. The good news is that I got the wing covered and did some test glides and can say that it will defiantly fly. The bad news is that I thought I could get away with just covering the foam but the covering did not take well to the foam and slightly melted it in some areas. Anyways, I plan to see this project through, and if it flies well, Ill do what I should have done in the first place and build a new wing from scratch. I also couldn't find the covering that I used on the original so the color schemes don't quite match up the way I wanted them to.
View attachment 194358
As for the electronics, I have a couple of micro-ish servos that will work nicely with this build but I haven't found a rx that is dsmx and will work with 2s or 1s that is at an affordable cost, so If any of you now of any, please let me know!
View attachment 194362

I personally use an orangerx receiver, will run directly off a 1s (as will ft 5 gram servos) and has so far been perfectly reliable for me, although some people seem to have issues with them sometimes. They can be found on amazon for 10-15 bucks or from hobbyking for as little as 5 bucks a pop.
Build looks good, I like the color scheme even if it doesn’t match.

 

[BlockerAviation]

I

I personally use an orangerx receiver, will run directly off a 1s (as will ft 5 gram servos) and has so far been perfectly reliable for me, although some people seem to have issues with them sometimes. They can be found on amazon for 10-15 bucks or from hobbyking for as little as 5 bucks a pop.
Build looks good, I like the color scheme even if it doesn’t match.

Thanks! I have been using orange rx and lemon rx that use 2s systems in my bigger birds like my storm and blackjack, but I thought they weren't rated for below around 4.8v. would you be able to send me a link to the receiver your talking about? A 1s system would be perfect for this little airplane.

Also, I've gotten the rudder servo hooked up and it works great, although It's a little ugly. I hope to have the test flight done by next week, but we'll see!

 

[Paracodespoder]

Here is the current one I use. When on sale I’ve seen them go down to below 5 bucks. Upon looking it seems that most orange and lemon receivers will run all the way down to ~3.5 volts.

 

[BlockerAviation]

Here is the current one I use. When on sale I’ve seen them go down to below 5 bucks. Upon looking it seems that most orange and lemon receivers will run all the way down to ~3.5 volts.

Thanks! They're out of stock right now but I bet that amazon has them. I'll look more closely at the lemon rx ones too. So far my ten dollar rx from lemon has been really nice so I might have to get another if it'll run 1s!