Flat4
Senior Member
100" Foamboard Specter V2 Build Log
First off I'd like to thank Flitetest for introducing me to building foambaord planes, IBcrazy for the original design, spencer for transferring it over to foamboard and creating plans, and Ed from experimental airlines for his ideas of the armin wing, and removable wing spar. You guys rock!
Skip the first two paragraphs to get to the build, just me yammering.
Little back story to set the scene.
This past summer my friend and I had some rather long talks about how we always wanted to fly rc planes as kids, but our parents wouldn't let us(in their defense this was 20ish years ago, electric was pretty bad, nitro was pricey and involved), and how after awhile the idea kind of faded. With that desire reborn and no parents around to tell us no, off we went to our local hobby shop, 30 minutes later we're out the door with our brand new Hobbyzone Glasair Sportsman. We rushed back to my house, slapped the battery in the charger, and desperately built the plane as fast as possible. An hour later we sped off to the closest field to introduce our beautiful new plane to someone I'm sure everyone here is all to familiar with, the ground...they then continued to meet over, and over, and over again. Fearing we were going to cause irreparable damage to our new toy, we eventually called it quits for the day.
That night I scoured the web looking for tips on how to not suck at flying rc planes, that's when I stumbled across flitetest. 2 weeks and all of their episodes later, as well as alot of Ed's from EA my journey truly began. That is where I learned of this lovely medium we call DTFB, I was in disbelief that something so cheap could possibly be made into a flight worthy craft, with just a bit of hot glue and some random odds and ends. Just the thought of a $5 air frame pretty much was the game changer that kept me in this hobby that I now love so much. Roughly 15 homemade airplanes later and here I am. So seriously once again, thank you to everyone I mentioned before, and everyone else in this community, for selflessly sharing your ideas, your time, and your passion, making what we do so much more than a hobby. Now enough with the mushy stuff, on to the build!!!
Since I first have been able to "fly", I've wanted something huge to put in the air, but really lacked the skills or the understanding to do so. After about 15 other foamboard planes I've decided to give it a go. I just built the specter v2 a few weeks ago for my fpv rig, and just fell in love with how it flew. Unfortunately a radio brownout caused it a tragically early demise, so yesterday I decided to build another. Today looking at the new specter and the huge pile of DTFB I had sitting next to it, I figured what the heck, snowstorm coming in tonight, I have nothing to do tomorrow, let's build a huge specter. Off the brainstorming went, a bit later I knew how I wanted to go at it. Decided to go with Ed's design of the removable wing spar, so I can fold this monster in half, just to entertain the idea of being able to transport it. I also figured just doubling the 48" version would make the measurements nice and simple. After taping my 3 pieces of foamboard together for my first wing half, I realized that I had a 50inch length, so I just decided to bump the total wingspan to a nice clean 100 inches.
I started off by taping to pieces of foam board together length wise., followed by a third piece with it's long side taped to the first two pieces' short side. Drew on my marks for my score cuts, and ended up with this. (Sorry for the crappy pics, all I have is a cell phone to shoot with.)
I then did the same thing for the other side. Next I cut my double bevel on the leading edge fold, I also cut some foam spars that started 1 inch tall and tapers to half inch over the 50 inch span. Next I fitted the two 36 inch 3/4 inch OD, 5/8 inch ID aluminum tubes I was to use as my guides for the removable spar, by removing part of the foam spar.
I then glued in a two foot section of 5/8 inch wood dowel to the wingtip side of one wings aluminum tube, as well a 2ft section of 3/8 inch dowel on the inner section of both wings to add a bit more rigidity. This worked well since when I folded the wings over that dowel got sandwiched in there nicely.
Next is where it got tricky, applying hot glue to 2 50inch segments and one 36inch before any of it dried. Mission accomplished and I got both wings successfully folded over. Next was time to install the removable spar for a test fit, and for me and my kitty to gawk at the size of it.
Little bro hopping in for some camera time.
Next I cut out the tail section, nothing crazy there, doubled the dimensions, doubled the foam board thickness, doubled the fun???
Finally to end the evening, I decided to do a quick mock up with the booms just laying under the wing section, more to once again just take in the enormity of this thing. Current weight is at 1560 grams for the wing section, tail section, and booms.
That's all I have for today, nothing to crazy really, I just think the size is pretty awesome. I plan on building the fuselage tomorrow, and then ordering the electronics after I make a good estimate on it's final weight .
Quick question for anyone who happened to read this far, since this is my first build of this size, I'm not to sure on how big of servos this thing is gonna need. Any input would be lovely.
Feel free to leave any comments or questions, and I'll do my best to answer them.
-Joe
First off I'd like to thank Flitetest for introducing me to building foambaord planes, IBcrazy for the original design, spencer for transferring it over to foamboard and creating plans, and Ed from experimental airlines for his ideas of the armin wing, and removable wing spar. You guys rock!
Skip the first two paragraphs to get to the build, just me yammering.
Little back story to set the scene.
This past summer my friend and I had some rather long talks about how we always wanted to fly rc planes as kids, but our parents wouldn't let us(in their defense this was 20ish years ago, electric was pretty bad, nitro was pricey and involved), and how after awhile the idea kind of faded. With that desire reborn and no parents around to tell us no, off we went to our local hobby shop, 30 minutes later we're out the door with our brand new Hobbyzone Glasair Sportsman. We rushed back to my house, slapped the battery in the charger, and desperately built the plane as fast as possible. An hour later we sped off to the closest field to introduce our beautiful new plane to someone I'm sure everyone here is all to familiar with, the ground...they then continued to meet over, and over, and over again. Fearing we were going to cause irreparable damage to our new toy, we eventually called it quits for the day.
That night I scoured the web looking for tips on how to not suck at flying rc planes, that's when I stumbled across flitetest. 2 weeks and all of their episodes later, as well as alot of Ed's from EA my journey truly began. That is where I learned of this lovely medium we call DTFB, I was in disbelief that something so cheap could possibly be made into a flight worthy craft, with just a bit of hot glue and some random odds and ends. Just the thought of a $5 air frame pretty much was the game changer that kept me in this hobby that I now love so much. Roughly 15 homemade airplanes later and here I am. So seriously once again, thank you to everyone I mentioned before, and everyone else in this community, for selflessly sharing your ideas, your time, and your passion, making what we do so much more than a hobby. Now enough with the mushy stuff, on to the build!!!
Since I first have been able to "fly", I've wanted something huge to put in the air, but really lacked the skills or the understanding to do so. After about 15 other foamboard planes I've decided to give it a go. I just built the specter v2 a few weeks ago for my fpv rig, and just fell in love with how it flew. Unfortunately a radio brownout caused it a tragically early demise, so yesterday I decided to build another. Today looking at the new specter and the huge pile of DTFB I had sitting next to it, I figured what the heck, snowstorm coming in tonight, I have nothing to do tomorrow, let's build a huge specter. Off the brainstorming went, a bit later I knew how I wanted to go at it. Decided to go with Ed's design of the removable wing spar, so I can fold this monster in half, just to entertain the idea of being able to transport it. I also figured just doubling the 48" version would make the measurements nice and simple. After taping my 3 pieces of foamboard together for my first wing half, I realized that I had a 50inch length, so I just decided to bump the total wingspan to a nice clean 100 inches.
I started off by taping to pieces of foam board together length wise., followed by a third piece with it's long side taped to the first two pieces' short side. Drew on my marks for my score cuts, and ended up with this. (Sorry for the crappy pics, all I have is a cell phone to shoot with.)
I then did the same thing for the other side. Next I cut my double bevel on the leading edge fold, I also cut some foam spars that started 1 inch tall and tapers to half inch over the 50 inch span. Next I fitted the two 36 inch 3/4 inch OD, 5/8 inch ID aluminum tubes I was to use as my guides for the removable spar, by removing part of the foam spar.
I then glued in a two foot section of 5/8 inch wood dowel to the wingtip side of one wings aluminum tube, as well a 2ft section of 3/8 inch dowel on the inner section of both wings to add a bit more rigidity. This worked well since when I folded the wings over that dowel got sandwiched in there nicely.
Next is where it got tricky, applying hot glue to 2 50inch segments and one 36inch before any of it dried. Mission accomplished and I got both wings successfully folded over. Next was time to install the removable spar for a test fit, and for me and my kitty to gawk at the size of it.
Little bro hopping in for some camera time.
Next I cut out the tail section, nothing crazy there, doubled the dimensions, doubled the foam board thickness, doubled the fun???
Finally to end the evening, I decided to do a quick mock up with the booms just laying under the wing section, more to once again just take in the enormity of this thing. Current weight is at 1560 grams for the wing section, tail section, and booms.
That's all I have for today, nothing to crazy really, I just think the size is pretty awesome. I plan on building the fuselage tomorrow, and then ordering the electronics after I make a good estimate on it's final weight .
Quick question for anyone who happened to read this far, since this is my first build of this size, I'm not to sure on how big of servos this thing is gonna need. Any input would be lovely.
Feel free to leave any comments or questions, and I'll do my best to answer them.
-Joe
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