1/6 scale Cafe Air Racer Mk III

[Michael9865]

Progress and it flies. Congratulations

 

[HilldaFlyer]

I've been quietly watching. This is a most excellent build. Glad the crash wasn't too bad.
Beautiful artwork. Looks great.

 

[Tench745]

Good news! The Cafe Racer flies. Bad news: It doesn't like trees. Rebuild in progress. No flight video. I need to practice my stick and rudder flying.

 

[rockyboy]

I hope the damage isn't too much! I'm right there with you in the 'need to practice rudder flying' on these planes that slow down into nasty stalling behavior :black_eyed:

 

[Tench745]

It's repairable. I got all the pieces stuck back together with some gorilla glue now. I've gotta redo the torn fiberglass and balance yet another 3-blade prop. It will fly again. I need to learn the field; a maiden as your third flight at a new field, maybe not the best idea.

 

[PsyBorg]

I hope the damage isn't too much! I'm right there with you in the 'need to practice rudder flying' on these planes that slow down into nasty stalling behavior :black_eyed:

Uhhh racers?.. don't slow down man 90 miles an hour with your hair on fire!!! Why ya think I am totally bald now

I STILL chicken out in turns too.

 

[cranialrectosis]

Experience is what you get when you don't get what you wanted.

I've been watching this since the first post. This build just keeps getting better and better.

Keep it up man! TankRutan would be proud!

 

[Tench745]

Post crash, laying in the truck bed. I managed to find all the pieces. My carbon fiber wing tube held up perfectly.

All the fuselage pieces are now glued up and filled. Sanding and fiberglass to follow. This plane will be at Flite Fest even if I have to build a second one to do it! The dummy engine was not on for the maiden flight.

 

[rockyboy]

Whew!! I was fearing it would be beat up from your earlier post. Good to see she just needs a little buffing around the edges

 

[Tench745]

Well, you can still see some bruises, but the fuselage is back together again now.



Now for the hard question: Do I try to maiden it again, or do I wait till FTFF?

 

[willsonman]

MAIDEN!

 

[Tench745]

Maiden video at FF East.

 

[willsonman]

While a discouraging end, a BIG congrats to getting this one in the air! So cool to see it at FF and look forward to your next creation.

 

[rockyboy]

Aaargh!! I so wish I could have seen it in person - and that I had connected the dots that you also did the Sprit! I love what you did with both of these projects!

 

[cranialrectosis]

On every pass, it looked upside down to me. Orientation on this has to be challenging.

Great to see it fly. Harsh to see it chunk there at the end.

I really hope you get this back in the air. It's innovative and beautiful and it deserves to fly.

 

[Michael9865]

Such a beautiful and graceful looking airplane. I was amazed at how wonderful this plane and your Spirit of St Louis looked in person. I hope that you are able to rebuild her. I agree with cranialrectosis that orientation in the air had to be tricky. I would have been repeating to myself "the vertical stab points down, the vertical stab points down..."

 

[tamuct01]

It was great to see this plane and your Spirit of St. Louis build. Thanks for being such great campsite neighbors and helping us get our truck and trailer out of the mud!

 

[Tench745]

Such a beautiful and graceful looking airplane. I was amazed at how wonderful this plane and your Spirit of St Louis looked in person. I hope that you are able to rebuild her. I agree with cranialrectosis that orientation in the air had to be tricky. I would have been repeating to myself "the vertical stab points down, the vertical stab points down..."

When you spend as much time staring at the concept drawing of this plane, drew three sets of plans for it, built and flew two prototypes.... well, let's just say that it's harder to remember that all my other planes fly the right way round.

 

[Tench745]

I pulled the carcass of this plane off the rack about a week ago. I'd patched the dummy motor back up after FliteFest, but didn't have the heart to do more at that time. It's been long enough now that I'm starting to piece things back together. The motor mount was bent, the starboard side was badly crushed from the wing being forced back into it. I'm thinking that it will be easier and stronger to replace a large section of the side in one large sheet rather than trying to piece together the bits that are still there.
In going over everything I found the elevator servo flopping around loose in the fuselage. The glue holding it onto the fuselage released rather cleanly and I'm strongly questioning my initial conclusion that the crash was caused by a radio failure. If the servo broke free in flight it could easily have resulted in the crash I had. The simultaneous lack of aileron response continues the indecision.

Either way I will be figuring out a better way of retaining the servos than just tape, gorilla glue, and hot glue. Suggestions are welcome as always.

 

[Tench745]

Also, dreaming here but bear with me.
Someone recently linked to varioPROP and got my mouth watering. The original art for this plane has a 5-blade prop.

Just picture five of these babies on a machined hub.
A 7.9" 5 blade prop at a 7" pitch would have almost the same performance specs as the Master Airscrew 9x7 3 blade I've been running.

Links included below, mostly for my own reference.
Props: http://www.ramoser.de/cgi-bin/e/his-webshop.pl?f=NR&c=200-8&t=temartic
Hub: http://www.ramoser.de/cgi-bin/e/his-webshop.pl?f=NR&c=5608&t=temartic