$10 Build Bet

brooksruhman

Junior Member
I'm a sixteen year old boy in Texas, and recently crashed a piper cub foamie. After my dad said it would be cheaper to repair the mangled and bent fuselage I said I could probably do a new plane for less than ten dollars... and now it's a bet. 20 seconds in the air and I win.

So as a moderate novice to the hobby, I'm looking for some tips.

Here's what I have:
- three 9 gram servos
- a motor (a little shaky from the crash)
- old pushrods
- an excess of cardboard around the house
- $10

I need base plans and detailed tips. Thanks!
 

DejaD

ARG=almost ready to glue
Get yourself 2 or 3 sheets of Dollar Tree foamboard. Go to Experimentalairlines Youtube channel and get busy. Ed will help you win that bet.

If it's only got to fly for 20 seconds, I'm thinking you won't even need to bother with the tape part of the build.
 
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Tritium

Amateur Extra Class K5TWM
ExperimentalAirlines for sure. Ed's Photon uses 5 sheets of Dollar Tree foam board ($5) and one carbon arrow shaft or wooden dowel for a wing spar. You do not have to cover it in tape as he does. The tape just increases its useful life with dampness and makes it look good. Ed has a flying wing that uses 1 piece of foam board.

Thurmond
 

colorex

Rotor Riot!
Mentor
Oh, try any of Flite Test's builds! Be it the F-22, the FunBat, the BluDart (FT Flyer), the nutball, etc!
 
I concur...either the flite test F-22 or check out Experimental Airlines on YouTube. It'd be real easy to make a simple three channel plane.

Keep us posted on the bet outcome :cool:
 

brooksruhman

Junior Member
So I think I'm going to go with the Experimental Airlines "Noob Tube". It seems like a simple and cheap build. If any of you guys have built this plane or any others by Ed then I'd really appreciate some tips. Thanks!
 
So I think I'm going to go with the Experimental Airlines "Noob Tube". It seems like a simple and cheap build. If any of you guys have built this plane or any others by Ed then I'd really appreciate some tips. Thanks!
Not to try and take any traffic away from this forum (not that I don't spend way to much time myself on both :) because they're both great resources, but if you're going to go with an EA plane design, check out http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1587275
Ed checks in here every so often, but is pretty responsive on that other ongoing thread regarding his builds and other guys that are building the same type of planes.
 

WombatControl

Certified DT foam addict
I'd do a Nutball... get one sheet of Dollar Tree foam and a roll of packing tape and you have an airframe. Maybe add some BBQ skewers if you want to do the detachable fuse like Josh and Josh did. Plus, the Nutball is a BLAST to fly once you get it trimmed out. Nothing like a plane that can scoot along then hover to land vertically right at your feet. Plus, you can build it with nothing more than a T-square - you don't even need to worry about plans!

How big was the Cub?
 

Hamdhan

The Expert Newbie
I am building a plane on 0$. I got a motor (3 actually), 7 9g servos, 2 EDF units, 2 props, Loads of foam i got from electronics stores, hobbyking landing gear and tx system. ESCs and loads of electronics.

So I am just working with the foam, shaping it etc. The only problem I have is that my 10mm thick wings are flappy. So i added a high density foam spar along it which made it less flappy but really heavy. So... get dollar tree foam as suggested by Ed, and some CF. (Epoxy, CA, the usual stuff)