36" Northern Pike - 3D Printed Cuda Clone (It Flies & STL's are Posted!)

Photo001

Member
Dale,

Loved the maiden, the plane looks awesome.

Looking forward to the files so that I can build 1 (or more!!!!!).

Lane
 

chris398mx

Master member
So, the maiden went great, and the second flight went even better. Flat spins are nuts. I even got it to explode midair on the last pass before the battery ran out. :D


The plane is quite stable, and slows down really well just like the pike. It's definitely going to be getting a set of floats. The failure won't be able to happen again. It was a bad print section to begin with, but I'm going to really beef up the fuselage area and attachment point. I need more nose weight anyway, and this is a great way to add it. As cool as it is breaking apart in mid air, I want this thing to be able to withstand serious levels of mid-air abuse.
Looks Great! you really have a knack for designing these things.
 

localfiend

I like 3D printers...
Mentor
Spent a bunch of time last night, and this morning finishing up the longer fuselage design and started printing fuse parts. If stuff goes well, I might be able to fly the second version tomorrow afternoon/evening. If not, then Monday for sure.

Aside from fuselages, I've also got two complete planes printed out. Might have to start on a third one so I'm ready for the retracts variant. Gonna try and get the floats design finished up and ready for printing today then I'll move onto retracts.

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Wildthing

Legendary member
Spent a bunch of time last night, and this morning finishing up the longer fuselage design and started printing fuse parts. If stuff goes well, I might be able to fly the second version tomorrow afternoon/evening. If not, then Monday for sure.

Aside from fuselages, I've also got two complete planes printed out. Might have to start on a third one so I'm ready for the retracts variant. Gonna try and get the floats design finished up and ready for printing today then I'll move onto retracts.

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Excellent design work, one day maybe I will reach your level :) probably not ;)
 

localfiend

I like 3D printers...
Mentor
Got the wings glued up, and all the wiring installed. I also have most of the fuselage printed, and you can see how the large fuse helps out. Lots of room in the battery bay. That's a 3300mah 4s 50C pack, and there's plenty of room for much bigger packs. We'll have to see where the CG ends up after I finish assembly. With a bigger higher c rating pack, I should be able to push the plane a lot harder in the air without catching fire.
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I'm also wondering what to do with the glass in the cockpit. Maybe paint them the silver color from before. It's that or re-print the parts with the windows with 3 perimeters, then cut out the windows. Then I could install some overhead projector clear plastic, or 2 liter bottle stuff. Might fiddle around a bit in the slicer and see if I need to move any spars to do that cleanly.

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localfiend

I like 3D printers...
Mentor
Getting closer on assembly, ran into a few things I want to change again, so I'll likely need to build another to get proper build instructions. Oh well, this one will make for a good beater plane.

With the fuse and pylons pushed into place, and a battery pushing the wing down, you can see how much clearance I gained on the pylons. Should really help keep belly landings slick.

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Wildthing

Legendary member
Getting closer on assembly, ran into a few things I want to change again, so I'll likely need to build another to get proper build instructions. Oh well, this one will make for a good beater plane.

With the fuse and pylons pushed into place, and a battery pushing the wing down, you can see how much clearance I gained on the pylons. Should really help keep belly landings slick.

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Pretty sweet for a beater :)
 

localfiend

I like 3D printers...
Mentor
Pretty sweet for a beater :)

I'll have to make an actual pretty one, with the whole thing sanded and smoothed before painting. Maybe print on a larger printer with a bigger nozzle to up the size a bit to make it worth it.

I got all the floats attachment points worked out last night, and have a set of parts printing now. Just gotta finish the floats themselves, which should be pretty easy. This arrangement should be very strong. Think I may still have to add a crossbar between the floats down lower though. Maybe I can cheat and just make a spot to add wire or string.

Might also need to add a secondary v-stab for the underside of the wing.

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localfiend

I like 3D printers...
Mentor
Version 2 is all ready to fly. Well, aside from making sure the servos move in the right direction. If the weather isn't terrible tomorrow, I plan on going flying. Got my Go-Pro, so hopefully I can get some good in flight footage.

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With the battery sitting here, I'm dead on the CG mark. Since I like to go a bit more tail heavy this isn't a bad spot at all. You could use a smaller battery and shove it further up the nose, or a bigger one and move it back.

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localfiend

I like 3D printers...
Mentor
Well..... Time to add the floats fuselage.....

First flight went great, but the ESC's were having some weird fits at the start. I think they must have started working properly after a little warm up because they worked fine after that. It was 19 degrees at the field, or 7.2 Celsius for you metric folks... I think having the plane sitting outside while I warmed up my hands for a second flight got them cold enough to have issues on the second launch.

Here's the maiden:


And the unsuccessful second flight....


Good news is that I'm quite happy with the flight characteristics, as well as the plane durability. This will be an easy fix, and I already have a fuselage with the floats hardpoints printed to repair it. Just gotta use a new pair of ESC's. Not gonna be trusting these luminiere ones anymore.
 

Wildthing

Legendary member
Well..... Time to add the floats fuselage.....

First flight went great, but the ESC's were having some weird fits at the start. I think they must have started working properly after a little warm up because they worked fine after that. It was 19 degrees at the field, or 7.2 Celsius for you metric folks... I think having the plane sitting outside while I warmed up my hands for a second flight got them cold enough to have issues on the second launch.

Here's the maiden:


And the unsuccessful second flight....


Good news is that I'm quite happy with the flight characteristics, as well as the plane durability. This will be an easy fix, and I already have a fuselage with the floats hardpoints printed to repair it. Just gotta use a new pair of ESC's. Not gonna be trusting these luminiere ones anymore.
I had the same issue on my X wing and did basically the same launch. I don't think temp has anything to do with it, just a bizzerk esc with a scorn female mind. :)

Nice maiden though, love the launch, What motors and props you running on it, cruises really nice.
 
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