800mm FT Mustang

nerdnic

nerdnic.com
Mentor

V1 VIDEO
100mph - NTM 35-36 1800kv on 4S

85mph - NTM 28-36 2200kv on 3S

V1 DETAILS
I love my 800mm FT Spitfire so I figured why not make an 800mm FT Mustang?

I added an aluminum spar and am flying without a rudder or landing gear. Other than that it's just scaled down compared to the original.

V1 PLANS
I have added the plans here.

ELECTRONICS
Works great for acrobatics and fighting the wind.80-85 MPH100+ MPH
1500mah 3S
67g 350w 1200kv
9x6 APC
520g
2000mah 3S
87g 700w 2200kv
7x6 APC
Dynam 70a ESC
2000mah 45c 4S
NTM 35-36 1800kv 910w
7x6 APC
Dynam 70a ESC

650g[/td]
V1 PICS
photo 3 (3).JPG

photo 2 (6).JPG

My 'hangar' at the moment :)
photo 1 (6).JPG

V1 REVIEW
Pros
For an 800mm plane it performs well. It is quick, light in the air and doesn't stall very easily. It looks great and I would give it a B for high wind performance. I flew it today in 15 MPH wind and it got tossed around pretty good but overall held its own. Inverted was great, it liked being upside down.

Cons
Slow speed - Not great. I had a few close calls with slow speed stalls. Made landing a bit tricky.
Glides - I dropped speed really fast and had to give a lot of corrections to keep it straight.
Elevator - This bird suffers from the squirrely issue that some warbirds run into where giving it 'too much' elevator will cause a weird tippy, stall type behavior. I had to dial back my elevator quite a bit to get rid of the issue, to the point where I didn't feel like I had enough control over the plane at all times. I could still fly fine but I lost a lot of acrobatic capability.

All in all
I like it. The cons are workable and it's fun to fly. I like how it looks in the air and I got a lot of compliments from other pilots. The 800mm FT Spitfire performs better in pretty much every way so that will continue to be my main go to plane for now, but I won't be putting the 800mm FT Mustang away anytime soon.



V2 DETAILS
I decided 100mph wasn't quite fast enough and I want to push it further, can I get to 110? 115? I don't have a better motor I can use so I'll be sticking with the 35-36 1800kv for now. So my only option is to streamline the build. Here is what I've come up with so far.

V2 PICS
Elevator servo, RX, GPS, and battery telemetry will fit inside the cockpit.
photo 3.JPG

I added the front cowl covering and included a scoop.
photo 4 (1).JPG

photo 2 (1).JPG

I removed all under camber and brought the trailing edge to a pointed finish. I also removed the open scoop on the belly.
photo 3 (1).JPG

Wing tips came out real nice and clean. And as always my signature blue canopy :)
photo 4.JPG

The build went really smooth and I will be doing her maiden flight soon. I will have a video to share in the next day or so.

How do you guys think she will fly?

V2 VIDEO
Maiden
djacob7 from RCGroups saw my V1 build on rcgroups.com and was very interested in seeing how V2 progressed so he actually met me at the field and was nice enough to film the maiden. Thanks djacob7!

More flights

 
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nerdnic

nerdnic.com
Mentor
Awesome, good luck! I don't have any videos yet, I was just thinking about how I need to get one posted. I will try to get one soon!

Be sure to post a thread when you're done.
 

hayebseret

New member
looks grate !
Thanks for the videos, my fingers are already itching.. starting to build this week !
Thanks nerdnic for all your blessed work !
 

hayebseret

New member
-Great video, make me want to complete it faster!
BTW, No tabs marks on the plan for the Powerpod , and also on the 800mm Powerpod, There are no tabs.
Are you doing the front two BBQ skewers and the back one only ?
 

nerdnic

nerdnic.com
Mentor
When it does work I get a reading of 71knots for my 3S set up and 87knots for the 4S. Not sure if I can change the units but I'd just take it working consistently over anything else :)
 

Kurt0326

Your ADD Care Bear
Mentor
When it does work I get a reading of 71knots for my 3S set up and 87knots for the 4S. Not sure if I can change the units but I'd just take it working consistently over anything else :)

I'm pretty sure that's a radio setting. Go in to the main menu and change the units of speed.

When I get home tonight I'll check.

Remember to get an accurate speed reading in the air you will need peadow tubes to measure air speed.
 
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Awesome! Right now I'm working on a Blunt nose versa for some FPV gear (before it's totally outlawed) but my next 4ch is gonna be that 800mm Spitfire. 2826 1400kv turnigy motor and a 8x4 prop and 1500mah 3s lipo. the motor loves that prop It won't be any sort of 85mph plane but should perform great!

Love the videos! I'm surprised the wings are still on it :)

-Jes
 

nerdnic

nerdnic.com
Mentor
Awesome! Right now I'm working on a Blunt nose versa for some FPV gear (before it's totally outlawed) but my next 4ch is gonna be that 800mm Spitfire. 2826 1400kv turnigy motor and a 8x4 prop and 1500mah 3s lipo. the motor loves that prop It won't be any sort of 85mph plane but should perform great!

Love the videos! I'm surprised the wings are still on it :)

-Jes

Make sure to post a thread!

The way I've added the aluminum spar makes it amazingly strong. I can do a 180 degree turn in my spitfire doing 100 and it doesn't even flex.
 

Sdemaio

Junior Member
I've ordered the motor, speed controller and battery and downloaded the plans. Thank you for doing this. Hopefully it will get here before flitefest...

How did you add the spar with the dihedral?
Where did you put the battery?
How do you keep the pod from pivoting on its point of attachment if you're only using one skewer horizontally through the fuselage?
Are you going to flitefest so I can see this thing?

Scott
 

nerdnic

nerdnic.com
Mentor
I've ordered the motor, speed controller and battery and downloaded the plans. Thank you for doing this. Hopefully it will get here before flitefest...

How did you add the spar with the dihedral?
Where did you put the battery?
How do you keep the pod from pivoting on its point of attachment if you're only using one skewer horizontally through the fuselage?
Are you going to flitefest so I can see this thing?

Scott

Hey Scott!

I've ordered the motor, speed controller and battery and downloaded the plans. Thank you for doing this. Hopefully it will get here before flitefest...
You're welcome! It's a lot of fun to see others flying these smaller birds, I've got a few people at my flying spot to start making some so I'm excited for that. After they saw my 800mm Spitfire (with this same power set up) keep up with souped up FMS Voodoo and Strega flying formation, it definitely turned some heads!

Which motor, ESC, and battery did you get?

How did you add the spar with the dihedral?
I went into more detail in this post, let me know if this helps!

The spar sits sandwiched between the foam spar:
View attachment 25970

You can't follow the normal FT wing build, so make sure you glue your wing up like this as a first step.
View attachment 27121

Where did you put the battery?
For the Mustang the battery sits very far back. (I will add a photo when I can grab one) I use velcro to secure it in the powerpod but more than half the battery is 'hanging' past the end of the pod. With the 35-36 and a 4S the Mustang will be nose heavy, there is basically no way around this. The battery basically sits over the wing, and while you technically could move it further back, my ESC placement/wire length, elevator servo, and receiver all prevent the battery from moving any further back. I balance on the first airfoil ridge and it's still not even close to being balanced. It's okay though because at WOT she will want to rise a lot, so being nose heavy and a couple clicks of down trim gives a nice level flight at full speed. For your first flight trim everything to 0 but be ready to give it some down trim when you WOT.

How do you keep the pod from pivoting on its point of attachment if you're only using one skewer horizontally through the fuselage?
The powerpod when stuffed with a 4S is a very tight fit and the pod will sit on top of the wing. So you end up with a completely snug fit with 0 room for any wiggles. It's tight enough that I've actually ruined a fuse putting the pod in, so take your time. The single BBQ skewer at this point is only there to prevent the pod from ejecting mid flight. (I've had this happen before when I forgot to add the skewer)

Are you going to flitefest so I can see this thing?
Sadly, no. I am not able to make it this year but if there is a 2015 FTFF I will be there :)
 

Sdemaio

Junior Member
Awesome. Thank you so much. That's all the info I needed!

I got the ntm 3536 1800 (I've got several of the 1400's. That's actually my motor of choice for most of my planes). I got a 70a turnigy trust and a zippy 2000mah 45c 4s. I've certainly got the materials... I wanted to spar my "stock" ft mustang, but the dihedral made that difficult so I didn't put much more thought into it. It doesn't need it anyway. I've got a 2826 2200kv on a 3 cell and the wings don't even flex. That's going to change with your build! What kind of flight times do you get on the 2000mah? I was surprised to see over 2 minutes of basically wot in the video with that motor.

Thanks again. It's guys like you that keep me peaked in this adventure...
 

nerdnic

nerdnic.com
Mentor
Awesome. Thank you so much. That's all the info I needed!

I got the ntm 3536 1800 (I've got several of the 1400's. That's actually my motor of choice for most of my planes). I got a 70a turnigy trust and a zippy 2000mah 45c 4s. I've certainly got the materials... I wanted to spar my "stock" ft mustang, but the dihedral made that difficult so I didn't put much more thought into it. It doesn't need it anyway. I've got a 2826 2200kv on a 3 cell and the wings don't even flex. That's going to change with your build! What kind of flight times do you get on the 2000mah? I was surprised to see over 2 minutes of basically wot in the video with that motor.

Thanks again. It's guys like you that keep me peaked in this adventure...

One of the things I've learned with DTFB is they any piece or section of the plane that has any flex will eventually wear out the foam and crease/fold/break. With this in mind when on a slower set up you'll eventually have wing issues as your flight hours add up. This spar design removes all flex and even after 30+ hours on a single airframe at basically 100mph the entire time there is no sign of foam wear. The only issue I have seen is that if you get a crease/fold/dent etc (from a landing or when putting your bird in the car) on the foam it will start to exaggerate and get worse much faster due to the high speeds. So be careful with them, and always check your control surface joints and control horns every flight. I had one coming loose even after gluing the joint really good, and it woulf have ripped off in a flash in the air.

On my mustang I get 2:15 WOT, that's running down to 3.4v under load. Battery comes down hot and once it cools it usually sits at 3.65v. On my spitfire with the same set up I get 3:20, I think it has to do with the cooling.
 
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