Anybody else scratch building tonight?
- Thread starter K3V0
- Start date
Tdugar
Well-known member
Whoaaaaaa
K3V0
Elite member
How many is that for you now? And, did you do anything different in this current build? Sorry, one more, what kind of indoor space do you get to fly at?
ScratchBuildMast
Elite member
Baby Blender.
Wildthing
Legendary member
DutchRoll
Well-known member
I did save the cut outs, so I do have them as well as the downloaded plans. But I don't think I'll buy a laser cut pack again. I have essential tremor in my hands, and I found the build as laid out in the youtube video to be very difficult for me. The little angle gauge kept falling over as my hands shook, so the wing joints kept falling apart, and eventually after repeated reglueing, the wing just ended up warped.
So I think that when I tackle the Simple Soarer again, I'll cut it straight from foam board. That way I can make the gauges as a thick block, and make (or 3d print) some jigs to assemble the tail with.
DutchRoll
Well-known member
My dad's got a KitFox, so no shame there. But I've always been more partial to the Zenith Air CH-701, so if I'm gonna scratch build a STOL, it would be that.
DutchRoll
Well-known member
Don't forget the Beta Fighter as well! And then you have to join them in flight!
My favorite from the Robotech series would be the little Logan fighter, but it's got itty-bitty wings, so I'm not sure it would fly very well.
uggymoo
Mad Canadian builder
I guess I should video this
Headbang
Master member
Few notes on the longEZ. It can be a handful, but is also a blast to fly! Getting the thrust angle on the motor just right may take a bit of trial and error. On the 100% version the wing folds easy, adding a bbq skew under the wing through the fuse fixes this. The stock battery hatch is a real pain to get the skewer in every time, just about any other solution for latching the hatch would be better (maybe magnets on a scaled up version) Keep the throws small with lots of expo on low rates, this will help tame it down (ailerons esspecially to tame out the squirly roll rate). Also make sure you have a high rate with full throws, fast cork screwing is fun!Made a Flite Test Long-EZ chuck glider two weeks ago (first foam plane in over 35 years for me) - flew it for about 15 tosses before it hit a post and ripped the left wing off of it. It's repaired but ugly (repaired wing has pronounced anhedral - still flies fine though) so I call it Fugly, short for Foam Ugly. My favorite plane from my youth was the UGLY STICK, so I think I'll call most of my planes some variant of ugly.
Last weekend I bought the Simple Soarer kit from a HobbyTown store, and tried to put it together, but after about half a dozen paper cuts and a couple of hot glue burns, all I ended up with was a warped wing (polyhedral failed). And when I tried to put the control rods on the elevator, I slipped and ripped the tail right off the boom. It all ended up in the trash.
So last night I printed out the plans for another Long-EZ, since that's my only successful Flite Test Foamy to date, but I scaled the print 132% so that I can fit the B-Pack power pod from the Simple Soarer into it.
Good luck and have fun!
Headbang
Master member
Thanks! Ducks last forever (last one I had did over 300 flights), so totaly worth taking the time to make it pretty!
DutchRoll
Well-known member
Yeah, I was doing some research on the flight characteristics. The title might say Long-EZ, but it's closer to a Velocity in design, in that the canard is inline with the wing. One of the characteristics of canard design that concern me is that at high angles of attack, the canard blanks the wing root, robbing it of lift. The canard blanking also in turn exacerbates issues with dutch rolls. I had wanted to move the elevators to the canards on the 132%, but I had been concerned that at full down, the elevator would act as a a spoiler to the wing, disrupting the air flow and causing it to stall. One of the solutions I read about is to add vortex generators to the mid line of the canard to help "glue" the air down, so that might be something I could try to help with the squirrliness.
Are you referring to the yaw angle or the pitch angle for the thrust angle of the motor? And I added three skewers to keep the wings and canards from breaking off.
100% version on top of the 132% version, with the B-pack firewall for scale.
redbarton
Active member
I've thought about the Beta fighter. However, it's all sorts of wrong angles and very little lifting area. I think it would only fly through the miracles of Robotechnology. (Hmm? Maybe a VTOL setup?) Let me know if you find some spare protoculture. I need the brain boost like Dr. Lang.
The Logan could be doable, possibly with a lifting body shape? I'll add it to the list. I need some more design and flight experience before I tackle that project though.
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whackflyer
Master member
@The Hangar, I noticed you liked one of my posts in my Dominator KFm thread. Are you gonna build one? If so you'd be the first one from the community to build it!
whackflyer
Master member
Pics please!
Yup - I'm considering it! Does it fly off the F pack?
whackflyer
Master member
Yessir! I'll definitely follow the build if you do! Post away on that thread!
Ok, sweet! I'll probably start next week.
Headbang
Master member
I was referring to the pitch angle. There is no perfect angle, you end up adjusting to suit your flying style.
I have built a few of these and never had an issue with Dutch Roll. I am pretty sure the winglets solve that.
The design works well. I know it has been tested to death, and a lot of people have played with the canards. Only thing that one can do with the canards is make them adjustable via a servo for fine tuning while in flight.
mayan
Legendary member
Wellcome on board the flying ship buddy. Don't feel bad about the Simple Soarer I hadn't had much success building it either and I built a few planes before tackling that one. I would highly recommend the Tiny Trainer as a super fun plane to learn to fly with if you need to get back into flying. Otherwise if you are more expreinced you can try anything with a B or C pack motor. You can also check out this resource to check what build options you have for either the B pack or C pack motor. https://forum.flitetest.com/index.p...l-the-ft-models-with-electronics-required.64/Made a Flite Test Long-EZ chuck glider two weeks ago (first foam plane in over 35 years for me) - flew it for about 15 tosses before it hit a post and ripped the left wing off of it. It's repaired but ugly (repaired wing has pronounced anhedral - still flies fine though) so I call it Fugly, short for Foam Ugly. My favorite plane from my youth was the UGLY STICK, so I think I'll call most of my planes some variant of ugly.
Last weekend I bought the Simple Soarer kit from a HobbyTown store, and tried to put it together, but after about half a dozen paper cuts and a couple of hot glue burns, all I ended up with was a warped wing (polyhedral failed). And when I tried to put the control rods on the elevator, I slipped and ripped the tail right off the boom. It all ended up in the trash.
So last night I printed out the plans for another Long-EZ, since that's my only successful Flite Test Foamy to date, but I scaled the print 132% so that I can fit the B-Pack power pod from the Simple Soarer into it.
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