Auklet - Hotwire diy scratch build - slope soarer

thenated0g

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This is a little project i started working on over a year ago. Just playing around in a cg calculator looking for interesting silhouettes. It was going to require a little bit of "messing around" with my windyhillhobbies cnc cutter as it has much greater than 45 degree sweep. After doing pretty much everything i can pre design in inkscape i finally started working on it a few weeks ago. Ill update here as i work on stuff. Pure Sloper but with some LEDS in the back. This is something fpv wing guys have been doing for a while but i havent seen anybody sloping with cool leds yet.


To deal with the extreme sweep of the center section i "buried" it inside a shape i could cut out and than cut it out of that shape. It doesnt match the airfoil of the connecting pieces, but i can hide this with some sanding and spackle later.


I needed some way to attach the vertical fins in back and wanted some kind of "jet booster" kind of thing to hold some automobile led break lights. Still playing around with the size and shape. But this will allow me to attach the fins with nylon screws into the wood.


Went back and forth looking at spar options. In the end i decided on an I-beam of 2mm fiberglass kite rods with some carbon fiber rods here and there. Fortunately i remembered to put in the servo and led light wiring i needed before gluing them in.
 

thenated0g

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Airfoil used is Peter Wicks Pw51, this is pretty much the only airfoil i use for flyingwings/planks for slope soaring.
For covering i will be using waterdown elmers glue and 60 pound brown paper, pretty much what i did on my 1/7th scale f-100.
gorilla glue for most stuff, hot glue to stick the spars into the Rigid brand foam, low temp.

Really wanted some led lit up laser guns on the wingtips but they are so thin i am not confident they will stay on. Not much meat out there to glue anything or attach anything. So will just be some hella bright break light "jets" and super bright white spotlight in the nose.

For graphics it will be a X-wing inspired paint job
1634159699780.png
 

earthsciteach

Moderator
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Sweet looking sloper! I think the PW51 is the same airfoil I used for the Wisel. Its been a while though. What weight are you shooting for? Light winds or hurricane strength?
 

thenated0g

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decided to mount the fuselage access on the bottom of the plane. I need a good size area for a 3s 1000mah battery to power the lights. This box will also help strengthen up the foam in the nose. Plus this flat bottom lid will be much easier to make than trying to do something on top with all those curves.


PXL_20211015_154408162.jpg PXL_20211015_154906098.jpg PXL_20211015_154941890.jpg PXL_20211015_154947418.jpg
 

FlyingMonkey

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So... I watched the most recent FT podcast today, and they're moving to hotwire manufacturing, and plan to start carrying supplies for hotwire scratch builds.

You were leading the curve with this project! ;)
 

thenated0g

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So... I watched the most recent FT podcast today, and they're moving to hotwire manufacturing, and plan to start carrying supplies for hotwire scratch builds.

You were leading the curve with this project! ;)
2016 me with fishing wire and a 3s battery doing it by hand. I had been watching Andrew newton for a while and he did this a lot. Been trying to get flitetest peeps into it since than. Not sure exactly what they plan to do with it but excited to see if they can get epp and other materials shipped for a reasonable price. There has always been people that sell epp for hobbiest but its almost as expensive as just buying a fpv wing kit from sweepwings, vas, or defiantwings.

I have commented a few times on the hotwire pics around social media the past month but nobody responds. oh well back to my own thing lol.
 

FlyingMonkey

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They discuss their intentions here...


One thing is larger, longer lasting builds.

They sound like they plan to produce kits from hotwired foam.

As well as stock the supplies so we can try scratch building with wire cutters.
 

thenated0g

Drinker of coffee, Maker of things
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Both sides spackled and sanded. I made a top and bottom cut of 60lb paper and than a bunch of 3" wide strips. I will go around the entire thing first with the strips and than do the top and bottom layers. All using 50/50 water/white glue.
PXL_20211026_173542959.jpg PXL_20211026_174214106.jpg PXL_20211026_174222789.jpg
 

FlyerInStyle

Elite member
They discuss their intentions here...


One thing is larger, longer lasting builds.

They sound like they plan to produce kits from hotwired foam.

As well as stock the supplies so we can try scratch building with wire cutters.
To be honest until this I didn't mind everything ft was changing but this... I don't mean to rant but one of the fun parts for me about ft style techniques was making 2d into 3d. This kind of ruins that if they just leave dtfb behind
 

Tench745

Master member
To be honest until this I didn't mind everything ft was changing but this... I don't mean to rant but one of the fun parts for me about ft style techniques was making 2d into 3d. This kind of ruins that if they just leave dtfb behind
They're not leaving DTFB behind. They said in the last podcast that their experiences with the Freedom Fox, Widgeon, and FT Adventure has reinforced that they should stick to what they're good at and cater to the scratch-building and kit-building side of the hobby. They're just branching out into other methods of building to offer to the community. Besides that, the free plans are still available (just no NEW free plans).
 

FlyerInStyle

Elite member
They're not leaving DTFB behind. They said in the last podcast that their experiences with the Freedom Fox, Widgeon, and FT Adventure has reinforced that they should stick to what they're good at and cater to the scratch-building and kit-building side of the hobby. They're just branching out into other methods of building to offer to the community. Besides that, the free plans are still available (just no NEW free plans).
yes. I know, but foam sbks are still good. so, yea, as long as they stay with dtfb, I am really happy
 

FlyingMonkey

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To be honest until this I didn't mind everything ft was changing but this... I don't mean to rant but one of the fun parts for me about ft style techniques was making 2d into 3d. This kind of ruins that if they just leave dtfb behind

I think this sums up so much of what's wrong with everything these days.


You are provided information, and instead of looking for the good news, or even just hearing it for what it was, you took the the information, and portrayed it as a negative. An untrue negative at that. No one said DTFB was going away. But now someone will come along, and see your post, miss the follow up posts, refuse to listen to the source material, and there will be a rumor that FT is no longer using DTFB designs.

People are so eager to be wronged, and upset, they edit the information they're given, to fulfill that desire.
 

thenated0g

Drinker of coffee, Maker of things
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Technically hot wire cut foam is just thicker foamboard.

@FlyingMonkey Even if they were totally dropping foamboard these comments would irritate me. One i dont like drama. But second its their lives and they obviously are having fun doing something new that is exciting to them. Their imaginations are going crazy with new ideas. And it seems pretty selfish to than poopoo on the fun they are having based solely on how its going to affect another person cause they are not doing what they want to do anymore.

anyways.....
Went thru and did the paper covering yesterday. As usualy it looks like total hot garbage and i wondered why i even wasted my time doing it that way. Than this morning, after it dried and tightened up, it actually looks fine. Few things to fix and work on but about 90% what i wanted.
https://www.instagram.com/tv/CVgmBE5s4fQ/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link
 

FlyingMonkey

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Technically hot wire cut foam is just thicker foamboard.

@FlyingMonkeyAnd it seems pretty selfish to than poopoo on the fun they are having based solely on how its going to affect another person cause they are not doing what they want to do anymore.

And there's that. I think unhappy people dislike seeing other people happy, and do what they can to bring them down to their level. As they say, misery loves company.