FAI-F1D
Free Flight Indoorist
Josh Bixler gave me a kit for the new Tiny Trainer that's coming out soon. I had a bunch of fun flying one of the prototypes when they were down here in January and was excited to get something like that in my fleet for small field flying.
Trouble is I can't leave well enough alone, and before I knew it, I was using the tail surfaces as patterns for balsa outlines. Next came a slimmed down balsa fuselage, and so on.
I built the wing with the razor thin AG03 airfoil, which required a webbed carbon spar...it's nice and strong, and very light. Power is an HXT 3000 kv outrunner driven by a 2s 370 on a 20A esc. The result is a sub-200 g model that glides very nicely. It's extremely maneuverable thanks to the large control surfaces and low inertia. It's docile as can be until you open the throttle.
It starts climbing around 1/4 throttle. Wide open it is absolutely ballistic--very, very ballistic, like 3:1 thrust:weight ratio ballistic. After a few flying sessions, I'm finally able to keep it pointed straight under power (expo and dual rates are not optional here). As a motor glider, it's superb. Doesn't have the glide performance of my larger birds, but that's the penalty of going small. It stays nice and docile in wind, does inverted flight, outside loops, vertical rolls, all the fun stuff. And it's stable enough in glide that my wife can fly it on low rates.
Anyway, just wanted to show that once this model becomes available, you can form up a balsa version that's super fun. Josh has an ailerons mod on his as well. The great thing about this size is how cheap everything is. I've probably only got $50 worth of parts and materials in the entire model. Even with those tiny batteries, it's capable of well over 20 minutes in dead air (probably 25 if you're not doing any aerobatics). Bottom line, it's the perfect plane for me because it'll go anywhere and do everything you could ask for. I suspect the foam version, while not as high performing, will achieve the same reputation. Flite Test did a great job on their newest design, leaving me with an excellent platform for developing a high performance airplane.
Trouble is I can't leave well enough alone, and before I knew it, I was using the tail surfaces as patterns for balsa outlines. Next came a slimmed down balsa fuselage, and so on.
I built the wing with the razor thin AG03 airfoil, which required a webbed carbon spar...it's nice and strong, and very light. Power is an HXT 3000 kv outrunner driven by a 2s 370 on a 20A esc. The result is a sub-200 g model that glides very nicely. It's extremely maneuverable thanks to the large control surfaces and low inertia. It's docile as can be until you open the throttle.
It starts climbing around 1/4 throttle. Wide open it is absolutely ballistic--very, very ballistic, like 3:1 thrust:weight ratio ballistic. After a few flying sessions, I'm finally able to keep it pointed straight under power (expo and dual rates are not optional here). As a motor glider, it's superb. Doesn't have the glide performance of my larger birds, but that's the penalty of going small. It stays nice and docile in wind, does inverted flight, outside loops, vertical rolls, all the fun stuff. And it's stable enough in glide that my wife can fly it on low rates.
Anyway, just wanted to show that once this model becomes available, you can form up a balsa version that's super fun. Josh has an ailerons mod on his as well. The great thing about this size is how cheap everything is. I've probably only got $50 worth of parts and materials in the entire model. Even with those tiny batteries, it's capable of well over 20 minutes in dead air (probably 25 if you're not doing any aerobatics). Bottom line, it's the perfect plane for me because it'll go anywhere and do everything you could ask for. I suspect the foam version, while not as high performing, will achieve the same reputation. Flite Test did a great job on their newest design, leaving me with an excellent platform for developing a high performance airplane.
