Been gone for a while and sub 250g question.

Indy durtdigger

Elite member
Hello all. Haven't been around for a while and as with the way of things my flying hobby got back shelved for a bit. See a-lot of new names as well as a forum makeover.
My question about the weight limit on the planes that won't require the upcoming RID or other permits is as follows. I've been poking around the forums off and all on day and done some searches but have not been able to answer my own question. Has anyone began compiling a list of build plans for planes that fall into this category? The way things are going these will be the only way some of us will be able to stay in the hobby for a while longer at least.
 

Merv

Site Moderator
Staff member
Willy Nillies has a whole line up of sub 250g balsa plane kits.

 

Tench745

Master member
I haven't seen a list compiled yet. I can safely say that without modification, all or nearly all of the FT planes are too heavy. I've been looking more at smaller builds recently as they fit my flying fields a little better.
To that end, I just finished a little build based off the Phat Phil; a little balsa plane from Flug Modell. I scaled mine down 80% and built it out of 1/8" XPS sheet. Came in at 100g.
IMG_2577.JPG IMG_2598.JPG
 

Indy durtdigger

Elite member
I haven't seen a list compiled yet. I can safely say that without modification, all or nearly all of the FT planes are too heavy. I've been looking more at smaller builds recently as they fit my flying fields a little better.
To that end, I just finished a little build based off the Phat Phil; a little balsa plane from Flug Modell. I scaled mine down 80% and built it out of 1/8" XPS sheet. Came in at 100g.
View attachment 236196 View attachment 236197
I've been looking into the XPS material. There is a You Tube channel I watch (NUMAVIG) that makes planes exclusively out of that stuff. Makes lots of minis that should work quite well. Last plane I built was a Crack Yak styled park flier that's sub 250g but barely. Enough so that on someone else's scales it may not be.
 

Tench745

Master member
I've been looking into the XPS material. There is a You Tube channel I watch (NUMAVIG) that makes planes exclusively out of that stuff. Makes lots of minis that should work quite well. Last plane I built was a Crack Yak styled park flier that's sub 250g but barely. Enough so that on someone else's scales it may not be.
A lot if early electric foamies were made out of 1/4" "fan fold" insulation foam. For mine I took some 1" thick pink insulation foam and shaved it into 1/8" sheets with my wire cutter. Worked great. NumaVIG was definitely an inspiration when I was looking for ways to build light.
 

The Fopster

Master member
I've been looking into the XPS material. There is a You Tube channel I watch (NUMAVIG) that makes planes exclusively out of that stuff. Makes lots of minis that should work quite well. Last plane I built was a Crack Yak styled park flier that's sub 250g but barely. Enough so that on someone else's scales it may not be.
I’ve designed a little racer from that type of foam that can be built under 250g. I’m afraid I’m trying to sell the plans (but cheaply) as I lost my job last year and I’m trying to make my hobby cost neutral. There is a build video as well as plans.

plans from: SimpleRC.ets.com
build video:
 

sprzout

Knower of useless information
Mentor
I built the FT Slow Stick. All Up Weight, running with a 2S, 800mah battery - 247g.

I achieved this by making all of the 3D printed parts with LW-PLA, and instead of using the heavier foam wheels glued together, I printed up a set of thin, ultralight wheels like what was made for the GWS Slow Stick that Aloft Hobbies is carrying.

I was also very sparing with the hot glue, and used CA glue where needed to stick the 3D printed parts on. I also had to drill out a little bit of the plastic to get it to fit my carbon fiber rod for the "fuselage" because it was a slightly larger diameter than what the parts had originally been designed for. So - it IS possible to build a Flite Test plane under 250g, but none of them are gonna be rockets. And remember that the 250g is AUW, or All Up Weight, meaning with receiver, battery, motor, servos, etc. ALL of that has to be in your plane in order to qualify for it.

And if that doesn't suit you, look to Ready Made RC and buy a Strix Nano Goblin. That, with a 2S, 3200mah Li-Ion battery with 18650 cells, will get you around an hour of flight and be around 200g without the FPV gear - but could be 225g with an all-in-one FPV camera. Oh, and they're fairly fast little planes, too. Not as fast as their bigger brother with the 4S platform, but they're still a lot of fun!