C Pack biplanes?
- Thread starter RossFPV
- Start date
mastermalpass
Elite member
Just had a view of the FT Store and never noticed just how few Bipes they actually have.
I have some Bipe plans in the works (on hold), but they're designed around a smaller power system. I was also working on an Albatross D.Va (on hold). No plans available yet.
Good thing about biplanes, in my experience, is they can be pretty forgiving of shoddy builds. Perhaps you could pick a blueprint and just start building, even if it's your first ever attempt at designing your own. This Tiger Moth was my first ever design, it flew terribly, but it FLEW!
Lessons I learned so you don't have to:
- Standard FT PowerPods (the foamboard box part) are for swappables, don't just glue your fuselage around one, that's unnecessary weight.
- Keep elevator and rudder servos close to the wing and use longer push rods. Save you needing to add dead weight to the nose.
- Build a simple landing gear with foamboard wheels to save weight.
- Make the ailerons bigger than the original - it will need that for roll authority.
- Don't use a wire coat hanger bent into shape for the cabane struts, wire coat hanger is surprisingly heavy.
- Don't worry about the plane being easy to disassemble - at least don't do what I did and glue in nuts allowing the wings and wing struts to be screwed on.
I have some Bipe plans in the works (on hold), but they're designed around a smaller power system. I was also working on an Albatross D.Va (on hold). No plans available yet.
Good thing about biplanes, in my experience, is they can be pretty forgiving of shoddy builds. Perhaps you could pick a blueprint and just start building, even if it's your first ever attempt at designing your own. This Tiger Moth was my first ever design, it flew terribly, but it FLEW!
Lessons I learned so you don't have to:
- Standard FT PowerPods (the foamboard box part) are for swappables, don't just glue your fuselage around one, that's unnecessary weight.
- Keep elevator and rudder servos close to the wing and use longer push rods. Save you needing to add dead weight to the nose.
- Build a simple landing gear with foamboard wheels to save weight.
- Make the ailerons bigger than the original - it will need that for roll authority.
- Don't use a wire coat hanger bent into shape for the cabane struts, wire coat hanger is surprisingly heavy.
- Don't worry about the plane being easy to disassemble - at least don't do what I did and glue in nuts allowing the wings and wing struts to be screwed on.
Intashu
Elite member
I built a Biplane by just using a simple scout as the starter. I moved the main wing down to the bottom of the fuselage, making it a little narrower and cutting the aileron width worth out of the wing to make it a shorter from front to back as well, then built a second wing that's about the size of the normal scout, just a bit narrower (and I squared off the wing tips instead of them tapering outwards at the wing tips. Then stuck a bunch of BBQ sticks between them and Viola, Biplane. It was actually an extremely stable durable little plane and on a C pack had oodles of power for tricks, while on a 2216 motor it was able to float through the air easily. It didn't fly too well when I also had the floats attached to it, added way too much drag and weight, but allowed me to fly in the winter.
I enjoyed playing with it FPV too for doing aggressive rolls and tricks since it could recover from a stall really quickly! The only modification I wish I had done, is reduce the airfoil on the upper wing. On the bottom wing instead of the normal full box spar I just used a strip of foamboard, minimal lift, leaving the upper wing to have the majority of the durability and greater airfoil amount. this meant however in a crash most of the force was dependant on my wing struts staying in place and holding both wings together. Next time I'd use a wood spar in the lower wing, and for the upper wing use the single thickness of foamboard for the airfoil height. With two wings, it has way more lift than it needs for the weight, and less airfoil height means it can do spins easier without trying to nose dive the second it's upside down without elevator holding it steady. These are all easy modifications to do when building a new plane however!
So if you want to take an adventure into customizing existing plans to make a unique plane, I suggest modifying the scout platform to do so. Much of what I did was eye-ball what modification looked right, and trim the foam to match.
I enjoyed playing with it FPV too for doing aggressive rolls and tricks since it could recover from a stall really quickly! The only modification I wish I had done, is reduce the airfoil on the upper wing. On the bottom wing instead of the normal full box spar I just used a strip of foamboard, minimal lift, leaving the upper wing to have the majority of the durability and greater airfoil amount. this meant however in a crash most of the force was dependant on my wing struts staying in place and holding both wings together. Next time I'd use a wood spar in the lower wing, and for the upper wing use the single thickness of foamboard for the airfoil height. With two wings, it has way more lift than it needs for the weight, and less airfoil height means it can do spins easier without trying to nose dive the second it's upside down without elevator holding it steady. These are all easy modifications to do when building a new plane however!
So if you want to take an adventure into customizing existing plans to make a unique plane, I suggest modifying the scout platform to do so. Much of what I did was eye-ball what modification looked right, and trim the foam to match.
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Mr NCT
Site Moderator
Shameless plug: Check out the Staggerwing I submitted to resources.
https://forum.flitetest.com/index.php?resources/simple-staggerwing.346/
A "simple" style build and a nice flying plane.
https://forum.flitetest.com/index.php?resources/simple-staggerwing.346/
A "simple" style build and a nice flying plane.
RossFPV
Well-known member
I looked into it more and seems like some people had cg issues, what battery did you use and did it need extra nose weight?
RossFPV
Well-known member
This looks great, is it beginner friendly?
CrshNBrn
Elite member
I use a 2200 3S battery with 1/8 oz of additional lead weight. The battery just fits. It did take a while to get the CG figured out. I also turned the throws way down on the elevator and way up on the ailerons.
Tench745
Master member
I'll throw in here. I'm not positive because I haven't flown it on an FT power pack, but I think my Jenny would work well enough on the C-pack.
https://forum.flitetest.com/index.php?resources/mcb-jn-4-jenny.270/
It is a light, scale flyer. Too much power makes it unhappy, so I fly mine on a 2s battery.
Plans will get you a flyable plane, but need some tweaking for me to be happy with them. Probably wants more down thrust, and it's a WWI bird, so it needs nose weight to balance properly. I believe Mr NCT lengthened the nose on one he built to make balancing easier.
One of these days I'll build another and get it perfect.
https://forum.flitetest.com/index.php?resources/mcb-jn-4-jenny.270/
It is a light, scale flyer. Too much power makes it unhappy, so I fly mine on a 2s battery.
Plans will get you a flyable plane, but need some tweaking for me to be happy with them. Probably wants more down thrust, and it's a WWI bird, so it needs nose weight to balance properly. I believe Mr NCT lengthened the nose on one he built to make balancing easier.
One of these days I'll build another and get it perfect.
Rhaps
Elite member
I had CG issues with it but I think it was mostly because I splurged lots of glue to the tail and placed top wing far too front.
^very much this ^
I also use 1500 4s, plane feels much peppier with it - maybe partly because with the repairs and mistakes in my build it is much heavier than it should be.
But if you keep the tail light when building and mind the top wing placement it should fly fine. It might not be super beginner friendly but it isn't hard to fly either - and takeoffs and landings are really nice when you figure them out.
Ratcheeroo
Legendary member
printed my plans today, I think I will Johnny Cash it up a bit
!!! Skins would be cool though, we'll see LOL!
Scotto
Elite member
Another shameless plug.
https://forum.flitetest.com/index.php?resources/curtiss-f9c-2-sparrowhawk.225/
This was my 3rd and 4th flyable foamboard plane. So I think its pretty beginner friendly. I think she had a C motor in this video. Flies way better than baby blender imho.
https://odysee.com/@Scotto:7/Sparrowhawk3:0
https://forum.flitetest.com/index.php?resources/curtiss-f9c-2-sparrowhawk.225/
This was my 3rd and 4th flyable foamboard plane. So I think its pretty beginner friendly. I think she had a C motor in this video. Flies way better than baby blender imho.
https://odysee.com/@Scotto:7/Sparrowhawk3:0
Scotto
Elite member
Just remembered another one on my list of things to do. https://forum.flitetest.com/index.p...s-challenger-christen-eagle.38392/post-638845
Mr_Stripes
Elite member
Looks like its a swappable?
Tench745
Master member
It was originally scaled to be a swappable, so the FT power pod should fit. I didn't include a power pod because I never needed the swappability and felt that directly mounting the firewall to the fuselage doublers was good enough.
danskis
Master member
Its only a 30 inch span but you could probably put a C pack in this as it has such a short nose.
(448) FTFC20 SPAD XIII designed by Zephyr1 | FliteTest Forum
(448) FTFC20 SPAD XIII designed by Zephyr1 | FliteTest Forum
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