SSgt Duramax
Junior Member
Ok, so as i am working my way back into the hobby, i had built a mini arrow a while back, but now that my daughter is old enough to fly, i built her a tiny trainer, and it does great! I also built another couple of minis, the speedster which i didnt like, the scout, which is great, and i am cutting out a mini corsair right now.
However, i had these two 4500 mah 3s laying around i had bought for my rustler that didnt quite fit. I wanted a big plane to use those in. I was originally going to build a storch and i had a 2217 ebay motor and some 10x4.5 props. But i remembered how my daughter keeps desteoying props, so i opted for the high mount pusher option of the explorer.
After some research, i found folks had problems with the wings snapping. So i built a 7 inch cord 60 inch armin wing reinforced with a carbon arrow spar and a 9 degree dihederal and put 4 inches of under camber FT style on the wing tips. I also streamlined the nose a little bit. Other than pushing the motor up a little to clear the prop and slight battery mods, it went off without a hitch. I came in a little over the weight goal at 1 lb and 3 oz, but that was mostly due to the larger reinforced wing, and of course some paint.
I had to extend the boom a tad to get good CG. I took it out for its maiden today, and i had no idea the amount of power it would have. I was reluctant to throw such a big plane so i just put it on the ground and let it do a belly take off and the thing can get off the ground pretty quick! It cruises well at about 30-40% swinging that big 10 inch prop, and it flies so easy, my daughter can handle it too! I cant wait to get more servos in and make it 4ch with flaperons. It is pretty docile but if you punch it it has some thrust. So it will probably be the best of both worlds when i get the wing avionics going.
However, i had these two 4500 mah 3s laying around i had bought for my rustler that didnt quite fit. I wanted a big plane to use those in. I was originally going to build a storch and i had a 2217 ebay motor and some 10x4.5 props. But i remembered how my daughter keeps desteoying props, so i opted for the high mount pusher option of the explorer.
After some research, i found folks had problems with the wings snapping. So i built a 7 inch cord 60 inch armin wing reinforced with a carbon arrow spar and a 9 degree dihederal and put 4 inches of under camber FT style on the wing tips. I also streamlined the nose a little bit. Other than pushing the motor up a little to clear the prop and slight battery mods, it went off without a hitch. I came in a little over the weight goal at 1 lb and 3 oz, but that was mostly due to the larger reinforced wing, and of course some paint.
I had to extend the boom a tad to get good CG. I took it out for its maiden today, and i had no idea the amount of power it would have. I was reluctant to throw such a big plane so i just put it on the ground and let it do a belly take off and the thing can get off the ground pretty quick! It cruises well at about 30-40% swinging that big 10 inch prop, and it flies so easy, my daughter can handle it too! I cant wait to get more servos in and make it 4ch with flaperons. It is pretty docile but if you punch it it has some thrust. So it will probably be the best of both worlds when i get the wing avionics going.
I never had success with my explorer, I made multiple motor pods and it just acted like the thrust angle was off. I’ll have to revisit it sometime in the near future and give it another go.
