First Scratch Build

[Grifflyer]

The evening was not wasted on my single post above. I did this:
View attachment 123911

I forget whose idea it was, but somebody mentioned they were thinking using one of these to do this:

View attachment 123912

Well, it worked! Cost me $1.59 at Walmart. That led to this:

View attachment 123913

Which led to this:

View attachment 123914

Which got repeated four times in just minutes for each. Honestly that little piece of plan was pretty much done at the end, but that's four parts out of one piece of cardstock plan. The marking took no time at all! Not bad in my book.

Then I spent the next couple hours just trying to get the new rotaries to work with the firewall. The wires are heatsinked right where they go through. I can only guess that is by design. It's an obvious stress point and an abrasion-wear point. It did make things tough though. I finally got it to work.

View attachment 123915

The PowerPods are not finished. The firewalls have not been glued in and there has been no taping done. However I have four of them. I had to widen the corner slot of the firewalls some to fit the heat-shrink on the F-Pack rotary. You can see where the The firewalls are 180 degrees opposed. That's just where the A was comfortable with the wires going through the hole.

It's a serious bend on the wires, but I think I can turn it around and build the PowerPods all the same. I've more to explore on getting the A rotary to mount on the firewall and use the corner slot instead of the hole, but I am done for the night.

Normally I don't run my wires through the hole, Instead I run around the firewall and cut a tiny notch in the fuse to make a bit or room for the wires.

Either way it's up to you.

 

[buzzbomb]

Granted, I've extremely limited experience. I like using the hole in the firewall because if I can make it work, the wires don't interfere with anything else. So. I made it work. I cut the hole a little bigger towards the inside and the F rotary fits great. The A rotary fits just as well, but I've got to use the wrong holes vs those recommended by the Bix.

End result of that is a smaller screw in a larger hole. I don't think the motor will pull through it, though. If it does, it'll look great on video!

What? You got a problem with that, Cowboy? You wanna take this little disagreement outside? Yea. I didn't think so. (Sorry. It's fun to get redneck once in a while.)

Here is the modification to the firewall:

You can see it's pretty minor, but I'm also mounting it upside down. The bottom hole of the vertical two is actually aligned within the bottom foam of the fuse. So I've got to use the side holes.

I screwed up one of the Pods. I was feeling cocky about my assembly line I had going on and I did an A fold and B fold. Yea. Doesn't work, lol.

So, I've got three Power Pods instead of four. Did I mention that they were completed? Did I not? Oops. Check this out.

What??!! Is that a completely repaired and flight-ready T.P. perfectly balanced at the CG points, with battery and everything, and just ready and rearing go? Yes. Yes it is.

 

[Hai-Lee]

I know I use a different motor and the powerpod is fitted to a TT but I find it is simple to just loop the wires over the top of the bulkhead.

The side thrust angle means that there is more than enough room for the wires to fit between the fuselage and the bulkhead/firewall.

Just what works for me!

Have fun!

 

[buzzbomb]

I know I use a different motor and the powerpod is fitted to a TT but I find it is simple to just loop the wires over the top of the bulkhead.

View attachment 124000

The side thrust angle means that there is more than enough room for the wires to fit between the fuselage and the bulkhead/firewall.

Just what works for me!

Have fun!

Holy Shoot!! You took a picture! Hai-Lee, I am impressed. I will admit I did not think you'd be able to do it. I've seen a couple of pics from you scattered about the forum, but this is current and topical. Well done, Mate! Frackin' well done!

If you are thinking what the heck, it's just a picture? I'm an introvert who happens to be a Customer Service Manager. Put that together. I can recognize stepping outside of one's box when I see it.

Hai-Lee I've built my Pods and worked everything out so I can use the hole. You round the ends of your skewers. Wow. That is above and beyond and something that would likely only get noticed in a picture. Thank you for that.

 

[Hai-Lee]

I thought everyone knew that you needed to sand them round to make fitting them easier, and tighter, (Initially you may need to twist them as you slide them into place). . That is why it never came up before. MY BAD!!

I supply spare powerpods with every TT build and I can give you a heads up on how to build them by the dozen if it helps!

I do supply 2 fitted with undrilled firewalls and after that I just supply the FB component. They are sacrificial after all and the firewalls are reusable if you know how to remove the damaged FB! Incidentally I make my spare powerpods from FB Scraps/offcuts and using a simple approach you could make dozens in an hour if you wanted to.

After all making them is a little boring in large quantities and so I don't like to waste too much time on them!

If you want to know how I could either pass on the procedure via PM or I could do a separate thread about it Your choice!

have fun!

 

[buzzbomb]

I thought everyone knew that you needed to sand them round to make fitting them easier, and tighter, (Initially you may need to twist them as you slide them into place). . That is why it never came up before. MY BAD!!

I supply spare powerpods with every TT build and I can give you a heads up on how to build them by the dozen if it helps!

I do supply 2 fitted with undrilled firewalls and after that I just supply the FB component. They are sacrificial after all and the firewalls are reusable if you know how to remove the damaged FB! Incidentally I make my spare powerpods from FB Scraps/offcuts and using a simple approach you could make dozens in an hour if you wanted to.

After all making them is a little boring in large quantities and so I don't like to waste too much time on them!

If you want to know how I could either pass on the procedure via PM or I could do a separate thread about it Your choice!

have fun!

There is no question! Share it with the family! You've seen my "innovation" as to plans to foam. I threw it out there, like it or hate it. My gosh if you've got a method to Power Build the Power Pods? Please, start a thread and share it! We'll like it or hate it. We won't know if you don't share it.

 

[mayan]

If it does, it'll look great on video!

Hell yeah!!! Funny but I’ll be sad for you.

Is that a completely repaired and flight-ready T.P. perfectly balanced at the CG points, with battery and everything, and just ready and rearing go? Yes. Yes it is.

Update us on the date I want to save the date .

I know I use a different motor and the powerpod is fitted to a TT but I find it is simple to just loop the wires over the top of the bulkhead.

View attachment 124000

The side thrust angle means that there is more than enough room for the wires to fit between the fuselage and the bulkhead/firewall.

Just what works for me!

Have fun!

This is how I do it too plus minus cause I do cut an slot on the top so that I don’t have to bend the wires too much.

I thought everyone knew that you needed to sand them round to make fitting them easier, and tighter, (Initially you may need to twist them as you slide them into place). . That is why it never came up before. MY BAD!!

I never did that should maybe start too.

Please, start a thread and share it! We'll like it or hate it. We won't know if you don't share it.

I second this!

 

[buzzbomb]

Well, this kind of happened.

Le Goalot has apparently hijacked my plane! He took off the paper, tribute helmet, made a canopy and strapped himself in. (Tape over his head, whatever. It's a canopy.) You might notice that he's leaning back in preparation for the intense gravitational forces he is about to experience. Fun stuff planned for later today!

 

[buzzbomb]

OK. We went out and attempted to fly The Plow. Again. Crashed in two seconds. Again.
Here's the vid.

I don't know why it pulled right like that. Unfortunately my reflexes just weren't good enough to simply steer left, and it nosed over. CG was checked in the back of the car and it was good. I checked everything out and all the surfaces that are supposed to be squared, are square. Except the horizontal stabilizer. Each side actually droops a little bit from the vertical, but it's pretty consistent on both sides. The wing was straight and centered.

If you look at the video when I do my CRAP check, the motor seems to pointed very much to the right. I crushed the powerpod on impact, so I couldn't really check it, but I checked on the ones I built with it, and it's spot on to plan. Maybe I built one that had too much right inclination and that's the one I used? That's my current theory.

The crash crushed the pod and again drove the wing forward through the fuse. My crutches worked, stopping the wing from tearing to the rear of the fuse, my patch worked to keep the wing from tearing through the front of fuse on one side. But it had to go somewhere and tore through the front of the fuse on the other side.

I've only got one shot left in the FT MINI SCOUT NEWBIE CHALLENGE! and I don't want to waste it. The Plow is fully repairable, but I'm actually thinking just building another Mini Scout is in order.

 

[Hai-Lee]

OK. We went out and attempted to fly The Plow. Again. Crashed in two seconds. Again.
Here's the vid.

I don't know why it pulled right like that. Unfortunately my reflexes just weren't good enough to simply steer left, and it nosed over. CG was checked in the back of the car and it was good. I checked everything out and all the surfaces that are supposed to be squared, are square. Except the horizontal stabilizer. Each side actually droops a little bit from the vertical, but it's pretty consistent on both sides. The wing was straight and centered.

If you look at the video when I do my CRAP check, the motor seems to pointed very much to the right. I crushed the powerpod on impact, so I couldn't really check it, but I checked on the ones I built with it, and it's spot on to plan. Maybe I built one that had too much right inclination and that's the one I used? That's my current theory.

The crash crushed the pod and again drove the wing forward through the fuse. My crutches worked, stopping the wing from tearing to the rear of the fuse, my patch worked to keep the wing from tearing through the front of fuse on one side. But it had to go somewhere and tore through the front of the fuse on the other side.

I've only got one shot left in the FT MINI SCOUT NEWBIE CHALLENGE! and I don't want to waste it. The Plow is fully repairable, but I'm actually thinking just building another Mini Scout is in order.

If you do decide to build another I may be able to provide a little build advice that will assist in making it fly better, slower, and with more stability so that you could perhaps get it to fly a full battery charge before landing.The advice would also be in regards to setup of the radio for the new build.

The info would be provided via PM so that I do not hijack your thread of course!

Have fun!

 

[kilroy07]

If you look at the video when I do my CRAP check, the motor seems to pointed very much to the right. I crushed the powerpod on impact, so I couldn't really check it, but I checked on the ones I built with it, and it's spot on to plan. Maybe I built one that had too much right inclination and that's the one I used? That's my current theory.

Yea, it's been awhile since I've built the mini scout, but that looks to be a LOT of right thrust angle... Well... looking at the plans now... There does seem to be a significant angle... And to be honest, I don't think my mini scout fared very well either....

One thing I would suggest, as SOON as things start to go south, chop the throttle... it's a hard reflex to build, but it will help soften the impact...

watching the video several times, I wonder if you tossed it a little to the right and didn't get to the controls in time?....

 

[buzzbomb]

tossed it a little to the right and didn't get to the controls in time?....

Might be. I'm honestly not sure. That would explain it, though. Come to think of it, that was a darn, weak-ass toss!

 

[buzzbomb]

Here's a pic of the same pod build, with my F-Pack motor.

It's squished a bit because I used too much glue in my TT build, and I was test-fitting. Oh. Shoot. Don't tell anybody. I definitely do not intend to put an F motor in my TT with a sport wing and four channel. Nope. That is certainly not my intent.

 

[buzzbomb]

I'm working with the F motor. I'm working with the A motor. I'm trying and trying and trying. No matter what, I've got to Dremel the firewall to make the new rotarys fit. Is anyone else using them? Are you having the same problem?

 

[kilroy07]

Might be. I'm honestly not sure. That would explain it, though.

Especially with the wind (as you describe it) catching and lifting the upturned wing and rolling her over like that...
I think it was maybe just a tad windy and/or a bad toss. The Tiny Trainer is the only mini I would fly in windy conditions... That's why I like the bigger plans more and more.

If you're doing a rebuild, maybe copy the fuselage center to make a doubler, to help with the wing tearing through the fuselage.
It's amazing how much stronger two sheets of FB can be.

 

[slipshift]

Well, you did manage to miss the trees in the background. You should get some points for that.

 

[mayan]

Well, you did manage to miss the trees in the background. You should get some points for that.

Actually missed the car

 

[buzzbomb]

AND my son, I might add! I missed the trees a quarter mile away, got lucky and didn't crash into my car, and my son was smart enough to actually watch the flight in case he had to jump out of the way.... Sounds like a successful flight to me!

 

[buzzbomb]

Alright. I've got a plan. I'm going to get the Speed Build Kit. That will remove a lot of variables in the build. I'm also going to use the Power Pod from the Speed Build kit as a control to make sure my scratch-built pods are correct.

Then the plane goes in the air for my third attempt at the FT Mini Scout Newbie Challenge! and assuming it survives, my son can use it for his entry.