Flite Test Design Engagement Challenge

[The Hangar]

Kinda surprised this thread is still alive 😂

Haha, yeah. @FoamyDM is the reason I finally finished up the plans actually. They’ so been sitting there, just two or three hours from being done, but I hadn’t gotten around to sit down to label all the parts, tile the pages, and then get the PDF’s all ready. Finally did it though!

 

[Tench745]

Kinda surprised this thread is still alive 😂

Good threads never really die, they just hibernate for a while.

 

[The Fopster]

It's true - old threads don't die! This one is back (briefly, probably!) from hibernation.

I was inspired by this thread to try to scratch-build a classic air racer. Initial test flights went well, but for some reason once I'd "finished" it it was a mess. Lots of crashes later (and after a few breaks from the problem to get my motivation back!) I have finally got it sorted. Somehow the CG had shifted rearwards during finishing (surely paint wouldn't be enough to do that?) and having found room to shift the battery forwards it's now a nice stable scale flyer. Picture below taken after flying two batteries through it yesterday - I will now finally finish the plans, and maybe even build a new fuselage as this one is looking a bit "tired".

Better late than never?

 

[Monte.C]

It's true - old threads don't die! This one is back (briefly, probably!) from hibernation.

I was inspired by this thread to try to scratch-build a classic air racer. Initial test flights went well, but for some reason once I'd "finished" it it was a mess. Lots of crashes later (and after a few breaks from the problem to get my motivation back!) I have finally got it sorted. Somehow the CG had shifted rearwards during finishing (surely paint wouldn't be enough to do that?) and having found room to shift the battery forwards it's now a nice stable scale flyer. Picture below taken after flying two batteries through it yesterday - I will now finally finish the plans, and maybe even build a new fuselage as this one is looking a bit "tired".

Better late than never?

View attachment 196672

Still loving that plane. That's so good looking. Glad you got it sorted!

 

[Tench745]

It's true - old threads don't die! This one is back (briefly, probably!) from hibernation.

I was inspired by this thread to try to scratch-build a classic air racer. Initial test flights went well, but for some reason once I'd "finished" it it was a mess. Lots of crashes later (and after a few breaks from the problem to get my motivation back!) I have finally got it sorted. Somehow the CG had shifted rearwards during finishing (surely paint wouldn't be enough to do that?) and having found room to shift the battery forwards it's now a nice stable scale flyer.

Beautiful aircraft. In case you were wondering, paint is all it takes to move the CG pretty significantly towards the rear in a conventional design. Put an ounce of paint on the tail and you need significantly more than an ounce forward to balance out. Most of an aircraft's surface area is aft of the cg after all.

 

[The Fopster]

Right. This thing is now flying really nicely. A little down elevator mixed with throttle was quicker than dismantling the nose to change the thrust angle, and it's a really nice scale flyer. For the first time ever I'm going to try and finish some proper drawn plans to share if I can win my private battle with Inkscape!
So - long after the thread died I'm finally done! I've added a photo of the full size that is based near me so you can see where the inspiration came from.

 

[Monte.C]

Right. This thing is now flying really nicely. A little down elevator mixed with throttle was quicker than dismantling the nose to change the thrust angle, and it's a really nice scale flyer. For the first time ever I'm going to try and finish some proper drawn plans to share if I can win my private battle with Inkscape!
So - long after the thread died I'm finally done! I've added a photo of the full size that is based near me so you can see where the inspiration came from. View attachment 199440 View attachment 199441

Nice! Been watching for an update on this plane. I still can't figure out why it's one of my favorites. Just one handsome specimen.

 

[The Fopster]

Nice! Been watching for an update on this plane. I still can't figure out why it's one of my favorites. Just one handsome specimen.

Thanks. There’s something about the full size that just looks “right”. If you fancy building one I’m going to tidy up my plans. They won’t be to official “Sponz” standard but they will be workable!

 

[Monte.C]

Thanks. There’s something about the full size that just looks “right”. If you fancy building one I’m going to tidy up my plans. They won’t be to official “Sponz” standard but they will be workable!

Fantastic! People will appreciate that. Personally I need to draw things up myself to get the most out of the build, but this contributes a bunch to my desire to build a vintage racer. Mine will be more of a mashup of what I like about these types of planes.
Really, thanks for sharing your work.

 

[The Fopster]

Fantastic! People will appreciate that. Personally I need to draw things up myself to get the most out of the build, but this contributes a bunch to my desire to build a vintage racer. Mine will be more of a mashup of what I like about these types of planes.
Really, thanks for sharing your work.

I’ll follow that for sure. Good luck!

 

[Tench745]

Awesome build. You're right that this plane just looks right and you've done a great job of capturing that. Feels great, doesn't it.