Bayboos
Active member
Hello everybody. This is my first build thread over here, so please be reasonable with your comments
The background:
1. Light = cheap.
2. I live in a country where 1,2m x 0,8m depron sheet costs less than 10$. EPP foam is almost twice that, and DTFB/FTFB is not available by any means.
3. Carbon rods of reasonable size are $0,5-$1 per 1m.
4. I've recently build some light planes (deporn Baby Blender, Twin Twirl from the original plans) and loved the idea.
5. I've already build FT 3D following the original plans (modified for 6mm depron) and loved the plane. Unfortunatelly it's not flyable anymore (car's inside on a warm, sunny day is not the best place to store planes put together with hot glue).
It was my plan to build light aerobatic plane for some time; but I wasn't able to find anything that would catch my attention. Currently, most planes are designed for EPP; which is not bad, but I just happen to not like it at all. The choice of KIT/ARF plaes available on the market is the same. I was almost ready to buy one anyway; when the idea came to me to use original FT 3D plans to build my own profile plane. The research was quickly re-oriented from "what" to "how"; but that wasn't any easier. I didn't find any good build tips/videos for depron planes yet (everybody seems to forget this wonderful material ever existed); but I did found a great example of exactly what I had in mind:
It may not be the most popular 3D profile in the world; but it's build beautifully with all the materials I have readily available and using building techniques I'd love to learn. That's how FT 3D "Pro(file)" was born.
After examining everything I've found both on RC Groups and the original Product Page, I started to redesign and cut out parts. I have to admit, it wasn't as easy as I thought. First I taped one half of the fuselage plans with the vertical fin/rudder together. Then decided to make it a bit longer, to move the elevator cutout from the rudder to the stabilizer without moving the horizontal surfaces forward. I also reshaped the nose part to have the motor fit nicely "inside". Then I had to properly rearrange wings, reshape ailerons and design brand new horizontal fuselage, along with all the doubler plates on the nose. Here are all the parts cut out:
And here's how all the horizontal parts come together (roughly):
Now, I'm glueing carbon stiffeners along the fuselage and the wing. Here's how it looks like:
Next will be glueing the carbon to elevator/rudder/ailerons, cutting out all the holes in both parts of the fuselage, and putting all of this together. I'm really excited and curious how all this will turn out.
The background:
1. Light = cheap.
2. I live in a country where 1,2m x 0,8m depron sheet costs less than 10$. EPP foam is almost twice that, and DTFB/FTFB is not available by any means.
3. Carbon rods of reasonable size are $0,5-$1 per 1m.
4. I've recently build some light planes (deporn Baby Blender, Twin Twirl from the original plans) and loved the idea.
5. I've already build FT 3D following the original plans (modified for 6mm depron) and loved the plane. Unfortunatelly it's not flyable anymore (car's inside on a warm, sunny day is not the best place to store planes put together with hot glue).
It was my plan to build light aerobatic plane for some time; but I wasn't able to find anything that would catch my attention. Currently, most planes are designed for EPP; which is not bad, but I just happen to not like it at all. The choice of KIT/ARF plaes available on the market is the same. I was almost ready to buy one anyway; when the idea came to me to use original FT 3D plans to build my own profile plane. The research was quickly re-oriented from "what" to "how"; but that wasn't any easier. I didn't find any good build tips/videos for depron planes yet (everybody seems to forget this wonderful material ever existed); but I did found a great example of exactly what I had in mind:
It may not be the most popular 3D profile in the world; but it's build beautifully with all the materials I have readily available and using building techniques I'd love to learn. That's how FT 3D "Pro(file)" was born.
After examining everything I've found both on RC Groups and the original Product Page, I started to redesign and cut out parts. I have to admit, it wasn't as easy as I thought. First I taped one half of the fuselage plans with the vertical fin/rudder together. Then decided to make it a bit longer, to move the elevator cutout from the rudder to the stabilizer without moving the horizontal surfaces forward. I also reshaped the nose part to have the motor fit nicely "inside". Then I had to properly rearrange wings, reshape ailerons and design brand new horizontal fuselage, along with all the doubler plates on the nose. Here are all the parts cut out:
And here's how all the horizontal parts come together (roughly):
Now, I'm glueing carbon stiffeners along the fuselage and the wing. Here's how it looks like:
Next will be glueing the carbon to elevator/rudder/ailerons, cutting out all the holes in both parts of the fuselage, and putting all of this together. I'm really excited and curious how all this will turn out.
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