FT 3D - Scratch Build

[varg]

Mine flies fine at 681g with my 2200 battery, and a little better with the 1800 which is 15g lighter.

It's way overweight at 510g vs the weight FT gives us of 439g without battery, and I don't really know why. I have 5g of popsicle sticks reinforcing the elevator and stabilizer, and have glued it back together a couple of times, but that accounts for maybe 15-20g, not 71g.

 

[bazsound]

Intresting.

Well i ended up getting HK foam (no paper on this stuff) and built with packing tape. I was able to hit the target weights on my mini arrow and it flies great!

So i guess ill do the same with my FT3D just dont like the finish of the packing tape (coloured stuff)

Im wondering how people do there carbon spars, im going to build a 120% version as i like the slightly bigger size. there is 120% plans on FT site but its very vague about how tod o the carbon arrow spar

 

[Rmd]

Hi Everyone. New here. Be gentle
It's been 10 years since I last built/flew airplanes, and I'm trying to revive the skills. I've started on original size FT3D. So far only put together the fuse and power pod, but now I'm having some serious doubts about the flyability of this thing with the power setup i have on hand, which is:

Motor: Turnigy Aerodrive SK3 3536 -1200kv (145 grams, hardware & firewall included)
ESC: Turnigy 45A Trust ESC (67grams)
Lipo: Turnigy nanotech 2200 maH (168grams)
FRSKY receiver: 15 grams
Servo's: Towerpro MG90S x 4 (60grams)

Tallies up to almost 460 grams. I've seen AUW's on this forum of 660 grams. Plus, i'm planning to make the wings removable as per the Backpack FT3D plans posted by BackPackModels. No way I'm finishing under 1 kg. Maybe even 1.2 or upwards.

Afraid I'm building a powered rock. Am i being too pessimistic about it? Should I be building a bigger version?

Any and all input/advice is welcome.

Raoul

 

[aerojunkie]

I dont think you will be very happy with the way it flies, not sure it will even fly honestly. I built mine with a 72gram motor and use 3 cell 1300 lipos. I want a lighter motor in mine because its quite nose heavy, still flies but not as agile as it could be. Even with my setup its almost 4 1/2 oz lighter than what you are using. To get the cg correct the battery would be quite a bit farther back than normal, which would make battery changes a bit of a pain. Personally on planes like this I prefer them to be a little lighter, much more maneuverable.