FT Charlie Plans 1.1

[flitetest]

flitetest submitted a new resource:

FT Charlie Plans - FT Charlie Free Plans

FT Charlie
View attachment 114091 ​

The Flite Test Charlie was designed to be a quick and easy to fly build, the slowest and least agile of the Triad series.

The FT Charlie is compatible with the FT Alpha and FT Bravo kits. Each airplanes’ wings are built to be removable from the fuselage, and can be swapped with any of the other Triad planes, giving the builder essentially 9 planes to choose from.

The Swapping Of Wings Takes Less Than...

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[Mihai_fly_2024]

Hi, can someone tell me how to open the pdf file on lightburn software to laser cut it in full size?
Thank you!

 

[Flying Monkey fab]

I can't tell you anything lightburn specific but leading up to putting it in LB the steps are the same. This file is formatted for printing and hand cutting so first off you will need to open it in your favorite vector art program, remove a bunch of stuff you don't need, and then change some colors around for doing cut and score. After that save in a format that LB likes and then do what you do in LB.

 

[Mihai_fly_2024]

Thank you, so this leads me to another question: if i want to scale this at 50 or 70%, will still be able to fly? Of course i think i will have to change only the holes in the drawing that can fit my 5mm foamboard and all the electronics suggested becouse it changes size and weight.

 

[Flying Monkey fab]

Thank you, so this leads me to another question: if i want to scale this at 50 or 70%, will still be able to fly? Of course i think i will have to change only the holes in the drawing that can fit my 5mm foamboard and all the electronics suggested becouse it changes size and weight.

I hate to give a non-reply but yes, you understand the things you will need to change but not all models respond to scaling the same. Mostly if CG is good and you have appropriate power then you can scale up or down.

 

[Merv]

... if i want to scale this at 50 or 70%, will still be able to fly?...

Things change dramatically when you scale down.

EXAMPLE: Take a 40-50 inch plane, with a wing loading of 10-15 oz per square foot of wing area. You will have a great flying plane. Now scale it down by 50%, your wing loading will need to be in the area of 1.5-3 oz per square foot of wing area. Nearly 10x lighter. As you go smaller, the control surfaces need to be proportionally larger.

I am far from an expert but have done just enough experimenting to know scaling down is much more difficult than it sounds.

 

[LitterBug]

I have used lightburn to "import" .pdf files and generate .lbrn files for burning. Depending on the files (image vs trace), you may need to use drawing tools to create all the burning traces, or if they are older files, just select the traces you want to burn. After you have your traces, you will need to apply appropriate speed and power levels to each type of trace.

 

[LitterBug]

The FT Charlie plans have the traces rather than an image. You will be able to manipulate the traces easily rather than having to trace them all out. (I really need to extend my printer in at least one axis so I can cut bigger parts. 400x410 is a little too small for 762x508 foamboard)