FT Cruiser - BUILD
- Thread starter fliteadmin
- Start date
Test.
Non Action Man
Nose Landing Specialist
It arrived today!! all undamaged too which is awesome! I had a look through my stuff, turns out i've run out of 9 gram servos 
oh, well off to order some more!
oh, well off to order some more!
robmccleary
Junior Member
Please share some instructions and tutorials so that we can also take a chance and try to make this wonderful thing which you have create so convincingly...
OutcastZeroOne
Fly, yes... Land, no
Got mine today from the post office. Had I know they where shipping it with a signature required I would have shipped it to my work since the mail people don't come down my road at all. Started building it, but I boogered up the wing. Hot glue hardened too fast. Remembering why I hate hot glue... Got the plans for the wing parts printed out and new wings cut out from some more Readi-Board. Did mine with a twist. Instead of creasing the wing and ending up with those ugly bends in the wing I did it my way. I cut out the paper on the inside of the wing where the arc goes and am getting a very nice, smooth arc on top of the wing. Ill try to get some pictures later. But now, bed since I wasnt able to sleep last night, I am very tired right now...zzzZZZzzzZZZzzzZZZzzzZZZ
OutcastZeroOne
Fly, yes... Land, no
I have a few sugestions for you guys building this plane.
1: Instead of scoring and bending on the laser lines. remove the paper from the inside of the wing. This will let the foam bend in a nice arc, creating a much better flowing wing and much nicer looking wing as well.
2: Plan out your color scheme before your final assembly. It helps a lot to plan things out before you have to try and paint/color around other control surfaces.
3: Tape your leading and trailing edges of your wing before you insert it into the fuselage. This will help slide the wing in a little easier, and also help keep the paper from getting messed up. The paper has a weak bond to the foam and can easily peel away, especially if you live in an area with a lot of humidity in the air.
Incase anyone is wondering, the 33 on the tail is because this is my 33rd build
1: Instead of scoring and bending on the laser lines. remove the paper from the inside of the wing. This will let the foam bend in a nice arc, creating a much better flowing wing and much nicer looking wing as well.
2: Plan out your color scheme before your final assembly. It helps a lot to plan things out before you have to try and paint/color around other control surfaces.
3: Tape your leading and trailing edges of your wing before you insert it into the fuselage. This will help slide the wing in a little easier, and also help keep the paper from getting messed up. The paper has a weak bond to the foam and can easily peel away, especially if you live in an area with a lot of humidity in the air.
Incase anyone is wondering, the 33 on the tail is because this is my 33rd build
Just a few observations after the build.
1. My elevator seems very weak between the two halves. I am planning on running a carbon fiber plate across the connection with a thin plywood plate covering the inner third of each elevator half. Glued up with hot glue which gets wiped to a thin layer.
2. Leading edge of rudder seems to be getting beat up during construction. Put clear packing tape on leading edge to protect it. Fiberglass covering.
3. When wing is pressed into fuse, the leading edge following the aileron gets crumpled. Add tape prior to area prior to press into fuse. I had to sand the edge of the aileron lightly before finishing.
4. Next build will have me adding the servo wire extension for aileron/flaps, ESC extensions, and power wire extension into the wing sections before closing it up.
5. I want to add a light kit, red/green, strobe markers in wing also which needs to be added before closing wing up. Still working rudder placement.
Build time was about 6 hours with the kit. Very happy with results.
1. My elevator seems very weak between the two halves. I am planning on running a carbon fiber plate across the connection with a thin plywood plate covering the inner third of each elevator half. Glued up with hot glue which gets wiped to a thin layer.
2. Leading edge of rudder seems to be getting beat up during construction. Put clear packing tape on leading edge to protect it. Fiberglass covering.
3. When wing is pressed into fuse, the leading edge following the aileron gets crumpled. Add tape prior to area prior to press into fuse. I had to sand the edge of the aileron lightly before finishing.
4. Next build will have me adding the servo wire extension for aileron/flaps, ESC extensions, and power wire extension into the wing sections before closing it up.
5. I want to add a light kit, red/green, strobe markers in wing also which needs to be added before closing wing up. Still working rudder placement.
Build time was about 6 hours with the kit. Very happy with results.
@OutcastZeroOne, you've managed to make me feel totally inadequate with my plane. That's beautiful. I see you're using the ExperimentalAirlines method on these planes. I am trying their methods, and also bought some interesting foam core board tools called FoamWerks. The have a v groove cutter that makes a perfect 90 degree box fold, a rabbit cutter and some other tools I've been trying. I'm not sure that a mitered corner is as strong as an A or B fold, and probably not nearly as strong as the EA folds, but they are very sharp looking and easy to execute. How did you get the lovely mottled look on the tape? It's a great effect.
OutcastZeroOne
Fly, yes... Land, no
I am just used to working with foam WITHOUT the paper on it. The paper has a very week bond. I can easily peel it off with little effort. Some people will wet it with something, but for the last couple of years the bond of the paper to the foam has been so weak, nothing was needed to remove it. The paper is simply held on by some paper fibers when Adams PLastics makes the foam board. Not sure what changed, but its very easy to remove.
As for the tools I used to make the bevel cuts, I custom made some small hotwire tools.
http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1450332
As for the coloring look, I used brush tipped Sharpie to color my plane. The variations of the color is from the overlapping of my brush strokes. Nice thing about useing pens is the ink dosent add any real weight to the plane like paint can. I once tried weighing a 6" square peice of foam I colored on both sides and was not able to measure any differance in weight.
OutcastZeroOne
Fly, yes... Land, no
I am going to be upgradeing my hotwire set up in the near future. I will document the build when I start. I am also a bit of an electronics nerd, so I also make my own PCB for most of my projects
You should post how you built those in the articles section. You'd get all five stars easily!
I really like this plane so I ordered one. After I ordered it I decided to scratchbuild one while I was waiting. The kit arrived about half way through my build. I finished the scratchbuilt crusier and it flies great. I used blue FFF. My power plants are E-Max 2822-1200kv motors with 9x3.8 props and 25amp turnigy esc's. AUW is 26.3oz with a 1600ma 3s liop. Here is a video of my second flight.
http://m.youtube.com/user/ssur44?feature=guide#/watch?v=OZzgenUUqBc
http://m.youtube.com/user/ssur44?feature=guide#/watch?v=OZzgenUUqBc
OutcastZeroOne
Fly, yes... Land, no
when I start the build up of the new set up i may. It just takes so long to get everything together to make a good article, and me being me I tend to forget things
when I start the build up of the new set up i may. It just takes so long to get everything together to make a good article, and me being me I tend to forget things
I understand completely. That's why I just write bad articles.
OutcastZeroOne
Fly, yes... Land, no
4-5mm
I seem to recall in at least one video (Maybe the Bloody Wonder...it was one of the first folded foam wings they did a video for) Josh B specifically mentions that the ridges are intentional in his designs and are meant to perform as turbolators.
It's been years since I did anything close to a serious study of aerodynamics and even then it was really limited. But I can see the possibility of the ridges being beneficial after doing a bit of reading on turbolators.
It would be interesting to see someone build a small wind tunnel and do some head to head tests to see if they are actually effective in that way or not. I'll try and talk my daughter into it when she's ready for a science fair project...but I'd say someone's got about 7 or 8 years to beat her to it
Probably another 5 star article waiting for someone who's got more time than me Then again summer is starting. Which means I won't be getting to fly as much (not a lot of fun flying when it's over 100 before the sun is fully up!) so maybe building a small wind tunnel and doing some airfoil comparisons should go on my list....
Similar threads
