FT Cruiser (Finally)

Arcfyre

Elite member
Love the crusier. Thinking of doing retracts on mine as well, mind sharing a link to the ones you used?

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Theuglycamel

Active member
That's one sweet cruiser Arcfyre! Love those balloon tires! How well does your suspension hold up? Here's the link for the gear I'm using: https://www.ebay.com/itm/Electric-R...e=STRK:MEBIDX:IT&_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649

You can get these with wire already attached for 2-3 bucks more. But the wire isn't capable of more than a 2" tire. I initially tried to mount them far enough outboard to have the wheels tuck beside the power pod. If I'd been more creative with my wire it might have worked. Also, the lock nut for the wire is inside the hollow hinge. Took me a bit to find it and a bit more to find an Allen wrench that would fit.
 

Theuglycamel

Active member
I do have one question for the experienced cruiser builders. I've noticed a few cruisers with the E/R servos on the outside of the fuse. I was considering this myself because "Murphy" hates my servos. To the point where they work fine on the bench, die in the plane, and work again as soon as I pull them out. I love the clean lines with the servo hidden like the build video but again, clean lines only look good until you rip em apart to replace servos. Also, the mini has a servo mount in the middle of the wing, I'm considering doing something similar to this and using heavy pushrod wire with tubes. I should have MUCH more room in the full size vs the mini. Even with two 9 grammers in the middle of it all.
Any insights? Internal servos vs external?
 

Arcfyre

Elite member
I do have one question for the experienced cruiser builders. I've noticed a few cruisers with the E/R servos on the outside of the fuse. I was considering this myself because "Murphy" hates my servos. To the point where they work fine on the bench, die in the plane, and work again as soon as I pull them out. I love the clean lines with the servo hidden like the build video but again, clean lines only look good until you rip em apart to replace servos. Also, the mini has a servo mount in the middle of the wing, I'm considering doing something similar to this and using heavy pushrod wire with tubes. I should have MUCH more room in the full size vs the mini. Even with two 9 grammers in the middle of it all.
Any insights? Internal servos vs external?

I mounted mine externally just in front of the H stab. After paint they are barely visible, and it keeps pushrod flexing to a minimum.

If you zoom in on these pics you can see it. This is before my balloon tire/suspension mod, which I'm happy with. I'm still thinking it needs retracts though. Thanks for the link.

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Hondo76251

Legendary member
Murphy and I have met as well. I like to cut a hole, slide them in and back them with a bit of balsa to screw into from outside. This leaves them hardly visible but still 100% serviceable...
 

Arcfyre

Elite member
Murphy and I have met as well. I like to cut a hole, slide them in and back them with a bit of balsa to screw into from outside. This leaves them hardly visible but still 100% serviceable...

I'm having trouble visualizing this. Could you post a picture when you get a chance?
 

Arcfyre

Elite member
Blue is the backing plate glued inside the fuselage (balsa or plastic)

I get it. Your installation is the same as mine except I just hot glue the servos into the foam instead of screwing them to a backing plate. I think I like your backing plate better though, as swapping out a servo would be much neater and easier.
 

Theuglycamel

Active member
Well progress has been made. My box-goggles came in this week so that knocked out a day of playing with those. I finally decided on laminating this one. I was going to use fiberglass resin but when I grabbed the can of base (unopened) it was solid as a rock. Couldn't be that it was 5 years old...
I'm liking this laminate though. Its a breeze to apply and if you screw up it doesn't rip the paper off your plane. It also wont rip or run whatsoever. I screwed up a piece because I sliced it with a razor and missed a few inched at the end. When I tried the packing tape trick of just pulling and letting it run, the laminate balled up like an old 5 1/4" floppy disk case. To seal it into place I used an old broken glue gun tip with the shield removed, and ran it around the edges. Once I've got the entire fuse covered, I'll hit it all with a blow drier and pray it doesn't shrink lol.
The nose is turning out well so far. I'm still debating on how to lay out the interior. Basically I'm doing this just like the Guinea Pig nose. I've peeled the inside paper off the nose and curved it in. Everything curves in to a point about 1/2" square at the nose. I found the perfect clear pyramid shaped Lego for the nose cone. I've got a white led I'll throw behind it as well. The bottom and first 20% of the top cowling will get covered with curved foam. This is going to leave a large cavity in the nose and a hinged hood just like the Mini Cruiser. I'm going to add some bulkheads and possibly some trays to accommodate the battery and fpv gear. I've got a couple of options with those as well that I haven't decided on. I've got a micro 20/200mw tx with a 3db dipole and a decent ccd paired. I've also got a 20/200mw all in one that I think would fit well in the nose with the cloverleaf sticking out. If I use the mico transmitter I'll solder on an extension so I can use a full size clover or pagoda. Either way, I plan on adding a little hood scoop to poke the camera out of. Far enough back to stay protected but far enough forward to keep the nose out of view. All it all it'll be "close" to the dh-88 nose. I'm not trying any master-build tricks to get it rounded out since I'll be smashing it into a tree within a month anyway :p
I must say it's been an awesome build and I'd have been done 3 days ago if I hadn't over-sized. It's easy to let your symmetries get out of wack. My power pod mounting holes were way off on my first cut and had to re-do the wing halves again. I'm going to mount the servos in

Well I hope to have the fuse laminated and the tail/turtledeck finished up tonight.

I also have a confession. Part of why I've been delayed is I just got a few 5" drone kits in the mail this week as well. I've promised myself not to touch them until I'm done with the cruiser... can't help from fiddling tho!

What size lipos have ya'll been running? I've got 3 or 4 good 2200 3s's I was planning on using. (and a 1300 4s for mach "oh hell" runs)...
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Hondo76251

Legendary member
Have to let me know if that aio camera is worth a darn... haven't tried that one yet. Like the heat sink. My 200mw aio will melt hot glue if left on for more than a min or two without airflow...
 

Theuglycamel

Active member
Funny you say that Hondo, I've got a 200mw VTX02 that can boil water after about 2 min. I've got an old foxier case I'm working on modifying to house this guy in. I just got the new camera in yesterday but didn't get a chance to test it out yet. The footprint is perfect for the cruiser so I'll probably throw it on there.
Speaking of, I finally got everything laminated (sigh) and the wing shoved in. I'm really liking how the nose is turning out. I'm planning on a hatch at the very front for the camera and a larger access hatch to the rear for general access. I'll have to slide my wings back out tonight as I forgot to mount my bomb servo under them before shoving them in. All in all it's been a good build. The oversize makes it a challenge but made TONS of room in the fuse. I've got a dozen boo-boos but I think I'll be the only one to notice them. I'll work on my nacelles tonight and hopefully have her ready to paint by tomorrow.
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Theuglycamel

Active member
Well Sports Fans... it's been a month and I'm really kicking myself for not being done yet. I'm ready to paint and I've got a few finishing touches to make. Not an excuse, but my biggest setback was ebay (again). I picked up some old apm 2.8 flight controllers and kinda jumped feet first into those. So... what I've come up with is this. I'm starting out with a Flysky iA10b 10 ch receiver (looking at long range setups for later) fed through this apm with arduplane 3.51 and an early 3dr m8n gps/compass. From there I should be able to map out my property and put this hobby to some use. I'm saving one of the apms for a 450 drone to do this job full time but I'm a much better fixed wing pilot so I'll do my testing with the cruiser first. I'm not really interested in the autopilot, just the mapping and return to home.
I've also hit a snag with the retracts. The pair I ordered from way out east would work on a full scale 747. They're WAY too big for this setup. So I'm going to use some old mechanical retracts and do the rubber band trick like I had on my mini. At least until I build up enough nerve to buy another set of servoless. Anyhow, more to come. Hopefully soon.
 
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Theuglycamel

Active member
Most of my woes these days are from a litter of kittens that showed up last Feb. I've lost more servos and foamboard to those hethens than I ever did to crashes lol.
 

Theuglycamel

Active member
Once again, I'm here to update on the lack of progress instead of the gain. Yesterday was my day, no wind, hot as a biscuit, and the cruiser was ready to roll. Did a last minute servo check and I noticed one of my escs was WAY off on endpoints. This was odd, as I just calibrated the day before. So I ran through the process, power cycled everything, then... nothing. No power out of my esc bec. Well poop, must have pulled an extension out when I was tiding up the fuse. So I pulled the esc out, hooked her up without the extension, and powered up again... for the last time. Got a beep beep beeeeeepeplll puff. YAY MAGIC SMOKE! The cheap o no name simonk esc not only decided to cook itself, it took my brand new sunnysky 2216 1400kv along with it. Was actually kind of cool cause the winding in the motor blew a perfect Gandoff smoke ring. So I'm on hold while Walmart (of all places!) gets me my new motor in 2 days ship. I also picked up some Skywalker 40a escs so hopefully no more magic smoke. Gonna replace all of these extensions with some good 22awg white signal wire types as well. There is a possibility one of my extensions shorted out, but I've never had one blow through the bec and into the fetts before.... More to come when the mail man gets here!
 

PoorManRC

Master member
WALMART for MOTORS??? 😲
I was also wondering.... As Motor and ESC technology has increased by leaps and bounds since this was designed...

Has anyone considered trying a Single Engine version, without Wing Nacelles?
Yeah yeah, I know. Differential Thrust, flat spins, all that! 😋

But it's a really attractive design, WITHOUT the often too close coupling of many other FT designs. It might make a nice single Engine, Pylon/Sport Plane. 😉
Not completely nuts, is it?
 

Theuglycamel

Active member
Yep, they had the best prices around. Those Sunny Skys are getting hard to find. Hey Hondo! Yes I've finished the build. Then I decided not to maiden it until I painted her. Of course that means it's been hanging on my wall for months. I'll post some picks tonight, and get off my lazy butt and shoot some paint.