Ft DR1 build with Alerons & Ft Aura lite 5

[Tuvor]

I just completed my build of the ft mighty mini DR1.it looked great. I waited till the next morning to go maiden it. It was a little windy. So I pointed it into the wind and gave it full up elavatir & half throttle. It lifted and pitched to the left. I reset & tried it again. This time it pitched to the right. Finally I tried to hand launch, full throttle, it went up 10 feet and pitched immediately left before I could get both hands on the controls. 1 broken prop & the landing wing. The cowling took some damage. I think the rest is intact. I will have to check and see if the fuselag is still square. I don't know what went wrong.
I have attached some preflight pics. Any suggestions would be well received. (Yes, this is my first build.)

 

[Tuvor]

I just completed my build of the ft mighty mini DR1.it looked great. I waited till the next morning to go maiden it. It was a little windy. So I pointed it into the wind and gave it full up elavatir & half throttle. It lifted and pitched to the left. I reset & tried it again. This time it pitched to the right. Finally I tried to hand launch, full throttle, it went up 10 feet and pitched immediately left before I could get both hands on the controls. 1 broken prop & the landing wing. The cowling took some damage. I think the rest is intact. I will have to check and see if the fuselag is still square. I don't know what went wrong.
I have attached some preflight pics. Any suggestions would be well received. (Yes, this is my first build.)

I forgot to mention, flight stabilization was enabled.

 

[Mr NCT]

I just built a DR1 at 150% scale with ailerons. Looks like the same size (relative) that you used and they were totally useless. Try going back to 3 channel and it will probably fly fine. When it gets to the point of needing major repairs I'm going to try ailerons on all three wings and see what happens.
With ailerons:

With ailerons disabled - elevator and rudder:

I forgot to mention, flight stabilization was enabled.

 

[dap35]

I forgot to mention, flight stabilization was enabled.

Double check that the control surfaces (including the rudder) move as expected when the plane changes orientation.

 

[Mr NCT]

I forgot to mention, flight stabilization was enabled.

Tuvor, any progress on your DR1?

 

[Tuvor]

Tuvor, any progress on your DR1?

Made lots of progress. Leveled out the top wing to remove all dihedral. Still acted wonky. Then it dawned on me. I had added a cover over the aura lite 5. I placed it in the pilot's seat so I could access the controls if needed. That was part of the problem. I used magnets to attach the cover. Got rid of them and the problem was solved.

 

[Tuvor]

Made lots of progress. Leveled out the top wing to remove all dihedral. Still acted wonky. Then it dawned on me. I had added a cover over the aura lite 5. I placed it in the pilot's seat so I could access the controls if needed. That was part of the problem. I used magnets to attach the cover. Got rid of them and the problem was solved.

Now it had so much lift,it did a loop on take off. Almost landed it too.nothing was broken so I lined it up again an only gave it half throttle & 1/4 up elevator. And up she went. I was happy for about 2 minutes. The wind gusted up to 5.6 mph. (Yes, I was using an anemometer) the plane all but stalled. I gave it 75% throttle and it climbed straight up. Everytime I tried to lose altitude it would struggle against the wind. Aura failed to keep it level. I had to turn it off. It was a going 500 ft up and the only way I could get it to descend under control was to cut the throttle. Got it down to about 100 ft and i lost sight of it over a ridge. Needless to say I cut aura back on and killed the throttle. I walked over 3 ridges and that plane was nowhere in sight. Gonna take another look for it tomorrow. I used the f-pack and thought it would make it. But that motor was too weak to handle 3.8-5.6 MPH wind.
I am sure the wind was probably higher at altitude but still I thought the motor would perform better. Before the wind picked up, I did a few barrel rolls & loops. Was about to try a immelmann when the wind killed my joy. At least I know I can build a plane that flies.

 

[Tuvor]

I wish that when you do videos you would note the wind speed and have a wind sock visible. It would make the decision of what type of motor to buy alot easier.

 

[Mr NCT]

I'm sorry your DR1 left you, hope you find it! I'm glad to hear that your ailerons worked. Now I have to figure out why mine didn't. I wonder if the aura made the difference. I think I'll connect mine to a Y adapter and hook it up to the rudder channel so I can be flying under control and then try them. On both my DR1s I've found that the throttle and elevator are almost interchangeable, more throttle and it goes up rapidly and less throttle it comes down. Every plane does that but it is dramatic with the DR1 - I've read that the real DR1 was the same! I also used an F pack on mine.

 

[Tuvor]

Miracles do happen. We went out at 10 and walked out to where I last saw it. We looked around for 40 minutes and low and behold there it was. We spotted it up against a yuka. Unhurt, laying there like it was parked. No damage at all. Just waiting for us to come and get it.

I thought if we found it it would've been in pieces. But the auto stabilizer must have kept it level all the way down.

 

[Tuvor]

I'm sorry your DR1 left you, hope you find it! I'm glad to hear that your ailerons worked. Now I have to figure out why mine didn't. I wonder if the aura made the difference. I think I'll connect mine to a Y adapter and hook it up to the rudder channel so I can be flying under control and then try them. On both my DR1s I've found that the throttle and elevator are almost interchangeable, more throttle and it goes up rapidly and less throttle it comes down. Every plane does that but it is dramatic with the DR1 - I've read that the real DR1 was the same! I also used an F pack on mine.

I placed all the servo lines directly to the aura lite 5. I did use extenders to connect to the ailerons. I didn't use a y adapter. I'll try to get some good pics of the setup and post them.

 

[Tuvor]

I positioned both the ailerons up for ease of identification. They take up 75% of the length of the upper wing. They performed very well before the wind took the plane.

We found the plane 1 mile away from where we were flying it.

 

[Tuvor]

I positioned both the ailerons up for ease of identification. They take up 75% of the length of the upper wing. They performed very well before the wind took the plane.

We found the plane 1 mile away from where we were flying it.

I did make a housing for the servos controlling the ailerons. This way you can glue the servo to the housing and the housing to the wings. Attach the servo to the control horn mark it, cut & glue it in place. I ran the servo wires along the wing and down the central supports. I tacked the lines down with hot glue and taped them down to secure them.

I hope that helps. If you want more pics or a better description, just let me know.

 

[Mr NCT]

I'm glad you found it and without any damage! Then wind here just got below 10mph so I took mine out with the ailerons hooked to the rudder channel since I know it turns well with just the rudder. Got up and stabilized and then tried them and got the correct reaction! I've got the servos set to full throw and set up the control horns for almost max travel so I think I either need to make the ailerons bigger or put them on at least one more wing. I'm glad I'm moving in the right direction!

 

[Tuvor]

Make them bigger. From what I was able to ascertain, in the beginning they put them on all wings but had them smaller and they did not run out to the end of the wing. Later on they only put them on the top. Landing with a bottom ailerons often caused contact with the ground and either broke them off or caused the plane to whip around and crash. So I went with the top only version. You should be able to cut a longer airleron and tie it to the other with a BBQ skewer & hot glue. I would use two one inch pieces and cut a channel to receive them ½ inch on each portion. Place glue the channel and push the skewer in & seal it with glue. That should keep it rigid enough. I placed the servo do it was adjacent to the outer piling and centered on the aileron. It barrel rolls like a champ. Just remember to turn off safe/stabilization before you roll or you will just get a bank.

One other thing was I used a short push rod to eliminate any flexing. I noticed that the elevator & rudder rods would flex about an eighth of an inch. While that is not much, it could cause issues if under pressure so I made an H shaped adaptor and placed it above the aura lite 5 with each rod going between the bars of H with it laying horizontally. There is no contact with the foam unless they flex. And even then it does not bind. The H is only friction fit not glued in place.

 

[Rodonay]

I have build a 150% Version with 1m Top wingspan. It has Ailerons but it also rolls with Ruder only. My Key to sucsess was a Giant Motor. I have a roxxy 35-48 990KV Motor with a 10*6 folding Prop. It flies of a 3000mAh 3s. It loops on a dime and rolls realy nice.
First worked with a smaller Motor without sucsess. It needs the nose weight.
Here is a FPV flite with it.
Attention Vomitt Warnung

 

[Mr NCT]

Well done! I'm a big fan of this plane. I'm working the bugs out of my new one also. 150% straight wing with airfoils (https://forum.flitetest.com/index.php?threads/what-did-you-fly-today.57878/page-471). Lot's of adverse yaw but flies very well.

 

[Rodonay]

I need to make the Ailerons bigger. Made them scale to the original but its not enought. At the Moment its my Most liked Plane. Along with the F22 scratch build.