FT Flerken ***Official Thread***

[toryander]

My Flerken is pretty beat up: missing back part of the bottom fuselage, wings dinged up, stabilizers bent, nose crunched--and yet it still flies great. I've even been flying it in acro (but it'd be dead without a couple panic uses of Stabilize). Once when I hit the panic switch I swear it must have done 16 gs to pull out. Wings stayed on. It bounces and tumbles on landing due to no suitable landing strips, but it's hanging in there. I'm loving the maneuverability and speed. I'm glad I tried that one last time to get it in the air.

 

[der_smo]

I completed my Flerken two weeks ago, it was a great building experience. I'm flying with a 2200mAh 3S battery and a RunCam Thumb 2. I hat to add quite a bit of weight to the nose (literally added a wrench) to get the center of gravity right, to the position indicated in the instructions. It's easy to hand launch and land and it flies relatively stable straight lines, but is really resisting turns. The turning radius is way bigger than, say, the much larger Mustang from the Master Series. I wonder if I can remove some of the weight from the nose to get a more manoeuvrable plane. But I'm worried of what they say: CG too far to the front makes an airplane fly badly, CG too far to the rear makes an airplane fly not at all. Any advice ?

 

[toryander]

I completed my Flerken two weeks ago, it was a great building experience. I'm flying with a 2200mAh 3S battery and a RunCam Thumb 2. I hat to add quite a bit of weight to the nose (literally added a wrench) to get the center of gravity right, to the position indicated in the instructions. It's easy to hand launch and land and it flies relatively stable straight lines, but is really resisting turns. The turning radius is way bigger than, say, the much larger Mustang from the Master Series. I wonder if I can remove some of the weight from the nose to get a more manoeuvrable plane. But I'm worried of what they say: CG too far to the front makes an airplane fly badly, CG too far to the rear makes an airplane fly not at all. Any advice ?

Nice looking Flerkin. I didn't add any weights anywhere. My struggle came simply with battery placement. Using the COG that they recommended made it nose heavy and I crashed it twice. Then I started measuring cog from leading edge (just a guess) instead of center of those little triangle things by the wing and body and it came out fine using just my battery for weight adjustment. I'm sure it's just the way I build it. It's a really fun aircraft. A little much for me. I can fly it on acro for a bit, but without the Aura (panic button) I'm pretty sure it wouldn't survive me for the entire flight (yet). Have fun! Let us know how it goes.

 

[der_smo]

Nice looking Flerkin. I didn't add any weights anywhere. My struggle came simply with battery placement. Using the COG that they recommended made it nose heavy and I crashed it twice. Then I started measuring cog from leading edge (just a guess) instead of center of those little triangle things by the wing and body and it came out fine using just my battery for weight adjustment. I'm sure it's just the way I build it. It's a really fun aircraft. A little much for me. I can fly it on acro for a bit, but without the Aura (panic button) I'm pretty sure it wouldn't survive me for the entire flight (yet). Have fun! Let us know how it goes.

Thanks for the advice! I guess I‘ll just gradually remove weight from the nose and see if it becomes better. I‘m flying without any active stabilization, just a simple receiver.
Here is some footage from the onboard camera:

 

[Foamforce]

I balance mine with a 4s 2200 far forward as it will go. It’s still almost an inch behind the COG mark (tail heavy) but it flies great there. Good luck!

 

[toryander]

Thanks for the advice! I guess I‘ll just gradually remove weight from the nose and see if it becomes better. I‘m flying without any active stabilization, just a simple receiver.
Here is some footage from the onboard camera:

Nice! Did you ever go full throttle during the flight? I love flying the Flerken. It's smooth and fast.

 

[toryander]

My Millennial Flerken as been through a lot. Because I have no tall grass it tumbles upon landing and takes a bit of damage. I recently replaced the fins from scratch. It's nose is crunched. The wings are dented from fence impacts. The bottom back section ejected itself some flights ago. I wanted to see if it would still fly so I resurrected it yesterday. It flew so smoothly in acro. It was a beautiful flight . . . until that fencepost on landing.

 

[bisco]

looks great flying!

 

[toryander]

A little 1 minute flick of my Flerken still zooming after the fence post. It is so much fun to fly. Today it was my neighbor's roof that got in the way on landing.

 

[bisco]

that thing moves! was it your house?

 

[der_smo]

Nice! Did you ever go full throttle during the flight? I love flying the Flerken. It's smooth and fast.

No I did not go full throttle, at least most of the time.
I tried again with less ballast in the nose but it was not a great experience.. it was not completely unstable but also much more nervous, often times the nose was pointing upwards much more than it was supposed to. I'll have to add in some more ballast again for the next flight I guess, to find the sweet spot. I was still able to land without major damage.
Congrats oh the Millenium Flerken btw, it looks and flies great !

 

[toryander]

that thing moves! was it your house?

No, my neighbor's. Ugh. I'm going to quit trying for that patch of weeds. Don't have the skill for a precision landing with the Flerken.

 

[toryander]

My Flerken had her last dance this morning. Pretty sure my Aura 5 had come loose from its mount. A little too broken to fix one more time. (I've ordered another .

 

[The Hangar]

Does anyone know if there are 3D print files for the boomin flerken?

 

[bisco]

sorry to see it tory, it was a great ride! good luck with the next one, I'm on #5 or 6 with some of my models.

 

[RickHunter]

Does anyone know if there are 3D print files for the boomin flerken?

The short kit is the same minus the motor mounts and no landing gear. I found some on Thingiverse that work great for the mount and landing gear. I think i have them saved on my computer at home, and will check when i get home and share them if so.

Part - FT Flerken Printed Parts

FT Flerken Printed Parts 3D Modeled By: Dan Sponholz If you're building the FT Flerken from the purchased plans available from the FTCA, you can print these STL files to help you complete your build. Don't have a printer? No Problem. You can...

forum.flitetest.com

 

[toryander]

sorry to see it tory, it was a great ride! good luck with the next one, I'm on #5 or 6 with some of my models.

When I saw it laying there with the motor mount broken for the third time and a crack across the bottom fuselage it seemed clear that this third death was the final one . . . but, somehow, it has risen again. I glued it back together, reattached the elevon control rod, put an analog camera in that crunched up nose . . . and got my first Flerken fpv flight! It's delights me like a five year old to be bird's-eye zooming all over the neighborhood while standing in my back field talking with my wife.

 

[bisco]

yayyy!

 

[der_smo]

Great, congrats! In finally got my CG right, I think. Turns out the reason for the instability last time was a loose motor mount.. see attached where I marked my CG (blue dot on the small triangle part of the wing) and also my makeshift "ballast".. it is not stupid if it works ! I added some more footage showing the newfound agility.. with full throttle at least half of the time. It goes fast on barrel roll but is starting to struggle on the looping. This time, with more aggressive stabilization of the video.

 

[Mr Man]

Great, congrats! In finally got my CG right, I think. Turns out the reason for the instability last time was a loose motor mount.. see attached where I marked my CG (blue dot on the small triangle part of the wing) and also my makeshift "ballast".. it is not stupid if it works ! I added some more footage showing the newfound agility.. with full throttle at least half of the time. It goes fast on barrel roll but is starting to struggle on the looping. This time, with more aggressive stabilization of the video.

View attachment 259753 View attachment 259754

Hey, if it works, it works! (I once used a handful of bolts when I put a big motor in the goblin 🤣). Congrats on getting it to fly!