Hello all! I've been flying RC since 1991 and have dabbled in balsa, glow, foam and electric (and combinations of those), and I've been thinking about building another Telemaster-style plane. Kits (at least the balsa ones) for this plane have become rare, and balsa as a building material is getting more expensive than my retirement income can handle. The Legacy is a tribute to the Telemaster, but the kit is no longer being made, although the plans can be downloaded. I'm game to try scratch building one, but I do have some questions. FT's planes appear to be made from some kind of foam board covered with kraft paper. Can I use the regular foam board used for posters? Are there any tricks or tips I should know before attempting to build this plane? I'm a newbie at foam board construction. I have my old Telemaster's gear and wheels, and I have several motors, ESCs and servos salvaged from foamies that have gone to the Great Hangar in the Sky. I recently crashed a Dynam Waco and have a 650kv motor that pulled it around nicely with a 12x6 prop as well as two 850kv motors from an Avios Bush Mule that met a bad end. Both these flew on a 2200 mah 4S battery.
FT Legacy?
- Thread starter lee292
- Start date
First, not all foam boards are created equally. You are going to want to use Adams Readi-board (white, available at Dollar Tree stores) or Flite Test water-resistant foam (brown, available at the Flite Test online store). If you can find it, ROSS foam board (white, available at some Walmart stores) is nearly the same weight as the Adams. Most other foam boards (Elmer's, etc.) are a lot heavier and will impact your CG and flight performance.
You should be able to make the old Telemaster's gear work with some minor modifications to the airframe.
I would go the twin route and use the power system from the Bush Mule.
clolsonus
Well-known member
If you haven't built with foam board before, then buying one of the FT kits and going through the process could be pretty helpful. Or just watch the build video for a similar plane, and they will probably cover most of the tricks you need. I think for the larger airplanes (say 1500mm wing spans on up) you probably want to do a little extra wing spar strengthening. (wood dowels, arrow shafts, lots of possible low cost options.) The basic FT wing design approach works amazing for the smaller stuff, but you hear about a lot of folded wings in the larger airplanes that get flown hard (which happens even unintentionally -- like if you get crossed up on the controls or knocked off kilter by a wind gust and need to do an emergency expedited pull up.)
Can I say that the more I do with foamboard construction, the more it seems like a pretty legit way to go. With some care and workmanship you can build things that last dozens of flights or more and still look brand new. It's really hard to beat the material cost. Every FT design I've built has flown amazingly well. They are foamboard, so you don't get super scale, but the designs look great in the air. Everything still takes time so it's maybe not the time saver I hoped. And there's something (a lot!) to be said about a low emotional and $$$ investment in an airplane that flies amazing. Lower stress equals a lot more fun. Prediction: watch out for these FT guys in the upcoming years, they might be on to something with this whole foam board thing, especially if it starts to catch on. Lol
I have been building a replacement wing out of foamboard for my old Skywalker 1900 (which is sort of a big fat slow draggy glider design.) The foamboard wing is going to come in significantly lighter and probably be more aerodynamicly efficent than the original. We'll see ... or I'll discover I didn't strengthen the center as much as I should have and it will be a short first flight with the new wing. Whatever happens, it's fun and hopefully I learned a few things through the process -- and my next idea will be even better.
Can I say that the more I do with foamboard construction, the more it seems like a pretty legit way to go. With some care and workmanship you can build things that last dozens of flights or more and still look brand new. It's really hard to beat the material cost. Every FT design I've built has flown amazingly well. They are foamboard, so you don't get super scale, but the designs look great in the air. Everything still takes time so it's maybe not the time saver I hoped. And there's something (a lot!) to be said about a low emotional and $$$ investment in an airplane that flies amazing. Lower stress equals a lot more fun. Prediction: watch out for these FT guys in the upcoming years, they might be on to something with this whole foam board thing, especially if it starts to catch on. Lol
I have been building a replacement wing out of foamboard for my old Skywalker 1900 (which is sort of a big fat slow draggy glider design.) The foamboard wing is going to come in significantly lighter and probably be more aerodynamicly efficent than the original. We'll see ... or I'll discover I didn't strengthen the center as much as I should have and it will be a short first flight with the new wing.
Whatever happens, it's fun and hopefully I learned a few things through the process -- and my next idea will be even better. 
