FT Mighty Mini Tiny Tutor Build Log (My Experience As a Newbie)

[DZFlyer]

Hello Flight Test Community,
This is my first involvement with FliteTest Forums, but it seems like a great place for someone beginning in the hobby like me. I became interested in remote-controlled aircraft a few months back and spent my summer scratch-building an ultra-micro scale RC bush plane through a YouTube video. The airframe was made of low-density EPS (expanded polystyrene foam) a.k.a styrofoam that I salvaged from catering at a party. Unfortunately, it seemed I had chosen the wrong path into the hobby, as the video offered very few details (length, wingspan, and takeoff weight were not specified anywhere in the video or description), and the airframe was extremely fragile. On the first test, I realized that the plane was extremely underpowered and I was not able to take off from the ground or maintain altitude after a hand launch. The plane would dive to the asphalt immediately. After two tests, the foam near the nose of the airplane shattered, and I was forced to conclude the session. After repairing it with new foam parts and epoxy (hint: the plane would soon become more epoxy than foam), and installing a larger propeller, I took it out to fly again. This time, I was able to stay in the air for a grand total of three and a half seconds, after which the plane nosedived into the grass. I took off the landing gear and tried again, and this time, the *very* rough landing took the plane out of commission. The front end was shattered in several places and there was damage in the tail as well as the side of the fuselage. I repaired the damage with epoxy and more custom replacement parts (the plane is now about 50% glue), but ran out of time for testing. I had been working on the wiring when a bullet plug came out of its socket, and I was not able to repair it quickly as our soldering iron was not in the best condition. The airplane is still in my closet today, the airframe repaired and waiting for wiring fixes. By this point I had been looking at FliteTest for a while, wanting to build my own airplane, but wanting something that had building resources and was nearly guaranteed to fly. I was desperate to build something successful. So here we are: I got a FliteTest Mighty Mini Tiny Tutor for my birthday with all of the requisite electronics, propellers, chargers, and batteries, and began building. While I was researching FliteTest planes, I realized that the Tiny Tutor was a relatively new airplane and there wasn't much documentation about it besides people looking for build plans. So, I decided to make my own documentation of the process to help those who want to build a Tiny Tutor and give back to the FliteTest community and FliteTest itself for the amazing work they do. So, lo and behold: my very own FliteTest Tiny Tutor!

 

[DZFlyer]

Ordering:
I ordered the Tiny Tutor speed build kit along with the turbo wing and then used the side menu to add two batteries, a charger, Power Pack A, and spare propellers. I also added a prop remover, a bag of rubber bands to fix the wing with, and a servo tester (get the servo tester if you do not already have one. It is extremely useful). I already have a Flysky FS-i6 Transmitter and a Flysky FS-ia6B receiver, so I did not need to order the radio equipment. The shipping was $13 and the package came in pristine condition. The foam board kit, wheels, and hardware pack are packaged with shrink wrap, while the power pack is in a white cardboard box. The other, separate parts were in the box individually. I was really happy with the packaging and receiving a giant box with everything I needed made me very excited to get started.

Pre-Building:
The very first thing I did before beginning to build was trace out all of the parts onto a sheet of poster board. I marked all of the inner parts/score cuts with dots and connected them, and used a ruler to connect any places where my pencil drifted onto the foamboard or away from it. I had read many articles and posts where people recommended tracing out parts prior to building, as plans for several FT airplanes (including the Tiny Tutor) are not available as of the writing of this post. Having traced out the parts, I watched the build video several times to familiarize myself with the process and recognize which tools I would need. Up until then, I had been using a Gordon retractable snap-blade knife, which worked great for my scratch-built FT Sparrow (that I used as a glider), but I decided to try using a foldable knife that could be bent to an angle for bevel cutting. FliteTest offers such a knife on their store, but I realized too late that I might need it, and shipping was expensive. So, I went to Harbor Freight (great store for cheap building tools) and bought a Gordon Lock-Back Folding Utility Knife. It has two locking positions and the angled one was perfect for bevel cutting. After extensive practice on scrap pieces of foam and various techniques, I felt confident to begin building the real thing.
Wing Construction:
I began building the wing a few days after preparing all of my tools and materials. I removed the channel for the initial C-Fold and started cutting the double bevels to fold over the wing. I went very slowly and made sure to stay high above the middle facing paper. In the end, after minimal adjustment, I was able to create a near-perfect double bevel for the wing halves. If you are not comfortable doing bevel cuts, crushing the seam with a Sharpie works great as well. I used that technique when building my FT Sparrow glider. The wing came together well, and my only remarks are that the C-Fold is a bit narrow, so you have to be careful to fold it correctly and to be careful when putting glue in the airfoil seams to lock down the shape. I put too much glue in one, and accidentally stuck it to the wing spar. That was quickly fixed by opening the wing slightly and cutting through the tendrils of hot glue, but it gave me a scare. The dihedral gauge worked well, and the wing appears to be strong. I also realized that the glue gun I was using was likely not the best one for the job, as the glue dried very quickly, and the volume of glue I was able to squeeze out was rather small, but it worked for the build, and I just had to position everything a bit faster than the video showed. A benefit of this was that I rarely had too much glue and that helped keep weight down.
Fuselage Construction:
The fuselage came together nicely as well. I removed the foam channels with no problems after going through all of the score cuts with my utility knife. The area where there is a hole at the top of the fuse has to be taken care of a bit more carefully, but it was smooth sailing overall. I went a bit too fast on the bevel cut on the windshield and cut a tiny bit into the facing paper, but that area was covered by the windshield decal later. There's a bit of a weird hole on the back of the fuse that I was worried about, but after rewatching the build video, I realized that it was the space for the rudder control horn. Gluing went smoothly as well, and I definitely recommend using a right triangle of some sort to help get the sides as close to perpendicular as possible. The hole at the top of the fuselage was easy to cut out, and the windshield and tail section blended smoothly with the sides after gluing. Josh's technique of using the table to help with gluing worked wonders on the flat surfaces of the plane. The bottom plate of the fuselage slid in nicely, and after removing the lightening hole, I glued it in, raising first one section and then the next as shown in the video. I don't really have any tips or tricks for this section, as the build video covered it very well and I did not have any hiccups while building the fuselage.
Vertical and Horizontal Stabilizers:
Beginning with the horizontal stabilizer, I had some problems. First, my bevel cut didn't turn out how I wanted it to and was getting in the way of movement. But, I was able to clean it up with a few more passes with the knife. The vertical stabilizer turned out better, and I was able to get a near-perfect bevel cut on the first try. I would recommend breaking the tab on the bottom after you cut the bevel and not before as I did, because that would've made the process a lot easier. However, my bigger problems came when reinforcing the control surfaces with hot glue. As mentioned before, my hot glue dried very quickly and left me very little time for repositioning and mistakes. So, when I was reinforcing the elevator hinge, I was not able to wipe all of the glue out of the seam because I dropped my scrap piece of foam and spent about five seconds scrambling to retrieve it. This caused a bit of binding when I moved the elevator back and forth and also resulted in the down movement requiring more force than the up movement. I tried melting the glue down with the nozzle of my glue gun and cutting out the excess with my razor blade, but the elevator remained stubbornly hard to move. I decided to work on the rudder and work on the elevator later. The rudder went very smoothly. I was able to perform the hot glue reinforcement without issue and the control surface moved freely and without binding. I was able to reduce the binding on the elevator slightly after hacking away at the stubborn bits of hot glue with my knife and melting the excess down with the nozzle of my glue gun. Finally, I glued together the vertical and horizontal stabilizers with the use of my right triangle to establish perpendicularity after decorating them with colored tape (see below). Some tips and tricks: use the triangle and be quick with the bevel reinforcement. Always have a scrap piece of foam handy when gluing.

Decoration:
After watching a bunch of videos and reading articles online, I decided that the best way to decorate my airplane would be with colored tape and waterslide decals. Colored tape is an extremely low-weight decoration option that is relatively easy to apply and doesn't require any special equipment. It is also quite cheap. I was able to find a roll of blue packing tape on Amazon for around $8. As for the waterslide decals, this choice may sound a bit weird in the beginning, and I did not read about anyone using waterslide decals on foamboard, but I didn't have any electronic cutters at home, so vinyl decals weren't an option and ordering stickers or vinyl decals online would be expensive and might result in problems with sizing. So, after a bit of research, I landed on waterslide decals, which would work (theoretically) because the foamboard FliteTest now uses is waterproof (I checked). On my first RC airplane, (described in the introduction to this post), I simply slapped some Mammoth Mountain stickers I had lying around on the horizontal and vertical stabs and called it a day. From then on, I felt a bit attached to the theme, but I wanted to do it a bit more professionally this time, so I came up with my own "Mammoth Airlines" livery and identification number and laid it out on a three-way drawing of a similar airplane. I began by applying a long strip of blue tape across the fuselage diagonally and cutting off the excess with my utility knife. I had to be very careful not to cut the foam board. After I applied a second strip of tape next to the first, (with a slight overlap), I again cut off the excess as close to the fuse as possible. Then, two strips across the hood of the plane were enough to finish up the job. I left a bit of excess to seal the seam and folded it over. The same technique was used on the rudder and elevator, where the moving part of the stabilizer was carefully applied with tape, and the excess was cut off. The rudder was a bit tricky, having not only the bevel on the side I was taping, but also a hole in the middle to allow for elevator movement, but several passes with the knife did the trick. After I finished with the tape, I began working on the decals. I used Sunnyscopa Clear Laser Waterslide decals, so they wouldn't require any type of sealant with acrylic spray. I designed and printed my elements in different sizes on a normal piece of paper and laid them on the airplane to get an idea of adjustments I should perform. After finalizing my designs, I printed all of the elements on the decal paper using the best printer quality option, inserting it through the manual feed, and selecting "label paper" in the printer settings. Some of my decals were damaged, so I used them as practice, as I had never worked with waterslide decals before. I also ordered silicone makeup brushes to help smooth out the decals and squeeze out the water. Normally, the decals are applied using a squeegee rubber, which is offered on the Sunnyscopa store, but the shipping was too expensive, and I found the next best alternative which might've served my purposes better because my decals were small. I then applied an identification number decal to either side of the tail (using mirrored elements) and the "Mammoth Airlines" as well as another identification number to the top of the wing. Finally, I applied the included black window decals at that point because I wanted to look at the complete livery. I was really happy with the way it turned out. I also used my spare logos to decorate the vertical stabilizer, which really enhanced the overall look of the airplane. Altogether, the decoration process cost me around $20.

Servos:
After gluing the horizontal and vertical stabilizer assembly to the fuselage (which went without problems), I moved on to the servos and control surfaces. Upon opening the servos and cutting off the extra arms from the servo arm that was to be used (as shown in the build video) I encountered a problem: the screw that was used to lock down the servo arm in the video was missing from all of my boxes. I noticed that the servo shown in the build video was actually an older version and included different servo arms (all of the ones in the video were included in the servos I received. The servos in the power pack just had a wider selection of attachments). The servos in the video were also labeled "FT5G" while mine lacked a large sticker on the side but had a small one on the top that proclaimed it "FT5G v.2" I sent an email to FliteTest asking what I should do, but the same day, I found the build video of the Mighty Mini Jenny, where the servos in question were being used. I also saw that the screw used to lock down the servo arm was obviously much longer than that which they showed on the Tiny Tutor build video. So I resolved my own issue and used the shorter of the two included screws in the box to lock down the servo arm. Fortunately, my servo continued to work perfectly, and I later received confirmation from the FliteTest support that I made the right decision. So, use the shorter of the two screws in the bag to lock down the servo (if you are using "FT5G v.2" servos). The rest of the servo process went smoothly, but I did have to widen one of the slits where the control rod passes through to reduce friction. All throughout the process of installing, I checked for freedom of movement and kept my servos centered using the Servo Tester.

Landing Gear:
After I installed the servos, I passed the BBQ skewers through the fuselage and moved on to the landing gear. This was by far the hardest part of the process, as the wire is stiff (as it should be) and hard to get straight. I needed help to make some of the bends, and my landing gear required a lot of straightening in the end. After I got that out of the way, I tried to lock down the wheels onto the wire using the included wheel collar, but couldn't find a matching screwdriver or small-enough hex key. So, I had to order a micro hex key set from Amazon, which came the next day. I used the 1.5mm key to lock down the collars. I then test-fitted the landing gear to the fuselage. When carving out the cavity for the landing gear, be sure to very carefully go over the areas with hot glue and get that to the same depth as the rest of the cavity. I accidentally sliced through one layer of paper on the fuselage because my knife slipped when widening the channel. Luckily, it wasn't a large cut and was mostly invisible. After test-fitting, I made final corrections to the gear and glued it in. When gluing, be sure to press the gear in very quickly and press on all parts to lodge it into the cavity. After the initial gear, I had to widen it by a lot to reach the 7-inch spread as shown in the video. The plane looked quite awesome with the landing gear and I just had to try on the wing.

Motor Setup:
The motor setup went very smoothly. I constructed the power pod with no issues and wrapped it in tape. After that, I followed the build video to screw in the motor (with the 1.5mm hex key again) and establish the proper direction. I've always had trouble with determining the correct motor direction and prop orientation but after a bit of testing with the Servo Tester (see, it's very useful), I settled on the fact that the motor spins counterclockwise when viewed from the front and the propeller is oriented with the text facing forward. Check the packaging on the propeller before installing it, as I was mistakenly sent a pair of pusher propellers and a pair of normal, tractor propellers instead of two pairs of tractor propellers. The correct propeller should say "Direct Drive" on it, and there should be no mention of "Pusher." Then, I glued the ESC to the power pod, making sure that all of the components stayed well out of the way of the two holes for BBQ skewers, and inserted the power pod into the fuselage. It fit perfectly and I was able to pass the BBQ skewer all the way through without any problems.

Connecting Everything Together:
The rest of the electronic components went together well, but I had to reverse both servos using my transmitter. I can't offer much in the way of advice at this point as all radio systems are different and your process may be different from mine, but I was able to get everything connected. On my transmitter, I had to set limits for the servos to meet the throw gauge as I had too much throw on both of my control surfaces. I also added -40 Expo on my transmitter, but that seems to be positive 30 on Spektrum transmitters. With everything working smoothly, I attached my propeller using the washer and spinner nut and spent the rest of the evening taxiing around the house. I had to make minor adjustments to the landing gear (again) due to veering off course, but other than that, the BBQ skewer tailwheel (sorry forgot to mention it earlier) worked well to protect the rudder. The weight came out to be 248 grams, or exactly as specified by FliteTest. I was a bit worried about weight as I had decorated my plane and it was my first build, but in the end, there was no issue. I have yet to maiden my Tiny Tutor, and I am waiting for a good day with minimal wind and friendly weather. Hopefully, that will occur sometime soon. In that case, I will post an update on this thread about the maiden flight.

Thank you for reading my giant spiel. I hope this was a useful resource to those building a Tiny Tutor or anyone reading about building a FliteTest airplane. I really enjoyed the build process and want to thank FliteTest for creating such a great way for beginners like me to enter the hobby. I am very optimistic about the future of my Tiny Tutor and I hope to be back to this thread to talk about the turbo wing, which I will build after I fly the normal three-channel variation. I am happy to answer any questions or provide any support where it is needed Here are some pictures of the finished plane:

 

[bisco]

wow! great build and a great write up, thanks!

 

[DZFlyer]

wow! great build and a great write up, thanks!

Thank you!

 

[DZFlyer]

*Update*
Tried to maiden my Tiny Tutor on Wednesday. I looked at the wind forecast beforehand and found that it was supposed to have minimal wind. However, when I got to the park, there was a strong wind with unexpected gusts. I tried to take it off the ground, and I got in the air, but the wind immediately blew it over and sent it cartwheeling. I got a semi-successful flight from a hand launch, but I brought It down as soon as I could due to gusts throwing it around. Tried two more times to hand launch it but both flew into the ground immediately, and on the second, the landing gear was ripped out. Rather, the impact ripped off the paper from the foam on the landing gear plate and took the gear with it. Other damage was limited to some minor creasing on the ends of the wings.

Repairs:
I spread some hot glue into the crevice for the landing gear and across the foam surface from which the paper was ripped. Then, I pressed down the entire assembly back into place. However, I wasn't too confident about the strength because the rear part of the wire that was attached to the fuselage was poking out slightly. So, I cut out a plate of foam board from the areas of the Turbo Wing speed build kit that weren't going to be used and trimmed it down to size (no exact measurements). I removed the paper from one side (to better conform with the slightly curved bottom surface of the fuselage and wrap around the landing gear wire better) and glued it right over the wire. I hope this will add strength and stiffness to the landing gear and protect it from other inevitable crashes and rough landings. I also added a strip of transparent packing tape at the trailing edge of the wing where it is secured by rubber bands to protect against damage.

All up weight is now 250 grams (an increase of two grams from before repairs). *phew* Looking to re-maiden tomorrow morning when the wind should be minimal. I will try to record a video, and if I manage to, I will do my best to get it onto this thread. Crossing my fingers that wind conditions are manageable tomorrow.

 

[bisco]

good luck!

 

[Mr Man]

*Update*
Tried to maiden my Tiny Tutor on Wednesday. I looked at the wind forecast beforehand and found that it was supposed to have minimal wind. However, when I got to the park, there was a strong wind with unexpected gusts. I tried to take it off the ground, and I got in the air, but the wind immediately blew it over and sent it cartwheeling. I got a semi-successful flight from a hand launch, but I brought It down as soon as I could due to gusts throwing it around. Tried two more times to hand launch it but both flew into the ground immediately, and on the second, the landing gear was ripped out. Rather, the impact ripped off the paper from the foam on the landing gear plate and took the gear with it. Other damage was limited to some minor creasing on the ends of the wings.

Repairs:
I spread some hot glue into the crevice for the landing gear and across the foam surface from which the paper was ripped. Then, I pressed down the entire assembly back into place. However, I wasn't too confident about the strength because the rear part of the wire that was attached to the fuselage was poking out slightly. So, I cut out a plate of foam board from the areas of the Turbo Wing speed build kit that weren't going to be used and trimmed it down to size (no exact measurements). I removed the paper from one side (to better conform with the slightly curved bottom surface of the fuselage and wrap around the landing gear wire better) and glued it right over the wire. I hope this will add strength and stiffness to the landing gear and protect it from other inevitable crashes and rough landings. I also added a strip of transparent packing tape at the trailing edge of the wing where it is secured by rubber bands to protect against damage.
View attachment 246928 View attachment 246929

All up weight is now 250 grams (an increase of two grams from before repairs). *phew* Looking to re-maiden tomorrow morning when the wind should be minimal. I will try to record a video, and if I manage to, I will do my best to get it onto this thread. Crossing my fingers that wind conditions are manageable tomorrow.

Keep it up!

 

[DZFlyer]

*Update*
Just re-maidened my Tiny Tutor! It was a beautiful day and the wind was minimal. At first, I had problems with the plane veering off course and flipping upon takeoff, and the very first flight ended in the plane diving vertically into the ground. But, the foam board is very sturdy, so the damage was very slight. However, I did break the propeller but quickly replaced it with a new one. I continued having takeoff problems but then I just gave it full throttle right away and it took off within the space of a foot (not an exaggeration. It was basically a VTOL). In the air, it was extremely stable and I got used to it pretty quickly. Man, that thing was fun! Super maneuverable and really easy to fly, I even managed to do a loop on one of my first flights (but then got super excited and took my eyes off of it and lawn-darted). I really recommend the Tiny Tutor to beginners as it was really friendly and stable (I know I keep saying that but it's true). At the end of the session, I was forced to conclude when I broke both of my propellers, but not after getting in some awesome flights. The plane is really strong and sustained very slight damage. Super happy with how it turned out and with the flight!

Will try to upload flight videos and will continue to post in this thread about further flights, changes, and the turbo wing which I plan to build next.