FT Mini Arrow - Fun design variants for sharing

[Bangle]

FT Twin Arrow and FT Glow Arrow

I have been enjoying a couple of adaptations of the FT arrow design. I made a really nice LED Glow Arrow which is great for night flying. I use the Turnigy Nanotech 1.3 3S 25-50c battery and a 2204 motor. This gives a 15min flight time, which is ages. The redesign is stronger than the original and has the battery right forward meaning no added weight is required. I have also added a bit of down-thrust to the motor, which works for me. It has a black recognition stripe on the top, so orientation as night is easier. A night flier is great in winter for those week-day evenings when you can't normally fly.

The versa-sized Twin arrow that I designed last year is still going strong and gives great 4-channel flying. I have managed to sort all its design vices now and it is a very pleasant low speed flyer that goes like hell at full throttle. The motors are angled outwards to give more leverage on differential thrust. It doesn't spin like crazy, but has very positive yaw action and does lovely wing-overs/stall turns. That uses a Turnigy 3S 2.2 though 2 ESCs and the same KingKong 2204 motors as all the other FT designs I've built.

I am happy to share these with anyone who is interested. I have them in DXF format.


This uses the HobbyKing LED strip with controller, allowing colours to be changed mid-flight.


The LED control board is in one spar.


This is an old photo, but it looks much the same now!

 

[bazsound]

I have been enjoying a couple of adaptations of the FT arrow design. I made a really nice LED Glow Arrow which is great for night flying. I use the Turnigy Nanotech 1.3 3S 25-50c battery and a 2204 motor. This gives a 15min flight time, which is ages. The redesign is stronger than the original and has the battery right forward meaning no added weight is required. I have also added a bit of down-thrust to the motor, which works for me. It has a black recognition stripe on the top, so orientation as night is easier. A night flier is great in winter for those week-day evenings when you can't normally fly.

The versa-sized Twin arrow that I designed last year is still going strong and gives great 4-channel flying. I have managed to sort all its design vices now and it is a very pleasant low speed flyer that goes like hell at full throttle. The motors are angled outwards to give more leverage on differential thrust. It doesn't spin like crazy, but has very positive yaw action and does lovely wing-overs/stall turns. That uses a Turnigy 3S 2.2 though 2 ESCs and the same KingKong 2204 motors as all the other FT designs I've built.

I am happy to share these with anyone who is interested. I have them in DXF format.


This uses the HobbyKing LED strip with controller, allowing colours to be changed mid-flight.


The LED control board is in one spar.


This is an old photo, but it looks much the same now!

Those look sick!!!! I really like how the centre section is now.

Im on my third mini arrow now. the first one had a few tumbles which pulled of the stabilisers a few times, no probs stuck back on then it suddenly went nose down on me and hit tarmac nose firts. this ripped half the right wing off.

So i build another, saving weight (removing paper and replacing with wing tape ie coloured packing tape_ saved 50g flew one it suddenly went nose down , i chopped the power, it fell from 15 feet up hit soft grass nose first. Tore a wing again!


My 3rd one has filament tape reinforcements along the leading edge and also the trailing edge . but its still theoriginal design.

I had issues getting my 1000mah battery to fit, i also had trouble getting the centre section to fit, i always ended up having to trim the top sides bits. dont know why but from doing it from tiled plans i always end up with misalignment there

 

[Bangle]

Those look sick!!!! I really like how the centre section is now.

Im on my third mini arrow now. the first one had a few tumbles which pulled of the stabilisers a few times, no probs stuck back on then it suddenly went nose down on me and hit tarmac nose firts. this ripped half the right wing off.

So i build another, saving weight (removing paper and replacing with wing tape ie coloured packing tape_ saved 50g flew one it suddenly went nose down , i chopped the power, it fell from 15 feet up hit soft grass nose first. Tore a wing again!


My 3rd one has filament tape reinforcements along the leading edge and also the trailing edge . but its still the original design.

I had issues getting my 1000mah battery to fit, i also had trouble getting the centre section to fit, i always ended up having to trim the top sides bits. dont know why but from doing it from tiled plans i always end up with misalignment there

I am guessing by your spelling that you are also in the UK? using those tiled plans must be a pain on A4 paper? I'd be happy to send you my re-draws that are formatted for A4 or A3 paper, including the origional FT arrow. They are drawn on DeltaCad which is very cheap and give you a 1 month full demo, so you should have no problems with printing. The way to get them accurate (usually +/- 0.02mm over 25cm) is to use an inkjet printer set to max quality. Laser printers always distort. I'd even draw you a plan set for your exact batteries if you want, it'd be no trouble.
Sudden uncontrolled dives tend to have little to do with weight, more often are symptomatic of a slightly tail heavy plane. These things can be surprisingly heavy, I think mine might be about 400 grams, but I'd have to check.

 

[Bangle]

We made some clips of the Twin Arrow flying today. I kept it in close, with low speed so it can actually be seen and concentrated on maneuvering a lot using differential thrust. It handles quite differently to a regular wing.

 

[bazsound]

I am guessing by your spelling that you are also in the UK? using those tiled plans must be a pain on A4 paper? I'd be happy to send you my re-draws that are formatted for A4 or A3 paper, including the origional FT arrow. They are drawn on DeltaCad which is very cheap and give you a 1 month full demo, so you should have no problems with printing. The way to get them accurate (usually +/- 0.02mm over 25cm) is to use an inkjet printer set to max quality. Laser printers always distort. I'd even draw you a plan set for your exact batteries if you want, it'd be no trouble.
Sudden uncontrolled dives tend to have little to do with weight, more often are symptomatic of a slightly tail heavy plane. These things can be surprisingly heavy, I think mine might be about 400 grams, but I'd have to check.

My first one was 325g including battery, 2nd one i got it down to 270g.

tail heavy is a possibility, battery might even have shifted as it was a friction fit, although the second wing 1000mah battery instead of 850, tight fit so cant see it moving at all, not much space either to move. when i had it flying on 850mah i had weight in the nose to balance it.

A4 plans (Yes UK ) would be great! that would save some paper. Im using a cheap inject which has no black catridge so printing in single catridge mode. Ill try printing in full quality.