FT Planes for RC Desk Pilot

[rcspaceflight]

FT Old Fogey and FT Old Speedster: View attachment FT Oldies.zip

The reason why they're together in the FT Old Fogey folder is because they are both exactly the same as far as flying characteristics go. I rewatched the Old Speedster episode and they both seem to fly the same. I thought about making the Speedster faster and with more throw, but the Bixler did say that the Old Speedster is meant to go slow, it doesn't like speed.

I tried and I tried to get them perfect, and then I found the issue I was having, corrected it, and it seems to be really close. I've never flown either of them, but I think I got it. I probably could do some more tweeking instead of just finding the one major problem, but it flies really well. Slow, you can kind of bash the sticks, and it can't loop. Although, I'm thinking of making it get closer to doing a loop. But just because with a 3cell battery it can loop doesn't mean it should in the sim. (I also rewatched the Old Fogey episode.)

Next I'll work on the FT Spitfire and then go back to fix the Baby Blender. I want to correct the white part of the fuselage, it looks too much like a bi-wing Dusty. lol. And I'm rethinking the blue and yellow for the BB.

 

[rcspaceflight]

Re-looking at the FT Baby Blender I see that it really could use some added lift at zero degrees of alpha. I failed to fully understand the lift graph when I created the Baby Blender. I fixed that. Since no matter what I did the fuselage was white, I just used the white in the color scheme and made the FT BB red white and blue. It's not the greatest color scheme in the world, but it does look a lot better. I also fixed the wheels.





Right now I'm working on fixing the rudder on the FT Kraken. I'm not happy with it. I think the lift graph could use tweeking for the Versa and probably even the FT BB, but I'm just going to leave them alone. They're close enough. I'm assuming that the FT BB doesn't drop too much when you go into a knife edge because of lift that would be created by the big fuselage. But I could be wrong. I never flew a FT BB. Even if I did, I'm not confident enough to snap a real RC plane into a knife edge. I'm not that good yet.

Oh, and the updated FT BB will be in my next article. I decided that the FT BB, FT Versa, and the FT Oldies will be enough to publish an article with the final versions of those. I think I'll finish the FT Spitfire next, and then do an article with that and the two Planes planes. I'm working on doing the article now. It'll hopefully be done and up in an hour or two.

 

[Foam Addict]

Hey RCSF,
Wow you've made progress! Last week I got really sick and was kind of Down and out, which led to motors being rewound, which led to... Any how, I'll have to test the Fogey and speedster tonight!

 

[rcspaceflight]

The new article with the new version of the FT Baby Blender, and a slight alteration to the rudder of the Kraken: http://www.flitetest.com/articles/more-flite-test-planes-for-rcdp

 

[rcspaceflight]

I got an amazing comment on the first article with planes for RCDP today:

"rcdeskpilot January 26, 2014
Awesome! I saw your message on the rcpowers forum. I'm the creator of RCDP and a big fan of FliteTest and what they're doing for the hobby. Actually, I had contacted Chad some time ago to ask permission to add some of their designs in the next version of RCDP and he kindly said yes. I have only finished the Baby Blender at this point. Don't worry: given the time I spend building a single model, I won't be building many. The development has been interrupted for some time due to various reasons, but I still hope to release a new version in the near future.
Keep up the nice work! Cheers from Belgium,
Davy"


I just had to share the comment.

 

[Jaxx]

RCSpaceflight,
It's got to be an awesome feeling to receive a comment like that. You are doing some incredible work. How long have you been using SketchUp? Did you get to this level by just playing around with the software? I am just getting started and would be happy to get half as good as you are.

 

[rcspaceflight]

RCSpaceflight,
It's got to be an awesome feeling to receive a comment like that. You are doing some incredible work. How long have you been using SketchUp? Did you get to this level buy just playing around with the software? I am just getting started and would be happy to get half as good as you are.

I know, that comment is amazing.

Well... the main thing that I've used Sketchup for was the Flite Test planes. Watching JasonEricAnderson 's videos on Sketchup helped a lot in getting started. Making the Flite Test planes isn't that hard because I import the plans as a JPEG and then draw out each piece on top of the plans. Then it's just a matter of pulling up the pieces to the proper thickness (which is easily measured with the measuring tape tool in Sketchup to measure the gap on the plans for A or B folds). Then it's really just rotating and moving pieces together. So it's simple, yet time consuming, yet takes some skill. The hardest part to figure out was the turtle decks. For those I made the bigger former and then pull it out to length. Then used the scale and move tools to adjust the individual lines to make the end former smaller. If that makes sense.

Here is JasonEricAnderson's first video on Sketchup: http://www.flitetest.com/articles/sketchup-for-rc-aircraft-design-tutorial-1

Even though I hate that Google is taking over the internet/world, Sketchup is a great tool. It's much easier to use than most 3D modeling software. Currently I'm using Sketchup to design my dream house. Just because.

 

[Foam Addict]

Great Job! I love all the planes you've designed so far. Keep up the awesome work.

 

[rcdeskpilot]

I got an amazing comment on the first article with planes for RCDP today:

"rcdeskpilot January 26, 2014
Awesome! I saw your message on the rcpowers forum. I'm the creator of RCDP and a big fan of FliteTest and what they're doing for the hobby. Actually, I had contacted Chad some time ago to ask permission to add some of their designs in the next version of RCDP and he kindly said yes. I have only finished the Baby Blender at this point. Don't worry: given the time I spend building a single model, I won't be building many. The development has been interrupted for some time due to various reasons, but I still hope to release a new version in the near future.
Keep up the nice work! Cheers from Belgium,
Davy"


I just had to share the comment.

I found the forum too

Thanks again for your work. It's a good way to further lower the threshold of starting to build and fly FT planes. It's nice to read here that your work is appreciated.
Keep it up!

Davy

 

[rcspaceflight]

I found the forum too

Thanks again for your work. It's a good way to further lower the threshold of starting to build and fly FT planes. It's nice to read here that your work is appreciated.
Keep it up!

Davy

Well, your work is appreciated.

 

[rcspaceflight]

Oh and Davy, if you're open to suggestions for the next version of RCDP, you should have multiple flying fields and if you're lacking on inspiration, making the Flite Test Flying Site would be amazing.

http://forum.flitetest.com/showthread.php?5151-Kapper-Residence-Flite-Test-Flying-Site

 

[rcspaceflight]

FT Spitfire

FT Spitfire: View attachment FT Spitfire.zip

Yes, per request, I made a version with retracts. Not sure they're the best looking landing gear in the world, but the real Spitfires have weird looking little front wheels.

I'm not sure I got it exactly like the real (RC) one. Watching Flite Test's review of it, Bixler was able to do some mighty tight turns. It looks like if I lower the weight of the plane I can get it to do those tight turns, but... I'm sharing what I have so far anyway.

I probably have it a touch overpowered, but that's the fun of it!

Other than a possible change to get it to turn tighter, I think I have it right where it should be.

 

[rcdeskpilot]

Oh and Davy, if you're open to suggestions for the next version of RCDP, you should have multiple flying fields and if you're lacking on inspiration, making the Flite Test Flying Site would be amazing.

http://forum.flitetest.com/showthread.php?5151-Kapper-Residence-Flite-Test-Flying-Site

Thanks for pointing those out! Very cool from Chad to provide those pictures. Creating panoramic images from that quality takes a lot of effort.

Anyway, the current code base supports multiple sceneries ànd photographic sceneries, so it will take little effort to create a flying site out of those pictures. There is no scenery editor though, so it will take some notepad and photoshop magic to create sceneries.

 

[rcspaceflight]

Thanks for pointing those out! Very cool from Chad to provide those pictures. Creating panoramic images from that quality takes a lot of effort.

Anyway, the current code base supports multiple sceneries ànd photographic sceneries, so it will take little effort to create a flying site out of those pictures. There is no scenery editor though, so it will take some notepad and photoshop magic to create sceneries.

Honestly, I did try to make new scenery and all I really did was alter photos to create a winter landscape. (And I deleted a few objects.) Which I eventually re-downloaded RCDP to reset the scenery because I screwed up a few things.

But what you have planned already sounds great. Just being able to switch between scenery without having to rename folders would be awesome. I can figure out the rest.

 

[rcspaceflight]

I thought it would be nice to take a break from making the FT planes and I started working on making a MIG 8. Just because.

There aren't very many pictures of the real MIG 8:

Here's a picture of a model of one:

I was lazy and didn't make any of the control surfaces. That is a great feature of RCDP to have actually moving parts, but they aren't always that noticeable. Like I said, I got lazy.









I'm not sure on the flying characteristics. I have nothing to base it off of so I just have to make it fly well. (I also guessed on the CG.)



I mostly wanted to try to 3D model something based on pictures instead of plans. It makes for a completely different route to model. This actually didn't take as long to 3D model as the FT planes, but that might have been because I skipped the process of making the control surfaces separate.

 

[rcspaceflight]

In a continuation from my break of only focusing on FT planes, I've also been working on a Bird Dog.









The 3D modeling didn't end up perfect, but nor did the MIG 8. Both still look like what they're supposed to.

But I'm starting to re-think the whole idea of only sticking to basic colors. It makes the planes look bland. The issue is that my models aren't turning out smooth enough to easily use photos as textures. But the airfoils on the Bird Dog and MIG 8 didn't turn out well and I could probably get away with flat, but thick, wings and then it would be easy to have photos for at least the wings graphics.


Basically I want to make at least one plane that looks amazing graphics wise. Not necessarily a complicated plane. Possibly a boxy but photo textured B-25. After I do a DC-3. I think.

 

[Foam Addict]

Where's the download button?

It's snowing and blowing here! So it's RCDP time!

 

[rcspaceflight]

Where's the download button?

I haven't played around with the flying characteristics for the MIG 8 very much. But I'm thinking of just leaving it very close to the default settings for a new plane. I wanted to make a nice flying plane, not necessarily make it how an actual RC MIG 8 would fly.

I haven't worked on the Bird Dog at all. As far as flying characteristics.


I should probably keep the planes separate so people can download just the ones that they want. But I kind of want to put planes together into bundles of planes. I see no reason why a person wouldn't just download all of them. I haven't done that with all of the other planes people made, which I should, but it can be a pain to individually download, extract, and move 20 planes.



I guess I could have just said that I'm working on it. Did you download the Spitfire though? I think the Spit flies great. But I know it's not quite like the real one. Even though my goal was to keep them realistic, just having a good flying, great looking plane is nice to have.



I'm also thinking of making a video of how to make planes for RCDP. Hopefully that's something I can do tomorrow. And hopefully I can make it as short as possible while still covering all of the basics.

 

[rcspaceflight]

Bird Dog

Bird Dog: View attachment Bird Dog.zip

It's not the easiest to fly, but I suspect if someone where to build an RC scale Bird Dog, it wouldn't be the easiest to fly either. (The plane drops a lot when you use rudder or bank it too much. But a real one would probably do the same.)

This has flaps. I may have the drag a bit too high on the flaps because the plane seems to need the same speed to take off with or without the flaps on. But I barely have more drag and I really want the flaps to create more drag. Otherwise it doesn't seem realistic.

I kept the throws low on the control surfaces. At least the ailerons. I kept a few adjustments the same as default.

I wanted the plane to be a basic high wing. Not something that is a trainer and super easy to fly. Although this plane proves that I need to work on my flying ability. But you can't work on your flying skills with easy to fly planes.

I don't like how the flaps are a different color than the rest of the plane unless the throttle is engaged. But it's just one of those things that I can't change.

 

[ofiesens2]

I really want to get into this stuff, but I'm not sure whether to get RCDP of the BMI simulator. The website says that BMI includes all the benefits of RCDP, but I'm not sure if that includes downloading user-made planes and the planes built into RCDP. Does anybody have some input for which one I should download?