FT Racer - BUILD (FT Slinger)

ckleanth

Junior Member
I made and cut everything on my own also. And the cg is marked on the wing plans, little round dot, quite near the blue marked holes in thd base of the wing. I don't have my plane now with me so I can't measure..

found that. so basically you build it to plan, positioned battery and equipment to balance at those marks.

Did it flew straight with a bit of trim or did it need a lot of trim to fly straight at 50% throttle? If it needed a lot of trim was it up or down trim?

I guess because of dihedral when you fly at WOT it want to fly upwards like a trainer (and inverted want to dive to the ground)? is this tendency substantial? (to know whether to leave some dihedral in when we do the wings or to make it with no dihedral)

cheers
 

Andre

Fly yes... land no.
Admin
Final Farewell

Well after serving me since March 2014 the FT Racer finally has to be retired.

But not before one last test.

The twin EDF setup did work but the plane was over weight, tail heavy and the edf tubes were not tuned.

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ckleanth

Junior Member
Dave replied to my question by email (I post it here for completeness)

Think I used 4-8° of dihedral.
Just try making it straight, it ought to fly alright.
In the flight video the CG was a bit off and the planes weren't really trimmed that well (typical FT style) With proper CG and trim it flights straight at any throttle. (Just take care when building that everything is nicely squared and straight)

The wingprofile is straight bottomed. A carbon spar should be fine. Just try it and see if you like it, if not change it ;)

Cheers,
David
 

Pelicanglider

Junior Member
My first FT build. Made some mistakes but what I learned should come in handy next time around.
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Yes, that is a ping pong pilot. I find he takes a lot of abuse, but bounces right back and he has a good attitude!
 

GregC540i

New member
For Christmas, i built myself the FT Racer or Ripslinger. It took me awhile to get it right.

Like others, I ran the NTM 2836-1400kv motor with an 8x6 prop and 4s 2200 35C zippy compact battery. I was cooking the motor. It wasn't as fast as I wanted it to be. So I upgraded the motor to and NTM 3536-1400kv. As most of my 1100ish mm planes are running 3536. I also put in a 60a HK esc. I run a 8x4 prop according to the 3536 specs it is pumping out 600+ watts at 42A! After landing on concrete, with a metal skid plate, the prop looks like a 6x4! It still runs fast!

I absolutely love this plane. It turned out so well as they said in their video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F1bCdaR1A9c

I just recorded this video of her during sunset. Its just me flying around, but it does fly on rails! Thanks FT!!!

GregC
 

flyerdude

New member
For Christmas, i built myself the FT Racer or Ripslinger. It took me awhile to get it right.

Like others, I ran the NTM 2836-1400kv motor with an 8x6 prop and 4s 2200 35C zippy compact battery. I was cooking the motor. It wasn't as fast as I wanted it to be. So I upgraded the motor to and NTM 3536-1400kv. As most of my 1100ish mm planes are running 3536. I also put in a 60a HK esc. I run a 8x4 prop according to the 3536 specs it is pumping out 600+ watts at 42A! After landing on concrete, with a metal skid plate, the prop looks like a 6x4! It still runs fast!

I absolutely love this plane. It turned out so well as they said in their video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F1bCdaR1A9c

I just recorded this video of her during sunset. Its just me flying around, but it does fly on rails! Thanks FT!!!

GregC


Thanks for the video!
This explains why my maiden and second flight with my ripslinger was bad: My aileron throws are way to large.
In your video you can clearly see how small the throws are for making "normal" turns.

even with my 1200+ flights I was suprised about the effect of the aileron throws. have some minor repairs to do and wil adjust the throws befor flying him again!
 
i started building my racer at the end of summer last year! you can see my posts a few pages ago. anyway the motor i got for it was way too big and before I had a new one winter had arrived.

I took delivery of a new motor today that is half the weight of the last one. its a NTM Prop Drive 28-36 1200KV. im running a 11 x 5.5 prop on a high discharge 4s 2200. i hope it goes well. i might even get a chance to test out the flaps! (the viseo i made when i first installed them https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C7M_9X733gc&feature=youtu.be )

I'll let you guys know how it goes!
 
So ive had a little bit of an adventure with my racer.

First attempt: something went wrong when launching. it just went straight into the ground head first without much in the way of flight

Second attempt: It flew great for about 2 seconds until the motor ripped itself off the front of the power pod - i suspect this was from a combination of me using crappy plywood for the firewall and crash damage from the first attempt.

Third attempt: great take of and flight. it really does fly like its on rails and is very fast. it needed no trim and tracked straight and true just like the FT video. I was just cruising around at about 1/3 throttle for the most part as it quickly became apparent that this plane needs a LOT of space.
I did a full throttle flyby and the plane covered my whole flying area in about 2 seconds!
the plane handled beautifully but the throws seemed a bit low...

Then it started to go wrong. i made a 180 degree turn but lost orientation slightly in the sun and ended up heading towards the ground.

I gave it full back stick but with the low throws i didn't quite have time to pull up and the plane took a shallow nose dive. The wing snapped where it comes out of the fuselage even though it had a wooden spar - (not the same flimsy ply wood as i mentioned before. this stuff was about mm)

unfortunately i didn't get a chance to test out the flaps before i stuffed it.

I came away with slightly mixed emotions. i put many hours into the build and the plane fealt really solid and tracked amazingly. i'm sure the flaps would have worked out great too. but i'm a bit gutted that it was over so quickly.

It was my first flight since the end of summer last year, which was my first season of flying. lesson learned and i'm going to build a mini guinea - which i have the parts for so that i can get my eye back in with a slower plane. then ill decide whether the racer is worth fixing or whether i should start again.

Also i wouldn't recommend flying a plane covered entirely with glossy red vinyl in low, bright sunshine. it can be a bit dazzling!
 
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It Flies!!

I decided to fix my racer. after the maiden flight it was like this...

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but an hour or two later and as good as new..

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I used a fibreglass spar out of an old plane wing to strengthen the break. Also this is my first swappable and i found the powerpod to be the weakest part of the construction so i glued it in and there is now a lot of additional strength in the fuse.
the first flight of the newly repaired racer was a little sketchy, it was rolling to the left a bit and the elevator had very little authority despite the fact i had increased the travel from 35% (the reccomended FT throws) to 50%. i had a hard accidental landing and broke a prop but luckily nothing else. I was also still struggling to see the plane due to the glossy red film. So i increased te elevator throw to full and put a spare prop (9x6) on and added some blue tape to make it easier to orientate.

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It doesnt look as cool but it really helped when flying it. I had a couple of flights around 5 and 7 mins with great landings.

The flaps didnt get much use. the servos sticking out of the bottom get bashed around a bit on the landing and the plane had funny roll characteristics with them deployed. i'm going to try them next time out if there is no wind.

but overall, a great mornings flying and it was nice to bring the racer back in one piece!
 
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Liv2ride

Junior Member
This is my usual bring along when I go to the park for the afternoon. I maidened the racer yesterday and let me tell you, it does fly quite nicely. :)

Here's what I used in this setup;

Motor: Emax GT2812/08 1180
Servo: 9g Generic Plastic geared
Prop: APC 10x5
ESC: Hobbywing Skywalker 40a
Battery: Turnigy/GH 2200mah 35c batteries

This thing is a little on the heavy side. But it balances nicely with the spinner, and makes a really sweet sound with the air turbulence around the spinner.

Landings have to come in hot, because the throttle cut /glide slope is not the best. When in the air, it picks up speed and you soon realize your average park isn't big enough for this monster haha.

I initially used a black non fiber reinforced prop and when doing high G maneuvers or going full throttle , the prop would over load and vibrate making a whizzing sound( kind of like screaming) so that's when I changed it for an APC prop, problem went away.

Flew 3 more times the same day, and it's still in one piece ! One thing I would mention is that I didn't build the power pod with any downwards thrust angle, and at full throttle it only wanted to climb, so i'll have to shim it a few degrees before I go out again.

I did the left hand side/ canopy grab / 1/2 throttle / 45 deg toss, and it took off nicely everytime.
 

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dan p

Junior Member
Pelicanglider, really nice build, looks terrific. And your pilot is awesome.
 
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