FT Sparrow Builders'/Owners' Thread

[DFW]

Went trough building a nutball / FT flyer swappable, and now added a Sparrow to the fleet.

I guess the foamboard I picked up from Officeworks in Australia is more dense compared to what FT is using, all designs came out relatively tail heavy. I opted to add more noseweight by allowing bigger battery in the nose. Sparrow with nose-job balanced well, flew okay but a bit lame in turning. I decided to added ailerons and I must say I like the way it handles with ailerons much better.

 

[djdazzy]

Thrust angle of motor

What motor thrust angle are people using for the sparrow please? Flown mine tonight and the plane had a lot less authority rolling one way to the other.

 

[dreamgt]

Hi guys, I've got a question. I have made the sparrow and it seems to fly pretty decently, but I have a hard time doing any rolls with it, it sort of just does a loose, and sloppy barrel roll.

I really don't understand if it's just the throws, or if it really isn't as simple as just yanking perpendicularly and maybe I have to throw it at sort of an angle? maybe 8 o'clock?

I don't know, I was just surprised to see it roll the way it did, compared to the mini arrow it wasn't as tight at all!

Thanks .

 

[The-One-Who-Never-Crashes]

Hi guys, I've got a question. I have made the sparrow and it seems to fly pretty decently, but I have a hard time doing any rolls with it, it sort of just does a loose, and sloppy barrel roll.

I really don't understand if it's just the throws, or if it really isn't as simple as just yanking perpendicularly and maybe I have to throw it at sort of an angle? maybe 8 o'clock?

I don't know, I was just surprised to see it roll the way it did, compared to the mini arrow it wasn't as tight at all!

Thanks .

You can add ailerons to help with the roll rate. The V-tail is simply not powerful enough .

 

[dreamgt]

Thanks for the reply! I was wondering if that was it! ill save it for 2nd build of it and just use this to train on then. Thanks again!

 

[akarmy]

Maybe check your throws. Both me and a friend have built Sparrows, his with the A pack and mine with the F pack with extended fuselage to balance. Both with just V tail and they fly great and roll just fine. Maybe it's a speed thing. They do need to have some speed when rolling. What prop are you using. On the A pack we are running a 6x45 and on the F pack a 5x5 3 blade.

 

[The-One-Who-Never-Crashes]

Thanks for the reply! I was wondering if that was it! ill save it for 2nd build of it and just use this to train on then. Thanks again!

No problem! Glad to help .

Maybe check your throws. Both me and a friend have built Sparrows, his with the A pack and mine with the F pack with extended fuselage to balance. Both with just V tail and they fly great and roll just fine. Maybe it's a speed thing. They do need to have some speed when rolling. What prop are you using. On the A pack we are running a 6x45 and on the F pack a 5x5 3 blade.

Good point about the speed and the propeller. The resulting torque of a six-inch prop might inhibit the Sparrow's ability to roll to the right. On the other hand though, it will make the roll rate crazy fast when rolling in the direction of the torque !

 

[dreamgt]

Maybe check your throws. Both me and a friend have built Sparrows, his with the A pack and mine with the F pack with extended fuselage to balance. Both with just V tail and they fly great and roll just fine. Maybe it's a speed thing. They do need to have some speed when rolling. What prop are you using. On the A pack we are running a 6x45 and on the F pack a 5x5 3 blade.

Im running a triblade 5050, would a bigger prop less pitch be better?

 

[Dukejet]

Hi everyone, I have built this little beauty but I decided to make her a little bigger that the plans. I printer the plans @ 120% and the added 150mm to fuse between the L/e of the V-tail and the L/e of the main wing slot in the fuse. This gave me a better chance of balancing her in the correct spot.
This is my latest video of the Sparrow and the first time I've put my Mobius cam on a plane...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Am8-Ytfj5T0

 

[DrDiff]

Has anyone flown a 2S Sparrow?

I have my FT Sparrow kit. i fly in a indoor sports dome about the size of a foot ball field. Has anyone flown a Sparrow on 2S?

 

[The-One-Who-Never-Crashes]

I have my FT Sparrow kit. i fly in a indoor sports dome about the size of a foot ball field. Has anyone flown a Sparrow on 2S?

I have, and I'd suggest that setup for a beginner. The slower speed from the lower weight as well as a little less power help keep a novice out of trouble.

 

[DrDiff]

Anyone have experience with props other than the 6030? I have a few T5045 that I want to try on it. Should reduce the noise that a pusher has.

 

[DrDiff]

Have you noticed less prop noise with the pusher and tri blade setup?

 

[arrowcircle]

I build sparrow, its very easy and fun.
My build was very tail heavy, i got to put full nose of metal money with hotglue, and few coins outside to get proper balance.
After flying (first RC plane) and crashing a lot, my wings cut V-tail for 2 cm. I repeired it and reinfoced with bamboo sticks.
How you deal with weak parts of Sparrow?

 

[Ross]

This is a nice little plane, made one for Memorial day but didn't get the electronics in time. Oh well, it will fly on the 4th of July for sure.

 

[Winglet]

I scatch built the F model with Ross Board from Localfriends plans. I love this airplane! Kind of threw it together because of negative reports on the flyability of the design, but I quickly found those report to completely inaccurate. It is so much fun to fly! No ailerons on mine. The elevons do a fine job. Mine flys very slow or extremely fast.

Here are my specs.

Sunnysky x2204 2300 motor (I can't recommend this motor enough) It is such a great motor. Use it on several other airplanes.
APC 6x4e propeller (2 blade) I tried the 3 blade 5x4.5 and it wasn't nearly as good at least with this motor.
Hobbyking 12amp esc
Value Hobby G-Force 800mah 3S 30C battery
5 gram servos (9's would be just fine)
Krylon paint
I ended up with 1/2 ounce of lead in the nose to bring it in at CG. A 1000mah battery might have the same effect?

Now that I know how well it flies, I will be building another and will take a little more time on it to make it really nice.

My recommendations....
Add a good contrasting color scheme to it. This thing is small and fast. Some strong contrast really helps.
I really really like that Sunnysky motor!
Skip the ailerons.

Beginner airplane? Not on your life with this setup. It hauls! However....I think it would actually make a great little trainer on 2S and an A pack motor. It is very durable.

 

[Dukejet]

Very sweet Winglet! Love the paint job. I have a video posted a page back. It was the fist time I put my Mobius on a plane and it turned out great, was able to carry the extra 100g easy, you could feel the extra weight but it didn't affect the overall flight.
I added 150mm to the fuse to get the nose away from the tail a bit to make it easier to balance. I'm running 1500mah 3s batteries.
But mine is a little bigger as I printed the plans @ 120% and added the 150mm to the fuse.
It would be a good to try a 200% Sparrow...... And yes set your TX up as elerons NOT V-tail. This allows you to have your steering where you would normally have your ailerons set up on the TX. I fly mode 1 so throttle and rudder are on the right stick and elevator on the left.
I would venture ..... the bigger you go the easier it would be to fly?? More stable for beginners and easier to see??

 

[Winglet]

Yes Dukejet. I'm with you. This model would scale up nicely.

 

[Ross]

Thursday can't get here soon enough for me, electronics should arrive.

 

[Dukejet]

nice job! Bet you'll love it!.........