FT Style F-14 Tomcat

[Crow929]

Really well done there, Matagami. It's hard to believe you're just a "noob pilot" and yet you're creating and publishing such a complex design. Nice plans and 3D models! I'm curious how well it will fly. Are the "decals" just printed paper? They really look great on the vertical stabs!

 

[Matagami Designs]

Really well done there, Matagami. It's hard to believe you're just a "noob pilot" and yet you're creating and publishing such a complex design. Nice plans and 3D models! I'm curious how well it will fly. Are the "decals" just printed paper? They really look great on the vertical stabs!

Thanks @Crow929. The Decals were printed on ASTROdesign brand sticker paper. I have everything ready to maiden so if i get a chance and feel comfortable i might try a few short flights and see how airworthy it is over the weekend.

 

[L Edge]

Tip: First time you move your wing back, go 3 crash heights and don't be wide open. Worst case is that either the servo will strip(metal rather than plastic) gears or your mechanism could go. Mine gave out(had 2 servos for ASW as well as FSW design) during the transition phase.

 

[Matagami Designs]

Tip: First time you move your wing back, go 3 crash heights and don't be wide open. Worst case is that either the servo will strip(metal rather than plastic) gears or your mechanism could go. Mine gave out(had 2 servos for ASW as well as FSW design) during the transition phase.

@L Edge I plan on doing most flight at mid sweep, however, landing on the wing tip definitely won't be good to the servo. The idea is to have the metal gear servo with plastic control arm so that in the eventuality that this occurs the cheaper plastic part goes first. Hopefully i will avoid this scenario for now. Another issue is the elevon's leading edge can possibly become damaged when flaring for a landing if it gets caught in tall grass. The inner edge is reinforced with a bamboo skewer so hoping this will be good enough.

 

[Matagami Designs]

Well i attempted to maiden the F-14 this weekend and now i'm paying the price.

I forgot to add Velcro to keep the battery in place and so i had just taped the battery with a piece of packing tape. On my 1st toss everything was good, i didn't give it quite enough throttle though and it was only in the air about 4 seconds but landed smoothly on the belly. unfortunately the battery came unfixed and when the plane landed it kept moving, pulling apart the all extensions for the servos and the wires for the motor itself.

It took me a little while to realize why my tail servos were no longer responsive but soon i had hooked everything back together and made sure the prop was still spinning the proper direction. What i didn't do, unfortunately was double check my tail controls...

Needles to say this time i gave it a bit more throttle but when i pulled back on the elevator the plane took a nice nose dive into the field instead.

Well at least i can say the control surfaces and wings are all unfazed, the nose will need a little TLC, but all in all i'll give it a check in the durability column. I will have to try and glue the wing sweep servo control arm back together or i can just print another.

Any way it was a fun weekend and I'm hoping to get another chance to go a bit further next weekend.

 

[Matagami Designs]

Nothing to report about the F-14 other than the 30A esc i got with the motor is fried. I'm not sure how it happened since everything was working fine before. Going to wait and see what Grayson Hobby has to say but i may need to find a replacement.

I actually had everything looking much better and i replaced the elevon surfaces with a new design/technique which seem much more durable. (The paper was starting to delaminate about the carbon fiber tube axis.)

Anyway i still had fun helping my girlfriend obliterate her FT alpha we built as her first plane.

Build, Fly, Crash, Repeat.

 

[PoorManRC]

Ambitious first design!!
I would think that given your obvious talent and the "toys" at your disposal, you'll sort out the issues.

Beautiful Plane!! The Swing Wing mechanism is really a piece of genius. Being at/near the CG, weight shouldn't be a major issue... But reading the other comments, I had not realized how much the CG changes, when the Wing is swept. Should have been obvious to me, but old age set in!!

I, like others, can't wait to see this Bird fly, like you imagined!

 

[jpot1]

Thinking of building this but don’t have a 3d printer so would fix the wings fully out. Any changes that you would make in this case?

 

[Matagami Designs]

Ambitious first design!!
I would think that given your obvious talent and the "toys" at your disposal, you'll sort out the issues.

Beautiful Plane!! The Swing Wing mechanism is really a piece of genius. Being at/near the CG, weight shouldn't be a major issue... But reading the other comments, I had not realized how much the CG changes, when the Wing is swept. Should have been obvious to me, but old age set in!!

I, like others, can't wait to see this Bird fly, like you imagined!

Thanks for the positive feedback @PoorManRC I started off just wanting to put a functioning swing wing onto the Mesa F-14 and just took it too far.

 

[PoorManRC]

Then I suppose you did it RIGHT!!

 

[Matagami Designs]

Thinking of building this but don’t have a 3d printer so would fix the wings fully out. Any changes that you would make in this case?

@jpot1 I would love to see what you come up with. I'm not sure what i would change on the wing exactly. You could try pining it with skewers or dowels if you want to move it between flights. You could probably use a traditional FT swappable plywood firewall. The only other big change i can think of the would be the elevons. Right now they pivot in a PLA housing so you would have to find something to use in place of that. If you drilled out a section of 1/2" dowel rod on center with a 5/32 drill bit that would probably work.

I originally had a 0.156" carbon fiber tube slid between the paper but this doesn't seem to last too long as you can see by the paper delaminating. It was also too difficult to create the through hole for the rod to slip in.



Here is how i made my 2nd set. Its much easier to bevel the foam and fold it 180°. The control arm portion is just a cut down home depot paint stirrer



Also, if i were to start from scratch i would try save a little weight in the nose. I messed up and had a big gap so went over it again with poster board and more glue. I would just try and roll it out of the foam board like i did with the turtle deck. If you cut 25% score lines radiating from the tip of the nose it would probably come out well and save a couple grams, but this is fairly minor.

Anyway let me know if you make one.

 

[jpot1]

Thanks @Matagami Designs! I am thinking of converting the full moving elevators into just a regular bevel line hinged surface. I’ve built a few Mesa planes so I recognized the nose. I’ll give rolling it a shot.

 

[jpot1]

Printed today and re-attached the tail pieces to the main plate. I changed the cut line for the elevators like what MesaRc did on their F14 plans. I also added 1/2” back to the prop slot as it seemed pretty narrow. I plan on running a 2200kv motor with a 6x4 prop so I should have enough room.

I didn’t include all the cutouts yet as I wasn’t sure what they were all for.

Also just realized I’m going to have to adjust the rear fuse area that is doubled up but I’ll just adjust the curve at the end so it aligns with my hinge line. Probably should have adjusted the shape of the elevators further outward but oh well.

 

[Matagami Designs]

Looking good @jpot1. The top t-shaped cutout in the main plate is for the swing wing so that isn't need for you. Just make sure the centers of radius bit on the ends match up with the location of the through holes on the wings. The square one near the prop slot is just for getting to the motor wires.

As far as the elevons i'd say you will be okay to just trim the rear fuse doubler at the hinge. The dotted line in the image below shows where the mesa Rc hinge was. Also looks like the servo location could work out to be the same, just need to turn the arm 90°. You wont need to cut the v-notch behind this rear tab as well.

Good luck!

 

[Matagami Designs]

@jpot1 One other bit about that doubler plate is that it isn't glued at 90° like the front sections. 1st glue the front of the intake sides at 90°. Dry fit it against the fuse and tab the rear to find the angle, should be about 80°. This puts the rear doubler plate perpendicular to the main plate while having the intakes canted to give it the F-14 look. Then you can take it out to glue the section that connects them.

Looks like i wont be able to try and fly this over the weekend but i will be getting a replacment ESC from Grayson Hobby.

 

[jpot1]

@jpot1 One other bit about that doubler plate is that it isn't glued at 90° like the front sections. 1st glue the front of the intake sides at 90°. Dry fit it against the fuse and tab the rear to find the angle, should be about 80°. This puts the rear doubler plate perpendicular to the main plate while having the intakes canted to give it the F-14 look. Then you can take it out to glue the section that connects them.

Looks like i wont be able to try and fly this over the weekend but i will be getting a replacment ESC from Grayson Hobby.

More progress. Nose came together really nicely. Great plans. I would suggest not making some of the notches so large. I’d rather pinch the tabs a bit and keep things tight.

Can you elaborate more on the intakes? I’m not understanding the above. Pics would be great.

 

[Matagami Designs]

@jpot1 It will be somewhat obvious once you have the parts cut out and dry fit them in place.
Basically the front of the intake gets bent and glued 90° and when you dry fit the rear section in the tabs you will make this section perpendicular to the main fuse plate. This way the intakes are canted out in the front. I hope this makes sense.

Your progress is looking good btw. Good luck!

EDIT: It just hit me that these were actually "B" folds not "A" folds. sorry.

 

[jpot1]

More progress. Notched out the top wing with the tip of the glue gun so the servo can be fully hidden in the wing.

Rear former in the second pic was too tall so I cut some off matching the other A fold on the canopy plate. Can you add some pictures with your canopy removed so I can see how the canopy and plate underneath join? I’m thinking of leaving that plate off? I’d like to see where you had your battery also. Thx!

I

 

[Matagami Designs]

The former on the fuse there was intended to be a stop for the canopy/hatch section. I added magnets there but they are just adding weight at this point. The rear turtledeck is held down well by friction alone form the "wing gloves"? and the front is fixed with a section of velcro. Be careful when you place this as it will affect the gap on the hatch quite a bit. The shelf on the nose is recessed to help with that.

For the battery i have it sitting just in front of the former. I'm guessing yours may balance a bit differently but just try to get the CG near the thickest part of the wing where the main spar would be.

I hope this helps. I'm digging those hidden servos BTW. Good luck!

 

[jpot1]

That helps a lot! I may try something different but for now just did a dry fit of the long center section. This design looks really cool! Can you confirm CG with the wings extended? I’m hoping the battery will balance where I can get to it with the current opening. If so I’ll glue this in place and figure something for the canopy.