FT-Build-ruary: FT Tiny Trainer by basslord1124
Plans:
https://www.flitetest.com/articles/flite-test-tiny-trainer
Build Rating: TBA
Figured this might also be a good time to get this one going. Not so much for myself (although I love building and will be the one building it), but more for my wife and daughter. My wife always has had a bad experience when she tries to fly one of my planes and I would like to take those bad experiences and turn them into good experiences. At this stage, I think she has sort of sworn off of RC planes due to those bad experiences. And really she's been so tied up with our daughter that RC is the last thing on her mind. Really she hasn't flown her drone in a while too. BUT I plan to keep this here for her and our daughter when she gets old enough to try flying. I will more than likely just leave it foamboard white so they can personalize it however they want when the time is right for them to try flying.
Update: 2/12/19: Plans printed, not taped yet.
Update: 2/17/19 - A stack of Tiny Trainer parts taped to foamboard ready to be cut.
Update: 3/4/19: Between the 2 I worked on this weekend (this one and the Baron), this one was the problem child. Nothing against the design, it was just one of those ones where everything I did resulted in some sort of major/minor issue. It's all right though, I can always rebuild it later...but for right now, I'll accept its imperfections and fly it til it won't fly anymore. I may just keep this one for myself and later rebuild a nicer one for the wifey/daughter to fly and learn on. My wife is in no rush to fly planes anyways.
As for the issues that occurred during this build:
1) I did not realize the dullness of my razor blades and ended up cutting through the paper in some areas (you know where the places where you do an A or B fold and you have that cavity with the layer of paper...yeah I cut through that in places). So in the end, I've got some exposed foam areas.
2) Also cut through the bevel on the elevator (which you can see in the pic). I rarely do that anymore.
3) The tail is crooked and tilts to the right (when looking at it from the front)
4) Had to recut the motor/power nose as I did something silly that made the original one not fit. The new one fits like a glove.
It was mainly the fuse that was the problem child, wing build went pretty smooth. Did the 3 channel wing to start out for training purposes. May do the sport wing later.
Update: 4/29/19: Well it's been a while, but a lot has happened. Unfortunately I don't have any current pics but will get some soon. Basically the motor/ESC eventually came in after talking with banggood customer service. They made it right, it took a while (like I expected), but no hard feelings. I'll still order from them sometimes. Which actually I am going to end up using my Mini Scout's motor and ESC anyways. So in the end, I came out with a spare motor/ESC. Hey, spare anything is always good! Linkages are done too with the Trainer. Now I just need to balance it, and a few other small things, and she'll be ready to go. I'll post a pic soon, and then hopefully a maiden video soon after.
Update: 6/27/19: It just dawned on me that I haven't updated this thread and the progress with the FT Tiny Trainer. So below is the maiden flight video. The video was released on May 9, 2019 and it is very possible that the actual flight occurred before that (probably a couple days).
