FTFC19: Build-ruary by DamoRC

DamoRC

Elite member
Mentor
My entries for the madness that is Build-ruary!

(1) 64mm EDF mini Diamond
(2) C-130 Refurbish / Repair
(3) Parkmaster Pro Profile Plane
(4) 70mm EDF F-100 Super Saber
 

DamoRC

Elite member
Mentor
64mm Diamond - Replacement

Introduction
This is the plane that needs to be rebuilt for a friend. Flew fine on maiden (and second flight) but did have the occasional twitch. On high bank and slow turns it dropped a wing and ultimately had one pretty rough landing. Closer examination revealed that I had not done a brilliant job one one of the wing halves so I offered to re-build it. I am hoping to get two planes out of this because I would like to keep this airframe, install my 64mm EDF, and deal with the bad tendencies (just keep going fast I think!).

64mm for Dan.JPG


Build and Flying Difficulty
I would consider this an intermediate build difficulty and suitable for an intermediate pilot.
The build uses a lot of non-FT techniques and you have to have the patience of Job to make the wing pods.
She is pretty fast (and not that big) so you need quick-ish eyes and hands to fly her. Doesn't like low speeds on high banked turns (drops the nose) and she has a pretty high roll rate so you need to fly her with low rates on the ailerons and a lot of expo (at least 40%).

Recycling the Old Frame
Rather than chuck the airframe, the plan was to remove his electronics (ESC, Rx, and EDF unit) for the new build and install my own in the old airframe. This will not be the prettiest plane, but I really enjoyed flying my original version so if I can get a rough airframe for a couple of hours work I'll be happy enough. There is some damage to the nose section and I tried to capture pictures of the faulty wing folding. There was also some damage to the horizontal stabilizer and one wing.

DSC_0001.JPG DSC_0002.JPG DSC_0003.JPG

First up was to cut off the tail and remove the EDF unit.
DSC_0004.JPG DSC_0005.JPG DSC_0006.JPG

Next, I took an iron (with paper underneath) to the LE of left wing to try to remove the step and give it a little more of a curved shape.
DSC_0007.JPG

Additional wood reinforcements were added to the horizontal stabilizer and left wing.
DSC_0008.JPG DSC_0009.JPG

My 64mm EDF was installed and the rear end was hot glued to the frame. A little extreme packing tape was added to reinforce the break in the canopy piece.
DSC_0010.JPG DSC_0011.JPG

And basically its done. Checked the elctronics and battery positioning to make sure I could achieve the correct balance. Masked off the black portion of the canopy in preparation for a quick and dirty paint job. Although this is just supposed to be a rough fixer upper, the Swiss flag paint job was custom for my friend so I can't leave it on the plane (the new plane will get this same paint job).
DSC_0012.JPG

Unfortunately, while I was not looking, some graffiti artists broke into my back yard while I was painting the re-build and did this to the recycled version.

IMG_3987.JPG


New Build.

Didn't take a lot of pictures of the build - its mostly the same as the 70mm version. Still amazes me sometimes what we do around here.

Take some sheets of paper and print out plans....

DSC_0019.JPG


...use the plans to cut out pieces of foamboard....

DSC_0020.JPG


...add some hot glue and transform these flat pieces of foamboard into parts...

DSC_0021.JPG


...which get glued together as various sub-assemblies....

DSC_0022.JPG


...then put the whole shebang together and end up with a plane!

DSC_0023.JPG


Finished up with a paint job (Swiss Flag theme).

IMG_3988.JPG


Update - 022419. Both planes flew today (sorry, no vid). The new one was a bit of a handful, probably because my friend used his old model on the Transmitter which did not lead to a level pair of ailerons on launch. She had a hard roll to the left, but he held her and managed to get her trimmed fine. I put the recycled plane up and, although a bit twitch on the roll axis, she was fine. Had a lot of fun with her and ran two packs.
 
Last edited:

DamoRC

Elite member
Mentor
C-130 Fat Albert Repair

Introduction
This is the C-130 that needs work. Burnt out a couple of the ESCs on its last flight and it crashed, although not too badly. The ESCs are working pretty hard on this and I had not provided adequate ventilation. Plan is to replace the ESCs and possibly re-build the wing.

C-130 Fat Albert.jpg


Update 23FEB19 - No update - have not gotten to this one yet.

Update 28FEB19 - finally got the electronics repair completed on this one

Poor girl has been at the bottom of the pile (literally) for some time and now has some garage rash and dust on the wings.

DSC_0023.JPG

This is the wiring mess that makes up her internals. The original request from the friend for whom I build this plane was to have the wings removable and split which led to a lot of additional wiring / connectors. In hindsight I should have fixed the two wing halves together.

DSC_0024.JPG

Two of the ESCs blew on its last flight. These are 10amp no-name ESCs which came off the original quad. If I recall correctly, the motor/prop combo pulls 9 ish amps at full throttle so these were always under a bit of pressure because you had to keep the speed up for this bird.
This is the worst of the two ESCs, FET is blown clean off almost.

DSC_0025.JPG

Being a nerd, I checked the chips being used on the ESC. The voltage regulators are linear LF50As, so good for an amp each and there are two of these chips on each ESC (this comes in handy later). The N-FETs are 4362s, good for 15-20A (typically the N-FETs are higher rated than the Ps because they are cheaper). The P-FETs are 6679s, good for 13A.

Plan was to replace all four ESCs with these KingKong 12A Optos (no BEC) and a separate BEC.

DSC_0026.JPG

The original motors came with tiny bullet connectors which are a total pain. Rather than replace them I decided to just re-use the motor wires from the old ESCs. Tinned the pads and soldered on the wires.

DSC_0027.JPG DSC_0028.JPG DSC_0030.JPG

This is the resulting rats nest.

DSC_0031.JPG

Unfortunately at this point I had an issue with the BEC. It was glitchy - worked 95% of the time but occasionally, I would notice that a test servo would glitch and a multimeter confirmed that I was losing voltage at the Rx. I didn't have another BEC to hand so I recycled the two blown ESCs. The BECs on these were both working fine and wiring the two old ESCs to parallel the BECs should give be 4A capacity. I would not have done this if the BEC chips were switching.

DSC_0032.JPG

And here is the final wiring.

DSC_0033.JPG

Tested the motors / servos and all is well. Rain promised here for a while so I don't know when I will get a chance to throw her back in the air.
 
Last edited:

DamoRC

Elite member
Mentor
Parkmaster Pro Profile

Introduction
Thought I would give a small light profile plane a go. Using the Parkmaster Pro as a base to design from and the nice plan and profile pics from the manual....
Plan and Profile.jpg

... I modeled up the panels in sketchup. She is going to be a small bird - just a little under 20 inches wingspan. Planning on a laminated double layer fuse , single layer wing and horizontal stab and light electronics. Goal is to be sub 6 oz. These are the plans - they fit on 7 pages - Yay!
Plan Picture.jpg

Build Version 1
This ended up pretty badly in that the plane was too small, too heavy and a tad messy. It hasn't been maidened and if I get the parts cut for version 2 before I next get to the field, this one will not be maidened.
Pre-Work
Wanted to try a couple of things before hand. First, does a "glue-spar" (see the FT Viggen build video) add any strength or can extreme packing tape do the job. Second, what adhesive works best for lamination, hot glue, Titan II (a PVA based glue I think) or gorilla glue. I was going to go all nerdy and actually measure things like deflection under load etc. In the end I just selected the best based on what I could feel in the piece.
The test articles were 20 x 3 inch strips of foamboard.
For the glue spar a single layer was score cut length ways, the cut opened to apply glue, then closed and let set. Glues were hot glue, Titan II , and gorilla glue. A sample was also setup with a half-width extreme packing tape strip applied lenghtways to both sides of the foamboard. Conclusion: Glue spars dont make any difference to the strength of a strip of foamboard, but extreme packing tape strips does help alot.
For the lamination, 2 of the 20 x 3 inch strips were glued face to face. The hot glue was liberally applied in a tight "s" pattern across the piece. The other two were applied and scraped across the piece until an even coating was obtained. The pieces were held under weight until set. Conclusion: Although a little heavier, the gorilla glue works best as a lamination adhesive. However, it is possible that the Titan II would have fared better if I had worked more quickly with it - I was beginning to set before I completed covering the piece.

DSC_0202.JPG DSC_0206.JPG

Plans
The usual single sheets taped together.
DSC_0207.JPG DSC_0208.JPG DSC_0209.JPG
Wing
Part was cut and a BBQ skewer spar was pocketed in the middle of the span, held it with gorilla glue. Extreme packing tape both sides to reinforce. Wing is single layer, flat-plate.
DSC_0210.JPG DSC_0211.JPG DSC_0212.JPG DSC_0213.JPG DSC_0214.JPG
Fuse
Fuse was a double layer laminated with gorilla glue. Prior to lamination two BBQ spars were pocketed into either side. Couldn't decide whether to remove the paper from the inside of each piece or not, so I ended up removing the paper from one side only. Small pieces of painters tape were added to the side that received the glue. These were lifted and small tacks of hot glue added just before making the sandwich. Part was laid flat under weights until set. Rudder is a tape hinge (extreme packing tape captured between the layers before lamination)
DSC_0215.JPG DSC_0216.JPG DSC_0217.JPG DSC_0218.JPG DSC_0219.JPG
Horizontal Stabilizer
Just a small version of the wing really.
DSC_0220.JPG
Final Parts and Dry Fit
DSC_0222.JPG DSC_0221.JPG
Wing and Horizontal Stabilizer Install
Using a couple of storage containers as supports the stabilizer and wing were both glued in place at the same time. The supports ensured that the fuse, wing, and stabilzer were all square and true.
DSC_0223.JPG DSC_0224.JPG DSC_0225.JPG
Weight Check
After the parts were set, a quick check on the weight indicates that were are heading for >8 oz, which is gonna be a little heavy for this bird. The motor being used is the smallest I have and will produce about 12oz thrust on 3S with an 8x6 prop. At this point it was also evident that additional spars were needed for the wing. Two additional spars were added each side.
DSC_0227.JPG Motor Image.jpg Thrust Data on Motor and Prop.jpg DSC_0228.JPG
Component Mounting
A couple of additional foam pieces were added to widen the nose so that a small section of plywood could be glued in place and reinforced with extreme packing tape. With the motor and ESC installed, the 9 gram servos were tacked into position with a small bead of hot glue so that the balance of the plane could be checked. The front servo needed to be installed about 1 inch forward of the original "guestimate" in the plans. The various pockets were cut for the servos and they were hot glued in place. Once everything was in place, she looked a bit of a mess
DSC_0229.JPG DSC_0230.JPG DSC_0231.JPG DSC_0232.JPG DSC_0235.JPG CG Calculations.jpg
Final Product
Not pretty and probably won't fly.
DSC_0236.JPG


Next Steps
As the month progresses, I'll have another go at this. Larger airframe (28-30 inch WS), and probably a KF foil.

Update 23FEB19 - No real update. This one got thrown on the bench while I worked on other stuff. When I last went out flying I thought I would chuck her up to see what would happen but notices that the fuse had developed a slight curve. Not sure if this was because she had a lot of other stuff piled on top over the couple of weeks.

Update 022419 - I used a thin strip of extreme packing tape to pull the fuse straight last night and, seeing as she was built, attempted to maiden her today - which was a disaster - as predicted. Oh well.
 
Last edited:

DamoRC

Elite member
Mentor
F-100 Super Saber

This build will documented in its own thread shared with @Grifflyer. I'll share main points here starting with the 3D model in Sketchup.

F-100 Pan Around SU.gif


Update 23FEB19 - This build was finished and maidened successfully. There will be a version 2 with some tweaks over the coming weeks. Build is documented starting here and continued here. Maiden footage below - it starts just after the Tron Legacy Light Jet segment finishes, about 2 minutes into the video
 
Last edited:

DamoRC

Elite member
Mentor
GREAT job DamoRC, Glad you are bad on board.
Do you think we can prod @foamtest to join us again?

Haven't seen or heard @foamtest in the longest time.

The Super Succ looks amazing! It's a contender for one of my EDF units.

Thanks!

Parkmaster Pro version 1 is done. Honestly, its horrible and I'm not sure I will even maiden it. If I can get version 2 out before the weather improves enough to fly, version one will not see a maiden. If not, I will just chuck it up to see what happens.

Man, February is flying by - whose brilliant idea was this again?;)
 

DamoRC

Elite member
Mentor
Diamond is done - mostly. Weather is pretty bad here and promised to be that way for a while so I am not sure when I am gonna get a chance to paint her up and give her to my friend for maiden.
 

DamoRC

Elite member
Mentor
Final update 28th Feb 2019

(1) Diamonds - done and dusted - both fly well
(2) C-130 repairs complete - not flown yet
(3) Parkmaster Pro done but flew like a lazy rock and destroyed the nose. May re-do this at a later time but I have a feeling this will go on the long finger
(4) F-100 Super Sabre done and flies well.

@FoamyDM asked us to provide some feedback on the following.

One phrase to describe how you feel about it right now - Tired but glad I joined, especially for the sake of the C-130 which would have sat there for another couple of months probably.
Two thing about the challenge that could improve it. Tough one....nope.....can't think of anyway to improve the current mayhem.
Three shareable moments or notes to future Build-ruarians. Think of the challenge as a way to motivate you to build / complete projects that otherwise will just sit there. You don't have to build four, just commit to doing a pre-defined list at the beginning of the month. This "promise" to the challenge is a pretty good incentive to get it done and you will get tons of support.
Lastly did you enjoy the challenge and will you try it next year - Nope and Nope (hey wait - isn't that what I said last year?)
 

FoamyDM

Building Fool-Flying Noob
Moderator
@DamoRC - You build 2 Diamonds and flew them... (vid?) a Parkmaster that Bricked (maiden attempted) and a F-100 that looked like Fun to fly. That is 4, Which means the C-130 is your bonus or is the 2nd Diamond.
BTW impressed at the near complete turn around on the C-130.

(Thank you for the Feedback - I like your last answer)
 

FoamyDM

Building Fool-Flying Noob
Moderator
BTW, I think I will ask for the Summary update as part of the rules. That is really helpful.
 

DamoRC

Elite member
Mentor
Thanks! No vid on the diamonds - sorry. I think the recycled Diamond is the bonus - it was a side product of the new build.