FTFC20 Argus designed by AircPirateNinsei

FishHawk

Well-known member
Love the lines of this aircraft. Back in the late 1970's, I flew CL stunt with a Nobler (very similar lines) for looks, and a profile Magician for planting trees. Seeing the Argus pictures with it's full span flaps started me thinking (always dangerous), has anyone tried mixing flap controls and ailerons controls on something like this to increase maneuverability? I remember that the Nobler/Magician/Argus could almost instantly pull in excess of 10 g's +/- thanks to the full span flaps.
 

AircPirateNinsei

airc-pirates.com
Here is the current status of the ARGUS:

The plans will be ready this month. There will also be a build guide with photos, which will be finished in time. If there will be a flight video depends on the weather on the weekend. This season is not suitable for test flights! During the week it is dark when I go to work early and also dark when I come home from work in the evening. On the last weekends there were more and more important things to do. :-(

As I bought an Anycubi i3 Mega, I also created some printable parts. A mini firewall for M3 screws (B-Pack motor), rudder horns, wheel support discs and light wheels:
argus_print_03.png argus_print_04.png argus_print_05.png argus_print_06.png

argus_print_00.jpg


One wheel weighs 3 g (0.1058 oz) and consists of two parts glued together with CA-glue:
argus_print_01.jpg

argus_print_02.jpg


I will publish the stl-files at the same time as the plans. The printable parts are of course not absolutely necessary, but an alternative.

So far for now!
 
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AircPirateNinsei

airc-pirates.com
Has V2.0 flown yet? If so, how did it perform? Quite tempted to build one of these fit flies nicely. Great work on both the design and build - looks fantastic!

Thanks a lot. If the weather plays along this weekend, then V0.2 will fly and I can finally create the long awaited flight video! The plans and the build guide are "almost" finished! Only the centre of gravity and the rudder deflections are missing.
 

Bavarian_RC

Elite member
Great design, great flight. So sad that the knife edge lead to the crash. It looked like the tight turn was causing a kind of stall. Not sure how the aerodynamics work during a knife edge. I guess speed is key with only the fuselage producing lift.
 

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FT CAD Gremlin
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RustySocket

Active member
Love the lines of this aircraft. Back in the late 1970's, I flew CL stunt with a Nobler (very similar lines) for looks, and a profile Magician for planting trees. Seeing the Argus pictures with it's full span flaps started me thinking (always dangerous), has anyone tried mixing flap controls and ailerons controls on something like this to increase maneuverability? I remember that the Nobler/Magician/Argus could almost instantly pull in excess of 10 g's +/- thanks to the full span flaps.

I have played around with some flaperon, elevator mixing years ago. Always had a lot of respect for the CL pattern greats and enjoyed watching. I think this Argus will be a fun way to revisit those days with some modern technology and build techniques. I will have to get the Argus built and maybe play around a bit with some mixing, see how she flies first, and what bad tendencies ,if any are present.

I am also seeing that 3D printing has gotten to the point I need to invest some time in learning about my options and considering getting involved.

For example what are the material costs to print the parts for this argus build? What would it cost me to buy the hardware to do it myself?
 
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FishHawk

Well-known member
She flies beautifully. Any chance that you ran out of rudder authority during the knife edge? CL stunters had ridiculously small vertical stabs, just enough to keep the tail from wagging. I increased the size of the vert/rudder by 25% (on the Mini-Argus), and it is still only 40% of the size of the horizontal.
 

AircPirateNinsei

airc-pirates.com
@RustySocket

I look forward to your feedback when you've flown it. I am grateful for every advice!

Here are my entry costs into 3D-Printing:
  • Anycubic I3 MEGA 152,10 EUR
  • 1 kg 1.75 mm PETG filament 25,99 EUR
  • Heating bed insulation 6,59 EUR (optional)
Total 184,68 EUR (in Germany) | 203.24 USD

The I3 was delivered in two parts with eight screws, 1kg PLA filament, lots of accessories and spare parts. It was very quickly assembled and leveled. I still had to calibrate the extruder and I was ready to go. Tutorials are available on Youtube.

To print the stl files you need a 3D printer slicing application. I use Cura, it is free of charge. There you define your printer and make the settings for the filament and the object to be printed (like line thickness, fill density, support structure, temperature, moving speed, fan speed, etc.). As a newbie I took the basic settings and later i tried different settings. First of all you should print a Temp Tower, especially to find out the optimal temperature for the filament. You should do this for each new filament roll. If you have set up the filament in Cura, after slicing the print it will also show you the amount of material used and the cost. Slicing creates the gcode file that the printer processes.

Here are the individual ARGUS parts at a line thickness of 0.15 and a filling density of 50%:
  • 4 x Control Horn (#44) = 1g | 0.42m | 0.03 EUR
  • 1 x Mini Firewall (#46) = 3g | 0.98m | 0.08 EUR
  • 4x Wheel (# 32) = 8g | 2.56m | 0.21 EUR
  • 4 x Wheel Support Disc (#33) = 2g | 0.53m | 0.04 EUR
Total 0,36 EUR | 0.40 USD

Unfortunately I can not give any information about the electricity costs. They must be added.