Gadeirus
Active member
Ok, I'm a new forum member but I've been using Foamboard for model airplanes for about a year now, though I originally started flying RC with my Dad in the late 80's early 90's, so I'm not exactly "new" to the hobby, though during my long hiatus a lot has changed with the cost and capability of RC equipment (for the better!)
Anyways, I bought and flew a few FT designs before I decided I wanted to start designing my own stuff, figured I'd share here. A lot of them have flown, but not all of them. Usually it goes, if I do the math right beforehand, it flies OK. If I don't do all of the math (correctly) first, then it doesn't. Shocker.
My first attempt. 1.X meter span, 3D printed fuselage pod and bits, Walmart carbon arrow shaft tailboom. Flew OK, but tremendous lack of lateral control. Had to force it down rather than lose it in the trees, I wanted to be able to recover all of the pieces.
Second plane. 1.5-ish meter span. 3D printed fuselage and bits, a real carbon shaft for the boom this time (no more flexing!) Flew great. Eventually scrapped to use the electronics in something else
Third plane. Seeing a bit of a theme here? Again, ~1.5m span, 3D printed fuse, carbon boom, blah blah. Was trying to make the fuselage narrower and give the wing a more sophisticated airfoil. Other than insufficient downthrust, flew great. Also eventually salvaged for parts. I actually build a second one like it with a few tweaks and gave it to my Dad. We've had a few electronics issues with it but it still flies fine.
A profile aerobatic plane I whipped up in a few hours. Embarrassingly crude, pretty wonky flying, but it's wild what you can do with control surfaces that large. Salvaged for parts after a few flights.
My first biplane. My son really wanted me to build a biplane but my heart wasn't into it. Wings never aligned quite right so it wanted to roll all of the time, wickedly overpowered, but still flew OK. Salvaged for parts after a few flights.
A rather scale (in profile, at least) Pilatus Turbo Porter. Flew quite well for about 20 seconds, then the wing folded in half. My mistake, poor construction. Ugly damn plane.
First attempt at a Delta wing. Didn't fly.
Second attempt at a Delta wing. Also didn't fly.
Third attempt at a wing. ALSO didn't fly. Why did my wings not fly? Because I didn't do my homework. I've since figured out how I need to build these and have tested with some hand-launch miniature wings. I'll circle around to making an RC wing again eventually.
First attempt at making something fast, and it sure was quick. First time I've crashed a plane because I couldn't stay on top of it, this thing was wild, just wasn't stable enough. I laughed the whole time.
An evolution of the previous plane with more wing. Not quite as fast, but infinitely more controllable. Flew it a handful of times, kept breaking props on landing. Sloppily built airframe. Salvaged for parts after several flights.
1m 2-ch sailplane designed for simplicity of build and flight. Not sure how well it flies, it has only had a few very short attempts, slope soaring is essentially non-existent where I live and I didn't have any provision for hi-start/winch.
Second prototype of the previous sailplane. Slight changes to dihedral, tail volumes, wing construction. Rigged a hook to the bottom for a mild hi-start. Kind of worked. Hit a power line. I'll circle back to this project eventually, too.
Little plane I threw together for my daughter using the FT EZ plane stuff. Flies extremely well and she does a good job with it.
My latest creation. I've been messing around, trying to find something I can teach my son on, this one seems to be it and I've had him on the sticks via buddy-box a few times lately. It's a bit tail heavy, but flies really well. Can cruise around on ~35% power and just be happy. Has way more power than is necessary, so I've already scaled the design up ~10% in CAD to run on the same electronics, just haven't actually built the bigger version yet.
I have several more projects that currently just live on my PC waiting to be finished and built whenever time allows and I stop getting distracted by other things like my 2m RES balsa glider kit that I'm in the middle of, and now I've decided to give the foamboard speed challenge a try so I'll be working on a design (or multiple for that)
I have a little bit of video footage for some of the planes I'll try to share eventually, too.
Anyways, I bought and flew a few FT designs before I decided I wanted to start designing my own stuff, figured I'd share here. A lot of them have flown, but not all of them. Usually it goes, if I do the math right beforehand, it flies OK. If I don't do all of the math (correctly) first, then it doesn't. Shocker.
My first attempt. 1.X meter span, 3D printed fuselage pod and bits, Walmart carbon arrow shaft tailboom. Flew OK, but tremendous lack of lateral control. Had to force it down rather than lose it in the trees, I wanted to be able to recover all of the pieces.
Second plane. 1.5-ish meter span. 3D printed fuselage and bits, a real carbon shaft for the boom this time (no more flexing!) Flew great. Eventually scrapped to use the electronics in something else
Third plane. Seeing a bit of a theme here? Again, ~1.5m span, 3D printed fuse, carbon boom, blah blah. Was trying to make the fuselage narrower and give the wing a more sophisticated airfoil. Other than insufficient downthrust, flew great. Also eventually salvaged for parts. I actually build a second one like it with a few tweaks and gave it to my Dad. We've had a few electronics issues with it but it still flies fine.
A profile aerobatic plane I whipped up in a few hours. Embarrassingly crude, pretty wonky flying, but it's wild what you can do with control surfaces that large. Salvaged for parts after a few flights.
My first biplane. My son really wanted me to build a biplane but my heart wasn't into it. Wings never aligned quite right so it wanted to roll all of the time, wickedly overpowered, but still flew OK. Salvaged for parts after a few flights.
A rather scale (in profile, at least) Pilatus Turbo Porter. Flew quite well for about 20 seconds, then the wing folded in half. My mistake, poor construction. Ugly damn plane.
First attempt at a Delta wing. Didn't fly.
Second attempt at a Delta wing. Also didn't fly.
Third attempt at a wing. ALSO didn't fly. Why did my wings not fly? Because I didn't do my homework. I've since figured out how I need to build these and have tested with some hand-launch miniature wings. I'll circle around to making an RC wing again eventually.
First attempt at making something fast, and it sure was quick. First time I've crashed a plane because I couldn't stay on top of it, this thing was wild, just wasn't stable enough. I laughed the whole time.
An evolution of the previous plane with more wing. Not quite as fast, but infinitely more controllable. Flew it a handful of times, kept breaking props on landing. Sloppily built airframe. Salvaged for parts after several flights.
1m 2-ch sailplane designed for simplicity of build and flight. Not sure how well it flies, it has only had a few very short attempts, slope soaring is essentially non-existent where I live and I didn't have any provision for hi-start/winch.
Second prototype of the previous sailplane. Slight changes to dihedral, tail volumes, wing construction. Rigged a hook to the bottom for a mild hi-start. Kind of worked. Hit a power line. I'll circle back to this project eventually, too.
Little plane I threw together for my daughter using the FT EZ plane stuff. Flies extremely well and she does a good job with it.
My latest creation. I've been messing around, trying to find something I can teach my son on, this one seems to be it and I've had him on the sticks via buddy-box a few times lately. It's a bit tail heavy, but flies really well. Can cruise around on ~35% power and just be happy. Has way more power than is necessary, so I've already scaled the design up ~10% in CAD to run on the same electronics, just haven't actually built the bigger version yet.
I have several more projects that currently just live on my PC waiting to be finished and built whenever time allows and I stop getting distracted by other things like my 2m RES balsa glider kit that I'm in the middle of, and now I've decided to give the foamboard speed challenge a try so I'll be working on a design (or multiple for that)
I have a little bit of video footage for some of the planes I'll try to share eventually, too.
