Giant... Um... Thing

Piotrsko

Master member
At least aim for metal gear servos.
I've notice on the giant builds at FF have larger rc car servos, At the least.
Actually we had great success if you loaded both sides/arms and didn't use the servo with only one side connected. I believe the term was "avoid asymetric loads". I think the task is to use what is in the spare drawer and not use anything new or $$$$

Something this size, I would run a separate radio battery and not use the esc.

Oh you've been there buying framing pretzels also, I see.
 
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ItMightFly

Active member
With big o' servos Don't forget to have adequate power coming from your BEC.

Actually we had great success if you loaded both sides/arms and didn't use the servo with only one side connected. I believe the term was "avoid asymetric loads". I think the task is to use what is in the spare drawer and not use anything new or $$$$

Something this size, I would run a separate radio battery and not use the esc.

Oh you've been there buying framing pretzels also, I see.

Kilroy07 that's true. I would need plenty of power coming in to power those "Extra Large 9g" servos.
Pio had a good idea there. Running an extra battery to the receiver would be good. The ESC is cheap, may not be a good idea to run it on the receiver.
 

ItMightFly

Active member
Let’s get updated on the build. I’ve been slacking, but luckily there hasn’t been a lot done.
Day 7(I think): Spar build
There has been discussion on how to do the spar, what to use, procedures etc... I decided that ripping a 2x4 to a 1/4x4 and cutting it in half might do the trick. Lucky me it came out half way straight! Using wood glue, I put the square dowels in to make the sheer joint for joining the wings.
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Everything kinda slides together nicely after a few kinks in the hose.
One of those kinks was a simple sizing problem.
The square dowel I used for initial measurements I guess was a bit small, that, or when glueing the dowels got moved. Either way the hole ended up pretty small on one of the spars. It was fixed by sanding and grinding on the joining dowel till it slid in nicely.
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You can see all the little bumps and scratches from a poor sander (myself). It’s probably because I didn’t use a sander... (angle grinders and drill bits are not good sanders, for all who might be curious :LOL:)

One large kink I came to notice was the odd airfoil...
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It’s not supposed to be like that... simple fix, just move the spar back, add another fold to it.
I have some plans to update and get ready for you guys it looks like.
Happy flying! I’ll bet getting most of this done today... I think...
 

ItMightFly

Active member
Okay, so here we are...
Day 8 - Wing assembly

This has got to be the best part of a project, seeing glimpses of the final. This thing is MASSIVE! You guys won't believe the size of it. It is huge!

Before we get to the pictures, I have to explain what all I did.

As I said in the last notation, the spar is a bit tall... The fix (I thought) was to add another fold into the foam. That did not work. It was the same as before, just a nicer looking trailing edge. The leading edge was still messed up.
Me and my dad went out and ripped the spar to be 2.5 inches tall now. It is much better.
IMG_0598.jpg

We went ahead and glued the shortened spar to the wing. It went really well!
Here is a picture that strongly hints to the massive size of the project -we need a name for it, ideas?-.
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It's bigger than the couch!
Next is adding the top part of the wing for the shape and functionality of the wing, should be good!

We need a name for the project, any ideas? Also, not sure exactly how to mount the wing to the fuselage, looking for ideas there as well. You got anything?
 

Piotrsko

Master member
Hmmm 2" ish spar. Where have I heard that before............

Your cord isn't sized for 4 inches it would have to be doubled

I really like "giant-UM-thing"
 

ItMightFly

Active member
Hmmm 2" ish spar. Where have I heard that before............

Your cord isn't sized for 4 inches it would have to be doubled

I really like "giant-UM-thing"

I'm not exactly sure what you mean by that. Could you explain a bit more?

Giant-um-thing would be funny to put across the wing in all bold caps... lol
 

ItMightFly

Active member
Hey guys! I don't want to make a whole day out of this one, but I finished up the power pods!
Here are some pictures of the finished propulsion systems
Power pods 1.jpg

Power Pods 2.jpg

Also, I redrew the plans that might be easier to read before I make them digital. What program should I use to make plans?

Here is the time lapse of plan making
 
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Piotrsko

Master member
With that much wing you can go thin so 2" spar should be enough if the spar is strong enough.
Down side is the stall speed will increase. But you are looking at stalling at maybe 10 mph anyways.
I wouldn't use a ripped 2x4. 0
Maybe here?
 

ItMightFly

Active member
Maybe here?

I did a bit of looking at our wing with the 2" spar, things seemed a bit small. My dad said it would be okay to use the 2" but better if we used the 2.5 - 3" options. The 2x4 idea was a bit sketchy, but it's actually pretty strong and a lot lighter than expected as the board was well seasoned and dried when cut.

I have already gotten the wing finished, and the fuselage. I'm just being lazy and putting off our final build post.
 

ItMightFly

Active member
Yeah, it’s been a couple of weeks, life is just life.
Here are a couple of sneak peeks before I get the real post through
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EDIT: I promise I’m an honest man, but I did lie up above :ROFLMAO:. We’ve still gotta put servos in, finish up some wing to fuse mounting issues, run electronics, and paint the thing. We’re pretty close, but definitely not done. Can’t wait for FFE!!!
 

ItMightFly

Active member
Alrighty, I’d say this is, hmmm day 8? Day 9? Let me go check... ah,
Day 9: Wing Attachment and Placement
After getting most of the fuse and wing put together, me and my dad were able to do a CG test. Unfortunately the CG was way to far back. The two fixes we had in mind were to move the batteries to the nose, or to move the motors further forward. We decided after some testing that doing both would be smart. Took but five minutes to redesign the new motor mounts. They will now stick an extra 3” forward from the wing and then be lifted up for a central thrust force, instead of a low one with the motors lower (what’s the word for this?). Then adding the much needed nose to it. Pictures were posted above In the “sneak peek”.

Now, mounting the wing. This was the hardest part so far.
Using the sheer joint mount for the wings is easy. We drilled a hole into the top of the spar down through the two square dowels and the square dowel between the two for removal of the wing. Then we tapped (added threads) the spar and we can now screw nylon bolts into her.
image.jpg

Then, to mount the wing to the fuse, we added some ply wood to the bottom of the wing and top of the fuse, did some tapping and whalla, we have a mounted wing. Aligning everything and getting it all square was pretty tough. It took us about 2 hours to get this all sorted out. But it is now removable and easy-ish to put together!
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(Upside down fuse, you can see the ply wood in the middle there)

Also, added some more support down the fuse for stability and for less of the wiggly gigglies. Also, added some landing gear. Servos are now added to the fuse as well.
We decided that dedicating the nose to electronics would be a good idea.
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Red=where future receiver would go
Green = battery placement

All that’s left to do is finish up with control surfaces, paint, and then add a tail wheel! We are so close!

Also, still looking at names. Albatross was one suggested, any other good ones?
 

ItMightFly

Active member
Final Day: The finally... for now

Alrighty! So, I wanted to get everything done for FliteFest, but life got in the way again. I managed to get some space in the build tent and finished her up. We painted and attempted a maiden, here is what I got.

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On the attempted maiden, she just didn’t get off the ground. Ricky Bobby slid into the weeds and snapped a couple of pieces. Maybe we can fix it up before we are finished here FFE.
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Happy flying to all of you!