Hai-Lee
Old and Bold RC PILOT
I have a little distracted of late as I have been busy building, designing and teaching RC models and how to fly lately and so I have been rather distant on the forum.
Just posting this thread to bring those who follow up to date.
I have been building and designing in Foam Board and the results where quite good but I have a student that seems to have an issue in controlling more than a single axis at a time. As the student had a sponsor we tried a myriad of different designs both FB and retail offerings but none of the designs seemed to suit the student. After about 50 hours of stick time the student can fly solo but gets a little confused if the wind picks up or there is other air traffic flying close .
The student can fly a Bixler type and a clipped wing club, (both with a stabiliser fitted), but remove the stabilisation and a crash becomes quite a strong possibility.
Anyway I kept teaching and searching for a more stable design to suit the students particular requirements. So far I have built or assembled about 25 different models and fitted about 10 stabilisers. Anyway I finally tried a retro design in Balsa. Actually it was a slope soaring design, (2 channel only), that I modified to have a battery tray, a very heavy and robust tail, and of course an electric motor setup with a 2200 3S battery.
The student was given the model and we did the students first flight with the new bird last week. The first flight was incredible. The student was given control after a short time, (I flew it initially to demonstrate its performance and then handed over the control). The flight was smooth, predictable and the student even started to use GENTLE stick movements. It flew so slow and seemed to just float around. We actually got in a number of flights on the same battery and the total air time was well over 10 minutes. The battery was still 60% charged after the 2 flights and the student landed each and every flight without my intervention and without any stabiliser.
So it looks like I will be doing a lot more Balsa type builds and as I had previously done a few Hybrid Balsa/Foam Board builds in the past, I will be doing more of such in the future. My work or designs will be evolving and rather than abandon FB I intend to enhance its use.
There was something that I did not do during my frenzied activity and that was record or document my efforts photographically and so there are no pics to add, YET. I hope to get back to taking pictures of the work but that will require a break in the current weather. Stopping and setting up to take pictures can actually take considerable time when in a building frenzy!
From here I shall post mostly hybrid and Balsa, (wooden), builds with the occasional all FB build if a model is posted that catches my imagination or suits someone else's desires locally. I will still do my usual FB designs and the occasional FT design but I will often augment the designs with different materials, (balsa, ply, plastic - including 3D printed items, foam core, and even Fibreglass). A lot of the work will require jigs to get repeatable and accurate results so I may even do a number of tooling up posts if there is enough interest on the forum.
Sorry the post is long but then i actually feel somewhat invigorated now and after a little success I intend to push ahead in an area that the RC industry has been ignoring of late!
Have fun! (I am now)!
Just posting this thread to bring those who follow up to date.
I have been building and designing in Foam Board and the results where quite good but I have a student that seems to have an issue in controlling more than a single axis at a time. As the student had a sponsor we tried a myriad of different designs both FB and retail offerings but none of the designs seemed to suit the student. After about 50 hours of stick time the student can fly solo but gets a little confused if the wind picks up or there is other air traffic flying close .
The student can fly a Bixler type and a clipped wing club, (both with a stabiliser fitted), but remove the stabilisation and a crash becomes quite a strong possibility.
Anyway I kept teaching and searching for a more stable design to suit the students particular requirements. So far I have built or assembled about 25 different models and fitted about 10 stabilisers. Anyway I finally tried a retro design in Balsa. Actually it was a slope soaring design, (2 channel only), that I modified to have a battery tray, a very heavy and robust tail, and of course an electric motor setup with a 2200 3S battery.
The student was given the model and we did the students first flight with the new bird last week. The first flight was incredible. The student was given control after a short time, (I flew it initially to demonstrate its performance and then handed over the control). The flight was smooth, predictable and the student even started to use GENTLE stick movements. It flew so slow and seemed to just float around. We actually got in a number of flights on the same battery and the total air time was well over 10 minutes. The battery was still 60% charged after the 2 flights and the student landed each and every flight without my intervention and without any stabiliser.
So it looks like I will be doing a lot more Balsa type builds and as I had previously done a few Hybrid Balsa/Foam Board builds in the past, I will be doing more of such in the future. My work or designs will be evolving and rather than abandon FB I intend to enhance its use.
There was something that I did not do during my frenzied activity and that was record or document my efforts photographically and so there are no pics to add, YET. I hope to get back to taking pictures of the work but that will require a break in the current weather. Stopping and setting up to take pictures can actually take considerable time when in a building frenzy!
From here I shall post mostly hybrid and Balsa, (wooden), builds with the occasional all FB build if a model is posted that catches my imagination or suits someone else's desires locally. I will still do my usual FB designs and the occasional FT design but I will often augment the designs with different materials, (balsa, ply, plastic - including 3D printed items, foam core, and even Fibreglass). A lot of the work will require jigs to get repeatable and accurate results so I may even do a number of tooling up posts if there is enough interest on the forum.
Sorry the post is long but then i actually feel somewhat invigorated now and after a little success I intend to push ahead in an area that the RC industry has been ignoring of late!
Have fun! (I am now)!