Ground Effect Snow Skimmer (what I'll do with my electronics for planes that are too light for transponders ;)

[Ryan O.]

I have two 4s lipos and a power pack F motor. They're from a plane that keeps flying worse and worse every time. Eventually I'll have to take the electronics out of the long wing sparrow, likely after a bad crash. I saw some ground effect designs that I could mimic to fly off of snow and in the neighborhood. I also have a makeshift ice rink in the backyard that sometimes melts, which would be cool to fly on. I would need to install an elevator to keep it from flying too high or lawn darting, and a rudder for steering.

 

[LitterBug]

The good old days.... An .049 on a 4 wheeled vehicle

Cheers!
LitterBug

 

[LitterBug]

Hmmm... Drive On could mash up with Flite Test to become DriveTest with that one!

 

[Ryan O.]

I rewatched the Snowskimmer video and they were using the old power pack F motor with 2 cell. I'm going to fly the long wing sparrow tomorrow, and if it still flies well I'll probably keep the electronics in it and just buy an ESC and 2205 motor. If I make this with 4 cell It might get really damaged if it runs into a mailbox. At the same time, if it runs on 4 cell I could make it go much faster . From what I have seen on ground effect it doesn't need an airfoil to work, just a wing that is wide. My ekranoplane will have a more boat like look and probably twin basswood booms for the tail with a single tail. To keep the prop safer I'll 3d print a little duct to go around it. It won't make it more efficient but it would protect any pets that go to investigate the snow skimmer.

 

[Ryan O.]

I flew the long wing sparrow again today, and it was flying very poorly. The fuselage structure keeps on getting flimsier. I decided to scrap the electronics and use them on the snow skimmer. Work on the snow skimmer starts within a week or two.

 

[Ryan O.]

As you can see, it ended uplooking nothing like I planned, but I like it. I chose to make it assymetrical because it could counter tge torque of the propeller. The first test will be tommorrow morning. The paint scheme will be soviet with a red star. There won't be any plans unless there are a lot of people who want them because this was all cut by eyeball.

 

[LitterBug]

NICE! Makes me wish we had some snow around here! All rain so far. Ditch is flooded. Maybe I should make a pontoon version. LOL

Cheers!
LitterBug

 

[Ryan O.]

NICE! Makes me wish we had some snow around here! All rain so far. Ditch is flooded. Maybe I should make a pontoon version. LOL

Cheers!
LitterBug

It just snowed, and it's already melting 😥. I made mine with plastic on the bottom to keep it from getting scratched up by the pavement. At least the forecast says snow within a week 🙂

 

[Ryan O.]

So I tested the design and it failed miserably. It would get in the air, go vertical or nosedive, barrel roll to the left or right, or get stuck inverted. My second design was based off of the bixel wing. I chose the .333 format which is slightly skinnier than other models I have seen which were the .5 format.

 

[Ryan O.]

This is what I've finished so far, again no plans, but the Bixel wing scales the same larger and smaller.

 

[Ryan O.]

Here's the finished plane. I can't think of a name for it yet, well I have thought of a bad one, but if you can think of a name for it please tell me

 

[Ryan O.]

It worked, but the neighboorood street is too narrow and short because both times it got airborbe it either ran into a snow mound or had to fly over one. I'll try it at my flying field because the grass is short and there should still be snow there.

 

[Ryan O.]

The paint scheme is finished. I didn't use any measurements for the stars so they are a little uneven.

 

[Ryan O.]

I added one more "scale detail" to it for fun:

 

[Ryan O.]

When designing this I recomend either the .33X or .25X wing. The .5X is less pitch stable, but more importantly the middle section sags with the weight of the fuselage without strengthening. My .33 wing sags less, but still needs a little reinforcement.

 

[Ryan O.]

I might get a chance to fly it on an actual field tomorrow

 

[Ryan O.]

I had my first flight on the field. Here is the video. One of the commenter's advice was contrary to most of what I had heard on ground effect, CP, CG, and other things. I want to know if what he said was right, and it likely is, or if what I had previously heard had been right, for example: I heard that ground effect works just as well without lift from an airfoil because is is a separate force altogether? is that right?

Since ground effect gets better as it gets larger, I might make a B-C pack Bixel wing or Lippisch style model.

 

[Grifflyer]

I had my first flight on the field. Here is the video. One of the commenter's advice was contrary to most of what I had heard on ground effect, CP, CG, and other things. I want to know if what he said was right, and it likely is, or if what I had previously heard had been right, for example: I heard that ground effect works just as well without lift from an airfoil because is is a separate force altogether? is that right?

Since ground effect gets better as it gets larger, I might make a B-C pack Bixel wing or Lippisch style model.

Nice!! How big would the B/C model be?

 

[Ryan O.]

Nice!! How big would the B/C model be?

I don't know. If its a Lippisdh design it will be smaller than the Bixel Wing. The thing is that the Bixel wing is longer than it is wide, by a lot. All I know is the prop span (8inches) will be at least 1/3-1/5 of the width at the front. I don't know which one of the desigbs I will choose because I hear many people praise the the Bixel Wing for its simplicity, and a few strongly dislike it. I may experiment with a KF step, but that is unlikely. Since battery life is never an issue, 15-30 minutes depending on how often I stop because cruising barely uses any throttle to stay on the ground effect, but to get going it takes about half throttle for a few seconds. If I am able to perfect this and the larger one, expect plans for both.

 

[Ryan O.]

For the C-pack system I decided on the Lippisch style WIG so that It is sturdier. The Lippisch WIG will be going off of this one that I saw on the internet: