Hello from Minneapolis MN

[Crash_Mig]

Howdy folks,

After many years away from RC I'm back thanks to Flite Test. I ordered the Old Fogey Speed Build kit and a Tanaris X7 radio with the 16 channels. I had built balsa airplanes before but this construction method is new to me. The weather has been cold and windy so my son and I have not had the chance to fly (hopefully not crash) the Old Fogey yet.

I made a couple boneheaded mistakes, like getting the overlap (A vs B fold) wrong when glueing the underside of the fuselage. I guess the instructions were not idiot proff. I cut out the underside of the fuselage and replaced it with with some poster board I had at home. It seems fine but the posterboard was surprisingly heavier than the original material.

I had to move the battery back quite a bit to balance the airplane. I wonder if it has to do with the heavier poster board.

Compared to building with balsa this is way faster but it feels so inexact. If it were not for the videos online, I would have little faith that this airplane is going to fly well. I'm still really hoping it will track straight and that it will survive a few hardlandings.

Any suggestions on improvements I should try on the Old Fogey? Is there a waty to make the leading edges stronger?

Thanks,
Miguel

 

[Bricks]

The foamies will never fly like balsa period....but they will take a ton of abuse that balsa wouldn`t. Foamies will change shape over time warping etc. but still fly fairly well. They are built light which saves them and makes them floaty for beginners or someone coming back to the hobby is a big plus. Get the CG close and go fly it and don`t worry about the rest, there is only a couple of bucks of foam if thing go really badly....Biggest thing is just have some fun with them and not worry.

 

[Crash_Mig]

Hi Bricks,

Glad to hear how floaty foamies are - it's what I was looking for in this airplane. The maiden flight will be over snow. Hopefully the plane will stay dry. I'll share a videos of the maiden flight. Cheers

 

[barukatang]

nice! another twin cities flyer, i just busted up my se5 flying inverted in the wind on sunday. with the leading edges and all edges of the foam that are exposed i like to shoot glue in the crack and smooth it down with a scrap piece of foam. you could also glue a skewer to the leading edge. its amazing how well they fly sometimes and tend to get better with a few crashes.

 

[Bricks]

If you are going to maiden over the snow if you can set the plane someplace cold first like a unheated garage the snow will not melt and loosen up the paper. The brown foam board is much better about getting wet but it can loosen up, and good luck.