flyingcheesehead
New member
Hi all,
I've been looking hard at the FT website, but I'm looking to get ideas from folks here as well.
My 8-year-old has been flying a foam C-17 model that we bought from Flite Test at Oshkosh a couple years ago, and I just recently had the maiden flight of a 3D printed Eclipson Model A that we built together. He got really excited as a result of that, and now he wants a 3D printed airplane.
He's not ready for the Model A. I looked for a more forgiving (lighter, slower) 3D printed plane for him and settled on the 3D Aeroventures Micro SportCam as it is one of the lightest fully 3D printed ones out there, and I think the top-mounted pusher configuration should help avoid some possible types of damage on landing.
However, he needs to work on flying skills so he doesn't immediately crash it, even though we've already discussed that and he watched me damage the Model A on its second flight. I'd like to give him the best chance at success! Unfortunately, the foam model he's flying is teaching him the wrong things. It's controlled solely by differential thrust, and it's not only too easy to fly, it teaches some of the wrong skills. For example, it turns like a car (you hold the stick to the right) instead of like an airplane where you move the stick to roll into a turn and reverse it to roll out. It's also very slow to have a noticeable response, so he's learning to hold the stick ALL THE WAY to the side when turning. Not good.
So, I would like him to be able to learn on an easy to fly airplane with actual control surfaces. I wouldn't mind starting with 3 channel but it must at least be upgradeable to 4 channel. It needs to be slow, stable, and easy to fly.
I've narrowed it down, I think, to the FT Mighty Mini Tiny Tutor and the FT Mighty Mini Explorer, and I think my preference of those two is the Explorer due to its easy build, easy flying, and slow flying. It's also in the same wing-mounted pusher configuration as the Micro SportCam so he'll learn the pitch effects that throttle changes can have on a configuration like that.
I'm also interested in how the FT Tenet with the 3D printed fuselage and foam wing kit would compare to the above, but it's hard to tell how that compares with the above in terms of difficulty of building/flying. Does it fly faster than the Mini Explorer?
Does the Mini Explorer support adding ailerons to the standard trainer wing, or does the 4-channel configuration require the (presumably more difficult to fly) sport wing? Can ailerons be added to the Tiny Tutor? Does the wing kit for the Tenet have ailerons?
Finally - My assumption is that a smaller airplane is lighter and slower, but it's also going to get tossed around by air currents a bit more. Would it be easier to fly the FT Mighty Mini Explorer, or the larger FT Explorer MKR2?
Thanks in advance for any thoughts, information, suggestions, tips, etc!
I've been looking hard at the FT website, but I'm looking to get ideas from folks here as well.
My 8-year-old has been flying a foam C-17 model that we bought from Flite Test at Oshkosh a couple years ago, and I just recently had the maiden flight of a 3D printed Eclipson Model A that we built together. He got really excited as a result of that, and now he wants a 3D printed airplane.
He's not ready for the Model A. I looked for a more forgiving (lighter, slower) 3D printed plane for him and settled on the 3D Aeroventures Micro SportCam as it is one of the lightest fully 3D printed ones out there, and I think the top-mounted pusher configuration should help avoid some possible types of damage on landing.
However, he needs to work on flying skills so he doesn't immediately crash it, even though we've already discussed that and he watched me damage the Model A on its second flight. I'd like to give him the best chance at success! Unfortunately, the foam model he's flying is teaching him the wrong things. It's controlled solely by differential thrust, and it's not only too easy to fly, it teaches some of the wrong skills. For example, it turns like a car (you hold the stick to the right) instead of like an airplane where you move the stick to roll into a turn and reverse it to roll out. It's also very slow to have a noticeable response, so he's learning to hold the stick ALL THE WAY to the side when turning. Not good.
So, I would like him to be able to learn on an easy to fly airplane with actual control surfaces. I wouldn't mind starting with 3 channel but it must at least be upgradeable to 4 channel. It needs to be slow, stable, and easy to fly.
I've narrowed it down, I think, to the FT Mighty Mini Tiny Tutor and the FT Mighty Mini Explorer, and I think my preference of those two is the Explorer due to its easy build, easy flying, and slow flying. It's also in the same wing-mounted pusher configuration as the Micro SportCam so he'll learn the pitch effects that throttle changes can have on a configuration like that.
I'm also interested in how the FT Tenet with the 3D printed fuselage and foam wing kit would compare to the above, but it's hard to tell how that compares with the above in terms of difficulty of building/flying. Does it fly faster than the Mini Explorer?
Does the Mini Explorer support adding ailerons to the standard trainer wing, or does the 4-channel configuration require the (presumably more difficult to fly) sport wing? Can ailerons be added to the Tiny Tutor? Does the wing kit for the Tenet have ailerons?
Finally - My assumption is that a smaller airplane is lighter and slower, but it's also going to get tossed around by air currents a bit more. Would it be easier to fly the FT Mighty Mini Explorer, or the larger FT Explorer MKR2?
Thanks in advance for any thoughts, information, suggestions, tips, etc!
