Hobby Lobby Skimmer 400 DTFB conversion?

[bhursey]

Haha, you know the designer? Ask him if he remembers what the dihedral angle is supposed to be. I found some plans for the low wing skimmer, and they said raise a wingtip up 7 inches. The two look the same, so that's what I went with for the dihedral gauge.

This build should be really simple, though it's hard to beat a Dart for simplicity. If you build this one, start with the wing first, and then make a test section of foam for the wing to set into. I think the cutout I have on the fuse now will be close, but you never know until you build the wing.

I don't have time to build or test this right now, as I'm swamped with other projects, that's why I included the CAD file. So you can tweak anything that needs adjusting.

Yah my skimmer plans say 7 inches. it says use dihedral gage to align the inside ribs.. However it say son the plans "Raise one wing tip 7 inches when joining panels"

Fuselage looks around 26 3/4 inches long but and under the wing the width of the fuse is 1 3/4th inch.. front its it tapers to the back..

 

[BobK]

I should mention, your dihedral is right there on the plans also...you should really learn how to read those since your technology hasn't figured it out.

 

[bhursey]

No not at all, its just too bad everyone is scared to put some effort into doing some actual work. Don't worry, I will leave you kids play, my interest is gone here now.

LOL Iv done it and still build balsa. I originally built the skimmer in balsa form I plan on building one again. However I would like to have something similar to let my daughter fly. I really don't want to hand her a scratch built balsa craft when she's learning.

LOL Don't call me a kid iv been flying since 1997.. Well I took a break 2003-2015. So I came from the world of non laser balsa kits, scratch, and arfs just showing up. To foam, and easy to build dtfb plans that can be built quickly.. My wife does not understand me and no way I would of time currently to scratch build a skimmer.

If it makes you feel better I am scratch building a balsa conversion of a foam airplane. The other way around. Note this is 100% customer design based off the foam one. http://forum.flitetest.com/showthread.php?23343-Gym-blue-foam-to-balsa-conversion Fell better bob? See I can build balsa.


LocalField. I would suggest at least try building a balsa plane once.. As a young kid I would build the gillows kits.. They are fun.. You could get one of those, or get like a small glider or something.

 

[localfiend]

Yah my skimmer plans say 7 inches. it says use dihedral gage to align the inside ribs.. However it say son the plans "Raise one wing tip 7 inches when joining panels"

Fuselage looks around 26 3/4 inches long but and under the wing the width of the fuse is 1 3/4th inch.. front its it tapers to the back..

Good, sounds like I got it right then. Even zoomed in I couldn't read a lot of the text on the picture you took of the plans.

LocalField. I would suggest at least try building a balsa plane once.. As a young kid I would build the gillows kits.. They are fun.. You could get one of those, or get like a small glider or something.

I probably will eventually when I find a design worthy of the time spent. Maybe once I actually get my Hughes Devastator build finished I'll build it in balsa. A fictional canard biplane warbird would have enough cool points.

Until I find something though, its not how I want to spend my free time. I have other hobbies. I've got a highly modified jeep wrangler that needs to be fixed, a 67 mustang that needs a 5 speed swapped in, and a house to build. Working on getting the roads dug into my new place, then I'll be pouring the basement hopefully this spring. Don't have time for Balsa yet. I like to spend more time flying than building.

 

[bhursey]

I should mention, your dihedral is right there on the plans also...you should really learn how to read those since your technology hasn't figured it out.

Bob have you built a balsa skimmer 400? Do you have the origional plans currently in your lap? Well i do and i have built it. The plane came with a dihedral guage for angling the ribs where the wings came together. It is not on the plans. These are kit plans so not 100% compleate. After you built the inner ribs with the angle you glued the dihedral brace into one side on the spar then epoxy and slide the other wing together. Then you keep one side flat on the table and put the other tip up 7 inches to dry.. We are not idiots and I have been around a while and built balsa free flight gillos as a kid and other kits, then balsa rc kits. I dont see the elitist helping anyone. I am really aprecitive of the contrabutions local field and others make to this community.

 

[localfiend]

The pictures of the power pod just showed up. Are your plans to scale?



I set the wing half when I was first drawing up the plans to 29.5 inches. When I do that, the fuse width is 2 inches.

Hard to tell with stuff being blurry. Is the wing outline I drew not a full wing?

 

[bhursey]

The pictures of the power pod just showed up. Are your plans to scale?

View attachment 62977

I set the wing half when I was first drawing up the plans to 29.5 inches. When I do that, the fuse width is 2 inches.

Hard to tell with stuff being blurry. Is the wing outline I drew not a full wing?

Yes its full size its the plans you build the plane off of. Tommarow i will lay the plans on the table and get you spacific mesurements on what you listed above with pictures.. Again thanks for doing this. Its neat.

 

[bhursey]

In regards the wing looks eyeballing to be the same exact wing as the low wing plans. Also i can eaisily see where the modified the plans from the origional... http://www.outerzone.co.uk/plan_files_06/6479/Low_Wing_Skimmer_400.pdf

 

[localfiend]

Yes its full size its the plans you build the plane off of. Tommarow i will lay the plans on the table and get you spacific mesurements on what you listed above with pictures.. Again thanks for doing this. Its neat.

No problem, it's fun even if grumpy people like to moan about nothing.

I knew it would be off a bit, as the picture was taken at an angle and was a bit wrinkled., but that's a bit more than I was expecting. As it's drawn, the fuse is about 12 percent wider in the middle. I'm not sure what you meant about the taper. As it's drawn, it follows the taper lines both vertical and horizontal.

If it were me, I'd leave it as it is. When it's built, the slight difference in width won't be that noticeable by the naked eye. It lets you fit in the swappable pod, and you have more room for batteries.

If you wanted to shrink it some, you could try your hand with Doublecad. Everything is there in the file I linked to. You'd just need to shorten some lines a bit. You'd probably need to glue the firewall directly on the nose, or do some hand fitting to see what will squeeze in there.

 

[bhursey]

I may mess with the cad file some.. I use to draw with cad in HS. Although that was turbo cad and I drew floor plans. I also used generic cad on windows 3.11..

 

[localfiend]

I may mess with the cad file some.. I use to draw with cad in HS. Although that was turbo cad and I drew floor plans. I also used generic cad on windows 3.11..

I had only used CAD for tweaking floor plans before I started designing planes. DoubleCad XT is the free version of Turbo CAD. It functions pretty much exactly the same, just with a few less features so you're ahead of the game there.

I should be too young to remember much about Windows 3.1, but I was a nerdy kid. First PC was DOS based and probably as old as me. Spent a lot of time working on 3.1 computers in middle school. I got to get out of some classes working for the IT department. I'm glad for the most part those days are done. Changing driver code by hand just to get a printer working was fun and all, but there are better ways to spend my time.

 

[bhursey]

Yah Im still in IT im global Unix support for my companies products. Lets just say my company is one of the words leading infrastructure technology companies.

Anyways truthfully looking.. Really the flight characteristics are not going to change much just by a smidge off. I think I am going to just print off the plans tape them together and cut them out then I will show you what they look like laid against the plans. I think it should be built as is.

Now if only my office was clean so I could build. My wife has a rule. I can not build planes tell my office is clean.. Yah that's is not an easy task.

If you get a chance to build her go for it. She was a plane you could sit down and enjoy gliding. Then you could speed her up for fast flybys. I would suggest getting a folding prop. I need to find a good folding prop that will fit my baby beast.. It flew with a speed 400 with a 6x3 graupner folding prop.

Add the plans to your plan index. Possibly some one might enjoy it also.

 

[bhursey]

I wonder if any one could try to build this. Its on my list I hope to have it done some time in the next year. Should be a simple build.... Building my house has taken over my life. Good thing is when done I will have my own flying field.

 

[WillieRipple]

I wonder if any one could try to build this. Its on my list I hope to have it done some time in the next year. Should be a simple build.... Building my house has taken over my life. Good thing is when done I will have my own flying field.

I just found this thread today and was looking for something to build, i'm printing plans as i type this! I'll post it in Flite Test Fans on facebook also when its done.

 

[bhursey]

I just found this thread today and was looking for something to build, i'm printing plans as i type this! I'll post it in Flite Test Fans on facebook also when its done.

Sweet. As Localfiend said earlier you may have to add something to reinforce the spar. at joint. However its a standard ft wing basically.. I was going to design a 3d printed spar with the dihedral in it maybe. Ir just add some wood. to the joint.

 

[bhursey]

So it begins need to figure out spar angle I’m gonna print a spar support.

 

[bhursey]

Forgot how much I hate the cutting part. . Marking progress.

 

[WillieRipple]

Sweet. As Localfiend said earlier you may have to add something to reinforce the spar. at joint. However its a standard ft wing basically.. I was going to design a 3d printed spar with the dihedral in it maybe. Ir just add some wood. to the joint.

I used two carbon fibre arrows and a bent nail for the spar. Worked perfect except for my ineptness at psy8ng attention to what I'm doing. Airfoils don't match on the wings, all I can do is fly in freaking circles! Gonna build a new wing.

 

[daxian]

like the look of this one ...added to the build list !!!...

 

[daxian]

nice easy build ..almost ready for a fly ...needs more color , a reciever and prop...
reduced the dihedral to 4 " as i may add ailerons later ,cut a hatch in the top for battery access and added a 12 inch dihedral brace in plywood ...seems fairly stiff ,but wont be pulling any g's for sure ... we shall see how she performs !!!