Hai-Lee

Old and Bold RC PILOT
Nice! Pity about the water damage!

Here we may not get snow but we definitely get a lot of morning dew! You should try to water proof the FB before you go flying!
Simplest water proofing is to buy a small tin of varnish, (oil based of course), and wipe it on very thinly on the FB. When dry it will repel water and will also allow you to paint the plane with almost any type of paint you want!

With an unprotected plane the water will soak into the paper and make the entire plane weaker and a lot heavier. Overtime it will cause the water to de-laminate or permanently stretch making the whole plane too weak to fly properly.

On fuselages where the air, (and water), are allowed entry because of cooling requirements I also seal the FB before assembly. For the hinge lines and other exposed edges I seal the exposed foam with a wipe of a little glue. Normally I use a PVA but any glue is equally valid. Additionally for the hinge lines I reinforce the paper side of the hinges with a little clear and cheap packing tape, which I rub in to the FB after application to remove any air and to improve adhesion.

Just what works for me!

Have fun!
 

Paracodespoder

Elite member
I’m thinking about doing a 90% edge build for the power pack C motor (2215), 100% was just a little to big and heavy for that motor, didn’t have vertical (not good for 3D maneuvers!).
 

buzzbomb

I know nothing!
I think those were wonderful flights, mayan. You didn't chop your head off. It was close, though! :eek: It's a bummer that the plane is trashed, but you knew that was going happen and you wanted to fly anyway. In the cold. In the wet. Nah, you're not addicted at all. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise. :p

I'm glad you got to fly it. It looked like it was a real handful, but a whole lot of fun.
 

mayan

Legendary member
Wow it was a lot of fun. I officially decided to make it my new practice plane, while I teach my son to fly the TT. I am going to rebuild it later today at a 75% scale. BTW I looked at the airframe yesterday and it seems repairable. I’ll still relook at it after I drop of the kids at school, and check why the motor freaked out on me. I know there is a problem with the motor, prop, ESC combination I was using and if don’t want to burn out all my electronics will have to find the best combo for this new sized airframe. Will update this post with my findings.
 

kilroy07

Legendary member
I'm Jealous, I haven't gotten around to the Edge yet... YET! :LOL:

I try and take my head off sometimes too! It's just cool buzzing yourself (freaks my wife out though, maybe THAT's why she won't come out anymore to video... That or the cold.)

I also think it's good you dove right into 4 channel flight. I stayed with the 3 channel for quite awhile and now it's been a challenge learning 4 channel on my own.
 

mayan

Legendary member
I also think it's good you dove right into 4 channel flight. I stayed with the 3 channel for quite awhile and now it's been a challenge learning 4 channel on my own.
Once you get the hang of it it’s so much easier to fly 4 channel than 3 channels. I hardly ever use rudder when I have ailerons.

Alright so after a long day I finally have a chance to sit and write a bit about my findings. I’ll keep it short and simple I burned my 15a ESC, and realized that I don’t have the right motor prop combination for this airframe. During the day I tried to fix two 30a ESCs that I had laying around but couldn’t get them to work. I was pushing my luck and really tried hard to fix them because I really wanted another go at the Mini FT Edge. Just before getting frustrated I quit and took myself a break. Not being able to fix the ESCs I decided to rebuild myself a new Mini FT Edge 540, even though I can repair the one I currently have built.

Why? Because I want to try build it at 75% scale and get its size to be a bit closer to the TT (right now it is closer in size to the Mini Scout). Any how it makes no sense to find the right motor prop combo before I decide on the size I’d like the final version to be.

Figuring that I might need to buy new electronics for the Mini FT Edge, plus need more ESCSs any how to be able to start training my children. I have decided to keep training with the 3 models that I have ready for maiden the TT, the Simple Scout, and the Edge 540 full scale.

Tomorrow is looking good for flying and I plan to practice my skills a bit more with the TT and the Simple Scout. If the airframe breaks I’ll have the electronics for another test at the Mini FT Edge that I can and will repair sooner or later go figure.
 

mayan

Legendary member
Good morning everybody.
Today is sunny, so I’ll hit the field in an hour or so. Why not earlier? Cause I offered my wife to take our son to a treatment he has. No worries though I really hope that this time with the sun outside will let the morning dew dry up a bit.

Any how more later.
 

mayan

Legendary member
So I hit the field yesterday taking two planes to prefect my flying with the Simple Scout and the TT.

I started the day with the Simple Scout had 3 takeoffs before I crashed trying to line up with runway for a landing and broke the wheel holder. Put it aside and took out the Tiny Trainer. Flew two full batteries on it and tried a third which didn’t seem to get along nice with the motor, prop, ESC combo. Today I had some random spectators which passed by the field. It’s surprising how one will really be impressed that the plane handles so well being hand made with FB, and another will look at it as something lame. When I was younger I’d eat ppl like that up but I have grown out of it.

Here is the video of yesterday practice session sorry it’s long but I was fly two batteries after all :).

I have already fixed the wheel on the Simple Scout too.
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buzzbomb

I know nothing!
So I hit the field yesterday taking two planes to prefect my flying with the Simple Scout and the TT.

I started the day with the Simple Scout had 3 takeoffs before I crashed trying to line up with runway for a landing and broke the wheel holder. Put it aside and took out the Tiny Trainer. Flew two full batteries on it and tried a third which didn’t seem to get along nice with the motor, prop, ESC combo. Today I had some random spectators which passed by the field. It’s surprising how one will really be impressed that the plane handles so well being hand made with FB, and another will look at it as something lame. When I was younger I’d eat ppl like that up but I have grown out of it.

Here is the video of yesterday practice session sorry it’s long but I was fly two batteries after all :).

I have already fixed the wheel on the Simple Scout too.
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A half-hour video! Are you kidding me mayan??!! I am your brother from another country and a completely different culture. I'm going to watch it in its entirety because I love and respect you. Nearly 30 minutes, though? Cut me some slack, man! :p
 

mayan

Legendary member
Cut me some slack, man! :p
I promise to make a shorter video next time and keep it around a minute.

So since I decided that my new trainer plane will be a Mini FT Edge 540, and took it as a project that is harder than I thought. I opened a new thread for it documenting my progress until a final version is reached so that others can build one too. I think it will be a prefect plane for me to practice my aerobatics flying with. You can follow the build process of the Mini FT Edge 540 here: https://forum.flitetest.com/index.php?threads/mini-ft-edge-540-build.57470/

Enjoy.
 

mayan

Legendary member
Hey all,

My name is Mayan, 32 years old but excited like a little kid. Why you ask? Cause I am a hobby newbie, that got hooked on the hobby while looking for something to help me bond with my 5 year old son. Today we took the entire family to fly for the first our first RC plane (FT Simple Cub 4 channel).

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It all started out with balsa wood gliders and a lot of them, that we built, broke and lost. Small ones, big ones but they all had one problem you couldn’t control them. You either threw or catapulted them and depending on the throw and wind conditions it would either crash immediately or glide through the air like a bird for a few seconds.

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REMOVED MEDIA

Gotten hooked I wanted more, more fun, more of something to do with my son. So I started looking around for RC plane models that I could build out of balsa wood. I found a few models that looked simple but after taking a second look they didn’t look so simple after all. Considering I have no knowledge, experience or someone to guide me threw the process. I was determined and kept looking, and that’s when I came across Flite Test and your amazing work. I found the Simple Cub build video and was determined to build that model as a first time RC plane to fly. I build the plane three times from scratch until I decided I was ready to add the electronics and try flying it with the family.

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REMOVED MEDIA

As said before today is the day. Will we fly or will we fall? One way or the other am sure we’ll have fun. So we packed our small car with every plane that we ever built (paper planes, balsa wood planes and the Simple Cubs, and went to fly in the only place I thought could fit, all the while we were on the way to visit my Gramps.

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Even got my wife to give it a go

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Let me sum up the day. I’ll start off by saying that I personally had a lot of fun and hope that the family did too. To answer the question that still remains did we succeed to fly RC well I’ll let you find out by yourself.

REMOVED MEDIA

I am not quite sure what went wrong and why I couldn’t get it to leave the ground. Although I am betting on one of two options or both:
It didn’t have enough elevation
It didn’t have enough motor power since I used a EMax BL2215 motor instead of a EMax GT2215 motor.
One way or the other after endless tries that all seemed to have failed I ended smashing the power pack up to a point that it can’t be used any more. Even the field hacks didn’t help any more.

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We called it day and went to eat dinner at Gramp’s and now 8 hours later we are on the way home some awake and some sleeping.

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Planning to give it another go two weeks from now so mean time any suggestions as to why we couldn’t get it off the ground would be very well appreciated. Till next time.

Mayan a Hobby Newbie.
Remember this post? Today I went back to that exact same location.
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Why? This place has an open view of the valley hidden between the mountains of Jerusalem and is the backyard of where I grew up. This place is also very special to me because it’s where my grandma is buried. Plus I had open business to close with it. And I did! I closed my open business with this place and officially know now that with a little more practice I’ll be able to fly wherever I’d like.


I had another flight after that but when I was coming in for the landing I realized that I was to high and went for another round to try lose altitude and airspeed and that when it happened. The wing hit the top of a tree the plane came down with no damage to the airframe but I did rip one of the ailerons servo connector which made me call it a day.

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Any how we are back home the kids are asleep and I got a sports wing to fix, some GoPro footage of today to edit and an Mini FT Edge 540 to build. Tomorrow is also looking good so plan to go practice takeoffs again with the FT Simple Scout and more general practice with the TT.
 

mayan

Legendary member
What a beautiful place to fly. Looks like a scary place to land!
You got the place figured out prefect :). Was shaking like crazy when coming in for the landing. Hit a rock and there is no way back.
 
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buzzbomb

I know nothing!
I am glad you went back and closed out your business. Personally, I haven't the courage to try to land there in the first place! You weren't kidding about your jigsaw puzzle, either. Wow. My build methods work with the simple stuff. With what you are doing, I definitely see the advantage of spray adhesive!