I'm feeling Bi. Biplane, that is.

[Arcfyre]

@Arcfyre - very nice - I suspect that is your wife on the camera again?

You guessed it! It's finally (occasionally) warm enough here that I can convince her come outside and document my adventures in foam board.

 

[bracesport]

certainly makes a difference with a good camera setup!

 

[RossFPV]

Maiden flight was a resounding success! Here are some pictures of this lovely bird in the air. Flies like a dream. Very power efficient, I flew for 7 minutes on a 2200 3S and ended the trip at 11.6 volts. Can easily get 10 minutes of flight time out of this. I need to rework the landing gear, as it isn't sturdy enough to absorb less-than-perfect impacts on pavement. Videos are uploading as we speak, but here are some pictures:

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Original Post:

Hello everyone!

I have never flown a biplane, and with the recent success of my twin versa, I am now in the mood for something slow and goofy. I've been watching the old build videos and have established that there are basically 4 choices (see the poll). I welcome some feedback from those of you with first hand experience in similar endeavors.

In general, I don't care too much for the minis. I like the larger airplanes (around 1000mm at the small end) simply because they fly better and can handle some wind. However, it doesn't seem that FT has released any "full sized" biplane plans. Of the three mini biplanes, I like the baby blender the most as it is a 4 channel stock and wouldn't need modification to fly with ailerons. I also like that the blender has an actual airfoil wing instead of just a folded piece of foam and I like the rubber banded wings and landing gear.

My other thought would be the modify a simple scout into a simple scout biplane. I know @buzzbomb did something similar, but he used a mini and as I said above, I like the slightly larger planes. I've had great success with the full sized scout, flying off land and water and I am comfortable with that airplane and its handling. My thought would be to drop the lower wing to the bottom of the fuselage, and then add an additional wing in a parasol configuration like a regular biplane. I would also stagger the upper wing forwards a bit for aerodynamic purposes. Question: How would I establish the CG on that new airplane? Base it off the upper or lower wing? Use the stock CG location?

Any feedback is welcome. I also would welcome any community designs for biplanes 1000mm or greater in wingspan. Happy building and flying and thanks for reading.

I understand this is a pretty old post but i am planning on building my own simple scout biplane and was wondering how you had your landing gear mounted and if the top wing was sturdy enough for basic aerobatics. Thanks for any help!