I'm FLYING!! Well - lucky drifting :) Thank you! - and tip on the wooden booms

[Mamalemond]

Thank you to the various folk who asked questions and made suggestions to get my Dragonfly pentacopter working!

Second photo is the copter - love the colored blades for directional visibility! I left and right sided them rather than back/front.

My wooden boom legs were taking some strong hits on landing, so my husband added plumbing insulation wrap to soften the blow.

Last photos - one of the booms was splitting around the screw attaching it to the electrohub. Again, my husband thought that we drilled the hole too tight and the screw was putting pressure on the wood to split around it when it bumped. So he drilled the hole a little larger and added some glue to keep it together.

 

[Spastickitten]

Glad to hear it! The boom is fine for now, but you might want ot replace it when you can, just to be stronger and safer.

 

[RAM]

congrats.

you could also add a wrap of duct tape on the cracked boom to keep it from getting worse.

 

[tneun]

If you have the time (and the money) for it, just replace the boom. You can better play it safe than that one of your motors/booms start acting strange in the air, that can lead to damage or serious injury

Nicolas

 

[irekkin]

hey there,
this is just my 2 cent worth but as a beginner I've broken more wooden booms then I can count. I've been using these, http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/__80915__Carbon_Fibre_Square_Tube_10_x_10_x_500mm.html , and I haven't had to many problems since. these are stronger then the pultruded type carbon but still easy to cut and drill with common power tools. good luck.

 

[JohnRambozo]

hey there,
this is just my 2 cent worth but as a beginner I've broken more wooden booms then I can count. I've been using these, http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/__80915__Carbon_Fibre_Square_Tube_10_x_10_x_500mm.html , and I haven't had to many problems since. these are stronger then the pultruded type carbon but still easy to cut and drill with common power tools. good luck.

Those look to be just about perfect, irekkin. I found the square dowels I got from home depot were much stronger than the wooden booms from flitetest even though they are the same wood (birch, I think). Since replacing, I've rolled my electrohub probably 10 times at high speed... even knifed it into the ground once and have yet to break the wooden dowels. Of course, mine are as short as they can possibly be on a quad with 6" props.

If they do break again, I'll be replacing with the carbon square tubes.

And Mamalemond, congrats on getting airborne!

 

[Cereal_Killer]

I use wood on all my builds but my 830 quad and tarot 680pro. I have the local mill rip 1/2" square rods from white oak. NEVER have I completely broke an arm or landing leg, only cracked a couple of them in 2 years of using the same wood.

One thing I'll mention is, going from 1/2 inch to 10mm arms is a large size decrease. The upper and lower plates will be very close together so if you're running gear in there plan on moving everything around.

 

[Mamalemond]

Thanks for the encouragement - I am looking at the square ones on Hobby King - nice!

My husband ordered some round carbon ones on Amazon. I wish they were square but they are larger for all the wires we have in there.

Since there is so much snow on the ground, I am finding that my wooden booms twist making flight a constant yaw correction. The snow has made learning to land so much easier and softer! Even though it is cold there must still be a little moisture that is making them twist.

 

[Cereal_Killer]

Oh yea, paint / sealant is REQUIRED with wood booms. On a little 250 maybe not required cause they're so short, but on a big build; some sort of waterproof coating is definitely required!