Mighty mini arrow

Swagg93mixon

Active member
Hi everyone I’m Bradley mixon first time posting on a thread ever. I’ve been watching flight test for about 6 months now and it has inspired me to get into the hobby of flying RC planes my first purchase was a electric brushless carbon cub s rtf from horizon hobby and even tho it was my first time flying EVER all the tips and tricks offered from flight test have helped me to learn to fly in a matter of a couple of months. I live in south Mississippi so the weather is a lot nicer here even during the winter since then I have decided to try building so I ordered a flight test speed build kit for the mighty mini arrow I got to building right away and it took me a couple of days to get it all done. I took my time because I wanted it to look good for my first one. And now I have the almost finished product I’ll attach pictures below. But most importantly I wanted to thank flight test for making it possible for me to get into this hobby and find something I enjoy doing thank you to all of you there I love your content
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mach1 rc

Master member
Hi everyone I’m Bradley mixon first time posting on a thread ever. I’ve been watching flight test for about 6 months now and it has inspired me to get into the hobby of flying RC planes my first purchase was a electric brushless carbon cub s rtf from horizon hobby and even tho it was my first time flying EVER all the tips and tricks offered from flight test have helped me to learn to fly in a matter of a couple of months. I live in south Mississippi so the weather is a lot nicer here even during the winter since then I have decided to try building so I ordered a flight test speed build kit for the mighty mini arrow I got to building right away and it took me a couple of days to get it all done. I took my time because I wanted it to look good for my first one. And now I have the almost finished product I’ll attach pictures below. But most importantly I wanted to thank flight test for making it possible for me to get into this hobby and find something I enjoy doing thank you to all of you there I love your content View attachment 151409 View attachment 151408
The mini arrow is awesome plane(one of my favorites) I would love to see your first flight on a scratch built plane
 

mrjdstewart

Legendary member
good job.

i LOVE the arrow. it is a super easy build, it is easy to fly, and depending upon your setup can be mild to stupid fun/fast!

now that you have built it once from the kit, download the free plans and find a dollar store. if you crash and total the wing, you can rebuild for $2.

laters,

me :cool:
 

KSP_CPA

Well-known member
The Arrow was the first plane I got to fly well, and that thing can take a beating. I had a nose first lithobreak maneuver which tore mine in two on the maiden. A paint stirrer and new nose section and it flew like a danged dream.
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Swagg93mixon

Active member
good job.

i LOVE the arrow. it is a super easy build, it is easy to fly, and depending upon your setup can be mild to stupid fun/fast!

now that you have built it once from the kit, download the free plans and find a dollar store. if you crash and total the wing, you can rebuild for $2.

laters,

me :cool:
Believe it or not that’s is what I am currently doing atm! However the only foam I could find was about half the thickness of the ft foam so I doubled it up and am building a bit more durable version this time around. What is the cheapest foam that’s 55mm anyone has found? Or would the ft foam be just as cheap?
 

MorningViewFPV

Active member
Believe it or not that’s is what I am currently doing atm! However the only foam I could find was about half the thickness of the ft foam so I doubled it up and am building a bit more durable version this time around. What is the cheapest foam that’s 55mm anyone has found? Or would the ft foam be just as cheap?
doesn';t southern Mississippi have dollar tree?
 

IdoAllMyOwnStunts

Elite member
We do but the foam was smaller then 55mm our dollar stores didn’t carry the 55mm however I did find some at wallmart. But I didn’t like the paper on the foam so I ended up getting some flight test foam and now I’m currently working on a mini f-22 raptor.

The small foam will work just fine, that’s all my dollar tree carries, I’m building a 180mph mini arrow right now and the foam holds up well.
 

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BATTLEAXE

Legendary member
The small foam will work just fine, that’s all my dollar tree carries, I’m building a 180mph mini arrow right now and the foam holds up well.
Wow 180MPH! that's a tall order for a mini arrow. I am sure it could be done but the fastest I have heard just one FB plane fly 180 and that was Ben on a speed vtail twin on 8s. Do you have a build thread on it?
 

IdoAllMyOwnStunts

Elite member
Wow 180MPH! that's a tall order for a mini arrow. I am sure it could be done but the fastest I have heard just one FB plane fly 180 and that was Ben on a speed vtail twin on 8s. Do you have a build thread on it?
Dang 8s is getting up there. I’m gonna get a thread started soon, plane is halfway threw build process; waiting on ESC to come. It’s gonna be a chore to see if it will do 180mph, I’ll post the thread sometime next week so you can keep up on the progress. It should be pushing about 1100 watts when completed.
 

BATTLEAXE

Legendary member
Dang 8s is getting up there. I’m gonna get a thread started soon, plane is halfway threw build process; waiting on ESC to come. It’s gonna be a chore to see if it will do 180mph, I’ll post the thread sometime next week so you can keep up on the progress. It should be pushing about 1100 watts when completed.
Definitely interested. Keep me posted. I am kind of a speed guy to with some decent speed ideas but lacking the gear yet. I could ask a bunch of questions but I don't want to hijack this thread
 

IdoAllMyOwnStunts

Elite member
Definitely interested. Keep me posted. I am kind of a speed guy to with some decent speed ideas but lacking the gear yet. I could ask a bunch of questions but I don't want to hijack this thread
Any questions you got you can always PM me or ask them in the speed thread once I get it posted😎
 

KSP_CPA

Well-known member
The small foam will work just fine, that’s all my dollar tree carries, I’m building a 180mph mini arrow right now and the foam holds up well.

I think you can determine the pressure in PSI which must be sustained by the foam-board. It should be pressure = .5 * Drag coefficient * density of air * velocity of air^squared. All of this is in metric, so I have to convert it to/from Freedom units

The drag co-efficient is a crap shoot, lets assume it's like twice that perfect half-body of .09 or .18. Density of air at sea level is 1.25kg^3. 180mph is 80.46 meters per second. So....

.5 * .18 * 1.25kg^Cubic Meter * 80.46^2 is 728 newtons per square meter converted to PSI is .10

The wing area on an FT Mini Arrow is 257.7 square inches so it would need to support about 27 total pounds of pressure over the entire air frame.

I don't know what the tensile, compression, and flexural strength of foam board and hot glue is but I would say you wouldn't overstress it due to velocity alone. Now, blowing out control surfaces and servos it if you are going straight and level at 180mph and pull into a straight vertical due to g-loading... that's another story...
 

IdoAllMyOwnStunts

Elite member
At anything over 100, you should be seriously doing something to prevent control surface flutter, particularly on the ailerons/elevons. Having a plane go POOFH isn't much fun
Well didn’t have any flutter, the mini arrow got up to 153 Mph with a 4x4.5 prop and a 6 cell, AUW is 17.7 ounces with the GPS speedometer. $98 in total for all the parts, motor comes down cool to the touch. Fastest I’ve ever made foam board go😎
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Badassius

New member
Made my 3rd arrow. This one is blue foam and corrugated plastic spars. Best little wing for a backyard flyer. Slow or fast, it does it all. Modified this one to fit gear better. The original is too darn skinny.
 

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Keno

Well-known member
Been working on this one for awhile. Time spent of the printed fuselage, it is enlarged to two inch width and a little more room for 9g servos. We finish her off shortly. Fly safe..
6/17/2020 thing is on Thingiverse as FT Arrow Print Fuselage it is based on its original design appearance with a added spring battery hatch system
 

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