Mighty Mini DR1 Triplane build

FDS

Elite member
I go with at least 60% throttle. At full throttle they go almost straight up, slowly rotating from the motor torque!
If you have too much throttle it will just climb if you correct with the rudder vs just diving with too little.
I have much bigger wheels on my DR1, it’s never landed anyway except straight over onto the nose even with that. They need a super smooth runway to work and the track of the undercarriage is narrow.
Plans say an all up weight of 340g, which I think excludes the battery. You are not far off at all.
All FT planes end up tail heavy to a degree, they have proportionally larger tail surfaces than true scale to help them fly well. My SE5 and DR1 both have the battery right out front. You can move the power pod forward a little too if you need more front weight.
 
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Zetoyoc

Elite member
I maidened my dr1 yesterday and did manage a ground take off but used full throttle to do it and @FDS is right , that full throttle stuff is a quick vertical leap into the air after what seemed like inches of movement on the ground. i quickly cut throttle and recovered but it was an exiting take off. hand launch my be a bit smother :)

-J
 

hiroshiman

Active member
@FDS Cool mate, thanks for the advice. I did not maiden it after all, but it's better this way, I will be more ready for the roll and climb attitude.

@Zetoyoc where is the vid ? :) Congrats! I hope I'll manage to control it like you did. Is your motor a bit light or is it just that you were a bit heavy on throttle ? Any shared experience could prevent me (help at least) from destroying that beauty.
 

Zetoyoc

Elite member
@FDS Cool mate, thanks for the advice. I did not maiden it after all, but it's better this way, I will be more ready for the roll and climb attitude.

@Zetoyoc where is the vid ? :) Congrats! I hope I'll manage to control it like you did. Is your motor a bit light or is it just that you were a bit heavy on throttle ? Any shared experience could prevent me (help at least) from destroying that beauty.

i think the dr1 has plenty of power . let see if i can add the video link here. I dont know if i have any experience to share. other than dual rates might have been nice. i didn't use any and needed to be a bit gentle on the turns. it likes to turn.
 

BATTLEAXE

Legendary member
Using a 3 channel RET will give you a lot of roll on the turns that has to be compensated for to bring it back to level, it also tends to drop altitude if there is to much stick input, especially with a triplane being so top heavy with all the wings up front and high up on the plane. Dihedral helps some with the tip stall, to a point. It is a good idea to use dual rates and the low rates should be slight, like 50-60% of your high rates. if you find you are nervous about it you could set up your low rates at 30% expo and your high rates at 45%, for example, to tame them down some as well
 

Vimana89

Legendary member
Using a 3 channel RET will give you a lot of roll on the turns that has to be compensated for to bring it back to level, it also tends to drop altitude if there is to much stick input, especially with a triplane being so top heavy with all the wings up front and high up on the plane. Dihedral helps some with the tip stall, to a point. It is a good idea to use dual rates and the low rates should be slight, like 50-60% of your high rates. if you find you are nervous about it you could set up your low rates at 30% expo and your high rates at 45%, for example, to tame them down some as well
I honestly haven't messed with dual rate anything, and have been sparing with expo lately. I'm pretty minimalist so far about really tweaking and perfecting my settings, but once I do, I'm sure I'll find a whole new world of stuff. The nose/altitude dip in hard turns is a RET thing called Dutch roll(I've flown a lot of RET, ncluding some very unconventional birds). It's the result of your roll and yaw axis being coupled into one motion by your control scheme and planform(namely the dihedrals). This is necessary to properly fly a RET plane, but can have a few "side effects", like that dip on hard turns. Once you get a feel for it, its pretty predictable and can even be used to your benefit for certain moves.
 

buzzbomb

I know nothing!
@Vimana89 and @BATTLEAXE I have no idea what the heck ya'll are talking about. :) The DR1 flies just like you would expect a plane with three wings to fly. It's twitchy as heck because it's got a short fuse coupled to three lifting surfaces. That's the glory of it!

The FT DR1 has just enough dihedral to make it pretty friendly to a newish pilot. In my experience, you could just throw the sticks around and the plane would do it, to a point. Flying straight and level was a challenge! Start stick-mashing, and she just shines! That's the way the plane is supposed to be. I've said elsewhere that I intend to one day cut ailerons into that pretty little bird. That's going to be a massive game changer!

Meanwhile? She is what she is. What she is, is awesome! :love:
 

Vimana89

Legendary member
@Vimana89 and @BATTLEAXE I have no idea what the heck ya'll are talking about. :) The DR1 flies just like you would expect a plane with three wings to fly. It's twitchy as heck because it's got a short fuse coupled to three lifting surfaces. That's the glory of it!

The FT DR1 has just enough dihedral to make it pretty friendly to a newish pilot. In my experience, you could just throw the sticks around and the plane would do it, to a point. Flying straight and level was a challenge! Start stick-mashing, and she just shines! That's the way the plane is supposed to be. I've said elsewhere that I intend to one day cut ailerons into that pretty little bird. That's going to be a massive game changer!

Meanwhile? She is what she is. What she is, is awesome! :love:
I think you summed it up best(y)
 

Vimana89

Legendary member
You have a routine?
At the best of times, I try. Most of the time it's just seat-of-your-pants flying and experimentation/improv/a little stick mashing thrown in:ROFLMAO:. Either way, stuff like Dutch rolls is not that scary after you've had it happen a couple times.
 

BATTLEAXE

Legendary member
@buzzbomb I still am of the opinion that it would be easier to learn to fly on bank and yank as opposed to RET. I wish I would have gone that direction to start with and not have followed convention to the rudder/elevator option that is promoted by most. Mind you a lot of that influence came from the university of YouTube and the LHS clerks who, from the ones that I have met, take a more old school approach. But that's just my opinion.

By no means was I knocking the DR1, I've never built it or flown it so I don't know. What I was talking about was just an analysis of my experience with biplanes as an RET set up such as the SE5 which is not a far departure from the principle characteristics of the DR1. No need to get the knickers in a knot over it, there was no bad intention towards it. If you built it, flown it and love it, then hats off to you sir. Carry on
 
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BATTLEAXE

Legendary member
At the best of times, I try. Most of the time it's just seat-of-your-pants flying and experimentation/improv/a little stick mashing thrown in:ROFLMAO:. Either way, stuff like Dutch rolls is not that scary after you've had it happen a couple times.
I started out RET and I heard of people talking about Dutch roll and had no idea what it was until I asked, that's when I started to recognize it in my own flying. It's by no means scary once you are used to it, whether you know what its called or not lol