Mikey'sRC abandon SLow Flyer

noah54

Junior Member
Hi guys. I've been working on a build that I saw in this video.
. Unfortatly Mikey dosen't have the plans or the plane. I looked at both of his videos that feature the plane frame by frame and was able to get most of the measurments. Also he listed most of the components in the comment sections. I am however new to the hobby and have had a difficult time. I think I'm getting pretty close but would welcome any thoughts or suggestions. Here's the videos, Thanks!
 
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RAM

Posted a thousand or more times
Mikey perfected that with the FPV V3. Flite test has a build video for it too.
 

Tench745

Master member
Problems I see:
-Looks like your CG is too far aft.
-The tail is sagging forcing the nose down. It is so flexible in fact, that as you give up elevator it is forcing the tail down more making the whole problem worse.
-Your pushrods are not secured anywhere along their length. Without enough support push rods bend leading to two things. 1) When you make an input the control surface doesn't move as far as it should. 2) The control surfaces can move freely by bending the control rods. Long story short, the plane does what it wants, not what you tell it.
-Also, you seem to be launching very nose-high. For something like this I would toss it almost flat, giving it just a little momentum. Too light a toss it will stall, too hard it could nose in or stall.

I would make the tail-fuselage joint stronger and somehow stiffen the tail boom itself so it cannot bend, then use a bit of zip-tie poked into the foam to support the control rod in a couple of places as shown in the FT Flyer build video. https://youtu.be/dce11-4UvlA?t=428
 
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noah54

Junior Member
Good feed back

Very good eye all most exactly what Mikey said in the e-mail he sent me yesterday (cool dude). Saggy tail seems to be the main issue, The push rod is actually a tension cable but since I'm rebuilding I think I will go with a rod. Thanks for the replies I'll post the new flight test tomorrow.
IMG_2136.JPG

or

IMG_2134.JPG
 

planebouncer

Junior Member
This plane of mine died in a fly-away across the lake, a mangled heap

Hi, noah54! I had some fun with my version of that (now deceased ;) )
and this is what mine looked like: slow.jpg
 
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planebouncer

Junior Member
Suggestion

It seems tossing your plane puts it in the air even before it gets sufficient air speed so it stalls and falls out. Try putting on simple wheels and letting it run up to speed (much faster than you could toss it) and let it rise only when the wings begin to pick up the weight, not sooner (as when you toss it). My wheels truly put me out of my grief since it was very awkward to hand toss such a huge plane and gave me radio control right at the moment the wind took hold and I could keep the wings level and pitched up just right. Since then I always put wheels on my planes. BTW, just like you did, I proportioned my plane not from plans but from frame grabs from Mikey's video; glad to know someone solved the no-plans problem the same way I did. I hope you can view my facebook video.
 
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planebouncer

Junior Member
Yee Haw! Finally, success! Looks like a very small field you're flying in. Now you can worry about poking it out of some tree cause it flies now. I hope you keep refining it. Start making the next one so you have no serious gap between flights in case you total this one.