Mini versions of FT planes

bartholomule

Junior Member
I had a few small motors and speed controllers, so I thought I would try making some scaled-down versions of some of the FT planes. I have played with making a few small self-designed foam planes to get a rough guess of how well the wings would work when scaled down.

The first of the planes that I am scaling down is the FT Old Speedster. I decided on a 47% scale because it was really easy to fit 4 pages of the normal plans on a single sheet of paper at this scale. Since the pod would be too heavy at this scale, I won't be making this version swappable.

Here's my incomplete speedster in the current rough form:
IMG_20140321_220723-small.jpg

It may not be obvious, but due to previous experiments with larger wings on the full-sized Old Fogey and the other mini failures, I increased the wingspan by roughly 26% over a perfectly-scaled version, so that the middle section of the wing is 11.5 inches wide instead of the approximately scaled 9.375 inches.

I threw some weight on there to simulate the weight with the other electronics and gave it a little glide test. It didn't travel as far as I thought it should (too much lift and then stalled; needed some down elevator), but with the final parts and added weight of some mini landing gear it should fly just fine.

It is still a work in progress, but I saw that someone else was experimenting with a 48% bloody wonder, so I thought I would share as well.
 

Tjhogg

Member
looks good at NEF Saturday I had a little talk with someone of the FT crew whom was carrying a mini viggen that david had built and a mini old speedster and it got me thinking about it also
 

bartholomule

Junior Member
I put the canopy, electronics, and control horns on tonight. It sits at 110 grams without the battery or landing gear (which I still need to make).


IMG_20140324_204127.jpg
 

bartholomule

Junior Member
This one is the turnigy 1811 2900kv. I put a 6 amp speed controller in here, so it should be a little close to limits if I put the 6x3 prop on there. I'll put a meter on it to make sure I keep below 5 amps before I run it hard.
 
I'm curious to see how this flies. Getting to a bigger park is a bit of a challenge for me but I manage. There is one close to my house that has a decent sized field for a small slow flyer. I've been thinking of shrinking the Old fogey to see if it would work out there. I'd get a lot more fly time if it did (it's a closer park and that's where the kids prefer to go).

Please post a video of it flying if you're able! it's looking good!

-Jes
 

Jaxx

Posted a thousand or more times
Try the Bloody Wonder with a Blue Wonder motor. It's a great slow flyer.
 
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bartholomule

Junior Member
Sure. I'll have someone film me crashing it with or without the landing gear. We have some wind and rain moving in so if I get in early enough, I may see if I can sneak out with some coworkers to film it in the morning before things pick up.
 

ttprigg

Member
looks good at NEF Saturday I had a little talk with someone of the FT crew whom was carrying a mini viggen that david had built and a mini old speedster and it got me thinking about it also
My son flew the mini old speedster and loved it! Josh said it was 50% scale and he used electronics from a "retired" 'beast'. I just printed plans and made a HK order...
 

Flynn

Member
My son flew the mini old speedster and loved it! Josh said it was 50% scale and he used electronics from a "retired" 'beast'. I just printed plans and made a HK order...

I got a chance to fly that, and I was flying the 100% version that day. They flew exactly the same!
 

bartholomule

Junior Member
I tried to fly mine. With the 5x3 prop, it didn't have enough thrust to combat today's winds. The video my friend recorded is a completely underwhelming 7 seconds of flight before it was blown down when I attempted a turn, so I'll skip posting it until I actually get it in the air properly. The really thin strip of foam between the two halves of the tail did break, so I'll be reinforcing it before I try again with a 6x3.5.