MS Composit Mini Swift build

needhame

Junior Member
Thanks.

I finally had a chance to fly friday afternoon. It flew well. It is very fast yet you can cut the throttle and glide it too. Due to the wind I wasn't able to trim it out but I don't think it will need much. It seems to be pretty close with the elevons inline with the top edge of the wing. Every landing was a bit of a crash due to the wind, my unfamiliarity with the plane and needing to adjust the expo a bit more. The plane wasn't damaged from the impacts with the ground. I did however run it into a chainlink fence. At the time I couldn't judge how close I was to it since I was pretty far away. Interestingly the only damage was in the area where the elevons meet the wing in the middle closest to the motor. Cracks developed from there toward the front of the wing. See red lines in attached photo. I could have kept flying it but decided to wait until I had a chance to make repairs to avoid more serious damage. I don't have any carbon fiber strips around and I didn't want to buy any just for this project so I embedded some BBQ skewers in the area. They are very light and strong so we will see how that works out. I look forward to a calmer day so I can dial it in. I can tell that this thing is going to be a blast to fly but the wind has a significant impact on flight.

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MototechRyan

Wannabe Jedi
Just finished up my build. Well finished the LOS version. Figured I'd fly some LOS with her before adding all the fpv equipment.

Parts:
-Emax 2204 2300kv from the FT power pack E
-Emax 12a esc from the FT power pack E
-Gemfan 5030 abs prop (been looking forward to a build to destroy these crappy props on;))
-Frsky X6R rx (came with my X9e tx, been looking forward to using it for something)
-HXT900 9g servos

As seen below, 219 grams so far with a 1000mah 3s nanotech. Staying under the 250gram limit with fpv equipment installed is looking pretty doable.

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Used Loctite brand industrial CA glue for assembly. Found sanding the surfaces to be glued with 400 grit sandpaper first worked wonders with adhesion to the epp. Plan to replace the Scotch brand filament tape asap. It no stick so well.

Hoping to maiden this coming week. Will let yall know how it goes:)
 

needhame

Junior Member
Looks great. Let us know if you find some tape that sticks. I had the same issue and from what I have seen on the web, it is the EPP foam that doesn't let the tape stick rather than the tape not being good. I used 3M tape and it wouldn't stick well either. It looks like a lot of people are glueing the edges down which is what I did and it works well. I have seen it glued down with CA / kicker and also with hot glue. I used hot glue which works well, you just have to be careful to not transfer too much heat or the tape will curl up a bit. There are some videos on youtube showing the process.

The FT store has an FPV set up for $55 that only weighs 4.5 grams so you won't have any issue with getting the FPV gear on there and still be under 250 grams. They are out of stock and have been for like a week since they released their video on it.

I have been flying mine every chance I get. I love it. It is a bit floppy though. The turnigy bonsai which is very similar comes with carbon fiber strip already installed for rigidity. I have read about other people adding this to a wing. It supposedly helps with performance. I have started to do this to mine. I put one piece across the wing in a place where it will cover as much of the wing as possible. I put it on top so I wouldn't have to redo all the wiring below. I plan to add two more smaller pieces near the wing tips to stiffen that area(see red lines in picture). Just the one piece has made a big difference in how stiff the wing is. I will let you know if I notice any performance difference. Even if there isn't a noticeable performance difference, I feel better about it not being so flimsy.

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andrej

Member
I have one elevon slightly bent. Do I need to align the wing console itself or the elevon itself? the wing itself seems to be even, if you attach a ruler to it ...

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