My First Frankenplane

[Ketchup]

In a small town in California, a young boy is currently working on his latest experiment. He has found parts of many failed aircraft in his closet, and he is uniting them to create “The Frankenplane”. Wait.... If you listen closely, you might be able to hear him working. “It’s alive!” “It’s alive!”

I don’t think I have to explain what I am doing, but if you didn’t catch any of those hints, I am basically just making a plane out of the stuff that I found in my closet.

 

[Merv]

Looking good

 

[Ketchup]

Looking good

Thanks!
I just finished installing the elevator servo, so the only thing left for me to do is adding the rest of the electronics and flying it. I did have to cut a big hole in the side of the plane, but it is only cosmetic and I don’t think it will change the handling too much.

 

[d8veh]

That'll probably work, but if you do it again, it would be easier to cut a rectangular hole and mount the servo horizontally with the arm and top of the servo on the outside. Alternatively, you can glue the servo to the inside, like you have, but with the arm pointing inboard. Then, you only need to cut a slot on for the push-rod to come through the side of the fuselage. If you look at the build videos for the Simple Scout or Sportsters, you can see how Flitetest do that.

Also, as a general rule, you should aim for the hole in the horn on the control surface to be directly over the hinge line. Your elevator one looks to be quite far forward, but it may be just how it looks in the photo.

 

[Ketchup]

That'll probably work, but if you do it again, it would be easier to cut a rectangular hole and mount the servo horizontally with the arm and top of the servo on the outside. Alternatively, you can glue the servo to the inside, like you have, but with the arm pointing inboard. Then, you only need to cut a slot on for the push-rod to come through the side of the fuselage. If you look at the build videos for the Simple Scout or Sportsters, you can see how Flitetest do that.

Also, as a general rule, you should aim for the hole in the horn on the control surface to be directly over the hinge line. Your elevator one looks to be quite far forward, but it may be just how it looks in the photo.

Thanks for the tip on placing the control horn, I will make sure to do that next time. As for the servo placement though, I would normally place the servo horizontally or with the arm pointing inboard, but I was going for the easiest option, and I also wanted to try a new method of servo placement.

 

[DamoRC]

In a small town in California, a young boy is currently working on his latest experiment. He has found parts of many failed aircraft in his closet, and he is uniting them to create “The Frankenplane”. Wait.... If you listen closely, you might be able to hear him working. “It’s alive!” “It’s alive!”

I don’t think I have to explain what I am doing, but if you didn’t catch any of those hints, I am basically just making a plane out of the stuff that I found in my closet.

So we'll see this thing at Baylands soon?

DamoRC

 

[Ketchup]

So we'll see this thing at Baylands soon?

DamoRC

I think so... Just have to get my transmitter fixed.

 

[Ketchup]

I just got my transmitter back from Spektrum, so I decided to resume work on my plane. It took me a while to go back to building because of what I call “couch potato syndrome”, but @DamoRC (kinda) helped me recover. I am almost done with the plane and all I have to do now is find a place for the battery and find a way to keep it in place.
Here are the pictures of the motor mount:

And here is the almost completed plane (I will be leaving the top open since I might have to change this plane a lot over the next few weeks, and also because of “couch potato syndrome”):

 

[Ketchup]

I got the battery to fit in the plane and I also finished with the electronics (receiver), so I will hopefully be doing the maiden tomorrow.

 

[Ketchup]

The plane flew! On the maiden it was a bit tail heavy, but on the second flight it was almost balanced. I might cover the top of the plane and make a hatch soon because the plane feels fairly powerful and capable of some aerobatics and I don’t want the esc to fall out.

 

[DamoRC]

Nice work young man!

 

[Ketchup]

Nice work young man!

Thanks!
Also, here is the video (my first YouTube video YAY!!)

 

[Grifflyer]

Nice job that flies very well!!

 

[OliverW]

Is this bire still around

 

[Ketchup]

Is this bire still around

It actually crashed a couple weeks ago and the tail snapped off. I used the electronics to build a trainer for my dad though, so it was worth it.

 

[OliverW]

It actually crashed a couple weeks ago and the tail snapped off. I used the electronics to build a trainer for my dad though, so it was worth it.

That sucks that it crashed. But hey at least your dad got flying!