My first RC plane! FT flyer
- Thread starter Scratch
- Start date
Hey, we all make mistakes on our builds. I was building David's Tricopter and he said to epoxy the wires on the DT750 motors to keep them from premature failure. I got a little careless with the epoxy on one of the motors and glued the rotor to the stator, which kind of defeats the whole purpose of the motor.
Anyway, after getting the motor apart, I was able to use a dremel to grind the epoxy off the magnets and everything. It appears to run fine now.
Anyway, after getting the motor apart, I was able to use a dremel to grind the epoxy off the magnets and everything. It appears to run fine now.
Stradawhovious
"That guy"
Sawheeeeet! Maiden it yet? Im looking forward to seeing it in action.
I firmly believe that there is no better trainer than an ft flyer. I you crash it, spend a dollar and build another.
I firmly believe that there is no better trainer than an ft flyer. I you crash it, spend a dollar and build another.
Scratch
New member
No maiden yet, still have some work to do.
Question 1. Those little green plastic things in the bag of green props (prop adapters?) there's not a perfect size one for my prop saver that came with the motor. Do I need to drill one out to fit?
Question 2. I need control rod and landing gear wire. Where's the best place locally to get that stuff. I hear the term "piano wire" a lot. Where do I get that, like a Marshals craft store, Home Depot, music store, or gotta be a hobby store. Not a real close hobby store to me.
Question 3. Really more of a "forgot to order issue". I need to get some of those adjustment thingies that go on the servo arms to adjust the control rods. Looks like I might have to find a way to get to a hobby store after all...
That's all I have left to do.
Question 1. Those little green plastic things in the bag of green props (prop adapters?) there's not a perfect size one for my prop saver that came with the motor. Do I need to drill one out to fit?
Question 2. I need control rod and landing gear wire. Where's the best place locally to get that stuff. I hear the term "piano wire" a lot. Where do I get that, like a Marshals craft store, Home Depot, music store, or gotta be a hobby store. Not a real close hobby store to me.
Question 3. Really more of a "forgot to order issue". I need to get some of those adjustment thingies that go on the servo arms to adjust the control rods. Looks like I might have to find a way to get to a hobby store after all...
That's all I have left to do.
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Find the one that is closest. The rubber band of the prop saver will keep it on. That is, if it isn't so loose that it doesn't spring back when you push on one side. There should be slight give when the prop is on. That's what saves the prop when it hits something. But get a bunch of replacement rubber bands. You'll need them.
The local Hobby Shop (RC) stocks wire here. The brand most common is K&S Engineering. But if you don't have a source nearby, you can also order it from Amazon. But it's a bit pricey to order it because they come in 36" lengths.
Yeah, you kind of need those. Unless you have z-bend pliers and a good eye. But as you're just getting started. It's best to have linkage stoppers. I use these.
BTW, I love the FT Flyer.
rcspaceflight
creator of virtual planes
You don't need those adjustable thingies. I never used them. You just have to be careful to make the bends into the wire just right. Sometimes I have to re-bend them or start over and I usually have to use trim to get it just right, but it works.
There are lots of possibilities for control linkages. I actually have a plane where I used 3 different methods for control linkages all on the same plane. When I can I use paper clips. Paper clips only works when the servo is right next to the control horn. You can extend the length you can have with the paper clip method if you add a bamboo skewer to it. Just take a bamboo skewer and glue a paper clip to each end. Marker flags are cheap and I mostly use them for landing gear, I find them too thick for control linkages. But mostly I use MIG welding wire and coffee stirrer straws. The MIG welding wire is the cable, and the coffee stirrer straws is the sleeve that you tape or glue into place. A spool of MIG wire is about $10 but is a lot of wire. You can get it at any place that has welding supplies.
Hub Hobby is a good LHS in Little Canada, MN that's about 25 miles from Hudson, WI. They have all the K&S Engineering music wire and other supplies you'll need. The K&S music wire isn't by the RC stuff in the store though, it's on the other side of the store by the diecast models and train stuff.
LM
LM
JohnRambozo
Posted a thousand or more times
We all make mistakes, especially with that first build. Don't tell anyone but I built my wings inside out on the FT Spitfire. I just went ahead and left them that way but I reinforced the cracks in the wings with hot glue. Hahah.
Can you see the 2 cracks running the length of each wing?
I won't do that again. Every mistake is a chance to learn something. Now lets see that baby in the air!
-Rich
rcspaceflight
creator of virtual planes
Whenever I make a triangle airfoil, I do exactly that. I leave the cracks exposed by folding it over "inside out" and then fill in the gaps with hot glue. If anything you end up with a hot glue spar that way.
JohnRambozo
Posted a thousand or more times
Hot Glue Spar
That's actually a very good point. Maybe I WILL do that again. Thanks for pointing out the benefit of my "mistake."
That's actually a very good point. Maybe I WILL do that again. Thanks for pointing out the benefit of my "mistake."
Scratch
New member
Thanks, I've been there many times, but don't get out much anymore. I just ordered them online and they came in about a week ago. It's all ready to fly, linkages installed, LG on... Ready to go. Just been busy with another event that just got over with.
Hopefully I'll be crashing it... I mean maidening it this week.
rcspaceflight
creator of virtual planes
Last plane I made I put too much polyhedral on the wings. It just wobbles back and forth and is... well.. difficult to control and not fun to fly. I added a flat bottom to the undercambered wing tips but it didn't help. But now I know better for next time. Live and learn.
Coleman
New member
In question 1, I think your talking about the spacers that size your prop to the specific diameter motor shaft on the motor your using?
In any case if there is just a tiny bit of play between prop and motor shaft I wouldn't worry about the spacer much, although any imbalance in the prop might cause annoying vibration to your FPV setup...I'm not flying FPV so perfectly balanced props aren't of paramount importance. You could sand (or drill, like you mentioned) the interior of one down so that it's a proper fit, then when you break your prop just pop out the spacer and re-use it on the new prop.
Thankfully the SF props I'm getting now fit perfectly on the Suppo 2217/7 with no spacer required
In any case if there is just a tiny bit of play between prop and motor shaft I wouldn't worry about the spacer much, although any imbalance in the prop might cause annoying vibration to your FPV setup...I'm not flying FPV so perfectly balanced props aren't of paramount importance. You could sand (or drill, like you mentioned) the interior of one down so that it's a proper fit, then when you break your prop just pop out the spacer and re-use it on the new prop.
Thankfully the SF props I'm getting now fit perfectly on the Suppo 2217/7 with no spacer required
I like hobbylinc, they have pretty good prices, lots of sizes, and ship really fast.
http://www.hobbylinc.com/cgi-bin/s8.cgi?cat_s=R&str_s=piano wire
Those are certainly the easiest and most dialed in way I've found to do it. I've been looking for other ways too, so if you find a good way of doing it, please share. I have only found them from flite test. Where else can you buy them? Do you know? (not that I don't want to support flite test) just may want more than 6 at a time...
