After discovering Flite Test it gave me the motivation to finish something I've put off for years. I have two five foot fiberglass Helo fuselages - BELL Long Ranger and BELL 222 (with Air Wolf nacelles, but not installed). I have wanted
to convert from Nitro to electric and put them into use. However, costs were prohibitive for me over the years.
Now, technology improvements make it feasible. Surprisingly so in my own mind - I had sort of given up the notion.
I want to make the fuselages a base for Tri-motors in a "T" configuration rather than a "Y".
I would install the third motor with a servo at the end of the tail boom. I did not want to use plain round or square arms
coming out the front of the aircraft so I thought I'd use the wings (modified accordingly for asthetics) from the FT Guinea
with square wood stock for a spar to improve appearance.
The spacing of the motors appears to be workable as I plan this out. I've seen something of 49" spacing between the two front motors just for "plain-Jane basics" - the FT Guinea wings come in around 56" or so tip/tip. I'm thinking that's OK because of my following question.
I have a question regarding the size of motors and props. Biggest is BEST? The fuselages each weigh approximately 1100 grams just by themselves so I would need some power to achieve a good Thrust/Weight ratio, yes? That would mean a
high current ESC and large prop? Forgive me if I'm stating details a bit clumsy <GRIN>. At this point, I could use some direction in selecting the proper electrical package for the motors, etc for this type of configuration.
Andres mentioned Thrust/Weight ratio in a separate message.
I'm wondering if I might not want to take pictures of this project as it unfolds. That just came to mind actually.
I want to try the electric Tri-motor with the fuselage because it's different. It will let me get rid of all the mechanics in the
heli and make things simpler while learning about all this new "techy state of the art" stuff.
I won't be doing any stressful flying, no acrobatics. Just something of a more "low 'n slow, reality flying" where I'm not high in the sky trying to bore holes <GRIN>. I just want to finally see the fuselages fly.
I printed the tiled plans to get the wings. I have them taped together and am getting ready to cut out the wings to glue to poster board. I've got 8 sheets of Dollar store foam board on hand. I even found my hot glue gun and REAL glue sticks, not those "white" ones I've heard about, from "back in the day" and they're still good.
I've got three acres, some pine trees in an upside down "L" shape on the property. I have around a half acre of grass along the left side of the "L". It's a little too rough for airplane operations but I could create a couple of "Heli-Ports" to use for Multi-motors and helicopter ops instead. Well, that's the thinking anyway.
I wish I had discovered Flite Test sooner. It sure got the juices going.
Any comments or helpful info, I'd be grateful for the input.
Howard
Richmond, IN
to convert from Nitro to electric and put them into use. However, costs were prohibitive for me over the years.
Now, technology improvements make it feasible. Surprisingly so in my own mind - I had sort of given up the notion.
I want to make the fuselages a base for Tri-motors in a "T" configuration rather than a "Y".
I would install the third motor with a servo at the end of the tail boom. I did not want to use plain round or square arms
coming out the front of the aircraft so I thought I'd use the wings (modified accordingly for asthetics) from the FT Guinea
with square wood stock for a spar to improve appearance.
The spacing of the motors appears to be workable as I plan this out. I've seen something of 49" spacing between the two front motors just for "plain-Jane basics" - the FT Guinea wings come in around 56" or so tip/tip. I'm thinking that's OK because of my following question.
I have a question regarding the size of motors and props. Biggest is BEST? The fuselages each weigh approximately 1100 grams just by themselves so I would need some power to achieve a good Thrust/Weight ratio, yes? That would mean a
high current ESC and large prop? Forgive me if I'm stating details a bit clumsy <GRIN>. At this point, I could use some direction in selecting the proper electrical package for the motors, etc for this type of configuration.
Andres mentioned Thrust/Weight ratio in a separate message.
I'm wondering if I might not want to take pictures of this project as it unfolds. That just came to mind actually.
I want to try the electric Tri-motor with the fuselage because it's different. It will let me get rid of all the mechanics in the
heli and make things simpler while learning about all this new "techy state of the art" stuff.
I won't be doing any stressful flying, no acrobatics. Just something of a more "low 'n slow, reality flying" where I'm not high in the sky trying to bore holes <GRIN>. I just want to finally see the fuselages fly.
I printed the tiled plans to get the wings. I have them taped together and am getting ready to cut out the wings to glue to poster board. I've got 8 sheets of Dollar store foam board on hand. I even found my hot glue gun and REAL glue sticks, not those "white" ones I've heard about, from "back in the day" and they're still good.
I've got three acres, some pine trees in an upside down "L" shape on the property. I have around a half acre of grass along the left side of the "L". It's a little too rough for airplane operations but I could create a couple of "Heli-Ports" to use for Multi-motors and helicopter ops instead. Well, that's the thinking anyway.
I wish I had discovered Flite Test sooner. It sure got the juices going.
Any comments or helpful info, I'd be grateful for the input.
Howard
Richmond, IN
