New FT Racer

Hi Folks,

Just completed this one. Added a battery cover/bottom fairing. Have any of you added landing gear? I've seen a couple in my research but what do you suggest?

Cheers,

Adrian


Photo 2015-07-14, 21 14 30cr.jpg Photo 2015-07-14, 21 20 00cr.jpg Photo 2015-07-14, 21 20 55cr.jpg
 

Winglet

Well-known member
That is really beautiful. Nice nice build. Battery hatch is excellent too!

I'm over landing gears for the most part. They are mostly just a pain and cause damage to the airplane and generally just don't work very well.
 

Andre

Fly yes... land no.
Admin
Too pretty ;)

Don't bother with landing gear. Takes away from the fun nature of the plane.
 

Revere

New member
Landing without gear could be described as a controlled crash, everybody needs to be better at crashing right? practice makes you good and a good crash means less damage. A long winded way of saying you don't need the training wheels. ;)
 

T-Richard

Active member
Nice build. I am thinking of building another one myself, I had made one, but a few mistakes were made

Looked ok
2014-01-18-18577.JPG

about 30 sec of flying later, and a 5 minute walk and this is all that was left
2014-01-18-18585.JPG

But yours will likely go much better lol.

Good luck
 
Thanks for the compliments, everyone!

The maiden went absolutely great. I put 3, 2200's through it. It flies like a dream - very, very stable (30% expo) and maneuverable. I mixed in 25% rudder with the ailerons . I think I got around 10 mins per pack and that left the packs at 35%

Learned a few things:
1) I need more elevator authority - I'll adjust the servo.
2) It wants to pull left - I didn't use any thrust angle at all as it is a swappable. This is easily countered.
3) I NEED landing gear - throwing it for launch was scary - a club-member launched for me twice and that went great but my launch was almost a crash. Maybe some sort of catapult....
4) very glad I made the bottom fairing to cover the battery. It looks great in flight.

No maiden video, sorry! Was too shaky/nervous to think to make one.

IMG_7950cr.jpg

Ottawa guys - where do you fly?

Cheers,
Adrian
 

Winglet

Well-known member
I've been thinking about building a Racer for a long time. Think you just pushed me over the edge.:eek:
 

shiitake

Member
This is how I do mine. Its swappable :). I was planning to throw it off after launch (fix it with a servo instead of a rubber band) but not yet done.
2015-07-17 15.05.22.jpg 2015-07-17 15.05.59.jpg 2015-07-17 15.06.48.jpg
Works fine.
 

Stape

Member
That's a sweet looking color scheme man. I wish I was patient enough to make mine look that nice! For landing gear on my next one I plan to install them the same way as the FT Mustang. I built one of those for a buddy and we fly if off of a VERY rough runway with no problems. Tough little setup that looks good and easy to do as long as you do it before you close the wing up. Just my .02.
 

shiitake

Member
Tough little setup that looks good and easy to do as long as you do it before you close the wing up.
I just cut the small wire in after the plane is finished and then glue/tape it.
The forces are towards the fuselage on landings. Did not have any issues on that part (yet).
 
I took the landing gear from my swappable Cub and they slipped right in the slot between the bottom fuselage and wing. I'll use this to test for now. I added a skid to the back too.

IMG_7993cr.jpg

I've been over-hand launching but I find it hard to grip this plane well to throw it, with one hand. The low wing gets in the way.

I'll get the hang of it. :)

Cheers.
 

Kurt0326

Your ADD Care Bear
Mentor
I took the landing gear from my swappable Cub and they slipped right in the slot between the bottom fuselage and wing. I'll use this to test for now. I added a skid to the back too.

View attachment 50683

I've been over-hand launching but I find it hard to grip this plane well to throw it, with one hand. The low wing gets in the way.

I'll get the hang of it. :)

Cheers.

If you really feel the need for gears check out Swappable Landing Gear article by Flying Penguin RC
 

T-Richard

Active member
That is totally fixable. do you repair it?

Sadly the wing broke off taking the fuselage with it, Tho it's fixable it'll never be strong again. The other issue is that the reason it crashed was that I had put a gyro on it since I was a bit of a newb and my gains were backward, needless to say it got unstable fast and that was the end of it. I also had a hot setup that I probably wasn't ready for, Tho I may revisit it.

I glued the plane back together but took out all the electronics and it's been hung on the wall ever since. That was a year ago tho.

I've had many success and some more failure since.
 
Thanks Kurt.

I like those Flying Penguin ones. I think I'll design a 3d Printable set of the wing plugs and post them here if they work out.

Cheers
 
Last edited:
Hello all!

I modeled (in Sketchup) and 3D-printed the Landing gear stays based on the ones built by Flying Penguin. Bending the wire was the hardest part - Piano wire doesn't like to be bent in tight angles but it's strong.

Photo 2015-07-20, 20 55 23cr.jpg


Installed in Wing

Photo 2015-07-21, 20 00 55cr.jpg

Ready for testing

Photo 2015-07-21, 20 09 20cr.jpg


If anyone wants, I'll provide the stl files or upload them to Thingiverse.

Cheers,
Adrian