Real talk - how many hours/flights/landings do you get out of your foam board builds?

[Spacefarer]

In my opinion, the flite test designs should be considered as a base for expansion. They will fly, and they will last by themselves for a few years if you take good care of them. However, it's much better to use reinforcements and coatings when you want to really make them last. The limiting factors of flite test designs include the strength of the center wing joint, the strength of the glue that keeps the paper attached to the foam, the strength of various moving parts such as battery hatches, and the environmental resistance of the glue. I have had my master series Corsair begin to split open in the summer due to heating, and my original Simple Scout had to have its wing fixed 4 times. Depending on your available time, you can selectively cover parts that are easily damaged rather than coating everything. Example: edges of exposed foam on the wings. That alone will put your models close to the same durability as other construction methods.

 

[FrankFly]

Hey everyone. I've done a few scratch builds with dollar tree foam. I started with a kit for a FT Sparrow, then build an FT3D, Scout, Bushwacker and a commuter from scratch. I have A and C power packs. The planes have all been really cool, but they don't tend to last very long. The scout lasted almost a year, but I finished the bushwacker about a month ago, the first thing to go on all my aircraft has been the landing gear, and the bushwacker, although it seems like its a more robust landing gear, its started to bend and collapse on landings after about maybe 20 landings. I'm wondering if its just me or if everyones scratch builds last a similar amount of time. I have no experience with factory built airplanes but I have to assume airplanes from horizon and other manufacturers last longer?

My first FT build, a Tiny Trainer, has been at it for about 15 months now. It's been crashed in just about any way possible. Plenty of frontal or wing impacts into rocks, asphalt and trees. The wing has folded in flight, fuselage broken behind the wing and in front of the empennage. Servos have pulled loose and the foam board they are glued to so spongy it's like a washcloth. It's got so many coffee stirrers, popsicle sticks, glue and strapping tape that it's 40% heavier than when I completed it. I recently upgraded it from the A to the F motor and put new life into it. It has over 14 and 1/2 flight hours, which is a whole lot of 5 minute (or less) sorties. Although I've built 8 or more FT plans since, including 2 more Tiny Trainer variations, I still love flying my original.

A Simple Scout variant I've built and crashed spectacularly many times, has been rebuilt twice. Last time only the structure behind the wing was useable, so it got a new wing and front half fuselage. That's its third front.

So to answer your question, they can last forever - or until you get tired of piecing them back together