Red Bull Air Race Challenge!

[mrjdstewart]

Did you use an online calculator that can account for a v-tail when determining the CG?

DamoRC

what? you mean you don't just make this stuff up as you go?

i will be spending some time @ ecalc today for sure. both of us had each done our own calculations and ironically came up with the same number so we were pretty confident. we will see.

when are you maidening yours? can't wait to see how that goes.

laters,

me

 

[DamoRC]

what? you mean you don't just make this stuff up as you go?

i will be spending some time @ ecalc today for sure. both of us had each done our own calculations and ironically came up with the same number so we were pretty confident. we will see.

when are you maidening yours? can't wait to see how that goes.

laters,

me

You'd be surprised how much stuff I make up as I go ! It's the type of approach that leads me to have to ripout three perfectly good EDFs after they have been glued in.

Plan is to throw her up tomorrow morning. Last touches today so at least I have the trophy shots before the foam explosion.

On one hand, I shouldn't be too worried because the Canuck was the same weight and only a little more wing area (and had less thrust). But on the other hand, I am more nervous than usual thinking about launching her.

Any word from the FT folks regarding closing date?

DamoRC

 

[mrjdstewart]

i called and had to leave a message. they are supposed to call back. i'm totally holding my breathe waiting....

i will try again on monday.

me

 

[mrjdstewart]

so, ecalc has me scratching head even more. it says i'm way nose heavy which cannot be. it has my CG at almsot half the root cord. we sat down and did measurements together over the phone, and then put them into the calculator. so, i don't think it's my (our) measurements. something is weird.

anyways, the plane is repaired. i have the CG set at our new agreed upon position, so hopefully we get a better result. we also have (of course) called into question the quality of the hand launch. it was not spectacular upon review. sorry Tom...

crossing finger for tomorrow. gonna be a total scratch built day. hoping for some FT luv!

i will re-maiden the RB Racer, maiden new "Baby" FT Mini P-51, Mini Cruiser, Baby Bugatti, and FT Simple Cub.

we will see.

laters,

me

 

[mrjdstewart]

rain out. no flying until tomorrow.

guess this means i need to find a new project for today, guess this will have to do...

this was sent to Rasterize by Ben to help him do the Thunderbird's skins. He couldn't figure it out so he brought it to me. All i had was a few pics but within 3hrs it was assembled. now i just got to cut it back apart and glue it together.

i will attempt my re-maiden tomorrow but cant wait to hear about DamonRC's maiden today. i really hope he get's it to fly!

laters,

me

 

[DamoRC]

18 seconds worth of good news and the rest is bad.

She flies.

Approx 15 seconds into the flight lost all power and control and she proceeded to glide beautifully into a tree.

What's really disappointing is that she was flying pretty well as demonstrated by her graceful entry into the tree under no power or trim

Some TLC and hot glue will probably get her back together. The rear end came off, nose and nacelles are a little damaged, and there is a crush point on one of the wing leading edges. Cantilever frame seems to be unscathed but I will need to check that more carefully.

I still need to figure out what went wrong. One of the guys lost at quad about 15 minutes before and his system told him he lost it due to interference on 2.4 GHz. My ESCs are telling me post-mortem that they suffered signal loss. Just not sure if it was interference or if it was a power disruption.

As far as the competition entry is concerned I think we are done, that is, our entry will be based on 18 seconds of flight. I can fix her, but unless I get it done in the next day or so I am out of town on-and-off over the next 2-3 weeks so I may not get to fly again until mid-August.

Here she is just before launch. I'll post more pics post-crash later.



DamoRC

 

[Namactual]

See, I told you that would fly.

You will also notice I did not specify for how long.

Seriously though Damo, that thing looks awesome. I can't wait to see some flight footage once you get it fixed up.

 

[DamoRC]

See, I told you that would fly.
You will also notice I did not specify for how long.

Okay - you get off on a technicality

Seriously though Damo, that thing looks awesome. I can't wait to see some flight footage once you get it fixed up.

Thanks!

DamoRC

 

[DamoRC]

Tim's vid is up See - she was actually flying!

DamoRC

 

[Namactual]

Honestly, that would qualify as a flying aircraft if you ask me. It may not have been long, but what was there was stable and the crash had nothing to do with the design.

Take a laptop with you where ever you are going and do the write up on your free time. You have this competition in the bag brother.

No joke.

 

[Namactual]

Oh, I almost forgot the most important part.

Release a set of plans.

 

[DamoRC]

Sure! You want the cantilevered or regular wing?

DamoRC

 

[Namactual]

What you have there is cool. I don't have the fancy carbon fiber tubes, but I will make something work.

I have a truck load of old factory kit EDF's laying about that have been replaced with higher end setup's. I think this would be a fun project to play with.

No hurry on those plans either. I am have one more project I have to finish up yet anyway.

I might just make a custom skin for this too.

 

[mrjdstewart]

ah man! that stinks.

good news is that it does fly and can be resolved hopefully. if so, that thing is a winner! congrats.

awesome work and totally want some plans as well.

me

 

[mrjdstewart]

so, now is the part of the show where i humbly eat some crow.

went out for maiden attempt 2 today and was feeling cautiously optimistic. fired it up, got a good launch, then another immediate roll to the left, nose up, so i cut the power and down she came again. busted firewall and snapped the tail off. total loss at this point. upon post crash review....i had my ailerons reversed.

ah !

i cannot believe that after all this work, all the attention paid, that i somehow missed this. what a dummy i am.

oh well i guess, nothing to be done now and no time like the present to start again. need to have something hopefully ready to fly by wednesday. my partner in crime will be maidening his that day, so it would be nice to get both in the air on the same day. we also had multiple discussions, and he has made several changes to his build based upon my observations. i plan on making these updates on my new one as well and hopefully, cross fingers, get it to fly.

keep building,

me

 

[DamoRC]

Argh - tis the curse of the Red Bull Challenge maidens.

(Please read above in pirate accent).

Sorry to hear that - good luck with the rebuild.

DamoRC

 

[Namactual]

Sorry to hear about the maiden, that sucks. May the maiden gods smile on your next build.

First the canned goods, then the Bull Rider and now Team JD...
You are right D, I think this challenge is cursed.

It does not even have an official deadline.

That's alright though. There are some real sweet builds that resulted from this.

 

[shhhhh!]

Yes,.......still working furiously away down here in my Mom's basement. Like Jason said hope to maiden this Wednesday and beat The Red Bull Curse!! Went out and actually bought some Red Bull too.
shhhhh!

 

[DamoRC]

Quick Update.

Performed some repairs last night and took her out for the re-maiden. Good news is that I got a full flight from her. Bad news is that the repaired plane was no where near as stable as the original build. In fact I crashed shortly after the first launch today but no significant damage was apparent so I threw her up again. Happy that we got some pics of her not flying into a tree.

I won't be rebuilding this. The triple EDF thing and cantilevered wing structure is just too much weight for not enough power. I basically pulled her apart after the flights and you can remove 2 pounds of weight by pulling the 50mm EDFs from the wings and the overly complex and heavy cantilever frame. Instead, over the coming months, I will build two new versions. One will be a twin 50mm EDF with conventional wing attachment and the other will be a 70mm EDF in the tail with a simple CF tube spar to "disconnect" the wings from the fuse. The latter is worth trying because the disconnected silhouette does look kinda cool in the air. Here are some screen captures from the in-flight vid.

DamoRC

 

[shhhhh!]

Yes,Really looked awesome in the air!!!! Well done!!

dave