Rest in peace little Scout and welcome to the world Zippy

[mesolost]

Well after bashing it's face into the wall several times, ramming head first into a building and a score board, lawn darting it many times over, flying the wheels off a dozen times, flying the prop off once, holding on a wing with tape and a metal skewer, and cartwheeling on landing several times I think it's about time to retire her. -.- (play taps here)

This isn't an all sad post. Let us welcome "Zippy" to the living world of RC flight! (ya I name my aircraft) You'll see some design liberties I took since this is a 100% scratch built iteration instead of the kit I used for the first one. It's also setup to hold a second 3cell pack for LED's I'll add after I get paid. (may just use the 2cell if they're bright enough) ACK! Blasted sun... SUN! Trees are still. Sorry to cut this short but the sky is calling me. ^_^

 

[mesolost]

BAH! Why does the landing gear always fall off??? -.- On the up side, she flies quite nicely. ^_^ Need to redo the previous elevator/rudder(aileron) mix to a rudder/aileron mix and set some expo on the full rate side of the switch though. =p

Anyone know how to keep the landing gear attached?? Should I do like the FT 3D and rubber band it on some skewers?

 

[xuzme720]

That works great on the planes I use gear on. The rest I just leave it off and belly land....

 

[Craftydan]

The Scout is dead . . . Long live the Scout!!!

Nice build/crash/build cycle Mesolost!

 

[mesolost]

Ya I like the dihedral and under camber for stability so I opted to make a modified scout for aileron training. I think I got em down pretty well so now I'm gonna do some aerobatics training with this guy so I don't break so many props on the FT 3D. =p (broke 2 of 2 I ordered with the initial electronics package)

EDIT: Yes "Scout" is dead so long live Zippy! =p

 

[Winglet]

Sounds like you are having a ton of fun? I haven't had any problems with my Scout's landing gear. I cut the upper landing gear plate out of some 16th inch plywood and very carefully EPOXIED it in place. Never a problem but I haven't crashed it either. Yet.

 

[mesolost]

Best I have at my disposal atm is gorilla glue lt. brown style. I'm still building up my hobby supplies for this sport. If you think the gorilla glue would be better than hot glue then I'll unleash the monkey upon my plane. =p For now I guess I'm back to hand launching. Shame really because I really wanted to do some touch and go's. I'll get some 2 part epoxy from wally world when I go to get yet another glue gun, one that don't force me to waste a half stick of glue every time I use it because there's air pockets in the heat chamber. Think I'm gonna make a stand to hold it tip up so it doesn't leave rabbit droppings as I test fit the next piece.

As far as fun goes I've run out of space to keep all the fun I have. =p All except for landing. -.- Best I can do for landing is a gentle tumble while attempting a belly landing. I think I may need a receiver with built in stabilizer for landing assist, at least for this smaller frame.

 

[Ron B]

use a plastic lid like on shed spread margarine tubs and just set your gun on it then the glue will pop off fairly easily and you are ready to put it away until the next time you need it.

 

[mesolost]

I'm using a wooden cutting board as my work surface so the glue pops off there well enough. It's the uncertain flow I get from having that air cushion in the glue chamber that it messing with me. For the soldering iron and usually for the glue guns as well I have a metal cover salvaged from a TV part I use to shake the excess solder off onto that everything comes off of easily. Just turn sideways and blow and everything flies away. =p

 

[mesolost]

Oh yeah, I also added 2 small glued together pieces of foam between the servos to stop them from playing around so much and if any other scout builders peek at this, the pocket inside the fuselage, above the wing right behind the power pod is a handy spot to wedge in your end pin receiver. ^_^ (look for the red dot marked RX just in front of the cat it's actually a small hole so I can see the RX light in the day time)

I'm hoping that servo shim idea makes it to the FT crew and they can let other new pilots know about this fix because the paper comes off the foam so easily. Personally on this build I removed all the internal paper to save a tiny bit more on weight but I still shimmed the servos for peace of mind. =p

 

[mesolost]

OMG! I broke the motor shaft after hitting a pole attempting something stupid so now my little 2300kv engine is down. (actually I have no idea what kv it is now since I've actually rewound it) So since I've abandon the Scout Bi-plane because I've completely screwed up the weight balance, I stole the motor for the scout. With the same prop and battery as the bipe had it just can't keep it'self up. So just for $#!t$ and giggles I decided to put one of my 10x4.75SF props from my FT3D/Storch on it with one of the 2 cell batteries. DUDE! DUDE! OMFG, DUDE! It flies like a beast and can do near unlimited vertical now! Broke a wire on the ESC so I didn't get a chance to try one of the 3 cell packs on it.

 

[mesolost]

Rest in peace, Zippy. You were well loved. -.-

Airframe lost 5-28-15 : High wind flight, high alpha maneuver, wings folded, spun into the grass from apx 75 feet.

Airframe - FT Scout - Retired - templates in archive.