Schoolgirl biplane DT foam board maiden flight

[BobK]

Wow, she looks awesome, Bob. You did good with the vinyl trim. Not too much because you want to see the cutout work through the covering. It will look cool with the sun shining through the wings. You get sun in MN right?

Haha yes we do, even breaking record high temps today in the mid 40's. Still windy now but it is supposed to drop later on. I still haven't decided if I like the colors but Thanks for the compliments, I've done better lol. Worst part about attempting something new like with the gift wrap covering is to me it looks horrible knowing it should look better, 30 years of covering airplanes and I feel like I am just learning..guess I am.

Please take a photo of the bottom. I'd like the see the details on the landing gear and bottom hatch. I'm always looking for a better way to make landing gear since that part of the airplane takes the most constant abuse. Landing gear is a must here in the desert where large grassy areas are uncommon. I get maiden flight jitters too as evidenced by the Schoolgirl maiden flight video. The first few flights of the early version Ranger did not go well and are still fresh in my mind. Glad I got that design worked out. I'm going to fly the Ranger today with a new, improved fuselage and landing gear design.

With the size I am able to use prefab aluminum LG, this could be made from flat 1/8" aluminum stock on your own, I think thinner aluminum stock could be used on your plane even if it is a bit heavier than what you have, looks like yours could carry some extra weight no problem the way it flies. The LG gear mount is wood and goes from the back of the bottom hatch to the bottom wing TE, I have been buying yard sale sign stakes at Walmart, very inexpensive and nice clean light wood.

When I built the fuse I cut the doublers 3/16" smaller where the landing gear mount and hatch doors go, this creates a shelf for those items to sit against, then I cut the actual hatch doors just a bit large to fit tightly for a friction fit, over time I might have to hinge them but they fit nice for now. The top door isn't attached just flipped up for the pic.

The bottom wing of the Schoolgirl is right where you would want to hold the airplane for a hand launch. It makes hand launching awkward so I've been using my least favorite method of take-off, rise off ground. With all that wing she takes to the air quick.

I don't plan to hand launch, only problem I have is trees on one side and powerlines on the other..or to take off under powerlines so until I know the plane isn't going to bank one way or the other the maiden flight is always a bit of a cold sweat lol.

Your Ranger is a sweet plane, I might have to build that also. I have an old Goldberg Skylane 62 here that I was going to rebuild but it really is a mess..I salvaged it out of a load of garbage. It was built horribly and covered in fabric, probably in the mid 70's so as a rebuilding project it would be a lot of work..maybe a foamboard candidate?

 

[BobK]

My ESC is older than some people on this forum and is not lipo safe, but I know when it is time to land, even my batteries are old

 

[kacknor]

My ESC is older than some people on this forum and is not lipo safe, but I know when it is time to land, even my batteries are old

You Are talking about the plane, right? X2 on sweet job. That will look very nice in the sun, and I think the colors are just fine. I do like the landing gear. Fits the retro look, and much better than just plain wire.

JD

 

[BobK]

You Are talking about the plane, right? X2 on sweet job. That will look very nice in the sun, and I think the colors are just fine. I do like the landing gear. Fits the retro look, and much better than just plain wire.

JD

lol just a bit of outdated equipment. Thanks the plane did turn out pretty good I guess I am my biggest critic on my own work. The gift wrap was a learning experience alright, not happy with some ragged edges but that doesn't make it fly. Next time I use it will be neater.

 

[kacknor]

That it worked at all I think great. Haven't tried covering yet. Heck, I was thrilled to find colored duct tape at Wally World last night!

JD

 

[BobK]

I found red and green packing tape at the dollar store..Xmas leftovers I think. I think what bothers me about the gift wrap is it took me longer to do this plane with it than it did to put regular covering on this one..

 

[BobK]

I am just going to leave this here and walk away lol. After 30 years of flying I have never ever let this mistake get past my checks..one guess at what happened is all you get.

A quick couple of outside shots first.

 

[roversgonemad]

Rudder backwards??

 

[dgrigor02]

Controls were reversed.

 

[BobK]

Yeah lol..ailerons, feeling pretty silly tonight. Spent the whole day checking and double checking, waiting for the wind to die down, then when it was perfect I didn't double check the ailerons. I don't know if they were reversed the whole time since I set the plane up or if I did it when I was messing with some settings earlier today. Oh well, I can't be mad just

 

[TooJung2Die]

Oh no! That sucks. I think just about everyone has made that mistake. I flew my first 4 channel Tiny Trainer at least a half dozen times and never noticed the rudder was reversed until I tried taking off from the ground. If you need to step away from it for awhile I understand. Remember what I said about DTFB airplanes being disposables. I really hope you will repair it and fly it soon.

Today was another perfect flying day. I alternated between the Schoolgirl and the Ranger 30. I was feeling pretty good about figuring out how to do multiple aileron rolls with the Ranger. All it needed was some down elevator to roll like a drill. On the final landing approach of the day I made a typical newbie mistake. I got my directions crossed and banked the Ranger hard into the dirt. The results were similar to your Schoolgirl maiden flight, with the brand new fuselage! I haven't made that mistake in a pretty long time. I keep telling myself, "At least it wasn't balsa". And hour at the workbench and it's as good as new.

Jon

 

[TooJung2Die]

I found red and green packing tape at the dollar store..Xmas leftovers I think. I think what bothers me about the gift wrap is it took me longer to do this plane with it than it did to put regular covering on this one..

That is a very nice covering job. It's beautiful and the complexity is amazing. I can tell you've covered more than a few airplanes. :applause:

Jon

 

[BobK]

Oh no! That sucks. I think just about everyone has made that mistake. I flew my first 4 channel Tiny Trainer at least a half dozen times and never noticed the rudder was reversed until I tried taking off from the ground. If you need to step away from it for awhile I understand. Remember what I said about DTFB airplanes being disposables. I really hope you will repair it and fly it soon.

Crash?! What crash?! Nevermind those crunched pieces lol I can't step away from my own silly mistake, I knew right away what was wrong but too late to correct (my scream though lol). If I would have stayed 3 channel I would have been golden..I was thinking in my head how quickly it reacted on the ground with rudder. Oh well now it has a dent or two to give it character.

Today was another perfect flying day. I alternated between the Schoolgirl and the Ranger 30. I was feeling pretty good about figuring out how to do multiple aileron rolls with the Ranger. All it needed was some down elevator to roll like a drill. On the final landing approach of the day I made a typical newbie mistake. I got my directions crossed and banked the Ranger hard into the dirt. The results were similar to your Schoolgirl maiden flight, with the brand new fuselage! I haven't made that mistake in a pretty long time. I keep telling myself, "At least it wasn't balsa". And hour at the workbench and it's as good as new.

Jon

Dang seems like there was kaos everywhere I am glad it was easy to fix, yeah yeah ok so if it were balsa it would have been harder to fix..I admit it..happy now?

That is a very nice covering job

Thanks yeah it did turn out pretty decent, covering really isn't very hard once you do it a few times. The wings on that one each color was cut to shape then put together on the workbench before adding it to the plane. Now that I messed with this gift wrap it is super easy to put on, I just need to find some more colors to mess with.

 

[TooJung2Die]

Crash?! What crash?! Nevermind those crunched pieces lol I can't step away from my own silly mistake, I knew right away what was wrong but too late to correct (my scream though lol). If I would have stayed 3 channel I would have been golden..I was thinking in my head how quickly it reacted on the ground with rudder. Oh well now it has a dent or two to give it character.

I'm impressed by your restraint. If that was my new airplane the video would have been NSFW due to language. The repair job looks great. I like the nose better without the cutouts. I hope the weather and other responsibilities allow you to get the maiden flight in real soon.

Dang seems like there was kaos everywhere I am glad it was easy to fix, yeah yeah ok so if it were balsa it would have been harder to fix..I admit it..happy now?

I'm happy if you're happy! I was thinking that designing in DTFB is a good way to get the kinks worked out before building the airplane in balsa. I made at least 3 Rangers before I had a good flier and a couple more until I liked the way it looked. If I get the urge to design and build something truly unique in balsa I'll make sure it works in DTFB first.

Jon

 

[Bayboos]

The bottom wing of the Schoolgirl is right where you would want to hold the airplane for a hand launch. It makes hand launching awkward so I've been using my least favorite method of take-off, rise off ground. With all that wing she takes to the air quick.

I know it was posted some time ago, but the thread grows so quickly I missed it on the first glance. If you have problems hand launching from the bottom (and you still don't like taking off from the ground), the biplane configuration gives you one more option: over-the-top launch. Please take a look at the beginning of this video:

I know it's more natural in case of planes like the Baby Blender, but it is possible and quite easy in case of any biplane; especially the one that can fly slow. Good luck, and have fun!

 

[BobK]

I'm impressed by your restraint. If that was my new airplane the video would have been NSFW due to language. The repair job looks great. I like the nose better without the cutouts. I hope the weather and other responsibilities allow you to get the maiden flight in real soon.

Haha I learned two things a long time ago, getting mad doesn't help..and always turn the camera off before the swearing starts Interesting I thought after looking at the crushed nose it looks like the cut-outs acted just like an impact zone on a car, you can see the line on my repair where I cut off the nose..the cut-outs took all the damage and ended there. Not saying the damage would have been worse or better with or without cut-outs..I just thought it was interesting.

I will have another go soon when the weather cooperates, I might try hand launching like in the video. Taking off from the ground doesn't bother me though.

An interesting thing appeared on my workbench last night, I'm pretty convinced it resembles a Ranger wing

 

[dgrigor02]

BobK, At first will do just 3 channel 80% school girl to see how close I can get to 250grams. In the event I'm under and can handle more servos, I suppose ailerons will be more effective on the upper wing since its larger. Do you think it would even be worth the trouble to do control horns linking to some bottom wing ailerons or it that mostly just for pitts and other really aerobatic planes?

 

[BobK]

BobK, At first will do just 3 channel 80% school girl to see how close I can get to 250grams. In the event I'm under and can handle more servos, I suppose ailerons will be more effective on the upper wing since its larger. Do you think it would even be worth the trouble to do control horns linking to some bottom wing ailerons or it that mostly just for pitts and other really aerobatic planes?

I went with the upper wing with the idea they would have the most effect there, as you can see I haven't been able to actually see how they work in the air..well..somewhat..

I honestly can't say if linking to the bottom wing is worth it, I see this plane as being more of a flyer with basic aerobatics. After I see how it flies I can say more about it. I'm not even sure if it really needs ailerons at all, I debated a long time before adding them and really the only reason I did before actually flying it was because of the covering I did, I couldn't really add them later. On a plain white foamboard airplane ailerons could be added anytime after initial flying

 

[Bayboos]

Please take another look on my video added yesterday. The Baby Blender you see there does in fact use 4 flaperons, controlled by two servos (built in the lower wing). It makes a huge difference to use four ailerons; but even greater difference is being able to deploy flaps on all four wings. I believe it's worth trying even when your plane is not very much aerobatic.

 

[TooJung2Die]

I know it was posted some time ago, but the thread grows so quickly I missed it on the first glance. If you have problems hand launching from the bottom (and you still don't like taking off from the ground), the biplane configuration gives you one more option: over-the-top launch.

I know it's more natural in case of planes like the Baby Blender, but it is possible and quite easy in case of any biplane; especially the one that can fly slow. Good luck, and have fun!

Wow!
The Baby Blender looks like a fun airplane. Probably too sporty for me at this point of my learning curve. The Ranger is the sportiest of the three airplanes I have. Every time I take it out I break something. I have no idea how to do 3/4 of the things you did in that video. I'm still practicing figure-eights keeping the same altitude. If it requires coordinating both sticks I'm lost. My left and right brains don't talk.

I'm not sure the Schoolgirl has enough thrust to take off with an over-the-top launch. If I'm feeling bold I'll give it a try. Thanks.