Scratch builds, material failures, stress testing and the general disorder in my life

Stress Test

Well-known member
I needed a single thread to dump stuff in. It may ramble a bit, but then so do I.

I'm Stress Test, a.k.a. Marc and this will record the scratch builds and my other rc stuff. I'm really new with a total of 3 minutes flight time and 5 crashes. I have a lot of trees on my property, and they tend to step out in front of my aircraft. Luckily a neighbor told me I could use his field, 20 to 30 clear acres. I hope to improve my flight time to crash ratio. :p

And in the name of more flight time here is a trainer I am building. Its a Flite Test Mini Scout. The original kit died when I was getting it out of a cedar tree. I did make patterns from it though and this one is built of Dollar General Foam. I pulled the parts out of the original which was built with a Power Pak.

Tonight I taped it off and put a single light coat of red paint over it. A 4 channel receiver is due in Saturday. I have 2 batteries and the servos are in it. It will be next week before I get to maiden it and trim another tree.

second_trainer.jpg


I also printed off and taped together a 3 view pdf for my scratch build winter project. With a 1440 mm wing span its the biggest I will have tried to build. If you recognize it I'll take that as a good sign. :)
 

Stress Test

Well-known member
Um, about dodging and taunting trees..

I started with FPV Blade Inductrix, you will notice the trees in the video, those are the same ones I have been dodging with a plane....

Happiness is your parts coming in a day early. My receiver came in today so I put it together and this was tidier than the first build. Then I glued the bottom up.

neat_wiring.jpg


Its a bit over powered with a 2205 2300kv motor and a 450mAh battery. I also have to slide the battery back to get it to balance.

450_battery.jpg


I will maiden it Sunday or Monday, weather permitting, in the field, the big field, I post pics of the result, good or bad... :)
 

PsyBorg

Wake up! Time to fly!
Um, about dodging and taunting trees..

I started with FPV Blade Inductrix, you will notice the trees in the video, those are the same ones I have been dodging with a plane....

Happiness is your parts coming in a day early. My receiver came in today so I put it together and this was tidier than the first build. Then I glued the bottom up.



Its a bit over powered with a 2205 2300kv motor and a 450mAh battery. I also have to slide the battery back to get it to balance.



I will maiden it Sunday or Monday, weather permitting, in the field, the big field, I post pics of the result, good or bad... :)

Holy screen door batman. Did you put that screen over yours whoop camera to keep the bugs off the windshield? I have never see screen door effect that bad.
 

Stress Test

Well-known member
Holy screen door batman. Did you put that screen over yours whoop camera to keep the bugs off the windshield? I have never see screen door effect that bad.

I was shooting the video with my cell phone pointed at the FPV heads up without the focusing part. Its not like that when you are looking at it.

Got home late last night, cleaned up the workspace a bit today. Got tired of cleaning. Its rainy and windy out.

Once I got tired of cleaning and shopping and getting ready for work I cut out another Scout. I had already traced it. I traced 3 complete models. I hope it dont need it soon but I figure I might get a head start.

workspace.jpg


And it fits together pretty good. I'll finish it this week. Fuselage is glued

version 3.jpg
 

Seahunter

Active member
I was shooting the video with my cell phone pointed at the FPV heads up without the focusing part. Its not like that when you are looking at it.

Got home late last night, cleaned up the workspace a bit today. Got tired of cleaning. Its rainy and windy out.

Once I got tired of cleaning and shopping and getting ready for work I cut out another Scout. I had already traced it. I traced 3 complete models. I hope it dont need it soon but I figure I might get a head start.

View attachment 181337

And it fits together pretty good. I'll finish it this week. Fuselage is glued:)

View attachment 181338

I wish I had a workbench this neat to do my projects on. I'm such a klutz that my messy habits keep mine to where I can't find tools as I need them. I spend more time looking for my tools than I do actually working on my build. Nice job, keep your posts coming!
 

The Hangar

Fly harder!
Mentor
I wish I had a workbench this neat to do my projects on. I'm such a klutz that my messy habits keep mine to where I can't find tools as I need them. I spend more time looking for my tools than I do actually working on my build. Nice job, keep your posts coming!
Haha, same!
 

Stress Test

Well-known member
Um, well, you might not notice I didn't post a before pic, and now "A clean workbench for once in my life" can be scratched off my bucket list.

I might not have mention 2 to 3 hours sorting and cleaning in general. I rearranged things off that top shelf as a safe place to put my planes.

Today I stopped at Hobby Lobby and found some round polystyrene I am going to play with for hinges, not tonight ,but soon.

Someone else (here) mentioned a number 11 exacto knife, I picked one up with spare blades too.
 

Stress Test

Well-known member
The hanger shelf has another air frame. Since its a backup I went with glue reinforced hinges. The P-51 is a FliteTest kit. It has no guts. I need to learn to fly before I try it.

hanger.jpg


To fly the Scout I need charged batteries. Of all the plugs that came with my charger it doesn't have an XT-30. I charge them with a couple of probes shoved in the connector but decided I needed a real adapter.

connector-1.jpg


The XT-30 with the misaligned pin came from the factory that way. I DID NOT melt the snot out of it and learn I needed the other half to hold the pins straight, and not to use so much heat. That's my story and I'm sticking to it..... :p

I also wouldn't have noticed two extra wires in the bundle that I could have put the plug straight on. I am observant that way. :confused:

Now that I have those misconceptions out of the way here is the finished adapter. I can now safely charge my batteries! :)

connector-2.jpg
 

The Hangar

Fly harder!
Mentor
The hanger shelf has another air frame. Since its a backup I went with glue reinforced hinges. The P-51 is a FliteTest kit. It has no guts. I need to learn to fly before I try it.

View attachment 181507

To fly the Scout I need charged batteries. Of all the plugs that came with my charger it doesn't have an XT-30. I charge them with a couple of probes shoved in the connector but decided I needed a real adapter.

View attachment 181508

The XT-30 with the misaligned pin came from the factory that way. I DID NOT melt the snot out of it and learn I needed the other half to hold the pins straight, and not to use so much heat. That's my story and I'm sticking to it..... :p

I also wouldn't have noticed two extra wires in the bundle that I could have put the plug straight on. I am observant that way. :confused:

Now that I have those misconceptions out of the way here is the finished adapter. I can now safely charge my batteries! :)

View attachment 181509
Don't worry - we've all done that kind of thing before... ;)
 

Stress Test

Well-known member
Life got in the way of the important things.

I just got on the forum for the first time in a couple of days.

I was about to explore the forum looking for my next plans / build since its windy / rainy / dark out. I'm going to charge 2 batteries in the hope tomorrow I can maiden the Scout!

Mini sized, 3 channel, suggestions and possibly links are welcome! I'll be wandering about the many corridors of the forum for a while.
 

Stress Test

Well-known member
Decided to do the Corsair again. Printed off fresh plans and the Exacto #11 makes the tight cuts very easy. With the experience I've gotten I hope this one comes out nice.
 

Stress Test

Well-known member
Maiden flight of my scratch built Mini Scout!

maiden_flight.png


Went fairly good. Landed on purpose without damage once, then the wind picked up, and gusts.

:(

Smacked / cartwheeled into the ground twice, then hit a branch when a gust caught it and nose dived into the ground.

damage_02.jpg


It messed the front of the plane up. Its easily fixable, the prop is toast. I should have stopped when the wind picked up with gusts.

damage_01.jpg


Oh well, it was still fun! :D I managed 2 loops, on purpose even! It seems to turn left easier than right. I'll work on the settings. I had them limited pretty far to limit the sudden changes until I build some muscle memory.

OH! And I found some 1/8 inch foam at Hobby Lobby, I'm going to use it on the Corsair. So the tiled plans you see in the picture above will have to be adjusted a little for thickness. I am going to try to lighten up the airframe. I have all the guts /linkages etc except a receiver.