ShrubSmacker Build

BATTLEAXE

Legendary member
Thanks to Grifflyer I had the opportunity to build the Shrubsmacker. I found it to be a simple build, tho I wouldn't suggest it as your first build, given there is no build video for it. Once you have a few under your belt it was easy to put together. And it leaves a lot of room for mods as you see fit. I did quite a few mods just to fit my electronics set up and get CG right, then there were the aesthetics as well. Check it out
SS 3.jpg SS 5.jpg SS 1.jpg SS 2.jpg
Even tho this was modelled after the much larger Storch, I was looking at it as more of a common bush plane. The nose originally tapers to resemble the Storch but I tried to give it mot of a Dehavilland Beaver appeal. I also wanted to try doing some forming of the DTFB instead of just the folding so I added some nose mods. The black sections in the nose I measured the base of the triangles to match the span of the surfaces they were to attach to and pulled the apex to desired length, 3" on the top of the hood and 5" on the sides. Then I pulled the paper off the backside and sanded the edges to a slight bevel to create a formed curve on the back, then on the edge of the work table I formed the pieces to transfer the curve to the front face of the piece leaving the backside flat, then glued into place. In turn this made a rounded nose front instead of being a hard square, creating the effect I was looking to achieve. The red nose front was a simple 1" section which was formed on the table to open accentuate the round nose of a Beaver. Now... I think I was on the right track for what I was looking for but using the different colors of DTFB on this mod made the plane look more like a clown car instead of the Beaver but live and learn. Just lookin to see if I can fly it lol!

I did set this up as a 4 channel as I will use it to help me train for a 4 channel. On the plans there was no set up for any dihedral but I find that it is something that helps me fly for now. I've tried a couple of planes without dihedral and I just don't have the experience to handle none. So I built in the dihedral as you will notice and it worked out great. The large Storch has it and so does the Beaver so there were a lot of reasons for me to add it. As far as the wing goes as well I was at bit of a head scratching moment as far as the ailerons go... they extend the full wing span as opposed to being on the outside half of the wing. Now I could have cut them to just be on the outside half of the wing to keep the roll response more docile and even leaving room for flaps later if I wanted. In doing this I would have had to move the servos further out as well. At the time I was lookin at having to use servo extensions for the wires to reach the center of the wing for the Rx connection. Once I hooked up the Y harness tho I realized I could have gotten away with it because now I have way to much wire in the fuse for the ailerons to hook up. Another learning experience for this guy. Not if, but when I smash the hell out of this wing I will go with my original plan and keep the ailerons to the outer wing half and move the servos out as well. In the meantime I am going to dial down the throws and expo on them to keep them on the milder side for my experience level and beef them up as I need.

Another thing I was Stumbling with was the CG. Most of the build I do end up being naturally nose heavy, a little weight added to the tail section and problem fixed. Not this one. Even tho the CG marks on the plans are placed further back on the wing then I am used to seeing it still came out tail heavy. To tell you the truth I was kinda excited to see how well the 3s 850 mah was going to sit nicely inside the fuse right between the doublers behind the power pod. Tail heavy... huh?! After some strategic moves of the electronics I still had it on the tail heavy side. More head scratching. moved the ESC taped directly underneath the power pod and move the battery as clos to the back of the pod, even tried a vertical placement of the battery to concentrate the weight to the front but it totally blocked off any room for the ESC to pass the throttle wire past the battery. And to get all the electronics in or out turned out to be quite the operation, even just to change a battery was a hassle. And the PP with the ESC taped to the bottom couldn't slide in and out without hitting the bottom plate of the nose. I finally had to do some more surgery STAT. So out came the scalpel and this is what I ended up doing:
SS 4.jpg
Since this has been a proven design to fit the battery under the PP to help balance the plane, this is what I went with. In the pic I haven't moved the ESC yet but it is coming to that. Gonna be a lot easier to change the battery too. I found that the CG will also depend on how you mount the elastic bands to hold the wing down, which worked out to my advantage. if I hooked the bands onto the back skewer and pulled them to the front, the wing would sit more forward on the fuse. If I hooked them on the front skewer and pulled them to the back the wing would sit further back by a half inch. Helped out with moving the CG back to give me a little more nose room to play with.

Over all said and done it was a pleasure to build and wasn't just your run of the mill smash up. I learned a lot from it on the building side, helped to develop more foresight for the issues I had. And inspired me to take a previous design and make some changes to it to make it my own... soon to come to the forum. But that's another post. one thing I was reall impressed with on this Shrubsmacker is how strong the fuse is. as I was building, doing the mods and hacking away at it, the fuse doesn't twist, bend or warp anywhere. As long as you make sure all your joints are 90 degrees this is one solid beast of a mini. Can't wait to fly it. Thx Grifflyer and I look forward to more of your creations
 

Grifflyer

WWII fanatic
AWESOME WORK BATTLEAXE!!!
You did a great job on the build, I love how you did the nose!!

Getting proper CG seems to be an issue for other builds as well, the next beta version will have a slightly longer nose, it will also have the wing with flaps which has the ailerons on the outer portion of the wing.
 

BATTLEAXE

Legendary member
AWESOME WORK BATTLEAXE!!!
You did a great job on the build, I love how you did the nose!!

Getting proper CG seems to be an issue for other builds as well, the next beta version will have a slightly longer nose, it will also have the wing with flaps which has the ailerons on the outer portion of the wing.
I'm so excited that you replied to this man, this is your baby. I tried to do it justice by your plans especially after watching your maiden flight even in the wind you handle your planes so well, very intuitive. My flight experience is super limited at this point and I hope to get to your level at some point. If you have any revisions that come to mind please let me know so I can incorporate them and help you as a 2nd hand beta builder on your team. Thx again for your response and keep in touch. Keep it shiny side up :cool:
 

BATTLEAXE

Legendary member
AWESOME WORK BATTLEAXE!!!
You did a great job on the build, I love how you did the nose!!

Getting proper CG seems to be an issue for other builds as well, the next beta version will have a slightly longer nose, it will also have the wing with flaps which has the ailerons on the outer portion of the wing.
Did you check out the Speedster/SE5 thread I did as well... would really appreciate your feedback on that one too since you are a mini aficionado like myself. Take a look and tell me what you think. Again thank you
 

Grifflyer

WWII fanatic
I'm so excited that you replied to this man, this is your baby. I tried to do it justice by your plans especially after watching your maiden flight even in the wind you handle your planes so well, very intuitive. My flight experience is super limited at this point and I hope to get to your level at some point. If you have any revisions that come to mind please let me know so I can incorporate them and help you as a 2nd hand beta builder on your team. Thx again for your response and keep in touch. Keep it shiny side up :cool:
You could try out the next Fuselage version once I release it later this week, hopefully it will get rid of the tail heavy issue.
 

BATTLEAXE

Legendary member
Here is an update on the Shrubsmacker that Grifflyer designed and caught my attention enough to build... I MAIDENED IT TONIGHT!! Hell yea I did! Prognosis... love it! Thank you Griff, and this is still the first version 4 channel. Why did it take me so long to try it?... wasn't confident in my abilities as a budding pilot to fly it and even if i did manage to keep it in the air longer then 30nseconds it wouldn't be enough time to form an opinion on it. Sweet little high wing bud, and if anyone is considering it, just build it and fly it. You will like it if you like the slow fly, or low level, or tight area, or just want something to fit in the front seat of your car. Acro as a 4 channel was easy, loops, rolls, and I'm sure a knife edge or two would be easy as well. the one thing i liked about it was the glide slope, so smooth. now mine doesn't have flaps but it could be a serious STOL beast if it did. My next version of this plane will have the flaps for sure, really want to try that out.

Now I do have to apologize for the lack of video, my little woman was working tonight so I didn't have my cinematographer on deck to record the action but next time. I highly recommend this little hot rod to anyone. Thx again Griff
 

Grifflyer

WWII fanatic
Here is an update on the Shrubsmacker that Grifflyer designed and caught my attention enough to build... I MAIDENED IT TONIGHT!! Hell yea I did! Prognosis... love it! Thank you Griff, and this is still the first version 4 channel. Why did it take me so long to try it?... wasn't confident in my abilities as a budding pilot to fly it and even if i did manage to keep it in the air longer then 30nseconds it wouldn't be enough time to form an opinion on it. Sweet little high wing bud, and if anyone is considering it, just build it and fly it. You will like it if you like the slow fly, or low level, or tight area, or just want something to fit in the front seat of your car. Acro as a 4 channel was easy, loops, rolls, and I'm sure a knife edge or two would be easy as well. the one thing i liked about it was the glide slope, so smooth. now mine doesn't have flaps but it could be a serious STOL beast if it did. My next version of this plane will have the flaps for sure, really want to try that out.

Now I do have to apologize for the lack of video, my little woman was working tonight so I didn't have my cinematographer on deck to record the action but next time. I highly recommend this little hot rod to anyone. Thx again Griff
Congrats!! I'm glad you like it.
 

BATTLEAXE

Legendary member
Going to add some finalizing pics to this thread. Just for documentation reasons. the more I fly the plane the more beat up it will get and I can also document fixes or changes. I have already maidened this plane and it was a smooth slow flyer to something with more speed and daring acro abilities. @Grifflyer had his maiden vids up and I will post my flight vids when I get some. Enjoy the pics and ask questions if you like.
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BATTLEAXE

Legendary member
I am gonna build one for a 3d event next week. I need to kind of speed build it tho
Actually it does go together quick like, and it is super strong. It might make a good 3D plane... maybe. I would be interested to see how you build that. Make a thread on it. Actually I haven't seen anyone do a mini 3D plane yet... Is that because bigger is better in 3D flyin?
I like the mod you did to the Vstab to make the tail skid stronger.
I looked at it at the time and figured it made the lines flow smoother instead of the cut off skid plate right at the hinge point. Kinda takes away from the Storch look but that's what I was tryin to do anyway. Was goin for more of a bush plane style. I love flyin this thing though. Thx for the designs
 

Yawnsky24

Member
@BATTLEAXE, @Grifflyer thank you for the great design and modifications. Just completed my Shrubsmacker and plan to maiden this weekend. Adams FB with colored packing tape. Came in a little chunky at 291g dry weight but that's likely due to a lot of tape! 6 5g servo's with flaps, 1808 2300kv motor with 20Amp SC. I plan to fly on a 3S 850Mah as that is where it balances. I'll update on the maiden.
 

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Yawnsky24

Member
Gents, I had a brief opportunity to fly this weekend (I was on puppy duty) and it flew great! Had the aileron throws set pretty high so it was pretty wild at high speed but super manageable at low speed. Never went to mid or high rates :eek:. Flaps worked great and really slowed it down. I did not get any video but I will make sure to get some video next time out. Thanks for a great design and teamwork on the mods!

Jan
 

BATTLEAXE

Legendary member
This thread has been dead for a bit so I thought I would update. Awhile ago I was flying this little gem in my back yard, got a couple acres to play with, and I was testing out some receivers. Needless to say the receivers were the wrong format and it was a bad decision to fly with so many trees around, over and over. Anyway I had a loss of signal and the plane glided out of the yard, over the trees, across the ravine, and came to rest in a spruce tree. Now I call this the SpruceSmacker and not Shrubsmacker. It did settle at about 50' up in a heavily wooded area on a steep hill. although it was disappointing at the time to lose all those electronics I eventually got over it and moved onto the standard size planes, the Minis were all but forgotten.

Recently in cleaning up the garage I came across a couple of my other Mini planes and in looking at them I now want my electronics back. Being that today is a windy day, to windy for flying, but windy enough to possibly knock a plane out of a tree, i went for a walk in the ravine. Even though it was so long ago that I lost the plane I managed to hone in on the same tree in the woods where i had lost the plane. I looked up and sure enough i saw it, same tree, just a little further down, lodged in the branches. Now the wing is off and hanging on to the fuse by the servo wires straddling the branch.

In a way this is encouraging to retrieve it because it has made progress on it's own to come back home, but in doing so it is now stuck in a worse predicament then it started. I would like to be able to take some long PVC tubing out there and attach them end to end to reach the branches but I don't think I have anything around that would work. I don't own a ladder that size, which would be a nightmare to get in, and if i got it in, almost impossible to get out. I don't own a shotgun either so that's not an option.

Any suggestions would be helpful.
 

OliverW

Legendary member
This thread has been dead for a bit so I thought I would update. Awhile ago I was flying this little gem in my back yard, got a couple acres to play with, and I was testing out some receivers. Needless to say the receivers were the wrong format and it was a bad decision to fly with so many trees around, over and over. Anyway I had a loss of signal and the plane glided out of the yard, over the trees, across the ravine, and came to rest in a spruce tree. Now I call this the SpruceSmacker and not Shrubsmacker. It did settle at about 50' up in a heavily wooded area on a steep hill. although it was disappointing at the time to lose all those electronics I eventually got over it and moved onto the standard size planes, the Minis were all but forgotten.

Recently in cleaning up the garage I came across a couple of my other Mini planes and in looking at them I now want my electronics back. Being that today is a windy day, to windy for flying, but windy enough to possibly knock a plane out of a tree, i went for a walk in the ravine. Even though it was so long ago that I lost the plane I managed to hone in on the same tree in the woods where i had lost the plane. I looked up and sure enough i saw it, same tree, just a little further down, lodged in the branches. Now the wing is off and hanging on to the fuse by the servo wires straddling the branch.

In a way this is encouraging to retrieve it because it has made progress on it's own to come back home, but in doing so it is now stuck in a worse predicament then it started. I would like to be able to take some long PVC tubing out there and attach them end to end to reach the branches but I don't think I have anything around that would work. I don't own a ladder that size, which would be a nightmare to get in, and if i got it in, almost impossible to get out. I don't own a shotgun either so that's not an option.

Any suggestions would be helpful.
Do what my science teacher does. Get a long pvc tube and start taping yard sticks to it lol. He calls it the snooze stick because when kids try to sleep he bops them with it.
 

Grifflyer

WWII fanatic
This thread has been dead for a bit so I thought I would update. Awhile ago I was flying this little gem in my back yard, got a couple acres to play with, and I was testing out some receivers. Needless to say the receivers were the wrong format and it was a bad decision to fly with so many trees around, over and over. Anyway I had a loss of signal and the plane glided out of the yard, over the trees, across the ravine, and came to rest in a spruce tree. Now I call this the SpruceSmacker and not Shrubsmacker. It did settle at about 50' up in a heavily wooded area on a steep hill. although it was disappointing at the time to lose all those electronics I eventually got over it and moved onto the standard size planes, the Minis were all but forgotten.

Recently in cleaning up the garage I came across a couple of my other Mini planes and in looking at them I now want my electronics back. Being that today is a windy day, to windy for flying, but windy enough to possibly knock a plane out of a tree, i went for a walk in the ravine. Even though it was so long ago that I lost the plane I managed to hone in on the same tree in the woods where i had lost the plane. I looked up and sure enough i saw it, same tree, just a little further down, lodged in the branches. Now the wing is off and hanging on to the fuse by the servo wires straddling the branch.

In a way this is encouraging to retrieve it because it has made progress on it's own to come back home, but in doing so it is now stuck in a worse predicament then it started. I would like to be able to take some long PVC tubing out there and attach them end to end to reach the branches but I don't think I have anything around that would work. I don't own a ladder that size, which would be a nightmare to get in, and if i got it in, almost impossible to get out. I don't own a shotgun either so that's not an option.

Any suggestions would be helpful.
Me and my dad once used a slingshot and shot a large nut with a string attached to it, and then once the nut got wrapped around a branch we'd shake it for all it's worth. If I land in trees that are climbable I'll normally just climb the tree.
By the way is your avatar from 5FDP's latest album?