ShrubSmacker Build

BATTLEAXE

Legendary member
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?
I like your taste in tunes bro, 5FDP is one of my all time favorite bands. I will say I haven't seen there album yet but it could be. I got it from the app Zedge which does wallpapers and ringtones. I have had that WP for a long time now and recently dug it up.

I was talking to Scott my drone guy and he wants to try the sky hook idea. Hover over with a weighted hook on a string and try to grab it that way. I like your sling shot plan as well, less chance of getting a drone caught in the tree lol.
 

slowjo

Master member
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?
I had to climb a tree last year and found out gravity really increased in the last 30 years : ( now I keep an extendable rv wash brush handle with a hook on the end of it, jo
 

BATTLEAXE

Legendary member
I have been thinking of using a paintball gun or even resort to a high pressure hose, bow and arrow, shot gun, or just cut the tree down lol
 

BATTLEAXE

Legendary member
These shots are taken from the drone...
DJI_0065.JPG
DJI_0066.JPG

The servo wire from the wing to the fuse is wrapped around the branch. From this angle it looks like you could just reach out and grab it. We tried taping a 7' fishing rod to the drone but the quad didn't like that very much, broke some blades when it hit the ground lol
 

Grifflyer

WWII fanatic
These shots are taken from the drone...
View attachment 150827 View attachment 150828
The servo wire from the wing to the fuse is wrapped around the branch. From this angle it looks like you could just reach out and grab it. We tried taping a 7' fishing rod to the drone but the quad didn't like that very much, broke some blades when it hit the ground lol
Oh wow that's really nestled in there!
 

BATTLEAXE

Legendary member
Oh wow that's really nestled in there!
And it's 50' off the ground, you can climb the ravine a bit to get visually what looks like closer to it, but as you climb you also get further away from the tree. If I was still in powerline construction I would just put on the belt and spurs and climb the tree. I tried to convince the woman to let me rope the 13 year old boy up the tree but that was a quick no-go
 

Grifflyer

WWII fanatic
And it's 50' off the ground, you can climb the ravine a bit to get visually what looks like closer to it, but as you climb you also get further away from the tree. If I was still in powerline construction I would just put on the belt and spurs and climb the tree. I tried to convince the woman to let me rope the 13 year old boy up the tree but that was a quick no-go
Haha at least you would rope him, whenever I've climbed trees I go with nothing.
 

BATTLEAXE

Legendary member
Yea I thought that suggestion to rope him would have been the deal maker. But she is a nurse and always thinks the worst of the situation, no sense of adventure, the family fun sucker lol. Don't tell her I said that :ROFLMAO:
 

slowjo

Master 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.
speaking of receivers, what do yall use for rec. I have a DX6e and was thinking of trying some cheep rec I've seen on line? jo
 

Grifflyer

WWII fanatic
speaking of receivers, what do yall use for rec. I have a DX6e and was thinking of trying some cheep rec I've seen on line? jo
I run Graupner so I use the GR-12L. If you want to run with flaps you'll need at least a 5ch receiver.
@BATTLEAXE could probably tell you more about Spektrum receivers.
 

BATTLEAXE

Legendary member
speaking of receivers, what do yall use for rec. I have a DX6e and was thinking of trying some cheep rec I've seen on line? jo
I used to use the Spektrum AR620 but being a rookie I broke 2 and lost one and at $50CA a pop I changed out to $20 Lemon 6channel Rx's, DSMX protocol compatible. I think the DX6e is DSMP which Lemon also offers for the same price, I have seen the Lemons for like $13-15US online as well. You can hook up satellite Rx's t them too

What are you using now?
 

GlassL

Member
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:
I agree with Grifflyer! I like what you did with the nose cowling! I thought the nose needed some thing to cover the motor too, but I was just thinking of extending the sides of the fuse to give the illusion of a cowling from the side view. What you did is much better.
 

GlassL

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.
Grifflyer, any thought of doing the flaps with wire yoke that attaches to the flaps like your but has the two wires joined at the center with a control horn so the flap servo can be mounted in the middle of the wing. I like what you did tying them together with one servo instead of what Josh does on the Legacy using two servos tied with a Y harness!