Oh definitely, Tim!!Make sure to weight it before the maiden.
With all the upgrades you might end up with a tubby cubby. π
Good point! I'm likely putting Hinge Tape on both sides of each Hinge....Make sure after each landing to not only check for cracks but also closely inspect the hinges. Hinges will taking a good hit every landing.
As a rough guide put the plane nose down, (against a tree or something), and walk 500 ft away. The size of the plane or how small it willl appear will be what you see from 500 ft away.I just saved myself a PANIC!
I had weighed her AUW... And got 1079 grams!!! π³
Turned out, I left my Screwdriver IN the Fuse, and it was wedged, so it didn't rattle!!! π
She's STILL a little Porky, AUW is NOW 906g....
But I just saw a Cub flying SO high, that the FPV looked like over 1000ft!!!
I've got more than C Pack power, but I can't go that high anyway. Anything in my side of the City over 500ft, is Controlled Davis Monthan AFB Airspace!!
HOW do I know how high I'm flying, LOS??? Maybe I should just keep it under what I THINK looks like 100ft. That's at least easier to gauge....
Errm, I can see why your so bloody heavy now lol, I think you have over engineered it a bit, they are pretty tough as they are.
I dont use landing gear, I belly land mine so I have milk jug plastic bonded to the underside to protect the foam, it has the side effect of adding a lot of strength in an impact and the damage never runs further back than where the plastic starts.
If I have a heavy enough impact that writes the nose off or if uts just got bad over multiple abusive flights, I cut and shut my cubs, I lop off the nose at the Base of the windscreen, make a new nose section using my templates, glue it on then blow over it with paint.
I cut the power pod rails off slightly further back than the main nose cut so that when I glue the new one in it overlaps the noise joint so it's strong.
No matter how hard a crash I have, I can always have it airborne again the next day.
I dont put my battery's under the power pod like the ft plans state, my esc is fixed to the underside and my battery's go inside, my electronics are on a shelf I add behind the windscreen.
My nose sections come up much further forward on the underside and have just enough room cut out in a \_/ shape to allow the esc on the power pod to clear it, this makes the nose much more aerodynamic, it also allows for my down facing cam to be fitted in the nose right the way forward and at the right angle.
With my wings, I reinforce them with carbon fiber rods, they tend to let go at the dihedral slits after a few bad landings if you build the wings without one.
I build my wings as normal as you can't set the dihedral with a rod built in at construction, once built I make a slit in the underside, flood it with got glue and force the rod in then scrape some more hot glue over the top to seal it in.
Hers what I mean about the milk jug plastic and the nose section that is more aerodynamic, it's a full GPS FC based cub I need to finish, my tatty daily flyer can be seen in the background, that's the one you see in most of my videos.
Also a pic of what I mean about slicing into the underside for the carbon rod in the wing.
If you can get the weight down
yes, my cub is over a kilo but in a 4000mah 3s, its in the 800g area on a 2700, your near a kilo on a 1500 and you are going t have very short flight times on such a small battery, im heavy but i am also carrying a lot of battery in that weight.
I did find that I gained a very slight improvement on flight times when I altered the underside nose piece but top speed was also higher with less drag
It's so easy to do, you just make the nose piece from the original template but make it solid instead of cutting the 'u' shape out of the inside, I make the cuts out of it that it needs to clear the power pod once it's bonded in.
Another thing i use milk jug plastic for is on the leading and trailing edges of the wing where the rubber bands go, it stops them from cutting into the foam!
With the wing on the plane, look under the wing at the back where it meets the fuselage , you will see a gap between the wing and the fuse, its a weak point and the tension of the bands will fold it in a crash.
if you look carefully at the pic i posted of the wing in a couple of posts up, you can see the strip of foam im talking about under the trailing edge and also the milk jug plastic, its curves round from the top to bottom side of the wing and is very strong.
sorry about your eyes, its not easy seeing it on a florescent orange wing lol
That weak point is easily fixed by just glueing in a strip of foam on the wing in that corner and it wont fold up in a crash.
In this thread on RC Groups i show someone how i repair the nose of my planes instead of scrapping them and building a new one, scroll down to about half way down the page to see it, the thread is one i started so its fine to talk off topic on there if you want too, we use it for all sorts of chat and not just the original topic:
https://www.rcgroups.com/forums/sho...tch-for-fatshark-module-box-goggle-mod/page60
You say you can't afford a carbon rod, do you shop on Banggood or alliexpress? I get all my stuff from there, carbon rods, servos, motors, props, everything except my foamboard and they are a fraction of the cost compared to shopping In our own countries!
This is my standard motor I use on most planes, it will swing up to a 9x5 prop, is cheap and reliable :
https://www.banggood.com/custlink/G3DmE4HsKb
This is what I use on planes where I want higher efficiency, at lower throttles it gives longer flight times the the 2212, it's slightly heavier but will also swing up to a 10x4.7 prop:
https://www.banggood.com/custlink/DDKD89Gfz8
This is what I use on my 450 quad, it will swing a 10x4.7 prop with ease and produces around 1.3kg thrust on that prop or 1.18 kg on a 9x5, I plan to use some on planes, its a heavy but powerful and robust motor.
These carbon rods work well, they are very thin and feel bendy when not bonded into a model but once the are bonded in, they lock in place and become very rigid and quadruple the wing strength, I've never had a wing snap since I've been using them, I also use 3 mm rods sometimes which are mush more rigid.
https://www.banggood.com/custlink/3333i8y355
banggood are slow to the uk too, 3-4 weeks delivery time but so cheap its worth the wait
I dont trust Chinese sellers on fleabay, ive had too many things not arrive, at least with banggood i know it will turn up, i refuse to pay UK prices for things, its double what i can get things for from china, sometimes 3 times more!
Got all my posterboard templates made for the FT commuter, really shuld finish my gps cub before i build yet anther plane lol but i cant help it :/
you said that you are waiting for the bigger one to be released, i decided to try it because its small and wondered what it flys like
If you are interested in a bigger cessna, have you seen the Cessna 180 that a FT forum member released plans for? it has a 50" wingspan.
I have one here that i built, i modified mine so that instead of a power pod, the battery tray is fixed and i have change the top of the nose to lift off for access and ive enclosed the front of the nose more for looks and better aerodynamics.
heres a video by the creator of it plus ive attached the plans he released too