Simple slender delta

[DamoRC]

Glad to hear that you are not giving up. I would advise to think carefully about scaling this down. Although you will use less foamboard and possibly make it easier to balance on the CG, you will also increase the wing loading quite a bit which will make it harder to fly. Given that you are in the process of learning to design, build, and fly, smaller makes the fly part harder.

Second thing to think about is your wiring. You will want to be able to put the battery as close as possible to the nose to balance the plane. It might not need to go all the way in the front, but you should check now before realizing that, because of the lengths of you wiring, you can't push your battery all the way to the front with the motor mounted at the rear. Solutions would be to add extensions to the wiring or be prepared to add nose weight to the plane to get her to balance.

Looking forward to seeing the next iteration.

 

[Vimana89]

It was because of my electronics not stretching that I wanted to scale it down. I think a bit of nose weight can help me still maintain a slightly longer size and have a good cg. I still might not put it at 2ft, might go like 20"by 10 or 11"wide, it's not too far off the original specs just a bit smaller.

 

[Vimana89]

I'm going to start building my fuselage for the battery, I can get that done first and then build the wing.

 

[Vimana89]

Once I fit this to the wing I'm going to leave the front/top cover off until I get the cg feeling right in hand, so I can put a small weight in that front compartment if I need to.

 

[Vimana89]

going to mount this fuselage on the bottom of the wing for better stability and run the esc connector from my battery up through the wing. Ill leave enough access for the charging stuff, even if I can't easily remove the battery, I can stick the whole plane on the charger it's not going to be huge.

 

[Vimana89]

Maybe I should do a motor mount/V tail combo in the back...

 

[Vimana89]

Going with a single stabilizer. Motor thrust angle should be very slightly down and left for a a pusher right?

 

[Hai-Lee]

Going with a single stabilizer. Motor thrust angle should be very slightly down and left for a a pusher right?

For a pusher there is normally no requirement for side thrust angle and the motor thrust angle should pass through the centre of mass of the aircraft!

If the thrust angle is too high the plane will nose up when throttle is opened and conversely if the thrust angle is too low it will nose down when thrust is applied. With the thrust angle set properly the plane may appear to sink a little when the throttle is first opened but its pitch angle will not vary!

have fun!

 

[Vimana89]

Ok, another 6 hour build. Crude compared to all you pro's but better looking than all my previous iterations. Cg seems right as is with no adjustment, just fell in place. She's 16.5 inches long by 10 inch wingspan, and she comes in at a surprisingly light and fit 197 grams. I'm bad with control surfaces, the elevons don't have a super big range of motion, but they should be functional enough. May risk a quick night flight if the drizzle clears up, otherwise I'll be testing tomorrow.

 

[Vimana89]

has quite a bit of thrust to weight,when I launch should I be at full throttle? I'd like to be as slow and controllable as possible but still enough to get airborne and maintain altitude a bit.

 

[DamoRC]

I would start off in the 50% to 75% throttle and throw hard. Normally I would say give it full throttle, but I suspect she might want to roll over.

 

[Vimana89]

I would start off in the 50% to 75% throttle and throw hard. Normally I would say give it full throttle, but I suspect she might want to roll over.

That's about what I gave it a bit ago when there was a gap in the rain. Don't think I threw hard enough, and I probably should have climbed immediately, because it seemed to follow a straight trajectory and not roll, but it followed a downward arc and crashed. Motor mount popped off yet again, but I repaired and super reinforced it with an extra wooden dowel and duct tape, now it doesn't feel like it will budge.I put duct tape over the wooden dowels at the nose too because those took a bit of a battering. Also the black duct tape makes the nose match the rest of the plane without the exposed wood. I'll try again tomorrow, and at least my plane is in alright shape, probably better and stronger now.

That being said, it is pretty discouraging to keep putting in the effort to build with no return. I'll find out what the real problem is tomorrow I suppose.

 

[Vimana89]

If she flies at all but is just a pain to control, I'll get a transmitter with servo mixing. Right now I need two sticks simultaneously at the same speed to initiate a proper climb, and I'm not the most coordinated person.

 

[Vimana89]

This is just awful BS. I have been trying to fly in between rain, nothing but crashes, I don't know if its my elevons, my reaction time, or just this garbage transmitter. The plane basically pitches down every time I try to climb and crashes. I have had to repair it several times. There was one time it started to look like it was trying to fly, but very low. It started to Dutch wobble a bit but not roll over, but again, did not gain altitude.

 

[Dr. Looping Looie]

Can you try to show footage?
Youre saying your transmitter doesnt have elevon mixing. How are you trying to do this? Its very difficult to mix Inputs by hand, you very likely are going to fail If your doing that. But normally, even the cheapest transmitters have a swich in the bottom that does the mix for you.
If the plane flew downwards after take off, your controls may be going the wrong way. I also had lots of crashes because I dint check the direction.
Also deltas need a little bit of up-elevator to counter the far forward CG.
But dont make the fault and try to fly something thats not ready for flying. Take your time to check everything from CG to control surfaces to have a more successful first flight. And what I like to do to check before maiden is take the plane in one hand and ride your bike. Maybe get a buddy to help you and give control Inputs, but that way you can get a feeling for the airplane without building an expensive test rig.
Try again and have fun!

 

[DamoRC]

Totally missed the fact that you don't have elevon mixing and agree with @Dr. Looping Looie , this will make it nigh impossible to fly.

You can get an elevon mixer module, they are a few bucks and work pretty well. This is how I first started with elevons when I was using my Champ RTF radio to fly the versa wing.

Edit: Sorry, it's called a V-tail mixer - like this one

 

[Vimana89]

I read a guide when I started about building a first plane and it recommended my hobby king transmitter. It's really a bad guide, because I'm seeing transmitters with mixing for not really much more than I paid for this garbage. The transmitter was the one thing I should have gone better with, not worth saving a few bucks. Best advice for beginners: don't skimp on the servo mixing. I'll be getting a better transmitter. When there was no wind my nutball launched right sometimes, it was just impossible to control, probably due to that pos hobbyking. I don't see how they can even get away with making and selling that thing any more when there's ones for the same price with mixing.

 

[d8veh]

because I'm seeing transmitters with mixing for not really much more than I paid for this garbage. The transmitter was the one thing I should have gone better with, not worth saving a few bucks.

If you buy the mixing module, the cost of your transmitter and the module are still cheaper than a transmitter with mixing. It gives you what you want. What are you complaining about? Try not to get mad each time you come to an obstacle. Instead, try to think of a way around it.
https://hobbyking.com/en_us/turnigy-v-tail-mixer-ultra-small.html

 

[JTarmstr]

I read a guide when I started about building a first plane and it recommended my hobby king transmitter. It's really a bad guide, because I'm seeing transmitters with mixing for not really much more than I paid for this garbage. The transmitter was the one thing I should have gone better with, not worth saving a few bucks. Best advice for beginners: don't skimp on the servo mixing. I'll be getting a better transmitter. When there was no wind my nutball launched right sometimes, it was just impossible to control, probably due to that pos hobbyking. I don't see how they can even get away with making and selling that thing any more when there's ones for the same price with mixing.

just a suggestion, try the FlySky I6 transmitter, $54 USD on amazon with a receiver included, i use it and the mixing works fine with my FT Viggen (elevon control).

 

[JTarmstr]

Ok, i am just going to say; you seem to be getting more and more frustrated so i suggest step back and think a bit about what you want to do and how you want to do it. If the guide you read was bad, i suggest checking out the FT beginner series here. That should give you a good grounding in what you need and how you should do it. Then take it slow and make sure you have all the parts you need and you do it right. Patience is the key to success. Best of luck with this.