Sky Riders Raptor Glider

[fugarwe]

Well I made the mistake of walking into a new hobby store that opened near me. I was originally going in to get some ca and plywood. I walked out with the ca and a foam glider. I've seen videos of people turning the air hogs glider into an rc and when I saw this glider i had no control over my hand reaching out the firmly grasp it and lead me to the cashier. So now i have this glider along with an unused motor, servos, speed control... you get the idea. I though about making it a pusher but i could just as easilly mount a tractor setup above the wing in the same fashion correct? So I am open to suggestions.. the cg seems to be WAY back on this.. I'm also not fond of the swept wing. I'd like to try to take that sweep out a bit.. of course this is going to be a 3 channel since i have ZERO experience.. might as well use a simple foam plane that i now own to learn right?? Suggestions? Thoughts? Experiences?

 

[rcspaceflight]

The easiest thing to do is to cut off that long nose and put a motor right in front of the wings.

The fake control surfaces look way too small. Do not try to cut and use those. Simple cut out some foam board and add it to the existing plane.

I can't tell if there is any dihedral on the wings. If not, add some so you can have it rudder and elevator only. Again, add foam board control surfaces to the plane. Just use packing tape to tape them on and the tape will be your hinge.

 

[fugarwe]

It does have a dihedral wing. I was thinking that i'd like to mount a tractor above the wing and use it as a trainer so i don't go nose dive my engine through my plane. I could also get a pusher prop. If i take the backward sweep out of the plane a bit it should move the cg forward a bit right? Right now the cg is slight back from the halfway point of the wing where it joins the fuselage. If I don't change anything I would be mounting my instruments inside the fuselage just above and just forward of the wing to get it to be slightly nose heavy.. just guesswork here really.. and a pitch of a 15 for the engine?

 

[Foam Addict]

Here are two different Titans I built over the past year and a half.
The one with full wings and low power flew best, but the duct taped one was mildly aerobatic and an all around good performer.

 

[fugarwe]

Nice! hopefully I can pick your brain a bit when I go to get the motor set as well as the cg. It looks like to have quite the angle on the motor mount.

 

[rcspaceflight]

The problem with the pusher route is that you're going to have to have a thrust angle which is going to decrease it's efficiency/performance and make it fly a little weird. (See the FT episode about the FMS Easy Trainer.) When you punch the throttle, the plane is probably going to pitch down. Which is still perfectly flyable, but it's going to fly a lot differently than most planes.

 

[n1qqt]

raptor foam plane

It does have a dihedral wing. I was thinking that i'd like to mount a tractor above the wing and use it as a trainer so i don't go nose dive my engine through my plane. I could also get a pusher prop. If i take the backward sweep out of the plane a bit it should move the cg forward a bit right? Right now the cg is slight back from the halfway point of the wing where it joins the fuselage. If I don't change anything I would be mounting my instruments inside the fuselage just above and just forward of the wing to get it to be slightly nose heavy.. just guesswork here really.. and a pitch of a 15 for the engine?

I have converted over a dozen of these foam gliders over the years. the best and strongest one is the raptor. I greee about the swept wing and 3 out of 4 of these I did in straight wing config. two with motor on the nose and 1 pusher which flew just as nice but could hold a camera on the nose without the prop wash being in the cam view for FPV. I will try to post a couple pics

 

[ghost civic]

I made a EDF version with the raptor.

the thing that made it easier for me....I found the CG of the plane itself first.....then I added all the electronics while maintaining the same CG. Result...it flew the first time with only a touch of trim needed!

as far as EDFs go, it is really easy to fly.

 

[bragboy007]

need to discuss your edf design and details on how you fitted the EDF in the Raptor

I also got the raptor just a few days ago .... I was wanting to know how and where exactly you added the edf motor and what changes / mods did you make specifically for the Motor to the fuselage


Many many thanks

~clinton

I made a EDF version with the raptor.

the thing that made it easier for me....I found the CG of the plane itself first.....then I added all the electronics while maintaining the same CG. Result...it flew the first time with only a touch of trim needed!

as far as EDFs go, it is really easy to fly.

 

[Tater76]

This concept is all over YouTube. Try doing a search there too for more information. I bought mine at Walmart, and converted to a tractor style. It was pretty fast, and glided well, but the control surfaces left alot to be desired. Mine met an untimely end because I used the premarked elevator design it came with. It just wasn't enough surface.