Smart Storch, FPV iNav GPS

[Tronglodon]

Winter time is building time, so I'm getting started on a new project. I built a simple Storch at Flite Fest last summer but had to leave it behind since I flew to Ohio from California. Since then I moved with my family from southern CA to Central CA, so I haven't had a chance to fly fixed wing in a few months. We're finally getting settled in our new place and found a local flying field. Here's a little video introducing my next build, a Simple Storch with FPV, iNav and GPS that I'm calling the Smart Storch.

 

[mach1 rc]

This is going to be a cool plane👍😎

 

[RCCobwebs]

Curious what power and battery combos you’ve used and flight times? I assume people bring multiple batteries to the field vs charging at the field?

I’m an old gas RC guy dusting off my RC skills and realizing this stuff is a whole new ball game. The fold and glue is a bit weird I miss the Balsa and monokote stuff. Lol
My 8 yr old wants to learn the flying stuff. Thats the easy part for me. But the power/battery and such are all new language.

 

[BATTLEAXE]

Curious what power and battery combos you’ve used and flight times? I assume people bring multiple batteries to the field vs charging at the field?

I’m an old gas RC guy dusting off my RC skills and realizing this stuff is a whole new ball game. The fold and glue is a bit weird I miss the Balsa and monokote stuff. Lol
My 8 yr old wants to learn the flying stuff. Thats the easy part for me. But the power/battery and such are all new language.

Welcome to the forums my friend. It's good to see the kid wants to get into it. Since you already know how to build and pilot, what plane do you plan to build first, something your son could fly? Or something you will have fun with and dust off the thumbs?

 

[RCCobwebs]

Going Storch its big as in proper trainer sized and easily set up as a forgiving flyer. So thats the plan.

My flying fun was typically building the weird different stuff which was usually also difficult to fly. I did club instruction for many yrs and only lost two planes, one was wing failure turned out the builder didn’t use the wing root braces thought they weren’t necessary 😆. The second was some type of radio failure. My planes eventually got retired as the tail sections started failing from fatigue had three suffer major tail surface failures after years of flying, even managed to save those and they went to hang in a HS Aviation class in retirement.

I’ll set the Storch up for teaching. Though it won’t be a stock box build. I’ll build it out with some modifications to increase its durability so we can get a year or more of solid use out of it. The straight up foam builds don’t seem to hold up well with constant successful flights. So I’ll be looking at areas where other materials can be used to increase durability and air frame life.

 

[BATTLEAXE]

Going Storch its big as in proper trainer sized and easily set up as a forgiving flyer. So thats the plan.

My flying fun was typically building the weird different stuff which was usually also difficult to fly. I did club instruction for many yrs and only lost two planes, one was wing failure turned out the builder didn’t use the wing root braces thought they weren’t necessary 😆. The second was some type of radio failure. My planes eventually got retired as the tail sections started failing from fatigue had three suffer major tail surface failures after years of flying, even managed to save those and they went to hang in a HS Aviation class in retirement.

I’ll set the Storch up for teaching. Though it won’t be a stock box build. I’ll build it out with some modifications to increase its durability so we can get a year or more of solid use out of it. The straight up foam builds don’t seem to hold up well with constant successful flights. So I’ll be looking at areas where other materials can be used to increase durability and air frame life.

I have designed a plane you might be interested in checking out, and it is similar to the Storch, and has been beefed up considerably. Here is a link on it. Let me know what you think

 

[Tronglodon]

Well, sorry to say that the Smart Storch never happened, but don't despair! After I figured out the Storch would be a bit too big for my current circumstances I decided to put all those smart bits into a ZOHD Dart 250g. Here's a video of the first few flights getting inav set up and dialed in.