SpiTTT (The TIny Trainer with a Spitfire Warbird Twist)

mayan

Legendary member
The Tiny Trainer is a great and inexpensive trainer plane, which is perfect for complete newbies who wish to learn to fly RC planes, and enjoy a great hobby. It can take you from knowing nothing about flying RC to being able to fly 4 channels doing basic aerobatics. The plane itself is built in components, which when put together will give you different flying configurations. Once the components are constructed it is just a matter of selecting the parts you want to use and mating them using BBQ skewers and rubber bands. Mating the fuselage with the different noses and wings, will allow to you to fly the plane in a variety of ways as chuck glider or as a 2, 3 or 4 channels RC plane.

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Video of me and a friend tossing the TT chuck glider setup

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Video of me flying the TT on a 2 channel setup

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Video of me flying the TT on a 3 channel setup

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Video of me flying the TT on a 4 channel setup

If you are just starting out in the hobby I'd recommend to go through all the available options which will teach you how to fly taking you step by step to a successful full flight. Hold on there is more. Once you feel comfortable flying the different options available, you can step up your game by changing the motor, prop combination and your battery pack from 2 to 3 cells to get greater flying speeds.


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That’s how I taught myself to fly and went from someone that had no clue how to fly RC planes to someone that feels comfortable controlling and flying the plane through the open sky. I still have plenty to learn, you can read more about my ongoing experience here: Hobby Newbie Learning Diary.

Since the Tiny Trainer taught me how to fly I wasn’t ready to drop it for a different model just yet. So I was thinking how I can modify it to have a different flying experience while I keep practicing and getting better at flying. A forum member direct me to a thread that has a large number of Tiny Trainer modifications listed in it with all the appropriate links inside. I checked it out but nothing there appealed to me right away. I stopped and tried to think for a moment about which models I want to learn to fly next. Well there are quite a few that I want to learn to fly, but I was looking for a model that would have something in common with the Tiny Trainer. Something I can try to implement into the Tiny Trainer and then it hit me; if you squint, then the nose of the Tiny Trainer looks a little like that of the Spitfire. So I decided to build myself a new Tiny Spitfire-ISH (Warbird) Trainer, by making a few semi-serious modifications to the original FT Tiny Trainer design. With a little anonymous assistance from someone on the forum the design was started and the only real issue became the low wing elliptical planform dihedral wing.

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The first thing that required a change was the tail boom. On the Tiny Trainer the horizontal stabilizer is mounted on the underside of the tail boom, whereas on a Spitfire the horizontal stabilizer should be located on the upper/mid part of the tail boom. The tail boom was modified to suit the requirements, and a slot was created just 5 mm below the top layer of the tail boom, to allow the new tail to connect to it.

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Having ensured that the horizontal stabilizer will fit properly, it was removed and the vertical stabilizer was glued to it ensuring that they are set up at the right angles to each other. Next the tail assembly was fitted and glued into the tail boom.

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Once the tail assembly was secured on the tail boom the servos and pushrods were connected to the tail surfaces in the same manner as in the Tiny Trainer. A test to the control surfaces was done to ensure everything is working in the correct manner, and adjustments were done to fix reversed surface movements where necessary.

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The next thing that I worked on was building the modified version of the wings. Unlike the Tiny Trainer the wing of a Spitfire are located on the bottom of the fuselage. To get an idea on how I could connect the wings I looked at the FT Spitfire build video, and saw that the way they did this was by cutting a slot in the fuselage sides to allow the wing to slide through. Not liking that solution, because of problems that I have experienced when building the FT Mini Sportster and FT Mini Speedster which use the same solution; I decided to try and take a different approach.

The approach I took was to divide the wing into 4 pieces two wing halves and two plywood dihedral braces that would hold the wing halves together at the right dihedral angle (4 degrees) and also be used to connect the wing to the bottom of the fuselage.


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The wing halves are folded and built in the standard Flite Test method. Once the two wing halves are built it is important to check that they are identical in shape to one another even though mirrored.

Once you are happy with the wing halves it’s time to connect the plywood dihedral braces to the wing halves and then connect the halves together to get a one piece wing. The plywood dihedral braces should be strong as they are holding the wing halves together and are also used to connect the wing to the fuselage, thus I recommend using 3mm - 5mm plywood for the braces. I personally didn’t have any 3mm-5mm plywood so I cut out 6 braces from 1.5mm plywood and connected 3 braces together using carpenter's glue to create 2 pieces of 4.5mm. Once you have the dihedral braces cut out I recommend sanding them off a bit to make sure they are nice and flesh and also set at the right dihedral angles. It is important at this stage to cut the required dihedral angle in the root edges of the wings so that the edges will rest squarely against the sides of the fuselage when fitted to the completed plane. The dihedral angle of this build is 4 degrees as is the angle designed into the dihedral braces.

The dihedral braces were designed to allow the wing halves to connect to it from both sides establishing a dihedral angle while leaving a flat surface between the wing halves which is used to connect the wing flat on underside of the fuselage. The dihedral braces can be connected to the wing halves using either hot glue or epoxy. The hot glue / epoxy is applied the brace is then slid into the wing centre section with the upturned ends facing forward the brace is then twisted so that it makes contact with the front spar and the ends are facing upwards.

The rear brace is fitted in a similar manner to the rear wing spar of the centre section. It’s important to glue the dihedral braces spread apart one from the other to avoid a wing twist in mid air. Ensure that the bottoms of the wings, the leading edges, and the trailing edges all line up with their opposite number to ensure you do not introduce a twist in the wings and destroy the planes ability to fly properly. This must be done and held in place whilst the glue sets properly. The gap between the wing roots must be the same as the fuselage width or a fraction less. A larger gap will not allow the wings to fit securely and cause serious control issues.

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Once the wing piece was created it was time to connect it to the fuselage. The wing piece was planned to connect to the underside of the fuselage sliding into two slots that would be cut out for the dihedral braces. The wing would later be held into place internally using BBQ skewers and rubber bands. But before I made the cuts to the fuselage I wanted to check where the plane balances out to understand where to locate the wings to balance out on the second wing spare. I did this across the different batteries I had and tested the balance with a 2S 1000mah, 3S 800mah, 3S 1000mah and 3S 1300mah batteries. The starting point, or target, for the balance or C.G. point is just forward of the center of the 2 fold lines in the wing upper surface.

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After understanding where the plane balances out I marked the location of the dihedral braces and cut out the slots for them. I fitted the wing and punchard two holes on the middle of the fuselage using BBQ skewers on which the rubber bands will be held.

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To finish off the design and close up the top hatch of the original TT I decided to create a canopy. One that would be remove able and would be held down using the BBQ holes that were already created to hold down the wings of the original TT.

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Preflight check and we are all ready for a first maiden. I maidened the SpiTTT with 2 different battery setups to be able to experience the SpiTT’s performance with more and less power. I started off with more power to make sure I can launch it at 50% throttle.

Maiden 1 Setup:
Prop: 6x4
Motor: Emax MT1806 2280kv
ESC: BLHeli 15A
Battery: 3S 800mah


Maiden 2 Setup:
Prop: 6x4
Motor: Emax MT1806 2280kv
ESC: BLHeli 15A
Battery: 2S 1000mah


My tips and experience flying the SpiTTT:
The SpiTTT behaves exactly like I would expect a warbird too. It’s edgy and fast allowing you to take sharp turns and do tight loops. To my surprise it could also fly very slow allowing you to practice flying a warbird with a low belly lander. With the 3S 800mah battery I could cruise even with 25% throttle, with the 2S 1000mah I was cruising on 50%. When launching a horizontal toss with 50% throttle on a 3S 800mah battery and 75% on a 2S 1000mah should be fine. With the 2S 1000mah battery I recommend using a 6x3 prop think it will be easier to control on high throttle. On landings I’d recommend to come down facing the wind cut down throttle, keep the wings level and let it slide in. When it comes to aerobatics you can do anything that you can do with the Tiny Trainer just tighter. As some might know I have problems setting deflection rates and expos (not sure I know how) so I don’t have much personal information to share about that, considering I have never flew with those.

I flew the first SpiTTT that I built once more crashing it on purpose to understand its weak spots. I crashed it hard a few times and no real damage was done. At some point the dihedral braces disconnected but nothing that couldn’t be fixed with some hot glue or epoxy. I decided not to fix the broken SpiTTT because I wanted to re-experience the build process once more to make sure that it can be built be anyone who has built the original TT. While building a new SpiTTT I decided to also address an issue I faced when trying to secure the wings in place internally with the rubber bands which wasn’t all that easy. All aside try to figure out how to make the dihedral braces hold on better to the foam.

Knowing now that the SpiTTT would fly and the modification was valid; I decided to give the new SpiTTT was building a paint job.
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Be on the lookout for more to come regarding the build process of the painted SpiTTT, tips and first maiden...


To get some inputs from an experienced pilot I asked Bob better known on the forum as @Hai-Lee to also build this modification and give his feedback about the build process, the flying experience and also include information about deflection rates and expos that he would recommend.

Bob’s (@Hai-Lee) feedback:
“The version I built flew very well on even my low power “Newbie” setup. I found it was easier to cut the horizontal tail in after the tail boom was already folded and glued. It was just a lot easier.
In addition I made a few detail/build changes which are just the standard thing for me. I surface mounted my aileron servos to the underside of the wing and had the output arm protrude through the top of the wing via a slot. This was done because it is a low wing belly lander and I wanted the servo arm and the control horns clear of the ground.
My slots were cut in the fuselage and were slightly less width than the thickness of the ply so that I could get a tight/jam fit to help keep everything in place. It doesn’t really need it but it costs nothing and makes me feel a little better. The leads from the aileron servos were fed into the fuselage using the rear wing brace slot, a bit of extra packing!
On my transmitter I used the TT model slot setup for 3 channel newbie training. It had 40% expo on the flight control surfaces and I even used the original deflection setups, I had also salvaged the servos and control horns so in reality I just did a swap over without any real transmitter adjustments.
My test flight as will be seen in my separate post on this thread was started with a bungee launcher as is gives a really high launch speed but I need not have bothered. It took off like a rocket on the bungee and maintained a decent pace considering my setup. The roll was rather scale like, not extremely fast and a little too slow to do too close to the ground. The elevator was surprising as with my setup it could do a full loop in what felt like twice its own length. The rudder was effective though in reality it was not needed or used much as the plane flew sweetly.
The flight speed range was surprising as on about 80 Watts of power it was quite quick though not lightning fast and without throttle it slowed quickly and then tended to float gently, (to me better than the original sport wing). Landing was no big deal. With a gentle glide and effectively a gentle settle on the ground.
I did 2 flights on the bird the first I did not count on the elevator response and my battery did dislodge and was swinging by its lead, (OOPS), so after landing I secured the battery properly and launched again. As a result of the test flights I have 2 newbies who want one so it looks like I may have to build at least one other.
Opinion! If the wings are built properly and the braces fitted correctly this will give hours of fun and even give the step towards flying that first warbird. As shown it can allow you to fly the standard TT wings and change over at the field to fly the SPITTT when you feel like it.
Should the need arise, (due to crash damage or the like you can just glue the braces and wing roots to the fuselage and have a nice and quite solid warbird trainer. As for performance upgrades I flew on 80 Watts and I know you can easily shoehorn in over 200 Watts of power onto the TT powerpod.

Recommended setup:
Basically the same settings as used for the TT but for those still a little unsure here are some recommendations!

Aileron setup is; +21mm -15mm with 40% expo (30% would be fine though. (For a low rate reduce deflection by only around 10% Recommend +/- 15mm) The reason for the different aileron deflections in different directions is that I always use aileron differential to balance aileron drag and hence yaw effects.

Elevator setup; +/- 13mm with 40% expo Recommend a low rate of +/- 10mm with around 30% expo

Rudder deflection is; +/- 12mm with 40% Expo. Whilst it might appear a little low. it works OK, (If you ever fit undercarriage it would need to be increased by about 50%). Expo recommended would be around 30%.

Use the original TT powerpod and ensure that you use the same side thrust angle. A slight increase in down angle might be required for some if the motor power is a little higher than the original TT setup/

Launching recommendations:
Launch as you would a standard TT. Power setting at around 50% with a slight nose up attitude. As there is no hand hold under the CG point you could seek help from another person, use a bungee launcher, do an underhand toss or a GENTLE discus type throw. It does not require a very hard toss.”



Hope you will enjoy it like I did… Safe fly.

DOWNLOADABLE PLANS:
Tail parts
Wing Pieces
Canopy
 

mayan

Legendary member
Finished the paint job on the SPiTTT...
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And here is the assembled version:
_01.jpg

_02.jpg

_03.jpg


I did a second build for two main reasons.
1) To prove the concept that this was do-able more than once.
2) In order to be able to give you a few tips on the build process, to make it easier for anyone to build.

Here are a few tips from me.
1) Don't cut the tail boom section out until the fuselage is fully assembled it helps make it stronger. Do have it partial cut out so it's still easy to continue on a straight line.
2) when assembling the wings, cut the 2 wing spares short by 1.5cm on the wing outer side (closer to the wing tip) and 0.5 cm on the wing inner side. It helps if you want to put the servos in between the spares. And also help you when with connecting the Y extension.
3) Take your time cutting out the plywood dihedral braces, that's what keep the wings connected. I promise you that once the wing halves are lose the plane will not fly long enough for you to say Johnny Walker, before you lose control. @Hai-Lee and I are thinking of other solutions for this cause plywood at least here is expensive. I bought this for 1.7 USD.
IMG_3560.jpg


4) I'd connect the wing halves to the dihedral braces using epoxy, it holds better than hot glue does to the wood.
5) If you plan to put the rubber bands internally don't make the holes for the BBQ skewers to high otherwise it will be hell to get the job done. Make the holes one end, then pass the rubber bands in and check the location on the remaining end. Trust me it will hold very tight, any how.
6) If you put the rubber bands internally make yourself a hook out of some thin metal piece to help you pull the rubber bands.
7) I made ventilation holes to allow air to enter the fuselage and cool off the ESC, while flying the first one it seemed like the ESC was heating up because the rubber bands were blocking the air from going through to it.

BTW I want to do a build video on the additional parts and assbelly, however I don't know when considering I don't plan on breaking this one any time soon.

First maiden. Very windy day...

Full Video (including setup):

Video from ready to maiden point:


BUILD VIDEO: Will be updated in the future...
SETUP VIDEO: Wings & Canopy

Hope to get your feedbacks about the SpiTTT once you build it...
 
Last edited:

PoorManRC

Master member
@mayan and @Hai-Lee - AMAZING work Gentlemen!! 👏👏👏🍻🍻
You've taken a very basic Aircraft, and turned it in to an exciting Bird!! Congratulations!

Once I can finally fly my TT, this is absolutely an option. Really good for those of us who have no Budget!!
 

Hai-Lee

Old and Bold RC PILOT
@mayan and @Hai-Lee - AMAZING work Gentlemen!! 👏👏👏🍻🍻
You've taken a very basic Aircraft, and turned it in to an exciting Bird!! Congratulations!

Once I can finally fly my TT, this is absolutely an option. Really good for those of us who have no Budget!!

There are many forum users who do not have a real budget! This is a build for them, (and us!).

Thank @mayan without whom this plane would never exist. My special thanks and respect is yours!

Have fun!
 

Hai-Lee

Old and Bold RC PILOT
Finished the paint job on the SPiTTT... Will post tips about the 2nd build process when I finish building so you can all have an easier time building this...
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Love the Camo This one will really look the part!

Have fun!
 

buzzbomb

I know nothing!
Oh. My. That is too much to take in just now. You posted an entire design and build thread, with video. I'm not going to do you the diservice of just skimming. I'm going to read, watch, understand and appreciate. Not right now, though. It wouldn't be right. Brain-dead at the moment. It's Friday, it's almost Christmas and it's Walmart. yeah. Coming back to this post when I'm a little less burned out, and can appreciate what you've done.
 

mayan

Legendary member
Oh. My. That is too much to take in just now. You posted an entire design and build thread, with video. I'm not going to do you the diservice of just skimming. I'm going to read, watch, understand and appreciate. Not right now, though. It wouldn't be right. Brain-dead at the moment. It's Friday, it's almost Christmas and it's Walmart. yeah. Coming back to this post when I'm a little less burned out, and can appreciate what you've done.
When are we going to see you flying?!
 

mayan

Legendary member
Really good for those of us who have no Budget!!
That was the leading thought. I didn’t want to have to buy almost anything and also use as much of what already existed on the original design. The extra parts is about a 3/4 of DTFB and epoxy glue. The electronics are all the same as in the original TT.
 

d8veh

Elite member
Mayan, that is amazing work. You've progressed so far in such a short time. I wondered why you had been so quiet recently. I don’t know what else to say, just amazing!
 

Jimun

Elite member
The Tiny Trainer is a great and inexpensive trainer plane, which is perfect for complete newbies who wish to learn to fly RC planes, and enjoy a great hobby. It can take you from knowing nothing about flying RC to being able to fly 4 channels doing basic aerobatics. The plane itself is built in components, which when put together will give you different flying configurations. Once the components are constructed it is just a matter of selecting the parts you want to use and mating them using BBQ skewers and rubber bands. Mating the fuselage with the different noses and wings, will allow to you to fly the plane in a variety of ways as chuck glider or as a 2, 3 or 4 channels RC plane.

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Video of me and a friend tossing the TT chuck glider setup

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Video of me flying the TT on a 2 channel setup

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Video of me flying the TT on a 3 channel setup

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Video of me flying the TT on a 4 channel setup

If you are just starting out in the hobby I'd recommend to go through all the available options which will teach you how to fly taking you step by step to a successful full flight. Hold on there is more. Once you feel comfortable flying the different options available, you can step up your game by changing the motor, prop combination and your battery pack from 2 to 3 cells to get greater flying speeds.


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That’s how I taught myself to fly and went from someone that had no clue how to fly RC planes to someone that feels comfortable controlling and flying the plane through the open sky. I still have plenty to learn, you can read more about my ongoing experience here: Hobby Newbie Learning Diary.

Since the Tiny Trainer taught me how to fly I wasn’t ready to drop it for a different model just yet. So I was thinking how I can modify it to have a different flying experience while I keep practicing and getting better at flying. A forum member direct me to a thread that has a large number of Tiny Trainer modifications listed in it with all the appropriate links inside. I checked it out but nothing there appealed to me right away. I stopped and tried to think for a moment about which models I want to learn to fly next. Well there are quite a few that I want to learn to fly, but I was looking for a model that would have something in common with the Tiny Trainer. Something I can try to implement into the Tiny Trainer and then it hit me; if you squint, then the nose of the Tiny Trainer looks a little like that of the Spitfire. So I decided to build myself a new Tiny Spitfire-ISH (Warbird) Trainer, by making a few semi-serious modifications to the original FT Tiny Trainer design. With a little anonymous assistance from someone on the forum the design was started and the only real issue became the low wing elliptical planform dihedral wing.

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The first thing that required a change was the tail boom. On the Tiny Trainer the horizontal stabilizer is mounted on the underside of the tail boom, whereas on a Spitfire the horizontal stabilizer should be located on the upper/mid part of the tail boom. The tail boom was modified to suit the requirements, and a slot was created just 5 mm below the top layer of the tail boom, to allow the new tail to connect to it.

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Having ensured that the horizontal stabilizer will fit properly, it was removed and the vertical stabilizer was glued to it ensuring that they are set up at the right angles to each other. Next the tail assembly was fitted and glued into the tail boom.

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Once the tail assembly was secured on the tail boom the servos and pushrods were connected to the tail surfaces in the same manner as in the Tiny Trainer. A test to the control surfaces was done to ensure everything is working in the correct manner, and adjustments were done to fix reversed surface movements where necessary.

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The next thing that I worked on was building the modified version of the wings. Unlike the Tiny Trainer the wing of a Spitfire are located on the bottom of the fuselage. To get an idea on how I could connect the wings I looked at the FT Spitfire build video, and saw that the way they did this was by cutting a slot in the fuselage sides to allow the wing to slide through. Not liking that solution, because of problems that I have experienced when building the FT Mini Sportster and FT Mini Speedster which use the same solution; I decided to try and take a different approach.

The approach I took was to divide the wing into 4 pieces two wing halves and two plywood dihedral braces that would hold the wing halves together at the right dihedral angle (4 degrees) and also be used to connect the wing to the bottom of the fuselage.


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The wing halves are folded and built in the standard Flite Test method. Once the two wing halves are built it is important to check that they are identical in shape to one another even though mirrored.

Once you are happy with the wing halves it’s time to connect the plywood dihedral braces to the wing halves and then connect the halves together to get a one piece wing. The plywood dihedral braces should be strong as they are holding the wing halves together and are also used to connect the wing to the fuselage, thus I recommend using 3mm - 5mm plywood for the braces. I personally didn’t have any 3mm-5mm plywood so I cut out 6 braces from 1.5mm plywood and connected 3 braces together using carpenter's glue to create 2 pieces of 4.5mm. Once you have the dihedral braces cut out I recommend sanding them off a bit to make sure they are nice and flesh and also set at the right dihedral angles. It is important at this stage to cut the required dihedral angle in the root edges of the wings so that the edges will rest squarely against the sides of the fuselage when fitted to the completed plane. The dihedral angle of this build is 4 degrees as is the angle designed into the dihedral braces.

The dihedral braces were designed to allow the wing halves to connect to it from both sides establishing a dihedral angle while leaving a flat surface between the wing halves which is used to connect the wing flat on underside of the fuselage. The dihedral braces can be connected to the wing halves using either hot glue or epoxy. The hot glue / epoxy is applied the brace is then slid into the wing centre section with the upturned ends facing forward the brace is then twisted so that it makes contact with the front spar and the ends are facing upwards.

The rear brace is fitted in a similar manner to the rear wing spar of the centre section. It’s important to glue the dihedral braces spread apart one from the other to avoid a wing twist in mid air. Ensure that the bottoms of the wings, the leading edges, and the trailing edges all line up with their opposite number to ensure you do not introduce a twist in the wings and destroy the planes ability to fly properly. This must be done and held in place whilst the glue sets properly. The gap between the wing roots must be the same as the fuselage width or a fraction less. A larger gap will not allow the wings to fit securely and cause serious control issues.

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Once the wing piece was created it was time to connect it to the fuselage. The wing piece was planned to connect to the underside of the fuselage sliding into two slots that would be cut out for the dihedral braces. The wing would later be held into place internally using BBQ skewers and rubber bands. But before I made the cuts to the fuselage I wanted to check where the plane balances out to understand where to locate the wings to balance out on the second wing spare. I did this across the different batteries I had and tested the balance with a 2S 1000mah, 3S 800mah, 3S 1000mah and 3S 1300mah batteries. The starting point, or target, for the balance or C.G. point is just forward of the center of the 2 fold lines in the wing upper surface.

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After understanding where the plane balances out I marked the location of the dihedral braces and cut out the slots for them. I fitted the wing and punchard two holes on the middle of the fuselage using BBQ skewers on which the rubber bands will be held.

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To finish off the design and close up the top hatch of the original TT I decided to create a canopy. One that would be remove able and would be held down using the BBQ holes that were already created to hold down the wings of the original TT.

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Preflight check and we are all ready for a first maiden. I maidened the SpiTTT with 2 different battery setups to be able to experience the SpiTT’s performance with more and less power. I started off with more power to make sure I can launch it at 50% throttle.

Maiden 1 Setup:
Prop: 6x4
Motor: Emax MT1806 2280kv
ESC: BLHeli 15A
Battery: 3S 800mah


Maiden 2 Setup:
Prop: 6x4
Motor: Emax MT1806 2280kv
ESC: BLHeli 15A
Battery: 2S 1000mah


My tips and experience flying the SpiTTT:
The SpiTTT behaves exactly like I would expect a warbird too. It’s edgy and fast allowing you to take sharp turns and do tight loops. To my surprise it could also fly very slow allowing you to practice flying a warbird with a low belly lander. With the 3S 800mah battery I could cruise even with 25% throttle, with the 2S 1000mah I was cruising on 50%. When launching a horizontal toss with 50% throttle on a 3S 800mah battery and 75% on a 2S 1000mah should be fine. With the 2S 1000mah battery I recommend using a 6x3 prop think it will be easier to control on high throttle. On landings I’d recommend to come down facing the wind cut down throttle, keep the wings level and let it slide in. When it comes to aerobatics you can do anything that you can do with the Tiny Trainer just tighter. As some might know I have problems setting deflection rates and expos (not sure I know how) so I don’t have much personal information to share about that, considering I have never flew with those.

I flew the first SpiTTT that I built once more crashing it on purpose to understand its weak spots. I crashed it hard a few times and no real damage was done. At some point the dihedral braces disconnected but nothing that couldn’t be fixed with some hot glue or epoxy. I decided not to fix the broken SpiTTT because I wanted to re-experience the build process once more to make sure that it can be built be anyone who has built the original TT. While building a new SpiTTT I decided to also address an issue I faced when trying to secure the wings in place internally with the rubber bands which wasn’t all that easy. All aside try to figure out how to make the dihedral braces hold on better to the foam.

Knowing now that the SpiTTT would fly and the modification was valid; I decided to give the new SpiTTT was building a paint job.
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Be on the lookout for more to come regarding the build process of the painted SpiTTT, tips and first maiden...


To get some inputs from an experienced pilot I asked Bob better known on the forum as @Hai-Lee to also build this modification and give his feedback about the build process, the flying experience and also include information about deflection rates and expos that he would recommend.

Bob’s (@Hai-Lee) feedback:
“The version I built flew very well on even my low power “Newbie” setup. I found it was easier to cut the horizontal tail in after the tail boom was already folded and glued. It was just a lot easier.
In addition I made a few detail/build changes which are just the standard thing for me. I surface mounted my aileron servos to the underside of the wing and had the output arm protrude through the top of the wing via a slot. This was done because it is a low wing belly lander and I wanted the servo arm and the control horns clear of the ground.
My slots were cut in the fuselage and were slightly less width than the thickness of the ply so that I could get a tight/jam fit to help keep everything in place. It doesn’t really need it but it costs nothing and makes me feel a little better. The leads from the aileron servos were fed into the fuselage using the rear wing brace slot, a bit of extra packing!
On my transmitter I used the TT model slot setup for 3 channel newbie training. It had 40% expo on the flight control surfaces and I even used the original deflection setups, I had also salvaged the servos and control horns so in reality I just did a swap over without any real transmitter adjustments.
My test flight as will be seen in my separate post on this thread was started with a bungee launcher as is gives a really high launch speed but I need not have bothered. It took off like a rocket on the bungee and maintained a decent pace considering my setup. The roll was rather scale like, not extremely fast and a little too slow to do too close to the ground. The elevator was surprising as with my setup it could do a full loop in what felt like twice its own length. The rudder was effective though in reality it was not needed or used much as the plane flew sweetly.
The flight speed range was surprising as on about 80 Watts of power it was quite quick though not lightning fast and without throttle it slowed quickly and then tended to float gently, (to me better than the original sport wing). Landing was no big deal. With a gentle glide and effectively a gentle settle on the ground.
I did 2 flights on the bird the first I did not count on the elevator response and my battery did dislodge and was swinging by its lead, (OOPS), so after landing I secured the battery properly and launched again. As a result of the test flights I have 2 newbies who want one so it looks like I may have to build at least one other.
Opinion! If the wings are built properly and the braces fitted correctly this will give hours of fun and even give the step towards flying that first warbird. As shown it can allow you to fly the standard TT wings and change over at the field to fly the SPITTT when you feel like it.
Should the need arise, (due to crash damage or the like you can just glue the braces and wing roots to the fuselage and have a nice and quite solid warbird trainer. As for performance upgrades I flew on 80 Watts and I know you can easily shoehorn in over 200 Watts of power onto the TT powerpod.


Recommended setup:
Basically the same settings as used for the TT but for those still a little unsure here are some recommendations!


Aileron setup is; +21mm -15mm with 40% expo (30% would be fine though. (For a low rate reduce deflection by only around 10% Recommend +/- 15mm) The reason for the different aileron deflections in different directions is that I always use aileron differential to balance aileron drag and hence yaw effects.

Elevator setup; +/- 13mm with 40% expo Recommend a low rate of +/- 10mm with around 30% expo

Rudder deflection is; +/- 12mm with 40% Expo. Whilst it might appear a little low. it works OK, (If you ever fit undercarriage it would need to be increased by about 50%). Expo recommended would be around 30%.

Use the original TT powerpod and ensure that you use the same side thrust angle. A slight increase in down angle might be required for some if the motor power is a little higher than the original TT setup/

Launching recommendations:
Launch as you would a standard TT. Power setting at around 50% with a slight nose up attitude. As there is no hand hold under the CG point you could seek help from another person, use a bungee launcher, do an underhand toss or a GENTLE discus type throw. It does not require a very hard toss.”



Hope you will enjoy it like I did… Safe fly.

DOWNLOADABLE PLANS:
Tail parts
Wing Pieces
Canopy
That is pretty cool mayan. It looks like it fly's great. I will have to give it a try once I can handle the original Tiny Trainer. I have not tried the sport wing yet. I don't think I am there yet. More practice.
 

PoorManRC

Master member
My Friend, I'm falling further and further back, and you TOOK OFF!!!
If you could get someone to Laser Cut sheets with your Mod.... You could feasibly Market your Kit!! :eek::cool: (outside of the Community obviously!)

And...... I don't like to ASSUME, but you do live in Israel, and I've heard a little Israeli Language in your Videos....
Hope I'm not wrong but - Happy Asarah BeTevet and I hope you had a Happy Chanukah!!! ;):)
 

mayan

Legendary member
My Friend, I'm falling further and further back, and you TOOK OFF!!!
If you could get someone to Laser Cut sheets with your Mod.... You could feasibly Market your Kit!! :eek::cool: (outside of the Community obviously!)

And...... I don't like to ASSUME, but you do live in Israel, and I've heard a little Israeli Language in your Videos....
Hope I'm not wrong but - Happy Asarah BeTevet and I hope you had a Happy Chanukah!!! ;):)
Thanks buddy happy Xmas...
 

mayan

Legendary member
@d8veh, @Arcfyre when are you going to get it built? I am dying to hear your thoughts about it too :)

BTW I had better footage of the 2 maidens from a GoPro but the external HD I had put it on died on me second after I deleted the footage from the camera itself... :(

I promise not to make any mistakes this time and backup the footage in a few places before deleting it from the camera...

I’ll be editing the second post on this thread tomorrow at some point of the day. Adding to it the tips I can give you all after building my second SpiTTT. As well as include pictures of the painted version of the SpiTTT. As for a maiden video of it; you all will have to wait for Tuesday. Since I am working the morning shift tomorrow I’ll only be able to go out on Monday.