The Eagle has landed, or is it flying?

jamboree1

Active member
Here is a scratchbuilt American Bald Eagle slow flyer. This design is super easy to build and uses a KFM3 wing. I am using a hextronik 1200 kv blue wonder and a APC 8x3.8 SF prop and a 1300 3s battery and uses a standard FT power pod. AUW is 570 grams. I am flying this as a RET altough ailerons could be used but this plane responds superb with just rudder and elevator. Perfect for lazy flying and looks great in the air. Vid later maybe. I'm no artist, neither is wife and kids, so my wife colored this in for me using colored pencils. eagle 020.jpg eagle 021.jpg eagle 022.jpg eagle 023.jpg eagle 024.jpg eagle 025.jpg eagle 026.jpg flight vid, wind was about 10 mph, lot of wind noise so i'd turn off sound
 
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jamboree1

Active member
View attachment eagle dtfb.pdf plans for those that want them, wing and tail feathers only have 1 copy of each, you will need 2x of each wing piece and 3 of the tail feathers, or just 2 tail feather pieces if doing a v-tail build. And 2 of the side pieces.
 
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SP0NZ

FT CAD Gremlin
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Pretty cool. I don't see the horizontal stabilizer on the plans?

Tell your wife I think she did a great job. Looks like an eagle to me.
 

jamboree1

Active member
Sponz, it's there, just plain white, A v-tail could be done too, might look more realistic, but in the air only a bird's eye view could tell
 

jamboree1

Active member
Ohh, in the plans.. all 3 pieces of the tail feathers are the same, just the horizontal is cut down a bit to fit, those plans are for a v-tail, i don't care much for v-tails so i cut out a third piece for stabilizer to "TLAR" specs
 
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ghost civic

Senior Member
I had one of these 2 years ago...built from depron. I got it at a swap meet. Nice park flyer. Mine was a V tail. You could get it up high and cut the throttle and glide around for a good long time. Birds didn't like it tho :) I let a friend fly it and he nosed it into the ground (not very experienced at all) and all I have let is the wing.
 

degriz

Active member
Looks great, I am leaning more towards slow floaty things lately. Might have to give it a try.
 

Joker 53150

Mmmmmmm, balsa.
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Looks like a fun project. A couple questions:
- The dihedral is 4 degrees, about 1.5" per wing. Is that measured before or after folding the wing tips up?
- It's hard to tell for sure by the pictures, but it appears that the wing is made simply by layering the smaller wing sections on top of the main wing, correct?
- What do you use for the spar?
 

jamboree1

Active member
Looks like a fun project. A couple questions:
- The dihedral is 4 degrees, about 1.5" per wing. Is that measured before or after folding the wing tips up?
- It's hard to tell for sure by the pictures, but it appears that the wing is made simply by layering the smaller wing sections on top of the main wing, correct?
- What do you use for the spar?

For the wingtips and main wing dihederal i used the the guage that came with the old speedster or old fogey, you must have a tape measure built in your eyeballs as both measurements are 1 1/2" when laid flat on a table.But I did do the wingtip dihederal first, just score the line and fold up. And yes the wing pieces are layerd on top of each other, start with big piece, then middle, then small. I used a type of glue meant for fabrics for this part that i found at dollar tree as it is a lot lighter than hot glue and gives you time to smear it on the whole piece. be warned though, once both pieces make contact you only have 2-3 seconds to get them aligned, it sets that fast. As being a KFm with layerd pices i seen no need for a spar, this wing is very stiff. It's hard to see in the pics but i did taper the feathers down for aesthetic looks.
 

jamboree1

Active member
I did a flight with a 2200 3s battery, I really didn't expect the lil blue wonder 1300 motor to pull this off but it did. Although it flew ok with the 2200 i did have to have the throttle 2 clicks faster than the 1300 battery for level flight, but this was expected as it weighs about 70 grams more. Also tried a 7x4 prop, negative effect there. I will now go see if i can get an 8x6 to fit on the prop saver just to see how it flies at a faster speed.
 

degriz

Active member
I got the fuselage glued up & tail
Feathers cut and hinged
Cutting wings later today.

So far no problems, trying to decide on paint ,colored pencil like yours
or maybe crayon for the markings.

I have a blue wonder but only 800 mah battery, I might have to add nose weight.
 

jamboree1

Active member
I got the fuselage glued up & tail
Feathers cut and hinged
Cutting wings later today.

So far no problems, trying to decide on paint ,colored pencil like yours
or maybe crayon for the markings.

I have a blue wonder but only 800 mah battery, I might have to add nose weight.

I thought of crayon, then i thought of heat and crayon..not good, so I used pencil, and then i sprayed clear coat over that. My 1300 battery weighs 101 grams, and i even added 30 grams of nose weight to it for a great CoG. So with that in mind you can use a larger motor easily.
 

degriz

Active member
I have a blue wonder looking for a home, trying to use what I have available.

Here is a pic of an idea I have been kicking around for a finish, not sure on the amount of weight it will add.

I think Wing would be to large an area to cover like this.

ATT_1428655201949_20150410_043908_HDR-crop.jpg
 

Craftydan

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I have a blue wonder looking for a home, trying to use what I have available.

Here is a pic of an idea I have been kicking around for a finish, not sure on the amount of weight it will add.

I think Wing would be to large an area to cover like this.

Build it, De-laminate the paper from the foam board and glue down the printed paper in it's place. There's a good chance that may keep the weight the same, and if you're careful about your choice of adhesives and print paper, you'll get a great finish that could resist delamination.

I'd build a tube or two of foamboard first to prototype before I attempted it on the nice version. One more reason to keep those old broken DTFB planes around . . . as test subjects!
 

jamboree1

Active member
I have a blue wonder looking for a home, trying to use what I have available.

Here is a pic of an idea I have been kicking around for a finish, not sure on the amount of weight it will add.

I think Wing would be to large an area to cover like this.

View attachment 44808

That's a good idea for the covering, you can try craftydan's idea to save weight. I'm not sure i mentioned this but for layering the wings I used a fabric glue, which i highly suspect it's just alot like elmers white glue to save a lot of weight. I'm also including a picture of inside electronics and servo setup because the original plans had the servos set up on the very end of the tail feathers, which to me is a bad idea due to making it even more tail heavy. i built a small box to hold the 2 servos as close as to the FT power pod as i could and i added 1 piece of foamboard to support the back of the powerpod so you won't have to depend on a BBQ skewer to hold up the pod on it's own. This bird is also built from left over electronics that needed a home. eagle electronics.jpg