The start of my wing collection

Hey all. Just thought, I would post some stuff about my new toy.
After wanting one for a while, I decided to build myself a flying wing. I have never done anything like this before, so I was learning while I was building.
I dont have a build log for this one, but I'll try and do one for my next flying wing.
I didnt have any plans to build from either. All I had was a template of the airfoil with pictures and videos of people building theirs.
So here she is.
2012-06-27195223.jpg


Now, because I built this from scratch, I wasn't expecting anything special. So I waited for a nice calm day and took her up to the field about 3 mins walk from my house. Got everything setup and decided that I have waited long enough and put her into the air.
WOW How easy was that!? She flew really nice and I was really impressed. As you can hear on the video, I was a little nervous and my hands were a little shakey. So the flight wasn't perfect.
Here, have a look.
As you can tell, I need to work on my landings :eek:
The wing was a little twitchy, so after that flight, I took her home and made a few adjustments and played around with the mixes.
 

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Then, a couple of days later, it was time to take her out again.
Again, a nice easy launch and away she went. She flew a bit better, but still wasn't 100% I trimmed out the best I could. Now, because I'm still quite new to RC flight, watching, controlling and trimming the plane all at the same time isn't very easy especially when you get all exited and shakey :eek:
I decided to have a bit of a play around and while she was on her way down with WOT, the whole wing started fluttering. Erm... I think I found its max speed. So I ended up ditching it in the tall grass. Good idea to land in tall grass to soften the landing, but we then spent half an hour trying to find it.
Here is the video.
After a quick inspection and little rest, I took her up again because I still had about half the battery left. Again, it was a nice flight.
My countdown timer ran out so I was bringing her round to try and get a perfect landing. Not happening! As she was coming round, the only tree in the field decided to get in the way :mad: So I had to climb to the top of the tree to get her down. I haven't climbed a tree since I was a kid, but you never forget how :D
I still have a couple of adjustment to make. Think i need to dial in some expo to try and smooth out the flights.
Well, thats all for now. I'm gonna try and keep this thread dedicated to this and my future flying wings.
So, let me know what you think. Comment and rate the videos too :)
 

colorex

Rotor Riot!
Mentor
YAY! That's cool, flying wings are usually super tough fliers. If you get flutter, you can try adding carbon or fiberglass spars in it.
 
Thanks guys.
Colorex
It has CF spars already, so it is quite stiff. Im happy with it as it is because its strong enough for what I want.
For my next build, I think I'll try using CF Flat bar that is put in stood up and use more.
But yea, I have noticed that it is very durable.
Here is how the CF is arranged in this wing. I used 3mm CF Pultruded tube.
CF Spars.jpg
 

Brian fred carr

Site Moderator
Mentor
Gotta say I love my wing...its a great planes slinger and i took her out on thursday and on a steep dive she nearly folded on me . The flutter had the effect of shortening the control rods witch gave down inputs on the elevons witch flattened the wing out and so it repeats....at one point i thought it was flapping its wings and i was lucky to save her.....so no more steep dive for the slinger until I have chucked another rod in.....love your vids and the wing good job....keep flying
 

colorex

Rotor Riot!
Mentor
Oh, that's a nice setup, with the camera and the battery alarm and all the carbon! Seems like the flutter is your limit then!
 
I just picked up the wing to see how flexable it is. If i support the wing near the tips, the right way up, it can take quite a bit of weight before it flexes, but if i flip it upside down and to the same, it takes less weight to make the wing flex. I'm guessing its because all the carbon is on the top of the wing and theres none on the bottom.
That was the best arrangement i could come up with. I'm not happy with the battery alarm though because it is just sat on top of the wing. I might modify it a little so i can embed it into the wing. The battery alarm and the camera are just held on with stick on velcro and i have a rubber band on the camera that attaches to a hook in the wing, just incase the velcro lets go.
 

colorex

Rotor Riot!
Mentor
The battery alarm and the camera are just held on with stick on velcro and i have a rubber band on the camera that attaches to a hook in the wing, just incase the velcro lets go.

It's always good to tie those kinds of things to the plane :)

Those small cameras are especially hard to find!
 

colorex

Rotor Riot!
Mentor
Yea, i agree. Finding the plane in the tall grass is hard enough. If the camera was to come loose, i might as well buy a new one.

Sometimes tall grass is annoying - but I might as well need tall grass to land my FunBat, as it doesn't have landing gear, and it doesn't even have a prop saver. So if I hit the ground with the prop, I'll break something.
 
Thats the only thing i like about the tall grass. If something goes wrong, you can just bail and it will be cushioned by all that grass.
I wish i threw my nutball towards the tall grass. I have broken 3 props now. They were only cheap props, so I didnt really mind. But I have now run out of 8 inch props lol.
Thats also why I like the wing. There no chance of crashing nose first into the prop because its not there :)