*Unofficial* FT Tutor

[Draftman1]

Anyone know if the FT tutor was based on a real plane? If so what plane? Im trying to get ideas for paint.

It is not based on a real plane but it’s designed after the most popular classic r/c trainers, FT took the best of all of these trainers and made the Tudor, Go to page one of this thread and the first post explains it.
Back in the days of build your own and the original ARF’s. They were the most popular .40 glow fuel size trainers

 

[Matthewdupreez]

Hey guys out of curiosity what is the listed all up weight for this plane on the plans? And what is the average userbuilt all up weight?

 

[CappyAmeric]

Hey guys out of curiosity what is the listed all up weight for this plane on the plans? And what is the average userbuilt all up weight?

Build weight 680g with C pack motor. AUW depends on 4s or 3s used.

 

[Matthewdupreez]

Build weight 680g with C pack motor. AUW depends on 4s or 3s used.

👌👌👍

 

[RossFPV]

Hey guys out of curiosity what is the listed all up weight for this plane on the plans? And what is the average userbuilt all up weight?

Mine is 696 i think and the plans say 635g dry weight

 

[Aslansmonkey]

Wow, mine is chonky at 730g, sans battery.

 

[dylanbeaudette]

Do you use landing gear or just belly land on grass? I really like our FT Tutor, but landing on grass (large wheels, taildragger configuration) never ends well.

 

[RossFPV]

Do you use landing gear or just belly land on grass? I really like our FT Tutor, but landing on grass (large wheels, taildragger configuration) never ends well.

If you own the property you fly at you can cut the grass shorter to make a runway.

 

[Foamforce]

I flew my Tutor for the first time yesterday! I flew with a C pack, a 1300mah battery, floats, and the sport wing.

It got off to a bumpy start due to COG issues. I had it balanced at the marked locations and a touch nose heavy. To get it to balance, I had to move the battery all the way under the windshield, mounted the ESC at the far rear of the pod, and mounted the receiver back in the tail. After all that, it balanced nicely. However, when I flew it, it was clearly tail heavy. I ended up moving my battery three or four inches forward, so that it was under the removable hatch. After that it flew pretty nicely. I saw somebody else had a similar issue. Either the COG changes with floats, or there might be an error in the plans. I won’t be able to test with wheels for a couple months, so I can’t say. Regardless, other than an exciting first flight, it’s behaving pretty well now.

Another issue I had was that my floats started coming out after a couple aerobatic maneuvers. The rear came loose and the front of the floats got chewed up by the prop. Fortunately I managed to land it and there was no damage to the plane at all. A couple pieces of packing tape and I was flying again.

The last issue I had was that the rear of the wing, where it’s a single layer thick, folded up due to the rubber bands compressing front to back. The same thing happened on my Storch, so it was easy to fix with some extra foam filling the gap. I wonder if this had anything to do with my COG issues since it changed the angle of attack on the wing, and maybe move the center of lift?

Oh yeah, one more issue I had during building was that my power pod didn’t fit. It was about 1/16” too wide. I didn’t fold the power pod wrong (it matched the FT firewall that I used) and I did remove the paper from the doublers. Maybe I didn’t compress the doublers well enough when I glued them on, although there is no visible gap. Regardless, it was fairly easy to fix by cutting 1/16” out of the middle of the power pod template and also sanding 1/16” off the firewall.

All that said, it flew fairly well after a couple teething problems, and that was despite a windy day and flying with floats for the first time!

 

[dylanbeaudette]

Awesome video! I also had some COG issues with the Tutor, although I built with 3" foam wheels. Based on some advice from the 'forums, I went with a 2200mAh battery which seems to work well.

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/L1E482hDdO4

It is interesting that you mention the power pack not fitting... I just experienced the same problem with a new FT DR1 kit. I've built several speed build kits, and this is the first time that the doublers seem "too thick". Nice idea on cutting off a little from the power pod. Since the DR1 is so small, I might just crush the foam down a little bit and try once more.

Based on my previous attempts at landing on grass, I'm considering removing the landing gear and sticking to belly landing on grass.

Here is a view from the air. Note that a more skilled friend was flying this time!

 

[bisco]

well done all! i love snow videos from here in florida

 

[Foamforce]

Here’s a landing on the snow. Commentary from my son. The fact that he was so enthusiastic about this landing might be revealing. 😀

I really liked how stable the floats felt. Ground steering was near impossible with them, but they tracked really nicely, so takeoff was easier and it had no tendency to tip onto its nose on landing like my Cubs.

 

[bisco]

beautiful, well done!

 

[Foamforce]

Today I flew with the trainer wing and it was a little easier. I think I did stall less frequently. I have two questions that I’m hoping people can help with though.

1. With the Tutor (either wing) and my Storch (which has split ailerons and flaps), I find that I need to do a fair amount of counter-aileron to keep from rolling too much when I use rudder to do coordinated turns. I start by rolling a little with the ailerons, which causes visible adverse yaw, and then I apply rudder. As soon as I apply rudder, the roll gets a lot steeper so that I usually fly the rest of the turn with the ailerons in the opposite direction as the rudder. I fly fine this way, but it’s not what I expect. Fwiw, I have a small amount of differential for my ailerons. Today I had a 30% aileron to rudder mix as well, although last time I flew the Tutor with the sport wing I didn’t have that, and had the same behavior. So what’s going on here?
2. Do planes flying with floats just fly a little clumsily? I’ve only flown the Tutor with floats so far and it doesn’t seem to fly as well as my other planes, even my Cubs, but again I’ve only ever flown the tutor with the floats and I’ve never flown any other planes with them.

Thanks all!




Edit: I found this discussion over on RC Universe that describes my first point.

“My Cub displays an interesting characteristic. I have to apply a little opposite AILERON in most turns. If I don't, then the Cub will roll too much. Seems like there's a lot of roll coupled with the rudder. Haven't figured it out yet, but it doesn't seem to affect landing approaches, probably because I'm only using ailerons to keep the wings level anyway.” - DBCherry

”In the case of DBCherry's cub, Neutralizing the rudder in the turn should minimize the overbanking tendency, however airplanes with long wings turning a tight radius tend to overbank some since the end of the wing toward the inside of the turn has a little less airspeed than the outboard portion. The correct reaction to this overbanking is a little opposite aileron as he described.” - LouW

So I wonder if I’m just making very tight turns, causing me to have to give counter-aileron. I never got any proper training.

 

[bisco]

looks like a great flyer! floats, even gear will effect air friction, weight and cg, so there's always going to be some negative vs no gear at all.

 

[dylanbeaudette]

A typical landing with the large wheels… Balancing on the prop is harder than it looks!

 

[bisco]

i have a similar field, you're better off with floats

 

[Spadman]

Greetings from Oklahoma! I just finished my Bush Tutor 😆!! No maiden per se but I did do some fast taxi tests that got some air under the chubby tires!! Fun build but the painting was a disaster. My intent was to make it blue with white stripes and stars like a Super Decathlon. Scuffed and sanded the white paper and even with a thin primer coat the paint pulls away with no effort. Oh well. The gear wire is inadequate and will need some crossed rubberbands and skewers to stiffen them enough for further taxi tests and flights. Maiden to follow as soon as The Great Plains figures out how not to have tornados for a day or so!

 

[dylanbeaudette]

Smokin! I love those large wheels. What is the diameter? I too have had trouble with masking tape (white or blue) removing the underlying paint. I gave up on that approach and now use cardboard sheets as linear "masks" that I hold against the plane. The lines aren't clean, but the planes look nice while they are up in the air.

 

[Spadman]

They are 4.3”. I took 2 rubberbands, wrapped one on each gear leg right behind the wheel collar and took them across to the top of the opposite gear leg like a J3 Cub. To tune the tension (or support) the rubberbands give I wrapped them a couple times around the gear wire before crossing to the opposite side. It is much better now but I think a secondary gear wire would work better to keep the gear wire from folding back on a rough landing or tall grass.