Want to finally get into building RC planes, do you think my plan is good?

[jan_von_falken]

Hello guys,
I am Jan from Germany, I'm 15 years old and I've been interested in RC for a long time, I think I started watching FliteTest when I was 11 or 12. Since then I've always wanted to build my own RC plane or racing drone, but I just kinda pushed the idea back because of the high cost and the fact that I already had a couple of Hubsan X4s and a Yuneec Q500. Now I'm thinking of finally making my own plane, but staying at a very low budget of <150€.

I already have a nice charger, so the only things I'd really need would be a radio, receiver, motor, esc, batteries and a couple of servos. I am thinking of going for a FrSky QX7, which would leave me with a budget of 50€ for the rest of the electronics, which should be fine if I get them really cheap at banggood. I do not excpect them to last, and I am probably going to crash them anyways so the low quality shouldn't be a problem.

Now comes the part I am a bit doubtfull about: I want to make my plane from just Depron and without any real plans. I have never been particularly good at following plans exactly, lol. I think I can do this since I know basic principles of aviation, e.g. CG placement, control surface sizing, e.t.c. I have tried building planes with wingspans of >0.5m from just newspapers, which worked suprisingly well, so this gives me some confidence. I would make my plane up of a wing constructed with Andrew Newtons method, and a simple box section fuselage with plywood firewall. Do you guys think I could achieve such a thing?

Thanks in advance,
Jan

 

[FastCrash45]

Hello guys,
I am Jan from Germany, I'm 15 years old and I've been interested in RC for a long time, I think I started watching FliteTest when I was 11 or 12. Since then I've always wanted to build my own RC plane or racing drone, but I just kinda pushed the idea back because of the high cost and the fact that I already had a couple of Hubsan X4s and a Yuneec Q500. Now I'm thinking of finally making my own plane, but staying at a very low budget of <150€.

I already have a nice charger, so the only things I'd really need would be a radio, receiver, motor, esc, batteries and a couple of servos. I am thinking of going for a FrSky QX7, which would leave me with a budget of 50€ for the rest of the electronics, which should be fine if I get them really cheap at banggood. I do not excpect them to last, and I am probably going to crash them anyways so the low quality shouldn't be a problem.

Now comes the part I am a bit doubtfull about: I want to make my plane from just Depron and without any real plans. I have never been particularly good at following plans exactly, lol. I think I can do this since I know basic principles of aviation, e.g. CG placement, control surface sizing, e.t.c. I have tried building planes with wingspans of >0.5m from just newspapers, which worked suprisingly well, so this gives me some confidence. I would make my plane up of a wing constructed with Andrew Newtons method, and a simple box section fuselage with plywood firewall. Do you guys think I could achieve such a thing?

Thanks in advance,
Jan

Shouldn't be a problem.

 

[jaredstrees]

You should be fine. Some of my favorite planes to fly are just boxy fuselages. And I love my qx7, great radio.

 

[The Hangar]

Sounds like a great plan! Good luck, and let us know what you come up with! Welcome to the great hobby!

 

[Chuppster]

Hello guys,
I am Jan from Germany, I'm 15 years old and I've been interested in RC for a long time, I think I started watching FliteTest when I was 11 or 12. Since then I've always wanted to build my own RC plane or racing drone, but I just kinda pushed the idea back because of the high cost and the fact that I already had a couple of Hubsan X4s and a Yuneec Q500. Now I'm thinking of finally making my own plane, but staying at a very low budget of <150€.

I already have a nice charger, so the only things I'd really need would be a radio, receiver, motor, esc, batteries and a couple of servos. I am thinking of going for a FrSky QX7, which would leave me with a budget of 50€ for the rest of the electronics, which should be fine if I get them really cheap at banggood. I do not excpect them to last, and I am probably going to crash them anyways so the low quality shouldn't be a problem.

Now comes the part I am a bit doubtfull about: I want to make my plane from just Depron and without any real plans. I have never been particularly good at following plans exactly, lol. I think I can do this since I know basic principles of aviation, e.g. CG placement, control surface sizing, e.t.c. I have tried building planes with wingspans of >0.5m from just newspapers, which worked suprisingly well, so this gives me some confidence. I would make my plane up of a wing constructed with Andrew Newtons method, and a simple box section fuselage with plywood firewall. Do you guys think I could achieve such a thing?

Thanks in advance,
Jan

The QX7 is a fantastic radio, but keep in mind the receiver is $20 - $30 (here in the US). That leaves you with $20-$30 for guts, and that'll be really tight. Do you have an income where you can save up a little bit longer?

 

[jan_von_falken]

Thanks for the replies! I will order parts from banggood so shipping might take a while, but I'll post an update when I built the plane.
@Chuppster
I found a receiver on banggood for 15€, that should leave me with enough money. I could also spend more, but I dont want to really. My budget is also 150€, which amounts to about 170$.

 

[Chuppster]

Thanks for the replies! I will order parts from banggood so shipping might take a while, but I'll post an update when I built the plane.
@Chuppster
I found a receiver on banggood for 15€, that should leave me with enough money. I could also spend more, but I dont want to really. My budget is also 150€, which amounts to about 170$.

Which receiver is it?

 

[Corbarrad]

Thanks for the replies! I will order parts from banggood so shipping might take a while, but I'll post an update when I built the plane.
@Chuppster
I found a receiver on banggood for 15€, that should leave me with enough money. I could also spend more, but I dont want to really. My budget is also 150€, which amounts to about 170$.

You need to be careful ordering from Banggood in Germany.
If the vendor didn't do the paperwork for you customs will make you pay VAT on top as soon as your total invoice is more than 22€ and they might not even hand over the goods if they're not marked with "CE" conformity.
You will also have to pick up your packet at the customs office, which might prove an additional challenge for a 15-year-old. These things aare few and far between and their opening hours are... typical government agency.

 

[jan_von_falken]

Ok, quick update: Everything but the transmitter battery arrived in September and I already have the wing and fuselage finished. The only things left to do are the motor mount and wing mount. I am holding off on those until I can test my components though, but due to lipo shipping restrictions the transmitter battery is apparently being sent by ship and will therefore arrive at the end of the month...

You need to be careful ordering from Banggood in Germany.
If the vendor didn't do the paperwork for you customs will make you pay VAT on top as soon as your total invoice is more than 22€ and they might not even hand over the goods if they're not marked with "CE" conformity.
You will also have to pick up your packet at the customs office, which might prove an additional challenge for a 15-year-old. These things aare few and far between and their opening hours are... typical government agency.

I've heard that banggood is suprisingly good at circumventing the taxes problem-free shipping if you select the "priority direct mail" option, and they are. I got my packages that were over the tax-free limit sent by 2 separate warehouses, one in Germany and one in the netherlands. They must have taken care of the taxes there

Which receiver is it?

I ordered the Motive-RC D8 receiver, should work fine because I have the international version of the Q X7.

 

[The Hangar]

Any pics of your plane?

 

[jan_von_falken]

Any pics of your plane?

Sure, here is one:

A little rough around the edges, but It should fly alright. I still need to work out the wing positioning and connect the two wing halfs, once It's completed I'll post some more detailed pics too.

 

[jan_von_falken]

Ok, I completed it and today I had my first few Flights, and my first few harder landings .

Flight 1 (15s): I got it into the air, was to excited to keep it going for too long of a time, so I brought it back down after 2 full circles. I must have wiggled loose the elevator servo control horn though, I was'nt able to get it screwed down but thought it was secure enough, seemingly not...

Starting Attempt 2: Plane nosedived because elevator wasn't working, prop was bent.
Starting Attempt 2: Plane nosedived because elevator wasn't working, prop broke.

Flight 3 (2-3min), now with a 10" prop and connected elevator:
Worked well, but it felt tail heavy and I had to give it constant elevator down to keep it from stalling. Brought it back in, the elevator was not centered so I reset the control horn. I think I bent the new prop on landing though...

Flight 4 (3-4min), Everything felt good at first but I had to somehow keep a higher throttle than before, probably because of the bent prop. I had to keep 60% throttle in order to not have the nose dip, while I made the turn to bring it back in it entered into a spiral and crashed. Bent the fuselage a bit, but I was able to get it back together. It also ripped out the rear servos, one pigtail of the rx (It's and RX, it cant burn out right?) and pushed my motor mount in, so I called it a day.

I got it all fixed up again, but I need new props from china anyways so I decided to redo my motor mount, and this time make it properly with screws and not with hot glue. I like the fact that it pushed in though, that could've saved the motor.

I'll upload some pics on my phone in a second, I also had a GoPro recording, I'll post that footage here when I get the time to upload it to Youtube.

 

[jan_von_falken]

Here are some photos.