WIP: Swappable Piper PA-12 Super Cruiser

thatjoshguy

Senior Member
You should be able to choose the save as feature and then save it as a SketchUp 8 file.

Yup, what this guy says ^^^

There must have been another step when I got it to work in 2014. I know I was just hacking around trying to get it to work and then it just sort of did, lol.

I got the v2 plans printed and cut out last night, hope to get all the parts cut from foam by the weekend!
 

VAND3R

Member
Ha nice! I figured it out you can see what I have so far on my F2A buffalo swappable thread. I think I may build this one :D
 

thatjoshguy

Senior Member
Ha nice! I figured it out you can see what I have so far on my F2A buffalo swappable thread. I think I may build this one :D

Good deal!

I just submitted my first article (awaiting approval) which will walk you through taking your flattened parts, laying them out, and crating a PDF using only free tools. Keep an eye out for it ;)

Also, if you haven't seen them yet - check out these tutorials by another member (JasonEricAnderson) on using SketchUp and the Flattery plugin: http://flitetest.com/authors/JasonEricAnderson
 

thatjoshguy

Senior Member
V2 of the fuse is built!

IMAG1771.jpg

Much simpler to cut and glue this time, and a lot cleaner looking I think. Lot less material in the back, but still strong. Above photo is still missing two formers/supports in the back.

At this point it looks like the love child of the Spitfire and Old Fogey (ewwww...), but I promise it'll look sweet soon :)
 

VAND3R

Member
glad you could take some material off the back, should help in the tail heavy tendency of V1. And that looks SWEET! I am definitely building this one!
 

thatjoshguy

Senior Member
AAAARGH!!! Was going to try and complete the build this weekend, but when I test-fit the powerpod in the fuse I realized the plans were NOT PRINTED TO SCALE. AAAAAAAAARRRRGGGHHH!

We have a plotter at work, but only one guy has access and apparently he was in a hurry. I should have caught it sooner as the sections you clear out for A and B folds seemed a little big, but I figured I had just cut poorly. ugh...

So anyway that's a weekend lost, I'll need to reprint the plans, transfer, and cut all over again. This time I'll print the dang things myself.
 

VAND3R

Member
Bro that's gotta stink! I too have been having issues whenever I do an SVG save it saves an SVG file but I can't open it with any web browser, gimp doesn't work either.
I hope you get the scale right next time!
 

VAND3R

Member
I never had a problem apparently in the first place, It was just blown up so big I thought it was all blank, just had to scale it down.
 

nerdnic

nerdnic.com
Mentor
Let us know how it goes, I have the plans saved but I wanted to wait until you give us a thumbs up that all the kinks are worked out.
 

thatjoshguy

Senior Member
Don't blame you, but it should be decent this time around. With all the details it was just a little too heavy for the little motor I was using, and I was having prop saver issues as well. The plans hold up, and it's a solid plane with plenty of wing area.

With a better motor and prop adapter, along with the better CG, I'm confident this one will fly just fine. I've learned a lot too, which is awesome.
 

thatjoshguy

Senior Member
IMAG1794.jpg

Looks like a plane again. CG with power pod and battery in place is center wing :)

No push rods yet, sitting at about 350g AUW.
 

Jaxx

Posted a thousand or more times
Josh,
I'm starting to wonder if that motor is enough to power this plane. I have the original plans printed and cut. Trying to decide if I should build the original version or if I should just cut out the plans for version two.
 

thatjoshguy

Senior Member
Well if you have v1 cut you could probably fly it just fine with a better motor and larger battery. It needed some weight in the nose and more power, so if you have it go for it. Just let me know how it goes!
 

NewZee

Member
Josh,
I'm starting to wonder if that motor is enough to power this plane. I have the original plans printed and cut. Trying to decide if I should build the original version or if I should just cut out the plans for version two.

I built a cub very similar in size and weight to the Piper (40"WS) I used an NTM 28 26 1200kv motor with a 7X5 and 8X6 prop and it had plenty of power cub 6 (4).JPG
 

thatjoshguy

Senior Member
The motor I posted above (Turnigy D2836/8 1100KV) has a ton of power if needed. Found a video on youtube of someone testing it, and they provided this lovely spreadsheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet...NGVEMnZnRzNzMkJab2dfRjlxMnc&usp=sharing#gid=0

I'm going with that motor, a 30A ESC (Red Brick), and a 3s 2200mAh 20C lipo. I have a few 9x5 DD props laying around so I'll start there and experiment up and down to see what works best.

I got an extra set to toss on my Bloody Wonder because I crave speed. :)

I finished up the push rods and whatnot, so at this point I just need the poster board on the back, landing gear, and a good way to connect the wing supports. I may just glue them on for now since this is a prototype (not gonna make the mistake of painting this one until I see it in the air), but I still love NewZee's idea of the ring connectors.

The local club is having their season opening on the 16th, so I definitely want to have this ready by then.