Simple Tricopter [BUILD]

Hi everyone, I have finally built my first multi rotor machine. It had to be cheap and it had to be a decent flyer. The components used for this build are not the best, but they work very well and the final result came out to be quite punchy and maneuverable. Again using one of my favorite go to site Flite Test, I used the David Windestal tricopter layout and downloaded the plans for it. I modified them slightly instead of using the original shape I closed the frame plates up so they look like the tombstone designs. Materials used are what I had already, a legnth of 12mm square dowel and 3mm plywood. All cut up and painted in black.

With that finished I choose all the electrical parts, below is the list :
KK2.1 Flight Control board(with stock firmware)
Emax 2822 1200kv motors
Afro opto 30A escs
Tower pro 9g metal gear servo
Gemfan 8x4.5 props
Frsky V8FR - II reciver

The most expensive of those where the controllers which I bought unused from a friend of mine. All in the tricopter cost around €110 without the batteries of course. Construction is simple, using a lot of  cable ties to tie down most thing, it is one of the best ways to secure components onto the tricopter as it allows the components to break free in a harsh landing or accidents, and repairs are quick and easy, a must for those still learning to fly, as in my case.

The tail motor assembly is very simple, the servo is attached to the motor mount directly and on the other side I use a piece of bent steel and a self tapping screw with washers. again everything is tied down using cable ties and the a little hot glue, which was used to hold the piece in place until tied down.


The wiring was simple enough online there are several videos documenting this and there is no need to go through. The power distribution cable were soldered up and a couple of extra power out used for thing like the LEDs for example.

The final result is a light tricopter, cheap to build and to repair, and yes its untidy for now. The frame is able to close up making it very portable and as well.
 

All that is left is to find a decent day and properly fly this thing, up until this time the Tricopter has only hovered and needed some settings other than that No actual flying yet.

Until then Happy Flying!

FT Spitfire [UPDATE]

Hi there, this will be a small update on the FT spitfire I build some time ago. It flew great and looks the, it only needed some paint. With that excuse I bought an airbrush and some paint. The airbrush in question is a very cheap generic dual action airbrush. Paints are normal oil based paint, thinned out using white spirit. 

The plane started out like this.

The plane just after its maiden flight nice and white

Although this was never going to be a scale model, it was always in my mind to get close to the livery of the Spitfires that served over my country. After some research I found that due to the type of land here, the hues are different from those of the Spitfires flown in the UK. It was a mix of some sort of grey blue with brown colours. The colours were mixed and I got to work. The base coat is a slightly blueish grey which covers the hole plane. 

plane painted in the base colour

Next came the brown camouflage scheme on top of the grey to do this I used masking tape, using a good blade , line were cut along the tape in random wave patterns. Using these pieces the areas where masked off. 

Masking up

Using the airbrush the outline of the brown areas was first done and then filled in with colour. A small tip which I should have done was to first dirty up the masking tape by sticking it to my clothes which reduces its stickiness, thus not pulling away any paint as it was being removed. The result were quite good though. 

After removing the masking tape

The last thing was to paint some insignia, some RAF roundels and tail markings. 

Finished for now and drying 

As it stand now the plane needs only a canopy, pilot and a red spinner. It will not fly before its ready, you never know what could happen in flight and at I want a picture of the completed aircraft before it loses to gravity some day.

Few things I learnt from this. 

• Mask areas properly otherwise you will have over spray on the unmasked areas. 
• Prepare all stencils beforehand
• If you are mixing any paint , mix a lot of it, you never know how much you need to used before. 
• When using an airbrush start spraying on a scrap piece and ten onto the area.

Until then.

Happy Flying.

Blunt Nose Versa WIng FPV [BUILD]

Hi everyone, I will cover the build of my FPV Versa Wing.  These wings are very popular for FPV and for good reason, they are easy to build, there is a lot of information on the internet and they fly quite well. The excellent Flite Test plans allows for a very easy build. The electronics used are as following:

Motor : Emax GT2215 950KV running a 10x6 prop

ESC: Plush 30A 

Servos : generic 9g servos

Radio system : FRSKY D4R-II receiver

Batteries-  Zippy 2200mah 40c Batteries / Video Battery Turnigy 1300mah 30c

FPV setup:

TS-832 Video Transmitter 600mw 5.8Ghz

Tarot 300 OSD

Eachine 700 camera

Braided/ twisted cables and ferrite rings

The first part was easy, trace out the patterns and cut the parts, I added 4 inches to the bottom part of the wing so as to extend the wing and form the blunt nose part. 

Extended bottom wing panels

This allows a lot of space for the FPV setup as well and space for batteries. Running two 2200mah batteries takes up a lot of space. The wiring setup was than spaced out to keep the Video TX away from other components. As you can see from the next photo you can see how much space this small wing has.

Placement of componenets inside wing

the batteries are placed far forward in later photos you will see the final placement of the batteries. the video signal wire is passing in front of the spar or wing shaper while everything else is spaced out. a simple hatch with magnets is used to cover the components but also allows good access to the inside of the wing. On a later date the batteries were moved far more forward with the video system battery nestled between them like this.  

Battery Positions

This allows for the CG to move forward, reducing the amount of ballast needed to get the CG right. Two wooden spars were glued in , the front one is used to stiffen the middle section of the plane, while the rear one is glued to the top of the wing thus joining the upper parts together increasing the rigidity, and thighs the motor mount to it as well, reducing the twisting from the motor and prop. 

Basic layout and wooden spars

That is basically it, a very simple wing to build, using the FT center section would have been cleaner of course but this allows better access. The wing was painted using oil based paint thinned with spirit to allow better spreading . This allows the surface of the wing to be watertight and a little bit more durable. also it is much easier to spot from the ground. At this point the Wing has been flown for about a minute or two and found it to be just a touch tail heavy, I will perform another flight soon. The FPV system worked quite well without any noticeable issues. For the wing itself it still need to be dialed in, but I think it will be a good flyer. 

Just after paint

After the small flight and landing in wet muddy grass

In the following week I will basically setup the cg again, change the camera angle a bit and try again. Thats it for now and Happy Flying.

FPV Big Delta [Update]

Hi everyone, I started working on fixing and modifying my scratch built delta wing. The damage to the center section was very bad and left the wing incredibly weak.  The middle 8 inches were removed and a new section was glued in.

Stiffeners were crossed across to ad strength to the wing as I want the this new section to stay open totally giving me very good access to the internals.  As this is an FPV wing the space is a bonus. The camera has been placed in Front used a small 9g servo to give me a pan function. The following pics are a work in progress, the wiring is slowly getting sorted as work goes on. The batteries are place staggered so they actually fit and balance better ( I think).  So Far So Good. All I have left to do until the remaining parts(motor and Video TX) arrive:

1. New Control Horn and linkages
2. New Motor Mount
3. Wire up RX and servos and ESC
4. Start cable management

Thats it for now and Happy Flying.

Cross braced stiffeners add torsional rigidity lost when wing was cut

The PAN servo thing and 700TVL camera

Hatch in Place fitting snugly

Staggered battery arrangement

FT Spitfire and Next Projects

Hi There, my FT Spitfire has been flown with the now much more powerful motor, and it flies great, the 3000mah battery is a good performer but flight times only last about 10 minutes, something I learned the hard way unfortunately, as the low voltage cutout shut off power to the motor and had to land behind some tree, no mayor damage, all fixed and flown again. The characteristics of the plane are very good. It tracks very well, its very responsive not to mention it looks the part. The video shows my friend Joseph Mustang as well as my Spitfire flying around one of the fields.

For the moment the Spitfire will remain as it is, until I get the airbrush and try to paint it.  The next project will be to fix a wing of my own design. This was a scratch built wing, roughly designed using the Flitetest Versa wing as a base. It is much larger than the Versa wing. It has seen few fights, and a lot of crashes unfortunately, hence the need to fix this. Below you can see the wing as it is now without power pod or fuselage. 

The main damage is:

• Motor mount area heavily damaged due to broken propeller striking the wing
• Under wing area where fuselage was mounted, damaged due to several bad crashes

I did not have any idea how to get around fixing it, until yesterday night when while watching a video on you tube saw a blunt nose Versa Wing which was made exceptionally well, the video is enclosed at the bottom.

So basically now 8 inches from the middle of the wing will be cut out and a new part will be made to that a blunt nose will be formed into it, which will allow my to run two 3s 2200mah batteries in parallel, and FPV gear.

Thats it for now and Happy Flying.

FT Spitfire [Update]

The spitfire was flown!! it flies very well, very easy to control and incredibly stable, the amount of dihedral the wings have may be helping out quite well. I have flown it a little bit tail heavy with the cg 6mm back from that specified by the Flite Test guys and it is still manageable, only just.

My motor is not up to the job of carrying the aircraft properly, although it does fly OK, if the condition were a bit windier it would have been a problem. The current setup is a 1400kv motor (160w) with a 7x6 prop, which is the limit for this motor. I have another motor 1400kv as well but it is rated at 580W which is quite powerful, also it is heavy meaning I might need to remove the nose weight that I currently have.  The proposed 2200mah battery did not correct the CG enough and I used the 3000mah battery. All up flying weight for the model was 750grams, the glide slope is very good even at this weight , the wing design generates a very good amount of lift.  This would be an ideal model for the Power scale sourer.  With a small battery and some lightweight mods it would fly amazingly I think.



Thats it for now and Happy Flying.

Little and Large

Back at the Bench

Its been a while since my last post, I got busy again, first off FPV. I will be building testing and flying FPV for the first time, I bought all the parts for the basic FPV setup, 5.8Ghz system, 600tvl camera and Hobbyking V2 goggles.

I have set the system up, but I am still having issues with the system. Motor + esc interference was a problem at first, but by using ferrite rings this was quickly eradicated. Problems are still present in the system. As the Video Tx is subjected to any vibration, it starts to scramble the signal. Its is baffling me But I will get round to fixing it up somehow.

Next thing is I started to build again, which is nice, this time around I downloaded the free FT Spitfire plans from the Flite Test website. They are excellent and clear to use, also there are build videos of the planes which help a lot. The following photos are of the progress so far. As it sits now its "ready" to for the maiden flight , I will try to airbrush and paint the plane on a later date. The electronics in the plane are:

4 x turning 9gram servos
1450kv Turnigy Motor (165w) and 7x6 propeller
Frsky V8R4-II reciver
Zippy 2200mah / 3000mah Mystery Battery


Its not the prettiest of things right now, especially with the masking tape, but it will do for the maiden flight. I will be covering the fuselage with tape and then panting it completely.

Thats it for now and Happy Flying.

2

Gusty Slope Soaring [Maiden Flight]

Having fun with my fellow flyers, high wind speeds and gusts. Had a lot of fun that day, even if my attempts at flying my old beaten up versa wing mostly failed.

Build Log for Zackspeed Flying Wing Glider

This is the Build Log for the Zackspeed Flying Wing glider.

I bought the wing cores off Ebay, they are made by this company, http://epp-modelle.de/ .  It basically came as two wing half made of white epp foam.  

Altough optional on this wing, I have decided to install carbon fibre tubes to reinforce the wing. The tubes are 5x3 carbon tubes, light and rigid enough to hold the shape, but with enough flexibility to take hard landing and combat.

The where installed like so, the line in the middle are for the CG. also note the battery compartment

The equipment I have installed in this are:

FRSKY V8R4-II
2 x Goteck HKS-9650 Servos

The servos and the receiver were installed on the top of the wing , countersunk in the foam and then covered with tape.

 Using spray on glue and colored duct tape, the wing was reinforced as suggested in the instructions, using the shown pattern. The difference in torsional rigidity is quite large. The elevons were cuts from cardboard back foamboard 3mm thickness, and then taped on, I used credit card control horns.

The all up weight ended up being 650 grama with 80 grams of ballast in the front After the maiden flight I can report that its a very easy wing to fly, tracks very well. It is also quite fast. During the flight the wing was just on the limit of the CG, being a little tail heavy, but the amount of altitude it can gather is very good. Overall quite a good wing

Almost taken down

This is me forgetting to look up from the camera, and narrowly avoiding my friends 2m glider.