The short story is that it looks promising. I know it will fly in 5 - 10 mph winds if they are steady and not gusting. I had one day with hardly any wind and it handled great. Good climb, great glide capabilities and very stable. The best part is that the airframe only cost me about $10 to build ! On the day with no wind, I could let go of the sticks and adjust altitude with throttle only. The plane would track straight for as long as I wanted and then just enter some rudder and let go of the stick again to have it return to a straight flight path! I trimmed it to climb a little with full throttle. Kill the motor and it glides forever. I would take it up to about 300 - 400 ft. and kill the power. I could glide for several minutes at a slow descent before having to power up.
Wingspan- 58"
AUW with 2s2p lipoly and Pencam- About 25 oz
Motor- sp400 with 3:1 MJ GB 10 x 7 prop
Length- 35"
Wingloading- 8.89 oz/sq.ft. with camera
Photo and text by Randy Due
The wings are blue fanfold foam formed over a jig and baked in the oven at 205 degrees for 25 minutes. There are three wing sections epoxied together. The center section is flat bottomed and the outer two are undercambered. The center section has a carbon fiber spar and the outer two use wooden dowels on leading and trailing edges. Carbon fiber would be better here, but also more expensive. It is covered with colored packing tape. It fastens to the fuse with nylon bolts. Two in the top and two on each side where the dowels make contact. A piece of milk jug is glued to the top where the bolts go through. The fuse and even the wheels are fanfold foam. The tail boom is a carbon fiber arrow that runs all the way through the airframe to the motor mount. Fanfold foam is great stuff and when baked it is very rigid and holds its shape well. Very cheap to build with too!
RC Groups Thread Link : http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=178012
Dec 11, 2003
09:24 PM