MJD

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Brought this down from the shelf since it's painting season. Freestyle design. Wing is 1/4" x 2" TE stock, sanded to my best TLAR approximation of a Mark Drela low Rn HLG/DLG/RCRG airfoil. Boom is .175" arrow shaft, the pod is an old blow molded rocket nose cone, it fits onto the forward assembly snugly and will house the pressure bladder. No balance boom yet, nor the center hub plate. I'll do that after doping the flying surfaces, then I'll know where the final CG is. Stab is set at negative 6 degrees. On these, you do not a wing too stiff in torsion.

Pond Skipper

Do you think there is enough blade to support the weight of 1 micro servo to a throttle sleeve allowing you some destiny control?

combatpigg

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Looks good..!
These model maple seeds are about as wacky as it gets.
I wonder what the size record is for one of these..?
Might be an easy way to get into the Guinness Book.

MJD

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I think 1.5 and 2.5cc versions were pretty common in the heyday of helicopter duration competition in UK and Europe. The duration records are crazy.

People have made concept sketches of man carrying monocopters, with (obviously) rotor bearings and a non-rotating pod. And now steerable electric versions, saw those on on YouTube.

combatpigg

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I looked into this a little bit and found a guy who claimed a .40 powered chopper. One way to enjoy them is to match the weight to the lift so that they just loaf around in ground effect. I'm not sure if I'd enjoy standing near your's very long like that, might lose an eye.

MJD

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I want to tether one sometime, with a fishing rod, monofilament and a swivel attached below the CG. Been thinking about this off and on, might be funny or disastrous or both. I just pulled my .049 Charybdis out of the pile and checked it out, looks good to go. Sunday supposed to be okay.

combatpigg

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I don't see how attaching a tether can hurt, besides a little bit of performance. The plane would still do what it is supposed to do and you've got an auto-retriever system.
You would have to pay out the line to a safe distance then see how the plane likes being held in a hover against air currents.

MJD

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It would be a hilarious experiment. Might end up in a mess of balsa parts at the end of a fishing line, but that's still entertainment.

Clean

Geeze, wonder who that could be https://youtu.be/Jl2dlWQ0g0M My best flight with this was a calm day and about 6 minutes. I'd throttle up, go way up, throttle down, get close to the ground and then play around at different altitudes till the fuel ran out. One of the flights my counter balance came off (rubberbanded on) and the thing fell out of it's hover, dropped a few hundred feet, spun up upside down and fell out again only to repeat this several more times. It landed during an upright spin and did no damage. I found the counterbalance rod and with new rubberbands flew it several more times. Then I hung it in a hobby shop till the owner, who could be heard in the video, asked if I wouldn't mind taking the thing away. Folks always asking questions. Flew my 049 sized one much more often and usually at events where kids could go chaise it down.

Plenty of Charybdis stories.

combatpigg

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Clean, that must have been great fun to watch with the ability to hover what was otherwise a free flight machine.
That .40 powered wing sure looks ferocious...!

MJD

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Way cool!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JIt9ymhMfLQ

combatpigg

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Great engine run too...!

Clean

Man I only put a 6 inch glow stick on mine at night, it's all I had. Those lights are SLICK! If you tethered it using a fishing swivel or the likes I don't know how far over it would pull till it just got sideways and came crashing down. Low to no winds were usually best and I'd usually just put enough fuel in for a 10-15 second run after spin up for windy conditions. Can't remember how much that was, I had a small fuel syringe that held about 10 flights worth of fuel. I was at SIG and would start the Charybdis up and let go, then fire a couple glow sticks from the spud gun downwind. One group of kids would go one way and group would go the other. Sunday I was thanked by a lot of parents that said their kids didn't make it to the end of the gravel driveway before they passed out. Me? I got the fuel wrong and my Charybdis had one of those lean runs that was just barely enough to fly but runs on for minutes. We started close to the west end of the runway, I was stuck at the barbed wire on the east end of the field tracking it, still not going down it seemed, towards the radio tower out in the distance. I don't know how much longer later I realized they'd stopped flying combat sometime (was having trouble hearing it over the corn anyways) and that it was cloudy so I didn't have any stars I could guide by. Plus, I was in shorts and sandels, in a corn field, past midnight, with a coyote that was keeping me company (turned around and startled him). After another half hour or so there was a clear patch in the clouds big enough to show me a familiar constellation and I marked the horizon and started west. Got to a fence next to the road to the east of the field and as I reached out to cross it, stepped in the darn ditch that was next to it. Yup, I know where I am, it got me coming into the field. As I climbed over the fence a contest member drove by, turned towards the field and flicked his hi beams on. He stood out of the car which was in this domed kinda glow thanks to my dark adapted eyes, cupped his hands and yelled out into the field. Then dropped his hands and listened. I walked up next to him and asked "Since your out here, can I get a ride back?" and thought I'd have to figure out where the hospital was to take this young but heart attacking victim too. "We've been looking all over for you" he said. "Why? I was right here, where-ever here is." We laughed and went back to the field. At sun-up I woke and couldn't lay on the ground any longer so I started walking towards the radio tower. Mile and a half later I found my Charybdis and took it back. Stunters were just starting to show up while it was spinning around on it's pole outside the tent. They thought I had another one. Nope, went and found that one. That was the third and last time I lost and then found that particular Charybdis. I retired it and have it downstairs. I flew them a bunch for a couple summers.

MJD

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Well, I thought about that issue with the tether - a long line and maybe a small lead weight a few feet under the copter with swivels to buffer out the pull..? Maybe. My conclusion was - there is one good way to find out. I am cleaning up the engine and fuel tank on the .049 version and will try to check this out soon.

Think I should add "Pulsejet monocopter with RC fuel cutoff and parachute" to my bucket list?

Clean

Man I"M all for it. You're 14.5 hours away. Too far for me to watch live BUT a safe distance. I've got the parts for my HK pulsejet to put on my SPAD, just haven't got my shop together yet from the move this spring. Was hoping to start this week but have to go take a tree down at my daughters after work instead. I hope I get to build planes this winter but ever since she had the baby 6 years ago its always been something. Be a different story if her man was working and if she had been through college as it is, he's tolerable but limited in abilities (I mean how much smarts does it take to take a tree apart when I've supplied the equipment?), she's always working OT as a nurse AND I got grand kids. But I barely get to build n fly now.

Take lots of videos. Don't worry about sound much, it'll just be Brahhhhhhhhhrahhhhhhhhhrahhhhhhrahhhhh depending on the rotation speed. Actually, that will be pretty cool. Put a couple of socks over a microphone to deaden it a bit and get it. These things are stupid loud. I've got a video on that channel of me running mine. I've got a gas powered blower going, and you know how loud those things are, the engine starts and you can't hear the blower even though I'm using it full blast for cooling. Then the engine shuts off and as the sound limiter comes back down you can hear the blower motor going again. They're just loud. However, I still could hear it. When I had a buddy start his Fox 59 long crank in OT a few years ago my ears shut off whenever i was withing 10-20 feet of the thing. THAT is loud.