papajeff

Ryan,

Oh, now I see that the nose wheel steering is an exterior mod. Also, with the photos and your comments, I understand that you have a good handle on the cure. As far as the prop is concerned, I have not had any issues with the Slow-fly one. Keep us advised.

brownlab

airhogs X-twin and syma preserver. i know, im a 2 channelaholic. this morning i tried to fly my X-twin but there were 20 to 30 mph winds. and yesterday at about 4 o clock i counted 35 hawks in the sky hunting baby rabbits near the field i was flying at.
UPS is lazy, my preserver reached dallas on the 23rd and is scheduled to come on the 27th. why does it take 5 days to make a 6 hour trip.

brownlab

my peserver isnt here but here is the X-twin with its paper armament

brownlab

preserver made a mistake of my own[X(]

junkjet

My Feedback: (55)

OK here we go! My Predator is still untested. I hope to maiden it on sat. In the first pic is the wow rc 2836 motor second pic 32 Amp controller spinning a APC 9-6E prop

junkjet

My Feedback: (55)

This is the nose mod. I used a wheel pant mount and soldered a washer onto the gear wire to remove stress from the internal mechanisom. I came up with the under part. The next part is the internal parts, I got this off another form and modified it a bit. I used nylon gear straps to hold the nose gear to a light ply mount epoxied to the bottom of the fus, and to the servo tray. A hs 45 servo steers the plane. I added a Hobby Lobby 4 Amp BEC to drive the 5 sevos and landing light.

junkjet

My Feedback: (55)

The next pics show the battery plate with velcro and strap, then with the 1600 20C wow rc lipo. The wing is common setup with HS 55 servos.

junkjet

My Feedback: (55)

Here I show the wing spare, I doubled it with a carbon tube 4 mm I think? I inlarged the rear dowel to 1/8. I am using the magnet and nylon thumb screew trick, thanks PAPA for all the neat mods!

junkjet

My Feedback: (55)

I have installed two hatches as I will be adding hardware later for my Predator to fulfill its primary mission later this spring.

junkjet

My Feedback: (55)

And here it is so far. Oh yes, I am using a CC 7 CH receiver and have all channels used. The motor is from headsuprc.com I recomend this fellow for very inexpensive electric stuff. All the batteries I have bought have been top noch and the electronics too. I will get pics of the landing light and cam setup later after I install the cam.
Freddy

junkjet

My Feedback: (55)

[link]http://www.headsuprc.com[/link]

chrishornby

Nice build, Junkjet. I think I will adopt some of your ideas for my (mark 2) predator. Although I think I will put the 2 servos aft near the tail feathers to make more room in the pod for steering mechanism, camera etc.
Chris

brownlab

my preserver comes today,and yesterday i bought another rc, again 2 channel, then again what buggy has an elevator. so i got something new each day for 3 days i hope.

papajeff

Junkjet,

Nice job on your Predator! I can see that Chris liked it too. You better keep us informed of your Maiden flight and just remember.........do not force the takeoff.........just let the Predator tell you when it is ready to lift off the ground and then continue to gain altitude till you are high enough for the turn..........which should be nice and gentle. Just fly it like a pusher glider and have fun! Just watch the Captain Chaos video only don't
pay him much attention, he is just plain CRAZY! Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhh......................Yeahhhhhhhhh hhhhhh!!!!!!

brownlab

im the only one whose predator didnt fly (i think)

brownlab

Blue Collar Sound(??????????????????)

brownlab

got the preserver yay finally im going to start a thread on rcgroups, didnt do the maiden yet

Xiola6969

Greetings, Flown a GWS Slow Stick Brush less setup for some time, Fly it very well able to land it in glider mode with no power on approach, and haven’t broken a prop or damaged the plane in over 25 flights, Can I fly this plane? And if so can it hold a better AP array than a slow stick.

I am looking at this plane because it obviously is used for AP in real life dose it make a good AP as an RC? Will I get better stability and could it hold say a 7.0-12.0 Mega pixel camera around 4-15oz?

Basically I am looking at the next step to take me to a gyrostabilized optics platform and worry the plane can't toe a heavy payload?

Here is one of my AP video with a 7.0 Mega Pixel camera in toe, needless to say youtube and myspace dont offer enough space to play in its true 392Mb uncompress form.

http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fu...deoid=13390494

Pappy-86

My Feedback: (6)

If a GWS slowstick is the only plane you have flown my answer would be no. I fly both the GWS slowstick and the Predator and they fly nothing alike. 15oz extra weight would not be a problem as long as you balanced it after adding the camera. The predator has a nasty tip stall if you fly it to slow and stall it so on landings you need to keep some throttle to maintain speed. Check out Hobby Lobby they have a few glider trainers.

papajeff

Mitchell,

Let me see here if I got this correct; you took that flight video with a GWS SlowStick??????
If so, what equipment were you using as you video sure looked real good to these old Dinosaur eyes!
Warbird-Dave is right, as these two models fly with a different style. Chrishornby, who posts on this thread,
is the right Gentleman to give information on the Predator's ability to serve as a video platform.
Hopefully, Chris will post his thoughts for you to review.

papajeff

Hey, Brownlab,

Preserver, X-Twin, Predator, or any RC airplane...............as long as you fly them and enjoy flying them.....
that's all that matters!!!!! To me, it does not matter whether it's 2...4...6...8 or whatever channels,
just fly it and have fun!

As an example, when all of my advanced aged Pals were getting new Evo Harleys,
I bought an old 1984 Shovelhead Lowrider and took three years to restore and customize it.
When all of us "OLD DOGS" went riding, we rode with old & new Harleys, Kawa's, Hondas,
Suzuk's and it just did not matter because we were all just riding MOTORCYCLES!!!!!!
Got it????????? Do it........and have fun doing it! Ohhhhhhhhhhh..................Yeahhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!

chrishornby

The predator is a good platform for aerial photography because it is stable and also the motor is at theback far from the camera. This limits the noise, vibration and effect of the propellor in the picture. That's what it was designed to do of course! I have tried quite a few cameras including a 2.4GHz downlink (poor) a flycamone (good) and a flycamone2 which is excellent and can take full frame video as well as 1280x1024 stills. I have experimented with gyro stabilisation of the camera and not had any success but stabilisation using an auto pilot for the whole plane shouldbe a better option. What would be an even better option would be to scale up the plane, and I still have on my todo list to draw some planes for a 1/4 scale predator (twice the size of the nitromodels one) That should be a fantastic camera platform and it should be possible to get some serious photo gear on board. Ufortunately at the moment we in the UK are grounded by 40knot winds. The last time I was able to fly was on the 11th. (see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MP9AYepNX9o )

Good luck
Chris

papajeff

Chris,

Thank you for your most capable and welcomed contribution to this thread.
You are an excellent example of why I just love this Hobby. I wish you, and all you other creative
brother hobbyists that got involved with this Predator senario, a very Happy & Healthy New Year!

Best Regards,

Papa Jeff
"PAPA POWER"

Xiola6969

That video was taken with this camera in a slightly different rig configuration that is front mounted under the wheels to give a front view while flying.




The current camera I am using for my next set of flights. I am Just considering a better platform new one is 10 oz vs. my old 4 oz camera it got like 2000x better for 6oz more weight. But the major consideration here is the camera the plane breaking isn’t the fear when I fly Ap.





I will probably pick up this kit and fly it a few times to see if I like it, I think I can make it work, The GWS was my first plane 2 years ago. I wrecked a few times but it didn’t take long to catch on.


I just wont be attaching any $400+ camera’s to it till I am sure, in the end I guess its what I feel comfortable putting half a grand worth of camera on and flying up 1200ft. I probably wont have that much courage till I am as skill with it as the Slow Stick. I see my gws getting that camera for a while till I can fly the predator well enough.

All of the comments where helpful

junkjet

My Feedback: (55)

Flew my Predator today. Still needs some tweeking. Just a bit tail heavy with 2 OZ in the nose, and needed lots of right trim in the alerons. My GF took some vid. I will post it soon. To cold today to do any trimming.