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Joined: 12/27/2006 From: Westford,
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I mentioned this at the end of my Delta (RIP) thread. The weather is warming up, and soon I will be flying all of these hunks of plastic I built all winter. I figure I have one SPAD left in me before that happens.
I've had success with the Defender wing in the past, so I enlarged it to 48" span. The fuse is 36". I will be using the .25FX which has recently become available from another project. The horizontal stab is 20" wide, and the vertical stab is 10" tall.
I have a set of main landing gear that I'm going to put on it, and it's going to be a taildragger.
My goal for this plane is just a fun, tame, sport plane, that's not a belly lander. It could be the second plane my kids fly after they solo their trainers, before I turn them loose on my Four Star.
Anyway, here it is. Advice is always welcome.
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Here are some more numbers. I just weighed all of the parts that are going into this thing, and the total weight before fuel will be 67 ounces, or just over 4 pounds. Wing loading will be about 16 ounces per square foot.
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If all of your friends were named Cliff, would you jump off them? - Hugh Neutron
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Joined: 9/4/2007 From: Strathmore,
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plane looks great!!!, i might just have to try the defender, i havnt tried the defender or simular wing, i have just used the rnaf or the deb type. today would be my normal flying day but Im going snowboarding instead. good luck on the maidens
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Joined: 10/17/2005 From: Valley City,
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Nice looking plane.
I am working on my last build for the winter now and hope to have it ready for our club mall show in a week. The Porsche from STTB. Fixed all the planes that got dinged last year and added a couple more to the hanger including a night flyer; 15 size FNS. The weather should be changing soon so its time to put the knife down and pick up the transmitter.
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Almost done. I have everything set up except the pushrods for the elevator and rudder. I will probably start adding some stickers tonight, so here's what it looks like clean.
I know the landing gear is too small. It's what I had lying around.
I clipped about 1 1/2" off the top of the vertical stabilizer, it was actually around 12" high and looked out of whack.
< Message edited by mclina -- 3/11/2008 10:24:42 PM >
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If all of your friends were named Cliff, would you jump off them? - Hugh Neutron
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And just four stickers later.....
I just cut some triangles out of the self-adhesive Monocote trim sheets. I put a small strip of clear packing tape over the leading edges of the triangles to help keep them from peeling. I decided to go easy on the stickers for a change
I may swap out the gear for a taller and wider set, but it's ready to fly. There's a club fun fly on Sunday. I'll try to get video of all my recent builds in the air.
< Message edited by mclina -- 3/12/2008 4:19:46 AM >
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If all of your friends were named Cliff, would you jump off them? - Hugh Neutron
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you have made two cool trainers, those girls should be proud!!! they will fly awesome. I had a little trouble with my 11 yr old at first, pushing the sticks to far and crazy. he is used to video games. I had to put some neg expo and low rates and that helped alot. good looking planes and good luck on the maidens. spads are great, its usually many maidens on an outing, not just one
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quote:
ORIGINAL: TruBlu02
Looks cool! It would make a great platform for shooting aerial video.
That's actually one of the things I had in mind for this. I wanted a stable platform for things like aerial photography, dropping candy, stuff like that.
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If all of your friends were named Cliff, would you jump off them? - Hugh Neutron
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48" wingspan and 4lbs? That sounds more like a plane needing a .46-.50 size engine. But then I like my planes to be more overpowered than underpowered. I put a 32SX on on my SPAD Derelict.
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Paul - Helis: Two Raptor 50V2s, Venture 30CP, Blade CX2 Planes: Twist 150, Twist 60, Tribute 36, GP .40 Mustang
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quote:
ORIGINAL: -pkh-
48" wingspan and 4lbs? That sounds more like a plane needing a .46-.50 size engine. But then I like my planes to be more overpowered than underpowered. I put a 32SX on on my SPAD Derelict.
You're probably right. Especially if I want to start adding cargo to it. I'll find out if the .25fx get's it off the ground this weekend.
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If all of your friends were named Cliff, would you jump off them? - Hugh Neutron
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I had a chance to maiden this thing a lunchtime today. The .25FX seemed to pull it fine. I had the 9x6 prop on that I used for break in, but I will definitely switch it to a 10x4.
As far as the flight, the plane is very tailheavy. I was able to fly a few laps around the field with a lot of down elevator, but it wasn't much fun. I knew it wasn't quite balanced, so I was prepared for it.
I have some landing gear issues to work out, my tailwheel wire is too short, and one of the bolts holding my main gear snapped, but it did survive the maiden flight. It will definitely be a keeper once I get the balance worked out.
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If all of your friends were named Cliff, would you jump off them? - Hugh Neutron
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congrats on the maiden!!! did you get it adjusted for this weekend flights? did you get to take the trainers up? im goin out tomorow afternoon with my 4 spads. thr corostar 60 is coming along and i will take it up next weekend
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I took it up again today, along with the two trainers and my Derelict. The girls got video of all of the planes, I am working on posting them all.
This thing was a flop. It flew tail heavy on the maiden, but I was able to control it. Today's flight lasted about six seconds and ended when I ditched it because it was heading towards the road. I do not know what was wrong with it. The motor mount is busted, but it is otherwise unscathed.
My daughters mini-Deb flew so well, that I am probably going to build an identical wing for this thing. I'll get the short, embarrasing, video of this thing posted later tonight, or tomorrow.
Here's the video. It ain't pretty. I'm very lucky there was nobody at the field.
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All Forums >> RC Airplanes >> S.P.A.D. Aircraft - Coroplast design >> Last SPAD of the Winter 
Last SPAD of the Winter - 
from another project. The horizontal stab is 20" wide, and the vertical stab is 10" tall. 
