Originally Posted by
Pond Skipper
Nice it's all there as far as shape goes, maybe you can have someone vid the maiden flight just in case you wish
ya did
I'll certainly try using the helmet cam at a minimum for the first few flights - if it flies at all.
Tentative plans for maiden to fly only as an airplane - at least first flight. Hoping this won't all be a humbling, embarrassing, complete waste of time. If the first few flights are completed in airplane-only mode successfully, I'll move on to "
pushing the envelope" so to speak.
Successive flights would involve the transformation. Once the switch is flipped and the (hopeful) reconfiguration takes place, guessing it'll be at the mercy of gravity and winds because there'll be no controllability or undoing the reconfiguration. After the switch is initiated, might as well turn transmitter off, collapse the antenna, and put the Tx in the case, as nothing can be done to alter the mode after this "point of no return". Would be nice though, if I can figure out how to "collectively" pitch the wing panels at the end of the descent mode - like doing an auto in a helicopter - to sort of "flare" the arrival (or impact)...
Pics of careful, patient surgery to separate the fwd fuse into halves for tank and throttle servo access using the saw blade removed from an X-Acto spine and cut using bulkheads as a guide - a technique suggested by Trusted Source. Too many times cross-cutting balsa results in less than desirable tearing out of the grain. Reasonably happy with the results here though... Previously made horizontal cuts - easy, 'cause they were grain-wise - with a #11 blade from F-2 fwd to F-2 rear. Also salvaged magnets from a foamy discard to possibly use as positive locking means when airplane folds up. Took note that attraction interaction takes place at around 1.5".