I got my first taste of a tensor the other day when a co-worker at the hobby shop I work at let me fly his out back. I love how it flys and having really trashed my 3dfoamy edge the other day doing a demo I am thinking about the tensor for my next foamy.

Herein lies the problem: the tensor is an indoor flyer. Houston weather is often calm enough that a 12-14 oz foamy can fly with relitive ease, however it is rarely still. Also, all of the local gymnasiums are unfavorable to me using their facilities to fly at, so I am stuck outdoors.

Because of this an actual tensor is not the best thing for me, however I am a bit of a builder and the idea has occured that it might be possible to build a big tensor that retains the flying abilities of its little brother while picking up a couple oz. to make it a more outdoor aircraft.

Anyone flying anything like what I'm thinking of?

-Ian

I built mine out of fanfold foam that weighs 9.5 oz. without the battery.
Has a Himax outrunner motor.
If you use a large battery pack it would weigh enough for outdoors.
in fact that's the only plane I've flown mine. Handles a breeze very well.

What I am about to say is my opinion only. Not only are alot of foamies to light to fly ourdoors well. Alot of them have way to much wing area to fly well in wind. They fly like hot air ballons anyways, then add alittle wind and you chase them all over the sky, or fly backwards dragging the tail of the plane all over. True outdoor foamies could use less wing area and still fly really well, I have proven this and about ready for release of them. I too fly were its always blowing 5 to 10 and alot of 10 to 15 winds. I was too in the need of an "outdoor" foamy. I got my first taste with shockflyers and they are too light also but the hook was set, I can't live life without a foamy anymore.

Too true on the "hook is set" part.

I agree on the less wing area thing, honestly they already exist: 3Dfoamy's edge has a lot less area than comparable planes... however I almost never do the same thing twice and i just had one, so it is time for something new.

My answer is my own design, the 3rd foamy I've designed, the 2nd I'm going to build, and the 1st bipe... and this one ought to be a real winner. I've come up with a couple of new ideas that ought to make it very impressive in the air.

I'm buying a sheet of depron today, I'll post pictures of it going together later.

just from my own past experance. Biplanes are alittle harder to design. they have more variables. I built my first nes from blue fanfold so i didn't waste good depron. Now I am going to production I am using depron. I thought it was perfect until i flew it. motor placement,stab placement,and more all have tremendous effect on a biplane. Monoplanes just about throw anything together and it flys good. You mite want to do yourself a favor and build your first build from fanfold.

In regards to sorta-tensor designs, I've built, but not flown one. It's a bit heavy at 14oz on a 2015-4100 w/1320 3S TP, although the 450in^2 of wing area should make up for it [&:]

I'm interrested to find out the flight characteristics of this design cuz it certainly sounds different.

i'm still trying to decide if the majority think is a good different or bad different??? I think something with that much flat surface for wind to hit is not much good to me. It is rarely calm when I fly, and I have no inside place to fly. Adding rudder to knife edge has never been an issue with me, i just do it. Seems to me people like it because it makes a so so pilot look good. Also seems to me the people that really like it either fly indoors or have low wind conditions. There are some real horror stores out here with people trying to fly them in the wind. some are really funny. Some day I mite bite the bullet and build one to set my own personal opinion. I always thought we all flew foamies because they were dirt cheap and can be built in a couple hours???? Some of these foamies are reaching $55.00 to $70.00 now, that is rediculous for a foamy. All just my opinion.

I had a tensor for about 3 days. I busted it up just trying to land it in a 8 mph breeze 3 days in a row. Now mind you I didnt crash, just buffeting a bit on the gusts and touched on 1 wheel before the other and the whole front end broke off. I had one flight with absolutely no wind and it was a lot of fun, flew weird but made it easy to hover and fly knife enge. Personally for indoors Im sure its fine but for outdoors in any wind WHATSOEVER its no good. Get you a Fancy Foam or 3D Foamy and go have fun.

As far as a built up version for outdoors I would bet it would be a great 13.5 oz plane at its regular size built with normal thickness foam with a wing and fuselage carbon fiber spar. You could have a blast with it then. I had an AXI 2212-26 in mine and now its in my Fancy Foam ultimate. At 30oz of thrust it doents even know its attached to a plane.

I traced my Tensor and built it out of fanfold foam to trash it before the kit. It flies great and weird just like they say, but is pretty tough and can handle some wind. No need for the wing carbon bracing. No wheels either. I did add some small fanfold triangles between the wings and fuse and it's pretty stiff.

I used a carbon rod in the lower wing and bamboo skewers to make a "V" from where the fuse and lower wing intersect out to the tops of the vertical stabilizers. Also very stiff...

If you want to see some pics of a bigger Tensor for outdoors, I started a thread on George Hicks forum here on CU called Upsize Tensor. There was another guy who built a huge one for outside. He posted pics in my thread or maybe started his own but it is in George's forum. Very cool!
I have flown my Tensor a few times outside and several indoor events. IMO, It's too fragile to fly in congested indoor sites and too light for outside. To be honest, I'm really not sure I even like it. I would like to try a larger one that's loaded a bit heavier. Maybe something 150% scale with a 400 class BL motor.
Matt

I fly my Tensor outside all the time and I'm a little closer to the coast then you.

Can you say knife edge backwards?

Ive flown my Tensor outdoors, but you need a calm day to do it.

I have no doubt if you built it heavier out of fanfold, it would fly pretty nicely outdoors as long as the wind didnt get too bad.

Im thinking go from a 10oz weight to say 15-20oz should do it. At that weight, it should cut through the wind alot better.

Agreed. BTW, I saw that humongus pink tensor-like monster. No videos yet though [:@]

Aggh, designing a new plane is always problem prone...

I've got a very powerful design going. The rudder/side area is plenty enough to do knife edge flips quicker than it will even loop, however I'm still struggling with some coupling issues that I want to work out in the prototype stage.

Here is the progress so far:

Built the prototype according to my plans, modifying some issues that I missed in the design phase.

Shortened the nose by several inches, messed up the design a the finished design was getting confused which end went foward

CG was all messed up so I scooted the lower wing back by 2 inches, making it staggered like an ultimate.

As mentioned the coupling still needs work, I also need to find out why my roll rate is low and fix that. As soon as I'm done with these issues I'll update the plans and work on getting a production model going.

Pictures soon to come... this thing looks wicked[8D]

I was going to buy a tensor but a friend of mine told me not to since it is not made to preform as well outdoors. Just a quck question. How about a shock 3d flyer? Do those do well in the wind? Thanks

The shockies do fly pretty good in the wind, not heavy wind, but breezy pretty good.
A lot of guys use heavier batteries for outdoors in a breeze and move the cg forward.

Honestly the shockys is a little better than the tensor because of less wing area, but it is still far from perfect for outdoors. For the moment being, my favorite outdoor plane on the market is still the 3D foamy edge.

Spend that 30 bucks on like 24 full sheets of BlueCor!!! That 23 more planes than one shocky, mind you....

Where the hell do you get blue cor? i've never been able to find ANY. I really need it for making prototypes of new designes.

Lowe's is where we get it. Don't know if the ones where you are carry it.
It's great stuff.

Yup, Lowes, or Home Depot. Its in the insulation section.

They call it BlueCor, FFF, Fanfold, even had one employee at Home Depot refer to it as "that thin blue styro stuff".

Its about 28 bucks for a bundle of it, but there's a WHOLE lot of foam in there too.