Hey guys,

Well, Ive always liked the old Tom & Jerry cartoons. Grew up watching those things. They still crack me up to this day and I'm an old fellow. Ive also always liked custom paint jobs on airplanes. So I threw the two together, and decided to build a 3D plane with a Tom & Jerry theme.

Bill Altman built a mini Reflection out of 3mm depron. Its a tiny plane that flys better than a shockflyer in my opinion. So he recently built one up for me. (THANKS BILL)

I spent today painting it up. Its all paint. NO markers. Freehanded the artwork. Hope you guys enjoy the pics.

bdavison, holy cow that is crazy, very nicely done, do u happen to have any plans for the mini reflection??? PM if you want

I dont, but Bill might.

Im sure he will post up here as soon as he sees the thread. Perhaps he can hook you up with a set.

He has one already built up. Last wednesday he was flying with us in the gym, took it up, started a fast rolling circle with it. Took his right hand off the tx, held it down at his side just holding full aileron, and turned around not even looking at the plane. It kept doing rolling circles around the gym and he wasnt even looking at it.

It flys AWESOME.

I got a recording of that "Is you is or is you ain't my baby" song off the old cartoons, Im gonna play it while I fly it....HAHAHAHAHA

Here is a link to the music.
http://www.tomandjerryonline.com/sounds/isyouis2.wav

hahah very nice, well hopefully bill will see it and i could hopefully get the plans, is it 3mm or 6mm foam?

Hey Bryan that is tooooo cool . Very unique. Your gonna have to paint one for me. Maybe the roadrunner or yosemitie sam. I've built two more and maybe you need a backup. I've made the templates and i'll try and get some plans up soon. Get it ready for next wednesday night. Later, I'll be back Bill

Yeah,

Pop says I need a backup too. I hope not, considering thats a lot of work painting them like that.

Yeah, I can pretty much paint it however you want one.
I will have it flying wednesday. I started putting the stuff in it.

Its 3mm foam. Wingspan is shorter than a Superstar shocky. Uses an AXI 2204/54 for power.

alright sounds good, hoipefully plans will b up soon!!!!

looking forward to plans....

Well guys,

I flew the first three test flights on it today.

It's quite windy here..Gusts up to 7mph according to my wind gauge. I was debating on whether to fly it or not. After weighing the options I decided to go for it.

The plane was a little out of trim on ailerons. A quick trim adjusment corrected it.

I flew three 7 min flights this morning, and the plane is performing FANTASTIC. It has the slow speed capabilities of a light weight shocky, but the 3D capabilities of the Reflection. Perfect mix. By far the best indoor 3D plane Ive flown. It even out flys my 5.4oz superstar. Awesome flight performance. Even in the gusty wind it performed great. I did a rolling circle on the maiden...thats how good this thing flys.

Bill, Im not sure what you changed, but this thing hovers much better. It was gusting alot, and I was still able to maintain a nice hover about 5ft off the ground.

If any of you are thinking about painting your own plane. Notice the circle pattern on the top of the wing. Something I hadnt really thought about, but that circle pattern makes the plane EXTREMELY easy to see in the air. I will be repeating that design on future planes just because it makes it REALLY easy to see. The plane looks awesome while its flying.

Here is the equipment Im using.

Axi 2204/54 brushless motor
10A ESC from balsapr.com
Bluebird 303's on rudder and elevator ( I would recommend using the new E-flite S75's though, I just didnt have any, and everyone is out of stock around here...Ill change them later)
Bluebird 306 on ailerons.
Get some of the E-flite 3D control arms for more throw on the surfaces.
A ThunderPower 7.4V 730mah lipo
Bluebird 4ch RX

I programmed the thing into my 9CSuper. Im flying it with NO expo, although you can certainly add expo if you like. It doesnt really bother me, I can fly either way.

Here are the stats on flying charectoristics.

With 55 degrees of throw on elevator it will loop in 3.5ft
The plane does exhibit some roll when rudder is applied. Rudder is very sensitive. Even with the roll, a little compensating aileron will keep turns flat. Or you could easily set up some mixing in the radio, or tinker with the linkages.
Roll rates are nice. Not too fast, and not too slow.
It does the one handed rolling circles easily.
The CG is 4.5mm back from the leading edge of the top wing..near the fuselage. This is just where I started at, I may change it later after I get more flight time on it.

Wingspan is 25"
Fuselage is 23.5" from nose to tail
Height is 7.75"

Flippin' Sweet!![sm=bananahead.gif]

Hey, Glad you like the plane, adding a little to the nose I think is what makes it hover better, wait til you fly it in the gym. I just built a few more and it does hover better. The balance is pretty close where you got it, I would try it around 6-7 mm back. But if it maintains altitude rolling with not to much throttle then it's pretty close . I fly mine about 6.5 mm back. Can't wait to see it in the air I'm sure your right about the color scheme. Thanks Bill

Ive made a couple of more flights with it outside. Still impressed by the plane. Its neutral in all directions. Flys right side up, knife-edge, and inverted all on axis with no other input. Its really a joy to fly. Im pleasantly surprised that it punches through the wind pretty good. I would have though it would get tossed all over the place, but it handles it pretty well considering its a biplane.

Cant wait to fly it indoors.

Bill, Tony Stillman said that weve been asked to fly at two other gyms.....Larger gyms around here, so Ill have to get more information from him and find out where and when to go. Apparently one out in cantonment has a MUCH higher ceiling and wider space. It would be really nice if we could score one on the weekends. We need to get with Tony and see when he wants to have that electric fly-in. I think it would draw a huge crowd, not to mention it would be lots of fun. Perhaps we can even get some sponsors to do a raffle or something.

The Revolution Aircraft Company might be sponsoring a pattern pilot in indoor competition soon. Ill let ya know more details soon.

Cool, keep me informed. Again i'm going to try and make it wednesday night. If the new honeybee 3d comes in i'll bring it so you can check it out. paid 170 dollars for it with lipo, charger and symetrical blades plus bell/hiller head. oop's wrong forum to be talking about it. I've been flying my new mini around some outside and it really is a lot of fun to fly. see ya Bill

bill you workin on gettin the plans online?????

Cool...Id like to see the honeybee 3D. I replaced the tail boom on my blade....that was a ***** to replace. Had to dremel out the old one. Its all back up and running again.
Im gonna fly tonight too if you can swing by, if not Ill see ya tommorow night.

You gave Tony one of these planes too right? I wonder if he will have his built by tommorow. Perhaps we can have three of them flying all at once.


Bill,
Take a paper copy of the plans to Kinko's and have them make a .PDF file of it....then just post the .PDF
Its the easiest way to put the plans online. They should be able to burn it to a CD or something.

Bill, Last night went flawlessly as expected. I had it doing multiple rolling circles in the gym last night. Its so easy to do them with it, I actually started practicing entry and exit points on it to try to get it to exit exactly where I wanted it. It does just like the larger reflection.

It does really good hovering torque rolls. You can actually start a torque roll, do one complete roll. Stop the roll and then roll the other direction. Ive got BOATLOADS of aileron throw in it. Almost 60 deg on high rates. I was going back and forth in both directions last night. It looked really cool, then I went for it and hovered up and over the rafters, probably not the best thing to do with a show plane, but it was.....calling.....me ....cant......resist......MWUHAHAHAHAHAHA

Snaprolls are fast and violent....just the way I like em.

For some reason I cant get it to take off of the ground though. I have to hand launch it. No big deal, but it would be nice to lift off from the ground. Its just like the bigger reflection in that respect. Thing glues itself to the ground, and then when it finally breaks free....instant vertical hover. I still dont know why it does that. All the reflections do that. Oh well, If I wanted ground performance I should get a RC car.....This thing is for flyin!!!! And flyin is what it does best. Truly rockin' plane.

It might be that big sub-rudder. It makes it sit flat on the ground. No angle of attack.

Looking forward to those plans.

Thats what I was thinking put a larger landing gear on it (longer carbon rods)

Guys,

Bill figured it out last night. Dont pull up elevator in the takeoff and it will lift off on its own. If you pull up elevator, it will just stick to the ground more. You'll need a pretty long takeoff area though. It will take off in a little over half the length of a basketball court.

Bill also was winding it out with his last night.
Knife-edge loops....insane when your doing them in a gym with a 20ft ceiling.

And switchbacks.
Full throttle in a straight line, and jam full rudder into it, and watch it swap ends and go the other direction.

I'll have plans available soon. Bryan ,that was fun last night.

You got that right. That was fun.....REALLY fun. Im still stoked about flying this plane. This thing rocks.

COMING SOON.....The "Yosemite Sam" mini reflection.

and more......

Bryan,

I've noticed that on Aerofly with high throws. Excessive "up" will just pin the plane to the ground on a take off roll. You have to apply just a touch.

Hey Guys,

Just wanted to let everyone know we have fully put this little plane through its paces. And found some incredible new maneuvers it can do. The planes are still the best indoor 3D planes I've flown to date, and Ive flown ALOT of airplanes. Both Bill and I have been flying these like crazy. Ive actually flown mine so much my poor AXI 2204/54 is about on its last legs.

Guys, I would HIGHLY, STRONGLY, WITH EVERY FIBER OF MY MODEL FLYING BEING suggest everyone that really wants to fly a hot 3D plane and really wants to just yank a plane around into whatever crazy 3D maneuver they can dream up....BUILD THIS PLANE. This thing just flys so good. Its just incredibly fun to go fly, and its small enough to go anywhere. Ive actually had mine doing hovering torque rolls in my bedroom. Fly in in the backyard, in a gym, anywhere you got enough space to get it airborne.



Im working on getting some video up online. Ill let everyone know once I have it up.

We've also been working on the takeoffs. Dont touch elevator or anything else. Just shove throttle to it, and it will lift off just fine.

hey bda, would u wanna cut one for me?? lol i tried cuttin the "mini superstar" and kinda messed it up, i think when i start this job, im goin to try this plane and see if i do it right, is it out of 3 or 6mm foam??