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Someone talked me into doing a bipe project. (And you know who you are ) Not that I don't like bipes, but they can be an engineering headache if not done properly. Don't relish making umpteen prototypes. So I'll try and extrapolate from other planes I've done and see what happens. The idea is to make a 3D/precision foamie bipe for the MicroDan 2510-3D motor and TP 1320 packs. You can put a monoplane and a bipe next to each other and even though the mono might fly better-people will still pick the bipe I'll try and make it neutral handling with little coupling as possible. Please-no more scale(semi) AEROBATIC planes that are made to fly 3D. Let's depart from the norm-yay! No need to revisit Ultimates or Pitts. If you happened upon my blogs or threads you might notice I prefer the Clik style foamies so you can see the influence on the design. Hey what can I say, it flies extremely well so why fix it if it isn't broken? Here's some rough cut depron taped together to check out the general layout and integral cabanes/SFG's. By the way-whoever designed the Amethyst pattern bipe, my hat is off to you sir! I love it. Really has started quite the controversy on the pattern forums. OMG-no cockpit, who's going to fly the plane?! Really, who needs it unless you've got a little leprechaun of a pilot that's going to climb in and smooth out your stick inputs. Probably by making the fuse more symmetrical it keeps the cockpit hump from creating coupling on that side of the fuse. You go boyyyy! This planes a tribute to all those who start out with a blank sheet of paper and try to make the best flying plane possible...

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Here's some shots of the areas I'll mill out to save some grams. Elevator has some balsa triangle stock CA'd on. Will also add some carbon flat stock to elevator for some added strength
UPDATE: Got around to milling the tailfeathers out tonight. Inserted carbon flat stock and CA'd. Unmilled elevator came in @ 13grams w/balsa corner stock glued on. Milling shaved off about 4grams. Added 2 grams with carbon/CA so only saved 2 grams total but came out stiffer than unreinforced. Sorta happy with that. Rudder milling shaved off 3grams, so total of 5grams was taken off. Every little bit counts I quess, plus it's off the farthest part of the plane so lenght X weight helps out too. Seems like a lot of work to save a few grams but the end result(scale time!) and flight testing will tell the tale. May be worth it to just live with the weight and go for simplicity...nah! All the weight is being taken off the aft part of plane behind CG so that will help balance out with the short nose moment. Later...

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My oldest daughter brought home an art project named Clearance(for real). What a great name for a mascot. He's going to be helping me out with milling a channel in the wings for the carbon tubes. Still leaves some foam on one side and I'll use some Sumo glue to fill in the top. Almost blends in perfectly with the depron which should hide my mistakes. Here's some shots of the ailerons milled out. Saved 2.5grams per aileron. So looks like a little over 1/2oz. saved by milling. That's more than likely going to be used up by repairs later!

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Got the bottom checker scheme done. Working on fuse scheme now. Just going for a basic paint job for side recognition in flight. Nothing fancy(can't really do one anyway!). Robarts were Sumo'd in and have very little resistance. Surfaces will flop around-nice. 3154's should have a field day slapping the surfaces around. One tip: You should clean up the excess glue off the hinges while it's expanding several times and flex surfaces to make sure there's no glue getting in hinges. Use a Q-tip and alcohol. Use some flat aluminum stock or something flat and weight the parts down while glue is setting. If you need to put some pressure on the parts to keep the hinge line tight do so with some extra weights, or whatever you have on hand. My 2 cents

Got some paint on the rest of the fuse. Kind of trying colors and shapes for the next one. Not quite sure what shows up best in flight on a mostly symmetrical bipe. Will try and get the fuse glued together tonight.

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Got the fuse together between all the holiday festivities. Made a carbon plate mount for the MicroDan 2510-3D. It's got bling now

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Got the Bipe-X up in the air for a few minutes between squalls. This weather lately has sucked big time.[:@] Brief impressions-a little too heavy for motor. Still flies well, probably needs a few more watts to get ballistic vertical. Probably will upgrade to Scorpion. Good 3D performance but pack is all the way forward. If pattern is desired a little heavier motor should cure that. Did a 7' donut. KE was with no rudder input. Hovers excellent. Need to make the next version a little smaller and lighter for the MicroDan. Always try and push the size limit for a motor and pushed too far this time. Nothing a Scorpion won't cure. Paint scheme was very visible even with todays crappy skies. Seems to be very stable and manueverable, more flight testing should reveal what it's capable of. With a few changes(as expected for prototype) I'll get the next one going for SEFF.

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Here''s some flight video''s of the Bipe-X being checked out by my friend Blake. I''m starting to see the advantages of the bipe design more.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fEuXcGRXgKY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tj0luH4rJm0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ApdM5_3Uw4
http://www.flyinggiants.com/gallery/...hp?photo=42498
Adjustments to airframe are already being applied to V2.0 templates.

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Here's some shots of V2.0 parts. Fuse is EPS foam core, milled and holed with carbon criss cross stiffeners CA'd into EPS foam, 2mm depron outer sheeting. Still about same weight as usual 6mm depron cross fuse setup. A lot stiffer than usual foamie build. Just what we like for precision. No slop in linkages,digital servos and carbon rods for wing spars-it's a good thing. Start painting today, should have some more pics by the weekend.

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Here's the hopefully highly visible in flight paint job for the Bipe-X V2.0. Still trying to come up with that crisp easily discernible while flying scheme. Have to hit the edges with a Sharpie to finish it off. I know the bottom big checker scheme is visible, a lot of planes use this scheme on the bottom 'cuz it works. Should have it all together by next weekend, now for the fun stuff....

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My oldest daughter wanted to practice her photography skills on my plane. She actually said she likes the paint scheme. That's a first! Thanks for the pics girl. Just getting the cabanes/SFG's cut into the wings. Will have it glued later tonight. Coming in about 1.4oz lighter so far and much stiffer with a better wing saddle area. More later...

FLYMIKE

Cool I like the looks of it too!

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Thanks, it's just another prototype. I've still got some more work to do on the design to tweak it even more. Still striving for a good flying 3D bipe, not that easy[:@] Most bipes out there are what I like to call Advanced Coupling Trainers(ACT) you have to be a really good pilot to mix and fly out of most of their bad tendencies. This is my attempt at a neutral in all axis', coupling free 3D/precision bipe. Can't wait to do a 60" full fuse/wing/stab version now!

FLYMIKE

Cool, do you know if cellfoam 88 is any good..thats what the LHS has?

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Sorry, can't give you an opinion on the Cellfoam 88. Haven't used it. I hear it's a little heavier and has a plastic coating on it(?). Gediplac is the only other alternative from Europe and that stuffs expensive. My LHS can't get good pricing on depron anymore so they're price doubled(not their fault). Give it a try and see how you like it. Hey it's only foam, another airframe is easy to cut out so go for it and see how you like it. Milling can help with some of the extra weight if that's a problem. I found if you only mill one side of say the elevator, you tend to get coupling from it. I ended up skinning over the milling with Saran Wrap/adh. spray. That helped. Trying the V2.0 without any milling to see how it affects drag.

FLYMIKE

Thanks for the indepth response..very cool..I will try it...

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Got the landing gear assembly and MicroDan 2510-3D mounted. Should have it in the air by the weekend. Servos/linkages next.

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Finally got the time to finish her off, now if the weather will co-operate. Don't feel like doing the Ben Franklin thing with a new plane! Here in Central Florida(lightning capitol of the world) I can see and hear some thunder bumpers kicking up now so have to wait till tommorrow for the maiden. AR6000 is recessed into the fuse as well as most of the servo leads. Kind of cleans it up a little. ESC is hidden too, but still has plenty of ventilation. AUW with 1320 comes in @ 18.5oz. Still better than V1.0. Vids soon...

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Got to check out V1.0 and 2.0 back to back today. A real contrast. V2.0 is obviously more 3D oriented with the shorter moments and chordier(is that a word?) wing. V2.0 made Blake mad cuz' it didn't need any rudder to knife edge. LOL I'll going to make some adjustments to help out with that. It will bite its tail now in KE loops and waterfalls. I almost did 2 KE loops by mistake when I was only going for 1 the first time I tried it. Hovers like a dream. I could even sit it there nice and stable like I knew what I was doing. Roll rate was better even though ailerons look a lot bigger than V1.0. As far as comparing the 2, V1.0 is more pattern/3D and V2.0 is just plain 3D fun. Rolling harriers all good, KE flight not quite as smooth as V1.0 but tighter radius for sure. Does about 5' loops inverted & upright. Same for KE loops. And suprisingly it actually has a decent glide ration with power off. Different fuse construction was solid, no flex in the wings or tail area at all. I'll be using that construction method in some other projects in the works. All in all V2.0 is "twitchier" IMO but fun nonetheless. V1.0 is a lot smoother. I'm going to make another V1.0 for with some minor changes and 1 for Blake AKA" Mr. Precision". He wants to make it almost totally a pattern bipe for backyard practice. We'll do some more changes and see what works best and then shoot a Compare and Contrast video of the two. Personally like V1.0 too, I need something to smooth my flying out! V2.0 is a blast for backyard 3D fun. More soon

InfiniteMotors

Holy crap, YOU'RE the guy who made me buy a Tribute because I watched your "hucked over a lake" video about a year ago! That's funny

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You're refering to my flying buddy Blake(Hilson87 on RCU). I just build the planes and make the videos. And try to learn from watching him. [:@] Hope you got a MicroDan for your TFX. Best airframe/motor matchup there is. You should see what I've got cooking up, even better. The full fuse/wing/stab Bipe-X 60" is going to be a lot of fun if we can judge by the flat foamie version. Hopefully in the next few months you'll be seeing the 6mm Bipe-X kitted. Look for it at an upcoming big electric event. Keep checking RCGroups.com(edfrules) for more info and videos too. Got a lot of fun planes ahead...

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Started on V1.2 with a few impovements a lightening features. Using .018 carbon rods in place of carbon flat stock for reinforcements. Lite spackle over slots to cover over it. Build is coming out lighter than V1.0. Also getting CAD files done for production. Looks like a cool company is interested in producing Bipe-X. Great-no more handcutting. I'd love to whip out a box and have a nice lite inked color scheme kit done in a few hours than all the cutting,sanding,and painting! Keep an eye out for more news.
NewsFlash!!! Blake just won at the NATS. 2008 Intermediate Pattern Champion. Good work dude! Have to step it up for advanced next year. Looks like there will be a Bipe-XP full up prototype in the works now after Blake stared a hole into QQ's Euphoria. He's seeing 2 wings on all planes now.

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Here's some mug shots of Bipe-X V1.2. 4 x Futaba S3154's all 'round. Mmmm...digital creamieness. Should have it done next day or so depending on schedule/weather. Have Fusion-pack 1500 25c to test out too. Looks like this build is coming out lighter too-always a good thing. Has a few subtle changes from V1.0. Later...

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Here's some video we managed to shoot when the wind finally died down. Been 15-20mph all week Kind of long video but I'm too lazy to edit some more, so here ya' go. We'll shoot some more this week hopefully with some more daylight in the picture. Kind of cool flying around the moon though...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wfUG9Lemiko

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Hope everyone has a safe and Happy New Year! Here's some footage of both versions of Bipe-X over the past year. We've had a blast testing them. Just got a Scorpion 2215-18T to test out, will post results soon.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UJ1Pi8nhvtE