critterhunter

Begun hacking out the body parts last night for my ugly aerial video platform. I've traded for all the parts so it isn't going to cost me a dime, except for a crystal for the RX. Had two BP21 motors laying around that needed re-winds. Traded them to a guy who re-winded them and gave me one back. Traded some Sub C 3300ma cells to another guy for a 25 amp brushless speed control. Traded some junk Stryker, Challenger, and Extreme boards to another guy who fixes them for a Hitec RX that is positive shift and thus compatible with my JR radio. Also was given an HS55 servo (maybe more than one) for some JR ST47 servos that came with my radio and are too big for my needs. Also gave a guy a 700ma nicad flight pack for an already wired up 3V regulator complete with a protection circuit to keep my plane battery and the pocket digital camcorder I'm going to run on it happy. This way I am able to ditch the two AA batteries in the camera and save that weight. The foam was already laying around in the garage. Nice to build a plane by getting rid of parts I don't need. I already have some 2000ma 3 cell 10C lipos packs laying around that should power the plane nicely.

This picture is just a quick throw together of the parts to get an idea of what it's going to look like. Everything still needs sanded as you can see by the botched wing. I used two 2" slabs of foam glued together to form a 4" thick fuse to really help protect the camera. Wing is a hot wired out clark-Y 36". Tail and rudder are Cell Foam 88. I was going to go with a single aileron and elevator but, after talking it over with a fellow flyer, decided on a rudder and elevator for control with no ailerons. I always wanted to try a rudder setup and he convinced me the plane would be much more stabile in the air for less jittery aerial video. When you turn left/right the plane won't tend to tip on it's side like ailerons do. I'm going to hitch the rudder servo up to the aileron port on my RX so I have rudder/elevator on the same stick. Don't trust my flying skills with a rudder control on the throttle stick.

In the picture the elevator is too small yet. I decided to go slightly bigger on those. The tail end of the fuse also is going to be cut off at an angle from the belly up to the tail for a better look and to streamline the plane a bit better. The BP21 motor is going on the end of the fuse near the top for a pusher setup. The prop will clear the ground good this way for added durability, probably running a 7x4 or 8x4 APC E on it. The camera compartment is going directly under the COG point so the plane will fly right with or without the camera installed. Camera is going to be inserted into a hole from under the fuse and secured in it's chamber via velcro loops. I mainly want straight down video but will also taper the bottom of the fuse to allow the camera to point somewhat forward with an unubstructed view if I want. Camera will sit a good couple of inches up inside the bottom of the fuse to protect it from landings.

Since I've also got a 2 watt 2.4ghz tx/rx for a wireless camera I plan to also make sure the compartment will hold that setup when I want to use it. I'm probably going to run two HS55 servos on the plane, perhaps two HS81s. I'm a little worried the plane might be too much for the HS55s. It's ugly and going to be real slow and a docile flyer but that's the way I want it for aerial video. Also have a 800mw 1.2ghz setup laying around that I've only used a few minutes on a Stryker before. Having so much aerial equipment sitting around that I've never even used it's time to stop making excuses and use it. I have at least four lost planes to look for for friends (And my Extreme) on a friend's property and this should work well to search the woods from above while the leafs are down. I also am building it because I want to do some fly overs on land that I hunt to discover new ponds, land bottleknecks for deer hunting, etc.