I hope this will fly
 

I had an Ugly Stik that I wrecked last year. The only thing that was left of it was the landing gear the tail section and half of the wing. I rebuilt the other half of the wing and recovered it. My first covering job so it isn't too nice. I have a MDS .40 with an Evolution muffler on it. The original Ugly Stik had a Veco .19 on it. I used a plastic baseball bat for the fuse. I had to reinforce it with balsa so it would support the rubberbands (not pictured) that will hold the wing on. I took the fuel tank out of my old Sig Kougar to use in this. I used the pushrods from my wrecked Alpha (death spiral) and the wrecked Ugly Stick (dumb thumbed). The CG seems to be ok, it is about 1 1/2 inches from the leading edge. So I am going to head out in the morning to see if she will fly.

RE: I hope this will fly
 

Dang,

She lives up to her name!



Just kidding...

Let us know how it turns out.

RE: I hope this will fly
 

Very unique indeed. Don't know whether it will fly or not, just curious - How did you manage to install the servos, components and fuel tank inside the plastic bat? How did you build the firewall in and did you reinforce it?

And how are the pushrods secured to the bat? They look to be installed loose on the outside without anything supporting them every few inches as they should be, aren't they going to bind up the linkage?

RE: I hope this will fly
 

It'll fly... did you re enforced the boom/tail with a piece of wood, like a dowl. ???
The plastic might colaps and it might not.

those sticks, stick type models only has a little carbon fiber rod for a boom anyway.

Other than that..it should fly. But it'll be touchy or very agile:D
becuase you have a short tail or boom.

you can use a couple of yard sticks for a fuselage.

The rod is secure through the butt of the handle. A couple of tie wraps or just tape it, if you think it might flex
a couple of tie wraps secure the rods of the duraplane's to the tail boom and that's about it.

He's using one those flex rod.

You use duck tape to mount the servos on the duraplane.lol

RE: I hope this will fly
 

I'd really love to see pics of the inside of the 'fuselage' and firewall area.

RE: I hope this will fly
 

I think that's the coolest looking plane I've seen so far! If they sold them that way, I'd buy one;)

RE: I hope this will fly
 

He probably re enforced it with wood and just expoxy it. that's what i would do.:)

RE: I hope this will fly
 

Actually the nose of the plane is the strongest part. It is very thick plastic up where I mounted the firewall. To install the servos I just screwed a couple of peices of wood to the sides of the bat. One problem I ran across is banding the wing to the fuse. The first time I did it the fuse started to bend so I had to install the side supports (wood). Some of the pushrods are metal and some are that thin plastic. I just used whatever I had laying around so I didn't have to buy anything new. You can see in the picture were the reciever sits, in the picture I don't have the battery in there and it isn't wrapped in foam. With all of that in there it fits prettly tight. I actually have to take the rudder servo arm off to put it in there when it is all wrapped up. We will see what happens. I found out that epoxy doesn't stick to this plastic very well. I was going to epoxy in the servo tray but that didn't last too long and ended up using wood screws.

RE: I hope this will fly
 

There is no reason it should not fly as long as the Cg is approriate. One and a half inchs does not tell us anything without knowing the chord.

Measure the chord from the leading edge to the trailing edge (including the ailerons) of the wing. Divide this measurement by four and the result is the distance back from the leading edge that I would reccomend setting the CG for the first flight. That is the quarter chord also referred to as 25% MAC (mean aerodynamic chord, which just means the average chord).

Your main gear looks to be a little far forward which will tend to make the airplane less stabile directionally on takeoff. When the taildragger main gear is closer to the airplanes center of gravity directional stability on takeoff will be improved but noseover tendency will be worse and elvator use is required on the ground. Moving the gear further forward ahead of the airplanes CG will make the noseover tendency less but directional stability is worse and landing becomes more difficult because it will have more tendency to bounce on touchdown ie the bouncys.

John

RE: I hope this will fly
 

COOL!!!


I like it! And when your done flying it,you can take the wing off and beat down the weeds around the runway! (thats what I gotta do today at my flying field :(

RE: I hope this will fly
 

I didn't get to fly it this morning. one of the wires on the rudder servo became disconnected somehow and I didn't have a spare servo with me. Also my father was trying to tune in his trainer for his first training flight so I spent most of my time helping him out.

RE: I hope this will fly
 

Just noticed the middle servo which may be the rudder servo, can,t tell with linkage hooked up like that can,t really work. There would be very little throw avaliable and with the Elevator pushrod linkage all the way out its likely you have to much elevator throw.

Failure to ballance properly and too much throw are the two most common contributors to a bad flying airplane.

RE: I hope this will fly
 

Yeah I see what you are saying about the middle servo. It isn't really like that I just moved so I can slide the reciever in and out easily, normally it sits to the side like the others do.

RE: I hope this will fly
 

Went to the field today to fly it. Never got off the ground, every time I would throttle up it would just spin in tight circles to the left. So I need to do some figuring out.

RE: I hope this will fly
 

Keep at it! Keep at it! You'll get it ;)

RE: I hope this will fly
 

That is one of the coolest things I've seen someone try to do with an airplane or lack of one:). I hope you get it off the ground! You are the Wright brother of baseball bat planes in my eyes.;)

RE: I hope this will fly
 

Groundloop...
let the plane roll out further with less initial power if possible.Also check that the wing and tail have similar or the same angle.If the wing is level (set the tail on some books etc.),then the tail should be inline and level also.

RE: I hope this will fly
 

Try flipping the landing gear around becuase it'll change the toe in / toe out.

Add washers to the engine mount to give it right thrust.
Now the I've looked at your photo closer...you have left thrust going.

You might even need to give it a little down thrust,later on..who knows.
Dial it in after every test flight.


You can also add more blocks between the bat and enigne mount.
This will extend the engine further, mount the wing more forward to where the leading edge
is right around the center of the wheels. It will also give you a longer tail movement.

The landing gear is set a little far too much forward, so it'll bounce more and do that.
Plus with the shot tail movment , it's taking just a little bit longer for the tail to lift.
You can try rasing the hieght of the tail wheel.
Try to get it align as much as possiable as nitro wign suggested.