Greg Covey

Hi,

The [link=http://www.gregcovey.com/aero_flakes.htm]AeroFlakes[/link] have some exciting new designs and technology to show in the upcoming events from 2004.

From the January 11th event, I will post some photos and mini-movies from a few of the interesting micro-flight designs that were flown.

Here is a brief list of some of the models:
[ul][*] DWE Mini Stik - no hands flying[*] John Gardner's "Titanic" Tri-plane bluecore design (and bluecore army)[*] Several Foamy Factory Ultimate derivative designs[*] T3Ds - Matt Kirsh's lighter than stock model and my hop'ed up model[*] Free Flight designs[*] RFFS100 Widget[*] Super Flea[*] DWE Falcon[*] many more
[/ul]

Here are the first few videos. They are each about 3meg in size.

[link=http://www.gregcovey.com/RCU/MiniStiknohands.wmv]DWE Mini Stik (no hands)[/link]

[link=http://www.gregcovey.com/RCU/Titanic.wmv]John Gardner's Titanic[/link]

jgardner

I brought four new designs to try out. Imagine my suprise when all of them flew. All were built with hotglue and split down Dow Bluecore fanfold foam (F3). The material is hot wire slpit widthwise down to about 1/8th inch.

The video above is of the triplane. I like Greg's name for it, so it will be called the Titanic.

It is 45" span with 8.2 sq ft of wing. It weighs in at about 9 oz. Wing loading is 1.2 oz/sq ft. It was slow. IPS "C" drive and 1020 lipoly. I flew well right off.

jgardner

Here is a derivitave of the www.floamfly.com Blue Frog. It is 23" span and is driven by a GWS 50XC. At 3 oz/sq ft it could fly both fast and slow. It needs less rudder throw, but other than that it flew great.

jgardner

This one has no name, but is a 12 g F3 and carbon micro. It uses a Didel 4.5 olm pager motor geared 3 to 1 with a GWS 3X2 prop. It has an E-tec 90 battery. It is not a living-room-flyer, but flew well at 2/3 throttle. This is the lightest I have built and was not too difficult using carbon fiber, split foam and hotglue.

jgardner

This is a plane very closely patterned on Hobbico's staggerwing FF design. First you smash up a Hobbico Staggerwing trying it out before converting it. Next you use the pieces to trace out a plane in slpit F3. The resulting plane comes in at a much lower weight (under 3 oz with GWS pico gear and a lightened B2C 'C' gear motor) and is much more resilient.

The plane took a direct hit from another, larger plane and all that was needed was to pop the wings back on to the magnets and pitch it again. The second mid-air was not so kind, a bit of a slice. I will be back in commission for the next fly-in.

jgardner

Thanks Greg for posting the video. I have some .avi of it, but yours is better.

The next meet will be on a Saturday from 4-8 PM, Feb. 7th.

Thanks Dan at www.smallrc.com for sponsoring the meet.

Greg Covey

Hi John,

I got my photos back from the event so i'll scan them in this weekend. The slower flying free flight and blue core models made for some awesome photos!

Here is a video of my 1.7oz DWE Widget with an RFFS100 module and two magnetic actuators. It's about 8meg in size.

[link=http://www.gregcovey.com/RCU/Widget.wmv]DWE Widget[/link]

Greg Covey

Here is the "King of Bluecore" with his indoor monster triplane that we dubbed the "Titanic".

Greg Covey

more Titantic...

Greg Covey

This is Lynn Bowerman's Ultimate foamy bi-plane.

A kit-bash off of the Foamy Factory plans, this plane uses 3mm Depron and balsa. The power system is a GWS DX-C motor, 10x4.7 prop, and a 3-cell Kokam 340 pack.

I'll post a movie of Lynn's Ultimate soon.

Greg Covey

The free-flight designs always amaze me with their serenity.

This model was built and flown by Alex. It would ascend slowly in a gentle circle until it hit the heating vents on the roof. It would stop, fall down a ways, and continue this cycle until the remaining rubber power only allowed it to descend.

Greg Covey

Here is a 5meg video of Lynn's Ultimate. Apparently, we didn't shoot any aerobatic maneuvers but you can see the stability and power.

[link=http://www.gregcovey.com/RCU/LynnsUltimate.wmv]Lynn's Ultimate[/link]

Greg Covey

Here are some more of John's Bluecore designs in flight.

jgardner

The Saturday AeroFlakes evernt went well. There were fewer fliers than usual, but all who came had fun. The next meet is March 14 th 12 to 4 PM. It had been canceled but has been reinstated by the town board.

I flew my Micromoth for the first time. It is a 12.5 gram plane from the web. It flew quite well till I put it into a wall. I think it was a bit tail heavy.

The Didel 4.5 ohm, 6 mm pager motor was plenty of power on the 90 mah lipoly.

Greg Covey

Young hover master, Eric Powers hovers my kit-bashed Potensky Cobra at the AeroFlakes March 14th event.

For more information on how I eliminated 33% of the Cobra weight and mounted a Nippy Black 0808, go [link=http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/m_1444636/mpage_1/key_/anchor/tm.htm#1646064]here[/link].

Greg Covey

RCU's Matt Kirsch had a successful set of flights on his scratch-built EDF foamie jet.

Greg Covey

Eric also hovered my T3D Cap which uses a DX-C motor, 11x4.7prop, and a 3-cell Kokam 340pack.

Matt Kirsch

My Feedback: (21)

If you haven't already recognized it, that's the Fan Fold Fun Jet design. I got the plans from Ezone (yes, I poke my head in there too), but instead of building it out of fan-fold foam, I built it from styrofoam lunch trays I collected from work, and a few sticks of carbon fiber from Dan Hurd. This involved edge-gluing some of the sheets together to get enough material, but it was a LOT cheaper than $37 for a stack of FFF to build one plane

Whoever said EDFs were anemic doesn't know what he's talking about. On the first launch, this thing shot diagnoally across this double gym in less than a second. It'll fly at 1/3 to 1/2 throttle, nice and docile for indoor. The split seconds during which I opened the throttle show the potential for a real screamer. I just need to get the wing flexing under control.

Power is a GWS EDF50, 2030 5-blade impeller, and a 2-cell Kokam 340.

Greg Covey

Canandaigua CHIEFS member, Ni Lin, practices hovering his micro-heli.

Matt Kirsh looks on in the background (second from left).

Greg Covey

RAMS member, Dave Savini, practices with a larger indoor heli model that has a variable pitch blade.

jpowersny2

You might be interested in the RAMS video from our indoor event of 3/6/04...several AeroFlakes were present.
http://www.rcplane.com/OpenHouse/Eve...r4/Indoor4.wmv

Greg Covey

Hi John,

Awesome video! Thanks for sharing it with us.

I see the "hover master" Eric is having fun and Ray's inverted helicopter flies just as well upside down.

Always a great time at the Xerox Gym!

Here are some photos compliments of the RAMS club.

Greg Covey

more...

marmitas

My Feedback: (1)

I am going to bring bring this to the top. I had tons of fun flying my Knuffel in Brockport and meeting some of you guys from the other side of town. See you next time.
George Rodriguez

Greg Covey

Hi George,

It looks like both had our 2004-2005 warm-up events on each side of town. Fortunitly for me, I live at the half-way point.

I have posted both the AeroFlakes and RAMS indoor events that I know about [link=http://www.gregcovey.com/events.htm]here[/link].

Hope to see you this winter sometime. I would like to get Eric Powers and Devin McGrath together for our own "Extreme Team" photo session. These young guys are incredible flyers!