Difficult Project Undertaken. Help Needed!
 

Hello everyone,
This is one of my first posts and I want to say I'm happy to have found a forum I think can help with my questions. I'm basically a newbie to the indoor/slowfly/parkfly field and am looking forward to having a lot of fun.
I've recently stumbled upon a huge interest in World War One era aviation and I've wanted to put together a small scale electric for some time now. I've decided that, with the dull winter months rolling in, now is as good a time as any to begin.
I was interested in building a Fokker Dr1 with full controls; rudder/elev/aileron. Based on the short, very satisfied write up of an RCUniverse member named Sonito from earlier this year, I figured I could do alright with the Guillows kit despite the majority opinion that they are too heavy and unsuitable for such pursuits. If Sonito could build a sturdy bird, then so can I (with effort!).
Naturally, I'm not going to disbelieve, disregard, or ignore the argument for Guillows being unduly massive. After all, "ignore" is the bigger part of "ignorant" and I'm not interested in having a couple months of love and effort amount to an expensive debris field. I figure the best thing I can do is attack the problems to the best of my ability before I get to them. That's why I want to hear from you knowledgeable folks!

Here are my firsts questions:

1) Generally speaking, what is the lightest material I can cover this plane with and what is this material's durability?

2) What do you think is the single most important factor in reducing the weight of this model?

3) Has anyone had success with combining a Futaba Conquest 4ch transmitter with a GWS micro receiver?

I'm confident I can build the model fairly straight forward and have a well-flying scale plane, my interest is to take off as much weight as possible, to facilitate the slowest flight possible with this model, while retaining a decent flight time.

Thank you all very much for reading and for replying if you have the time. I look forward to reading your posts either here or in other topics!

Sincerely,
Devan DePauw

RE: Difficult Project Undertaken. Help Needed!
 

Hi Devan,

1) use spray paint...sparingly

2) use Lithium cells to reduce weight (Kokam 340s can deliver 20C or 6amps!)

3) No problem with a Futaba Conquest and GWS R4-P receiver

Please keep us posted on your results and good luck! :)

P.S. Read [link=http://home.comcast.net/~gordon-johnson/]Gordon Johnson's[/link] site for more good information on micro flight.

RE: Difficult Project Undertaken. Help Needed!
 

Hey, thanks a lot. I'll be sure to keep everyone posted, though it'll be a couple weeks atleast until i get this thing started. That link you posted will be quite a help, too. Thanks again!

Devan.