BaldEagel

Rick
Welcome to designing your own the satisfaction you get from it is worth the effort.
My wings have a carbon flat in them 6mm x 2mm at approx c of g, I put a 3mm x 0.2mm flat at the leading edge for ding proofing with a futher two pieces at the leading edge down to the fus bottom, on the fus I used to put a rod in between two layers of 3mm depron, but now i just put a logitudinal fusalage profile at rightangle to the fus at the wing possition, under the wing and attached to the tail, this is lighter than the rod and two fus profiles, see previous pic., will try to post pics but having problems downloading at the moment.
Mike

nrichardz

Mike and adam these pictures are for you guys to look at this is my first plane designrd and built by me the specs so far are wingspan 33.5 inches fuselage length 32.6 inches put carbon fiber spar in fuse and 2 carbon fiber spars in wing also put triangular reenforcement pieces on tail and wing to have the least amount of flex as possiblehopefully it will fly it shure seems like it will

Rick

Mike I am planning on powering it with a himaxx 2015-4100 brushless motor (6:6:1 Ratio with a 10x7 prop) castle creations phoenix 10 and either a 2 cell of 3 cell lipoly I guess it will depend on what it weighs ready to fly let me know what you think

BaldEagel

Rick
I think all of this could be of interest in a new thread, under something like "home built foamies" what do you think.
Mike

BaldEagel

Rick
Pic of the front bracing to my crutch system, the crutch does away with the fus rod.
Mike

nrichardz

Mike I agree I will start a new thread tonight and let you know what it is

RICK

Adam G

My Feedback: (17)

Pics look great you guys. I have a buddy who builds his own planes. Some from his own designs, and some from plans off the internet. I don't know if I have the patience for that yet. I am thinking of getting a kit to put together this winter. That would be a big step for me. So far I have graduated from RTF (Park Zone Cub), to a modified RTF (standard radio, made ailerons, brushless and lipo in the cub), to an ARF (the pc-9), to a modified ARF (brushless and lipo in the PC-9). All of that in about 4 months. I just picked up a Supersportser EP from Great Planes. It is pretty big for an electric, 48" wingspan and about 3lbs flying wieght. I am looking forward to building and modifying it with brushless and lipo.

On a sad note, I crashed my PC-9 yesterday. It got lost in the reflection of the sun off of the snow, and became inverted. As I was going down I gave up elevator to pull out of the dive, and made it worse not knowing I was inverted! At this point I was going straight in. I then realized what was going on and pulled up just before hitting the ground. The tail caught on a bump in the gound, and broke. Also the stabilizer and elevator broke. Other than that, not too much damage. The wing broke where the plastic plate connects it to the fuse. I just put a piece of 1/8 plywood in its place, which I was planning on doing anyway. Everything is back together, and I think it will fly just fine. Doesn't even look too bad.

The only thing that concerns me a bit is the elevator itself is pretty chewed up. The foam actually got crushed in one spot. Do you guys know if they make a compound that I could apply to the elevator and just sand it to the shape that I need? I was thinking of trying a lightwieght wall spackle, and then painting over that with acrylic paint. I don't know if that would crack or not. I just need to fill in some low spots to get the shape back to normal.

The planes you are building look awesome! How do you shape the wing to get the proper airfoil to create lift? Or does thrust do all of the work?

nrichardz

Adam I dont know if your local hobbyshop carries it but the local hobby shop here sells a foam filler I have used it on some of my planes to fill the mold release spots I will try to get the specific name of it for you thanks for the praise on the new design this one has a flat wing because it is a 3D airplane but if I need a wing with an airfoil I have a hotwire foam cutter so I can cut the wing to the airfoil I want will get the name of that foam filler and post it tomorrow

Rick

Adam G

My Feedback: (17)

Thanks for the info on the foam filler. I will look for more info on it as well. What a concept on the 3D craft! Thrust creates all the lift. Thank goodness for cell phones. Battery and brushless technology are advancing RC planes in a majpr way.

BaldEagel

Hi Guys
You do not have to use foam filler, first try a warm iron to re-expand the foam, if this does not work just cut it out and replace with a piece of packing foam CA'd in and sand to shape, but be prudent with the CA it does not sand well, preferably use PVA or white glue as you guys would call it.
Pic below shows an experimental foam aerobatic wing without hot wire cutting, works fine, just increases weight, but groves better.
Mike

nrichardz

Hey mike started a new thread homebuilt foamies in the foamies section please check it out and let me know what you think plane is ready to fly except for paint now

nrichardz

Hey adam thanks for the encouragement on my homebuilt thread keep tabs on it because I am already designing my next plane and this one is not going to be a profile fuselage it is going to be built up anyway the name of that foam filler I was talking about is MICROFILL BY M.H.P hope this will help you out

Rick

Adam G

My Feedback: (17)

Rick,

Lightwieght spackle worked like a charm. I put some on, sanded it down, and painted it with acrylic paint, and it looked like new. It is super light stuff. I will keep an eye on your new thread. I am glad to hear that you are so pumped with these new design/builds. You are starting to make me want to experiment a bit with a profile rig.

BaldEagel

Adam and Rick
What is this lightweight Spackel you are talking about, don't know it over here is it known by another name? any info would be appreciated.
Mike

Adam G

My Feedback: (17)

Lightwieght spackle is available in any hardware or home improvement store over here. It is used to patch holes is sheetwock, plaster, or drywall. It is almost as lightwieght as foam, and dries very fast. It sands very easy.

Adam

BaldEagel

Adam
Thanks for the reply, the only ones we have over here which sound simmilar are not compatable with polstyrene foam, I will keep looking however, everyone must have just come home and loged on its taking an age to do anything at the moment, its just 1800hrs and i'm going in to feed the cat, logging off.
Mike

Adam G

My Feedback: (17)

The stuff we have here is just gypsum powder and water premixed and whipped full of air to be extremely light. I assume you use sheetrock in UK these days versus the old plaster style correct? Interesting the little differences between our two contries. Has the weather been good enough for you to get in some good flying over there? What kind of winds do you fly your PC-9 in?

BaldEagel

Adam
We use what is called Gyproc over here which is the same stuff, its for dry wall linning, horrid give me true plaster every time, dont have to worry about fixings etc:
Weather has been quite mild of late and have been able to fly when ever I wont to, I will fly my PC9 in up to 25mph winds, loaded with a 2500mah Li-Po, bucks arroung a bit but is great fun hovering it into wind or landing elevator style, our patch has no trees down wind, therefore hardly any turbulance close to the ground which makes it not very hard, but requires concentration.
What's it like over there at the moment, I know that the skiing on the east coast is good, but not on the west, which side are you?
Mike

Adam G

My Feedback: (17)

We are right in the middle of the country as far as east to west. Minnesota borders with Canada to the North. We are just to the west of the Great Lakes. We are about 20 degrees farenheit, and already have about 12 inches of snow on the ground. The PC-9 slides right along the top with a bit of a poof.

BaldEagel

Adam
We have not got any snow yet, but am looking forward to using my Hydofoam off it when and if it comes.
Mike

Adam G

My Feedback: (17)

Edited, see next post.

Adam G

My Feedback: (17)

I love the snow myself. I am working on desiging some light ski's for my park flyers. I love belly landing the pc-9. The cold also gives the opportunity to focus on building new planes. I have 2 in the works right now! Have any pictures of your Hydrofoam?

BaldEagel

Adam
Plus snow makes the garden look so tidy, herewhith the Hydofaam which is the Graupner Kit, much better looking than all the others I have seen.
After I have finnished the retract installation in the Seagull PC9, I have two projects also, one is a Phantom 4 prop powered, I haven't gone turbine yet, the other is a Yak 54, I'm also designing a PC21 and hope to get that on the drawing board soon, so far just sketches over an existing plan just to get the idea. see pics.

repeterson

How do you hand launch the PC-9 All the hand lauching I've done is with high wing airplanes and thats pretty straight forward. But, with the low wing.. underhand?

BaldEagel

repeterson
Just grab hold behind the wing, aim up approx 15 deg and launch on full power, mine just goes away as sweet as you would like. If you try underhand as I used to you get an immediate turn left due to engine torque being stronger than the airflow over the surfaces so far developed, overhand lauching allows sufficient speed for this to be counteracted, not a javlin throw but a smart overhead launch from standstill. The feeling I get in my hand when hand launching is that the aircraft is pulling straight down the fuss i.e. up approx 15 degs. Hold the plane in your hand at full arms length on full power and tilt up and down by a few degrees you will get the idea. Safety first don't forget.
Mike

repeterson

Sounds simple enough. Thank You!