Ram-bro

My Feedback: (101)

I am looking for something different to fly . Our club is having a contest to see who can come up with the most unusal flying contraption. We have the flying witch, cars, stop sign, iron, lawn mowers and parachutists. I need something that will blow there socks off and I am having a brain fart. Lets see what you guys have in your inventory for plans and ideas. The winner of this contest gets $200 butt hat i s not the reason for my interest.

thenothing

I have seen the flying witch designs online. They made me wonder if somehow doing a flying santa sleigh with reindeers would be possible.

There's also an old Shel Silverstein poem about Ickle me, Pickle me, and Tickle me too. They all flew away in a... flying shoe!

A UFO would be pretty neat too, but I would think they have been done before. I'm very new to the R/C scene though.

Hmm... just to toss out completely random ideas now...

A frog
A giant fly
A book
A brain (with attached spinal cord, hehe)

Ram-bro

My Feedback: (101)

The flying sleigh and reindeer is a perfect idea. I think I have seen plans for those somewhere out there. Also another great idea would be for the formation flying planes all tied togethr to fly as one. I will look for these plans and see what is out there. See what happens with just a little input. Thanks for the spark

Spaceclam

how about something like this? made it myself. i am 13, so it shouldn't be too hard for you guys to do. and yes, i have flown it and it is flyable. i am sure a homebuilt contraption like this one will win the contest, however it will run you about $400 dollars assuming you have a computer radio with at least 8 programable mixers. of you do not, you will have to go the vtail mixer route and the good ones (i tried the cheap ones and becuase i had to put the masters feeding off the two outputs of a third vtail mixer and they were so innacurate that ther ewas no way i could fly it) will cost you about $120-$150. however, i do believe that you would have a lot of fun doing something like this. if you wish, and are truly interested, i can give you the list of the components i used and possible substitutes.
cheers

Boogie

Maybe a flying skii jumper??

Spaceclam

what if there is no snow?

danvel

Hey, SPACECLAM , I love your 4 rotor helicopter. I think you took the idea from the "draganflier" (RCTOYS). Didn't you?
Congratulations anyway; if you made that at the age of 13 you may be designing spaceships for the NASA when you are 25.
Please post the list of components that you used and tell us about the flyability of the machine. Did you use electronic GYROSCOPES?
How stable is it?.
I personally think that you can improve stability by lowering the Center of Gravity (using a taller box instead of that flat one and placing the batteries at the bottom of the box). That can help with the Pitch and Roll stability creating a pendulus effect.
For the Yaw movement maybe you need a Gyroscope after all to compensate for speed diferences beetween the clockwise and counterclockwise rotors unless you are a very good pilot.
Keep up the good work!

Ram-bro

My Feedback: (101)

so tell us about this ski jumper. That is one I know I could handle. You got plans and how does it fly?

Spaceclam

i got the idea for four rotors from the draganflyer becuase i figured it would be most stable that way. however, it was originally a school prodject so i figured that i coudln't go wrong that way. i use 4 gws eps300c-c motor system that i have installed ALL capacitors on (you will get a lot of radio glitches if you do not) swinging 4 10x4.5 props, two clockwise and two counter clockwise from www.toddsmodels.com i use a hitec feather for a reciever, 4 hitec 1010 speed controls (they are now discontinued. if you want to attempt this, you need to get one with a bec switch so you can turn only one bec on at a time. a motor arming switch is prefferable too) there are two gws microgyros on there. the problem with them is they are accurate within themselves, but you have to reset the zero point every time you turn them on. currently, i have all the mixes dome in my radio and do not have yaw control. however, i am soon going to go to vtail mixers (i did originally but those wattage mixers are so innacurate it woudln't work) to allow me to have yaw control. the setup is as follows. you hay want to draw this out to help it make sense.


you have 3 mixers, that i will label #1, #2, and #3 and a four channel reciever.

plug the slave of mixer 1 into channel 1
plug the slave of mixer 2 into channel 2
plug the slave of mixer 3 into channel 4
plug the master of mixer 3 into channel 3
plug the master of mixer 1 into one of the outputs of mixer 2
plug the master of mixer 2 into the remaining output of mixer 3.

that will give you pitch, yaw, and roll control. the outputs mixer 1 will control a set of two motors located at opposite ends of the craft. likewise, mixer 2 will opperate the other two in the same fasion.

each set has the props rotating in the opposite direction of the other set. so, rudder would increase the speed of one set and decrease the other, causing the torque to turn the model. all this would have worked, but because i had the master of one innacurate vtail mixer plugged into the output of another innacurate vtail mixer, control was unachievable.
as for stablilty, i would lower the box down more, except i have it designed so that the battery which is configured in a hump position provides the majority of the strength.i used the battery as a center structure to keep the top seperated yet firmly attatched to the bottom plate, while i have pretty makeshift supports along the sides. this has made for one tough design, and i would hate to change it. flight is controllable however. for anybody who has flown an rc helicopter, it is like having an overweight helicopter with a big engine in it. pitch and roll control are responsive, but it is slow to change direction. it is the same way with this, however it is still controllable. the picture is decieving. the battery (a 10 oz high discharde nicad) puts the cg about 1.5 inches below the rotor disks. however, the day after i posted that one of my motor leads came undonein a controlled hover and it instantly flipped over and broke one of the gearbox housings so i am out of comission for a little while. i also installed a rollcage, give nthe fact the thing landed upside down. i will also be ordering the vtails probably within the next week. i will keep you posted. i only get abotu 2 mins of flight time because i am drawing probably at least 30 amps. that is the best estimate i have. at full throttle it will draw almost 8 amps, but i fly at 3/4 throttle. it's been a fun prodject certainly. i will keep you posted. danvel, if you are seriously interrested in making one of these things, they are really fun. i will try and get a flying picture when i get it all together.

1cheech

i was at an airshow one time and i saw a flying lawnmower. it looked almost just like the real thing and it seemed to fly pretty good.

Ram-bro

My Feedback: (101)

we have a flying lawnmower in the club already......and it does fly well, loops,rolls and nice low trimming passes...lol

1cheech

just thought that i would let you know.

Spaceclam

i saw three of them lined up next to eachother at the basin. they were the stupidest looking things i had ever seen. they were very funny..

danvel

Thank you for the info, Spaceclam.
My plan is to design a small microprocesor-based circuit to integrate the 3 vtail mixers and the motor power drivers using 4 standard FET transistors directly controlled by the microprocessor. I think this is the best way to get good accuracy in the mixing because everything's calculated digitally within the microprocessor and there's no wiring beetween multiple different elements. I want to use only one GYRO directly attached to the rudder channel to get stability for the yaw movement.
Although I don't think this will be very difficult, It can take me a few months because I have very little spare time. If I can get the electronic part to work fine, I'll buy the motors and build the rest of the structure.

Boogie

Ok. Hello again. This is not my design. I just saw those pictures. But it wouldn't be too difficulk to build.
We have a contest in Poland annually in which we compete with flying inventions. Last year I had a flying lawnmover, I want to improve its flying capabilities. Does anyone have plans for it??
I have also designed a flying turtle. As soon as I am going to start building it I will post pictures and some info on how it flies or even plans!!!
I will be made entirely out of depron with balsa and ply reinforcements.

1cheech

wow looks like i am too dumb to be in here

Spaceclam

nobody is too dumb. if you feel you don't know something, ask a question. danvel, the yaw channel is actually stable. the only thing i may do is put on a heading hold gyro to keep it locked as opposed to manually correting it. i have ordered the vtail mixers from veetail and will be recieving them soon. i also had a little crash. i'm not sure whether my cears sucked up a weed or a bug, or the motor came unplugged, but i was lying it at the park and one motor suddenly dropped, flipping it over. it broke a motor mount, put a pinhair crack in one of the carbon fiber tubes, (i wrapped it in sewing thread and soaked it in ca. won't break ever again) and broke a prop. after such an incident, i decided that it would be best to install a rollcage on the top to protect the electronics. i had it fixed in 3 hours (giving the epoxy a bit of time to dry). what is your expected weight? i would reccomend keeping it under 2 lbs to try to get some use out of the props i have found. they are 10x4.7 props from todds models designed for geared flight at abouyt that rpm and come in a one pusher and one puller set for $4. these are the best deals i have found so far. for the props, go to www.toddsmodels.com and look under props. they are at the bottom. if you are interrested in carbon fiber (great stuff. i love it) go to www.cstsales.com. the hollow carbon fiber tubs weigh like nothing and are extremly stiff. that's what i am using for my motors cst sales has anything composite. composites really shine in applications such as this. however, at this weight (sing brushed motors of course) you can expect to draw up to 40 amps so when you design the circuit, keep that in mind. best of luck to you. i will try to get you a flying picture. i will probably get the vtails on saturday.

Spaceclam

i got the vtails and they work great. i had it hovering in my backyard just about 10 mins ago. they are extremely perportional, and if there is a little problem, the channel offset, individual atvs and failsafe functions are great little things. those mixers are amazing. i would highly reccomend the company for both a quality product and the best customer support. 10 pts in all the books. i may be able to get you flying pics by tomorrow. My mom was cooking dinner and it was far too dark out to take pics.

Spaceclam

Here are the pics! go to this link

http://www.rcuniverse.com/gallery/ga...TOKEN=84801299

danvel

WOW! Congratulations. It seems you got it!
How long can you fly with your batteries?

tiggerinmk

G-man-RCU,

Did you ever make a decision?
If not, I have another idea which I've been thinking of doing myself and shouldn't be too expensive depending on your existing supplies:

A trainer based Osprey like STOL (not VTOL).
Take one cheap trainer kit (eg TH Trainer 40) and two cheap engines (eg 2x LA 40). Build the trainer with clipped wings. Make two engine nacelles and install at the wingtips. Using two strong servos and a suitable linkage (you might be able to chop up a nose gear for this) make the nacelles rotatable.
Hopefully all being well, with the engines horizontal, the plane should fly like a normal twin. Rotating the engines to around 45 deg should give STOL characteristics. Beyond that, it might get a bit unpredictable unless you start intalling gyros, but I think it's worth a try...

Ram-bro

My Feedback: (101)

so tigger , that is an idea I contemplated and your thoughts on using a trainer saves alot in time and heartache. The part that would have us scratching our heads would be where and what to put the gyros on? The throttles for each engine?You could stil use the same size wing and leave the ailerons on as a way to control your rotation....so maybe the gyros could go there. Man you got that old itch going agin.....

tiggerinmk

I had another thought about it, the Tower trainer may be cheap ($44.99) but it's relatively small and has a high wing loading (for a trainer). An LT-40 kit would be a better base, but it costs twice as much. For this project, a pair of LA 46's running APC 11x5 props would do nicely.
I've got the ARF, so I don't know if the wing construction and rib spacing are the same on the kit, but if they are, you could lop off two wing bays giving a 50" wing inboard of the nacelles. You could also contruct the rest of the wing and attach outer panels to the nacelle sides using bolts and blind nuts, giving you a full span version for initial flights. The outer panels would rotate with the nacelles and not have ailerons.
These outer panels could be removed for later flights if the plane survives long enough!

Stability only becomes an issue if you try to hover. While you have forward speed the ailerons would be effective in keeping the plane level. Placing a gyro would not resul in a fast enough response for hover stability.

You probably could slow an LT-40 down enough to hover, but don't try it in a crosswind..

Spaceclam

I get usually no more than 1:30 with the batteries i have. however, that isusually enough to fateauge my brain enough to want to let it charge. i purposly overpowered it so that i would have power when i need it, or i can lift something. The Draganflyer 4 can only lift about 2 oz... mine can lift 10 oz before it starts getting difficult to control, but it will actually lift about 12. flight time is poor, but because they are ultra low impedance nicads, i can dasily charge them in 15 mins without affecting the battery life. remember, i am drawing about 32 amps... my model is considerably heavier than the draganflyer 4 (almost twice the rotor disk loading) but it is still controllable.

plasticjoe

My Feedback: (22)

Try an ornithopter, a flapping bird. No props here !! It's called a parkhawk, mine is all black. Designed by Sean Kincaide Guaranteed you will get tons of comments and a crowd around you when you fly it. I have flown mine a year now, so much I wore out the motor and had to put a new one in it ! If you can fly an r/c plane you can very easily handle this. It flies with HS55 and HS81 servos, GWS speed control and 920 Nimh pak. GWS receiver also. You get about 5 - 8 minutes on a pak, and yes, I have chased real birds ( and geese ) with it LOL . I got mine from www.jgrc.biz Jeffery is an excellent fella to deal with and he knows all about them. There are 2 people in my club ( Dayton Wingmasters) that fly one, he has a slow hawk a little larger version, I fly the park hawk. Just an idea, that is fun and very unusual.