Hi Im John, I'm fourteen years old and i have been building this beautiful FT racer with custom landing gear.
It started in febuary this year on a rainy half term weekend and we first had to build our new workbench and shelving. we got about doing that and it turned out really well. we started with the powerpod wich was simples and looked just like Josh's example video.
We started with the wings which were probaly the more difficult part of the build. Especially the bevel cut witch didnt go well on the left wing. (you can see a split in the wing in the photo above)
The fun part was the fuselage. This time i was alone in the garage and i could build it all myself, so i did; everything whent exactly as it did in the video and nothing was out of place. once i glued the last fold in the plane was really starting to come together and my confidence with working with this great quality foam was building.
The next part was putting on the ribbing, posterbaord and attaching the wings and tailfeathers. Now the plane was really starting to take shape and it was pleaing to think that within a few weeks the plane will be flying (or so i thought, we'll come to that later) I was extremely happy with how the plane was looking and everything was going right. well; everything that came in the Flite Test box was....
Next was the electronics. This is our first attempt on mounting the motor; this failed because by the end there was a massive hole in the firewall and the motor was on. next we fiddled with the reciever for a while, gave up, deciding we werent bothered with all the programming on the AR635 and downgraded to an AR400. We quickly binded it and velcroed the battery on.
The lights turned off in the garage and a racer with electronics and airframe sorted was left in the dark while we Jetted off to France.
We return and all is well. We test out the electronics and now its time to install the landing gear
We used Flite Tests langing gear design from the duster but added back facing struts. I was very pleased with it and it made our new project suitable for our flying field
Flying day. all loaded up and ready to fly!
We arrive and get the plane ready. It beeps into life and we line it up for take off. Full throttle. It Darts forward and takes flight the motor makes the propellor loose. the firewall becomes loose. the plane is pitching out of control. my heart races and races and i manage to land it on its wing tip with only a little crease and a crack. all fixable
And that kids is why you listen to the maufactureres when buying electronics for planes because buying a crappy chinese motor that is underpowered will result in the above
Thank you so much for viewing my article, The racer was a fun and amazing build and i hope to get it flying and painted! time for some repairs and motor swapping
see you soon and keep flying
Your description of how the plane was pitching out of control made it sound like the plane was tail heavy, is that a possibility? It matches what the Flite Test guys say in their article on tail heavy planes http://flitetest.com/articles/Tail_Heavy_Plane_Flite_Tip
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great job so far,and like the previous poster said,the CG may be off. these designs need nose weight to balance.
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Was this your first Flite Test bird?
I started with the Spitfire and worked really hard on it. It's first few flights lasted only seconds. I'm sure now it was a CG problem, but that plane needs some serious rebuilding before it will fly. After this very unsatisfying experience I decided to set my goals more realistically in line with my abilities. I built an FT-Flyer and balanced it perfectly on two vertical skewers. It flew on the first try and after some trimming I could hand launch it. I didn't spend a lot of time making everything perfect - I knew it wasn't going to last long. I now need to build a new power pod. I never like the idea of swapping, but the pod is a great, easily replaceable part that seems to absorb most of the damage that I inflict on the plane. I'm getting better at flying it and will soon upgrade to more advanced (faster) designs. It's so much more rewarding to get something in the air even if it isn't as cool.....
Best regards,
PCH
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Where can i download the build plans for this?
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Thanx
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