My First Build: Bloody Wonder

by davefreyrc | June 16, 2014 | (0) Posted in Projects

I've always been interested in RC flight, and thanks to the guys at Flite Test, and their efforts to make the hobby more affordable and accessible to the everyday person, I finally took the leap and scratch built my first aircraft; an FT Bloody Wonder.

I downloaded the plans, taped them together and cut the pieces out of Dollar Tree Foam Board (I had to remake the wing because I had some difficulties cutting the beveled edges for the ailerons the first time around). I used the Lazer Toyz power pod kit with the "Beef" motor, and followed the plans pretty closely, except I added small pieces of BBQ skewers on the bottom tips of the stabilizers to provide strength for take offs and landings and mounted the battery inside the power pod using adhesive velcro. I also modified some cheap floss picks to fill in as control horns; they worked surprisingly well. They look something like this:

 

I did some preliminary trimming of the control surfaces by eye and set up the 3 mode switch on my Turnigy 9XR with high, medium and low rates and expos, setup a fail safe on my D8R II Plus Receiver. I also added a throttle hold for safety. On the day of my madden flight I did a range check and check that the plane was functioning properly. My first run was short; mostly getting off the ground, keeping level and then bringing her back down using low rates. The second run, I bumped up the rates to medium and again, tried to keep it low and level and she nosed in a little bit into a patch of grass. My third run, I bumped up to high rates, which was way too twitch for my level of experience, and ended up looping it up, and back straight down into the grass and dirt. She didn't come back from this crash. The fortunately the firewall took the brunt of the damage, saving the engine (I'm assuming this is by design) however, the crash somehow split my RX case, ripping off an antenna and the binding/fail safe button, and ripped the leads off of one of the servos.

Here's what this experience taught me: The Bloody Wonder is a lot of plane for a first ever flight; I'm now building a FT Nutball to start building proper flight techniques on a slower and simpler plane. Have more open space might have prevented this crash. Although the area I was flying in was relatively large, the high speed of the plane shrunk the space and may have caused me to panic, yanking the controls to compensate and sending her in for a dirt nap. I will look for a larger flight area in the future.

This was a good learning experience, and fortunately not a terribly expensive one. I can't wait for my next flight.

COMMENTS

BuckE67 on June 30, 2014
The FT Old Fogey is a little bit more involved to build than the FT Flyer, but makes an even better trainer plane. The Old Fogey flies so slow and is such a good self righting plane. I can't imagine an easier plane to learn to fly on.
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davefreyrc on July 1, 2014
Have you flown it outdoors? From the FT videos, the flight looks super docile, but they're always flown inside. I wonder if it would get tossed around in the wind.
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81zapper on June 26, 2014
I know exactly where your coming from been there done that. Actually sometimes still there
If you want something docile and with rudder and ailerons try my delfer.
It helped me out a lot Go to the search part of flitetest and enter delfer
Don't give up yet
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davefreyrc on June 26, 2014
81zapper, I saw your Delfer build a little while back and was really intrigued. It looks great, and seems like a nice marriage of the two planes. I'll absolutely be circling back around to that build.
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Bruce1026 on July 1, 2014
I agree with BuckE67, the Old Fogey is a great flying plane for beginners. Keep it on low rates for the first few flights until you get a feel for it. Mine unfortunately met its' demise in a tall pine tree (entirely my fault) but I was able to recover the electronics a few days later. I'm finishing a new Old Fogey and will be ready to go again.
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brianm311 on June 26, 2014
ahhh build fly crash rebuild!! love your attitude keep on tryin it will come to you!! nice job on your first build!!
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davefreyrc on June 27, 2014
Thanks!
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1959cutter on June 25, 2014
before FT I went to Mikeys RC,he has a free plan and a simple dollar tree foamboard design trainer that is ideal for the beginner(bank and yank)cub its fast and easy to build (I just velcroed the battery and ESC and Rx to the side rather than weakining the airframe with holes)
I had great success with this set up (4 yrs ago) I'm still a marginal pilot.
the bloody wonder was a challenge for me and I don't think is a very beginner plane (especially with the beef motor)
might save some disappointment in the future
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davefreyrc on June 26, 2014
Yeah, the bloody wonder was certainly more plane than I was ready to fly. All the youtube videos of maiden flights, make it look so simple, but I know have a better understanding and respect for the skill involved in piloting an RC craft.
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OCD RC on June 25, 2014
This is how it starts...my first few flights ended like this, and a bunch since then. I'd patch up the electronics, massage the foam back into place and try again. Hot glue some gift cards to the outside of the fuse where it's all squished up to give it some structure back. That thing is practically brand new. Just make sure to get some altitude before you start playing with high rates next time.
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davefreyrc on June 26, 2014
Altitude would be a big help, but I also need to find a larger flying field. I've been scouting out some nice, quiet and large grassy areas for my next flight. Part of the problem I had the first time out with the Bloody was how small the area was. With the speed of the beef motor, and the reaction time of the low rates and high expo, it was hard to make smooth controlled movements without crashing into something.
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alibopo on June 25, 2014
Wow - right in at the deep end - brave man! Glad to see you're backtracking to a slower 'self-righting' plane. That's where you'll get your brain trained-up for the flying habit. Believe it or not, your bloody wonder is completely repairable so you'll be able to come back to it when you get more of a feel for the flying. Regarding your use of different rates, I would have stuck at the low rates. It's not a competition - as long as there's enough throw to make the plane controllable that's all you need to start with. On low rates it all happens a lot slower, giving you plenty of time to respond (mostly!). Also, most planes have quite a wide range of speeds they will fly at. Yes, a bit more throttle at the start to get it moving and into the air, but once the plane is up, you can usually back-off a fair bit and enjoy a more sedate flying experience. Regarding the Nutball, it's a nice enough plane, though a bit quirky, but IMHO I think you'll get a better 'newbie' flying experience from the FT flyer. Cheers.
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davefreyrc on June 25, 2014
Jumping in at the deep end is a good way of putting it haha. Since writing this, I've changed my mind on the Nutball and will be building an FT Flyer instead. I was basing my choice mostly on aesthetics, but I'm glad to know the flight characteristics will be more "Newbie" friendly.
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alibopo on June 26, 2014
The FT Flyer is a great plane to learn to fly on - when quizzed on his favourite planes on one of the Flite Test videos Josh B named the Flyer. I did most of my early flying with it before moving on to aileron control on the Baby Blender, though as soon as I got the aileron habit I quickly built a single wing version of the BB which I called a Tribewt. It's still flying, and a year later I'm using it to learn to fly knife-edge. A great 'equivalent' is the FT Duster, which, if it flies anything like my Tribewt (probably better), then it can be flown as a very stable aileron trainer. Looking forward to you sharing your next flight experience. Cheers.
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davefreyrc on June 26, 2014
your Tribewt looks like a wonderful flyer, and a fun build. I'll definitely be looking that build article up once I have some more flights/crashes under my belt.
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awest623 on June 26, 2014
dont feel bad. my first planes was a pitts python. look it up, much worse crashes
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davefreyrc on June 27, 2014
That looks like a lot of plane to handle. I'm guessing it wasn't made out of cheap Dollar Tree foam board either.
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awest623 on June 27, 2014
http://www.nitroplanes.com/60a-dy8947-peaks-red-arf.html
no, dont know how many times I ripped its landing gear off. :b
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Shinku No Sora on July 10, 2014
I bet I've gone through at least four FT Flyers, along with several other planes of higher skill level. Several Bloody Wonders, a Viggen, a Baby Blender, two FT22s, and I'm currently on my third Versa (a twin motor blunt nose I call the Baby Kraken), and I always find myself coming back to the FT Flyer. It flies so slow and does high-alpha exceptionally well and I have no problems flying it around in my relatively small yard. Add some bbq skewer reinforcements and some LED strip and you've got a nearly indestructible fun night flyer. It took flying in some very high winds for over two hours and being very reckless to break my last FT Flyer.
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srfnmnk on July 1, 2014
I used the phoenix flight sim to get me used to the controls and recovering. I flew various for about 20 hours before my first flight while waiting for all my equipment to arrive. I think, if you can afford it, this is a great way to save you some frustration early on. The reset button is awesome.

Good article.
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davefreyrc on July 1, 2014
I had considered looking into a flight simulator. Dis you hook up your flight controller to the simulator?
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PeterGregory on July 12, 2014
I use my DX6i with Realflight 7. Look to buy the simulator version that has the interface cable. You can develop a lot of muscle memory and even learn techniques that would take a looooonnnngggg time on an actual model. There are a lot of planes to try. When I first started with RF7 I thought I wouldn't be interested in all the different planes, but I ended up trying almost every one of them.
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BuckE67 on July 1, 2014
Yes, I have always flown the Old Fogey outdoors. It does get tossed around a little when it is breezy. I usually fly in the evenings or early morning when the air is calmer. I even mounted one of the little 808 keychain cameras on it and got some aerial video. Most of the time I fly with a 8x3.8 prop and a 500mah 2 cell. Sometimes I will use a 3 cell for a little more performance. Believe me, it is a great trainer.
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davefreyrc on July 1, 2014
After wrecking the Bloody Wonder, I ordered the recommended power system for the FT Flyer, so I'm hoping to have a calmer experience once I build a a new aircraft
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My First Build: Bloody Wonder