stallion_explosion

yeah i've done a few now. much less hassle from the missus if i put them together myself! she isn't too keen on me buying planes. it's a lot more fun than watching the telly of an evening, and i get a real buzz out of it when they actually fly. great stuff.

I've just finished putting together a scratch built Firefly from the plan on rcgroups http://www.rcgroups....ad.php?t=943610 wanted to maiden today but rained off so far, looks like tomorrow. it's just a little chap, 24 inches across. 9mm EPP sheet, I put in balsa leading edges, and cf strip reinforcement across the width in front of the vert stab and a bit in front of the prop slot. covered in packing tape it's got a blue wonder 3000kv motor spinning a 4.75 x 4.75 prop, 30amp ESC, and I'll shove a 1300 3s on it. should gp nicely, hopefully! looking forward to chucking it in the air!

that's awesome! that's the difference between a corporate multinational and a bloke who makes stuff in his shed. bloke in a shed every time.

out of interest i think the raven is very similar to the ms composites Swift 2 which may be easier to get hold of outside England. I have the slipstream wing and the v trainer from flyingwings.co.uk - the guy who does the raven - and they are both great planes. both been hammered around and still going strong.

yeah another vote on a wing- i'd suggest as a second plane as they are a bit more twitchy to fly though! my slipstream is my go-to plane, i've nailed it into the ground at full throttle at a good 70mph and it was back in the air the next day. Loads of crashes, stronger today than when i built it!

hey langywangy if i read your question correctly you're concerned sbout what happens when you run flat- just to be absolutely clear about that- on any of the glider-type trainers we're talking about here you'll notice a drop off in power as the esc warns you you are out of juice. these planes all glide and glide- they won;t drop out of the sky You should have plenty of time to get back to your general vicinity before you impact the ground. so you don;t really need to worry about it much, just glide home when it stops going properly. you'll still be able to blip the throttle a bit for a boost if you need it, though you won;t get much more out of it.

one thing about kit vs rtf - it depends a bit on how you feel about building. i just wanted to get in the air, and the rtf planes are great for that. i got in to building as a result of trying to fix my first supercvub which i smashed in to a lot of pieces. i think if i'd started out with a kit i may never have finished it.

Finally got the drone back in the air yesterday with its new power system. It flies! Wheee! It now sports a turnigy 3648 1450kv motor rated at 1600 watts with 2 turnigy nanotech 45-90c 5000 mah 3s lipos in series to give it 6 cells, spinning a 6x4 prop through a 100 amp ESC. It's heavy but it got airborne with no problems. It is definitely much happier going fast than slow- it's precise at speed but sluggish at lower speeds, due to the weight. Oh my GOSH this thing is fast! That motor on 6s is AWESOME! I have no idea how fast it goes, I didn't really give it a chance on its first outing. I'll give it a go and try and get a speed on it soon. It is seriously quick though. A bit scary too, frankly.

looks like the supercub rtf now comes with a dx4e rather than the old crappy tx. that's a pretty good deal i reckon. still, a better tx will grow with you of course. hey if you like building stuff you could do worse than scratchbuild one you know, that makes it a lot less painful when you crash! lots of plans for free in the rcgroups.com scrachbuilld forum. other crash-resistant trainers include the easystar, hobbyking bixler and a variety of other similar pushers. worth remembering foam just glues back together so when you crash, no need to rush out and buy a new wing or fuselage, just collect all the bits and CA them back together, Probaby worth getting some UHU Por glue as well for more durable foam repairs.

all good advice innit. you really do need to use a simulator first mainly just so you know how the plane will react before you chuck it in the air, otherwise you'll almost certainly crash straight away. I used phoenix flight sim. It has the hobbyzone supercub on it, which is an excellent trainer, i used that too. i got a dx6i but you could get away with a dx5 or dx4 off ebay. then just go down the park ON A CALM DAY and fly! I got excited and set off on a windy day - that makesit much harder, the plane got away from me a bit. best start when the wind is light or non-existant! the same properties which make a trainer like the supercub easy to fly (high lift, high drag, low weight, low power, low speed) means it rally feels the wind. bigger faster heavier planes that you'll progress to can fly through strong winds much more easily. hope that helps!

Oh lovely name there! maybe we should do a deal with your dad's chippy to do deliveries for him. Sausages and saveloys delivered to your door- they'll hit the door hard and splat there, but at least they got there fast. seriously though yeah delivery i envisage being a drop over the target with a little parachute on the sausage, so the guy receiving can chase the sausage down (ideally catch it of course but that's probably stretching possibility) and eat it there. i would have thought most types of sausage would be suitable though I will probably start with your standard banger as a test payload, or possibly a chipolata as they're lighter. looks like i've got to work this weekend so another lost opportunity for R&D. DAMMIT.

thanks guys! not enough progress to update with vid yet. i wanted to get down the marshes today but couldn't get it sorted. since last vid I have: got the fpv cam and vid goggles / vid tx / rx and tested them. I flew my first fpv flight with the vid gear on a trainer which was awesome. I burnt out the 700watt 4s power system i originally mounted, and have fitted a 1600watt motor and 100amp esc which i will run on 6 cell. this has not yet been tested. This should get me to the magic 100mph, and i can hopefully also run it with a big prop on 3s for long duration slow flights. i have acquired ardupilot mega 2 autopilot, though i have yet to work out how on earth to make it go, that is a for next weekend. this is what will turn it in to a drone. i have had a hair cut on wife's orders. the lack of science hair may well jinx all my future projects. i guess i'll find out soon

fixed cam fo now. i'm thinking i may well add a load of stuff in dribs and drabs but i won;t put it all on straight away

cheers mate! yeah i was really surprised that it just flew off like that- 3 clicks of down trim was all it needed. windy day too, for a maiden, but it totally ignored the wind. It's a good design, if you ever feel like a scratchbuild i'd put it on the list. i think it needs more power though - that's running a turnigy 2836 2350kv on 4s, spinning a 6x4 prop. it would be a rocket on a smaller plane, but only adequate on this one. This one has to do 100 mph to hit my plan, so i'm going to put a much bigger motor on at some point soonish and try it on 6s. i think i'll get comfortable with the fpv gear first though, before i turn it in to a monster. i've got a turnigy 3648 1450kv just arrived, and a second hand scorpion1400kv both rated to 1600watts, 6s- I've seen bench test figures of both pushing 2000 watts! think I'll prop down a bit from that kind of power mind. that sounds a bit mental.

I'm building a drone capable of delivering a sausage at 100mph. Stage 1 was to build an airframe and test fly it, and that's where I'm up to. Here's a vid:

i don't know anything about IC planes so can't help you with that stuff, but looking at that plane I reckon it's not an ideal first trainer. it's balsa, and it's low wing, and it's got ailerons..... it's going to need a bit of experience to keep in the air. i think you'll crash it, and when you crash it it will break. That will put you off flying, it's not a good start. For more thorough advice try rcgroups.com - there's very experienced people there. but my honest advice would be to put that in the loft for a while and get a foam electric trainer like a supercub which will be much moore forgiving and survive some crashes. You are going to crash. There's no way round that. Then when you are confident and comfortable, you can get this one out and have a blast with it. It looks like a lot of fun, but it will be too quick and manouverable to start on.

awesome! yeah i've got 2 planes which are really, really ugly now, but they still fly. here's what i've picked up about glues in case it's useful: hot glue - super quick and easy. be careful not to use it too hot or it can melt foam. main problem is that if you use it for multiple repairs it can get really heavy once there's a lot of it on the airframe uhu por - brilliant for bonding foam, strong and flexible. takes hours to dry though gorilla glue - excellent choice when you've bust up foam and there's gaps to fill- it exapnds to fill gaps. very strong, takes hours to cure, and you need to be careful to wipe away excess foaming glue before it sets rock hard. white gorilla glue - as above but more expensive and nicer looking white finish. comes in glue pens rather than bottles. CA plus kicker - best choice for quick repairs in the filed, sets instantly to get you back in the air. it's a solid slightly brittle glue though so not as strong as the others for permanent fixes. thin wicks nicely, thick fills some gaps. for some foams you need foam safe CA but for the supercob and other EPO / EPP foam planes you should be fine with normal Epoxy - strong, quick, expensive and heavy. Good for stuff like motor mounts where you need to reinforce but not best for general use some mixing can be good - gorilla glue on ine surface, CA on the other plus kicker can work nicely - the CA tacks in place straight away, the gorilla provides strength when cured. the CA also stops the gorilla foaming up too much if you don;t want it to. hope that lot's some help! you can also add glass fibre reinforced strapping tape along the wing to give it extra strength, and to toughen up leading edges etc

the LP is the lipo version, other than that i think it's the same. point on the wing though - i did the same when i started, and i've since learned the big difference between foam planes and rc cars. DON'T BUY THE WING! Just glue the old one back together. I've been flying about a year now, and have smashed foam planes up maybe 20 times in that year. I'm much better now but still crash from time to time. The foam components just glue back together. That wing can be fixed in literally 10 seconds with a liberal sploash of CA glue and a zap of kicker, and it will be flying again in less than a minute. For a stronger repair, get some UHU Por glue in which is specially made for foam and dries flexible, but takes hours to dry so not a fix-in-the-field glue. ONLY buy parts that can't be glued! When you crash, make sure you've got all the bits of foam, even the worst smash is likely to just leave you with a bit of a 3-dimensional puzzle. My flying kit has CA glue and kicker for in the field repairs, as well as some good reinforced strapping tape, and I can usually get straight back in the air again. Several of my planes are now made more of glue and tape than foam! Hope that helps. It removes a lot of the fear of crashing as well, when you know it doesn;t matter that much.

hey dude what price you after?

Hey I've taken a different route to the glider route, just in case this is an approach that appeals, I FREAKIN LOVE this stuff! I learned over the summer, self-taught with a Hobbyzone Supercub Bind 'n' Fly, together with Phoenix simulator. Before long I was ready for an aileron plane. I got the full size T-28 http://www.wheelspinmodels.co.uk/i/62526/ this is an AWESOME second plane. Forgiving and easy to fly but LOADS more capable than a trainer. I crashed it and bent the motor so I put one f these in as a replacement http://www.lightningrc.co.uk/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=57_71&products_id=292 Now it goes lovely on 3s but put a 4s lipo in and IT GOES LIKE MENTAL! Seriously it is BONKERS! I've chucked a bomb drop module on it now, and I;'ve been dropping parachutes and stuff off it AWESOME! Very different from the glider approach though. I reckon I'm enjoying chunky power flyers rather than elegant soarers. Sure I'll give slope soaring a go one day, but the marshes I fly on are dead flat. Now I just need to find someone to fly combat with, then I'll be really happy. I've also started building my own planes from foam. Got a lot to learn but I reckon that's the future, as the electrics are interchangeable and the airframe is only a tenner's worth of foam and glue.

I fly my plane on hackney marshes most weekends now, getting a bit better at it. Starting to think it would be nice to fly with some other people, maybe even start thinking about a bit of combat? I've only been flying sice the spring so still a noob really. Anyone around?

this may not be very helpful, just a guess, but do you have a rx around you can bind it to and test it with? it could be a prob with the cable or something innit, rather than the tx, best to test if it moves a servo i reckon.

i've just taught myself to fly planes. can't help with the heli but can sure help with the plane. first, get a sim and practice, just 10 minutes before flying will make all the difference as you will know how the thing will react when you get it in the air. it will then be great as you progress to learn to handle better planes, do aerobatics and stuff before you risk a more expensive model. first plane- get a hobbyzone supercub lp. very easy to fly, very popular. no ailerons, very forgiving, loads and loads of mods to do if you want once you are good with it. thousands of pages of discussion of the supercub on rcgroups, see this thread http://www.rcgroups....d.php?t=1338787 once you are good with the cub, practice on the sim with aileron planes and get something like a parkzone t-28 so you can start to have proper fun. that's where i am now, just getting started on the proper planes and starting to learn aerobatics. hope that's some help! *EDIT* i got the supercub and tried to fly it without having practised on the sim, basically wasn't in control and crashed it. 10 mins on the sim before getting back in the air after major repairs and i knew how it would react o contrl inputs, made the whole thing much less fraught.

hey mate i'll have that picco off you - pm sent.

MIne's got a hemi cuda shell on it. Looks so cool my boy's named it Cool Rocket Starter. Reckon that's a pretty good name. Pretty much stock underneath except for some Power HD servos- since these photos I've chucked some mulchers on dishes and an 053 pipe on it