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Here's the rest of my saucer fleet.

Here are some photos of my saucer 40" saucer and the removable motor mounts for it.

I have a 40" saucer that is yet to fly. I would love to certify level 3 with it, but was told that a nose cone was needed.

I agree that the plastic hubcap should work well. I wonder if more spokes like that actually provides more aerobraking than a traditional saucer by causing more turbulance in the airflow?

Could copper foil tape be used for wiring? Like this one:

http://www.amazon.com/JVCC-CFL-5CA-Copper-Conductive-Adhesive/dp/B000UZ8SJK

Maybe run this foil tape on the outside and cover it over a...

Would you mind posting a picture of it? I wouldn't mind making one for myself.

Thanks,
Mike

I decided to take some more detailed photos, so I borrowed my dad's Nikon D300 with 18-200mm lens.




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Here's a close-up of the forward end with the 5 x 54mm MMT. I filled in the gaps...

I've constructed some MMT's for 75mm and 98mm motors using 5-minute epoxy. Will this be a problem? Or should I add a filet of West System with thickener?

A photo of the MMT's:

You want the CG to be far enough forward, though, that the saucer aerobrakes properly. Saucers can come in tumbling and land on edge causing some damage. Also, I think it's almost impossible for a...

Everything is done. I just have some work to do on the parachutes and shock cord, which I'll do in another month or so when I've got more money to work with. Here's a video of all the lights in...

Alright, got all the motor mounts sanded to fit. Also finished soldering the remaining lights. I'll have to get a video sometime soon. The weight with the 98mm mount in place is 9.6 pounds. I hope...

Seems it was lighter than expected because I forgot to add the weight of the motor mount(s), which don't fit! The central body tube got a bit distorted. The motor mounts just need to be sanded a bit.

Just weighed the saucer via a handheld luggage scale and it came to 8.4 pounds. This is lighter than I expected. I'm guessing the electronics and parachutes will add about pound or so.

Here are a couple of post vacuum photos. You can see that I pulled a tad too much vacuum and that caused some wrinkling in the disc, but it's not bad in my opinion. I just have to do a little bit...

I had to order a new vacuum bag, because the old one had too many pinprick holes in it. It arrived yesterday and today had a friend come help me apply the epoxy and get it all in the bag. It didn't...

Yeah I'm an electrical engineering major at CSUN. Sounds like you are a student there too.

I have no idea when I'll be able to fly it. I've got two more payments to make for the fall semester and then there's the books. Engineering books are expensive. October or November do look like good...

Ah great thanks for the tip.

Mike

Yeah I know. This is my first time posting to YouTube and I have no idea how to do it. Ah well. The lights look great! Take my word for it! :D

Alright hope this works:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jLPgo9ZVC0A

Got the LED's on the disk done. There's about 120. There will be another 240 in the form of 8 strips of 30 LED's each. I decided to go with a 20 output chaser circuit rather than 10, because I wanted...

A couple more views of the bottom section of saucer with the 75mm motor mount bolted in place. Overall weight with the motor mount is just over 9 pounds. The kevlar shock cord will be taped to one of...

Got the bottom half of the saucer completed. It weighs in at slightly over 4 pounds making the total weight 7.6 pounds so far. Still have to add the weight of the parachute and electronics. Rather...

The LED's arrived today. Here's what the LED strips look like. I bought 8 of these strips. They will go on the underside of the saucer.

I was going to go with four screws to hold the motor mounts in place, but some people were of the opinion that I only needed two. I decided to go with three. You can see the tabs on the 98mm motor...

I've also decided to add more LED's, so I have 256 more on order! :D 240 of them are in the form of flexible strips. The weight of the extra LED's will be negligible. There's currently 88 LED's on...

Got the e-bay and parachute bay done. You can see in the photo I decided not to go with tubes. This way gives me more space. I'll have to make the e-bay heavier than the parachute bay, because the...

My 20" scratch built saucer gets around 500 - 800 feet. Art Applewhites saucers probably get about the same or less. Here's a photo of mine on a K185:

Got all the ribs glued on and all the LED's done. Still need to wire them to the circuit board. Feels like the overall weight when done will be between 10 and 15 pounds mostly because of the epoxy. I...

Vacuum bagging doesn't save time, if anything, it can take more time. It does help in reducing weight by optimizing the resin to fiberglass/carbon ratio. Basic items needed are an air compressor,...