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Stanton Ewert Posted a really neat scratch build on facebook he did that was themed on a fokker red triplane but highly modified. I had a receiver and set of servos my family got me for christmas and I decided I wanted to do something themed like that as well, but also to call back to my first aileron plane, a Kraft Das Ugly Stik(mine was actually a hobby shack electric stik). This plane became a classic rc plane due to the easy box fuse, shoulder mounted symmetric wing and tricycle gear.
I decided that since it was a rocket plane, and since Stanton had done a futuristic design using a Canard I'd do the same but keep the tail and wing shape a-la ugly stik.
I used a doubled kf airfoil wing and non movable canard and elevon controls, 27" wingspan, 30.5" length, 2.6" diameter. Weight all up rtf is 11 oz.
I've gotten pretty good at doing indoor test glides to figure out max rearward CG, however in this case, even with a good canard cg calculator in hand, I was pretty tail heavy. The first flight I should have called it der Bodenjäger because it was hunting the ground, not the Sky......
It didn't help I was maidening in a 10 mph wind that was blowing downwind toward the launcher...Off the rail it pitched forward into the exhaust trail obscuring it, and I tried to react, but it wound up doing three nice 50 foot loops about 10' off the ground at the bottom with no control input, and settling into a perfect landing in the field. This was due in large part to my piloting prowess and the luck of the Irish....
Deciding that either I got some inadvertent canard incidence or tail heaviness I added .3 oz nose weight and gave it another try. This time it boosted much better, I moved the launcher and myself so I was down wind and it was boosting into the wind, and while still very pitch twitchy got a nice altitude and a very nice hang in the headwind, and a nice landing. It took, four more test flights to get the cg far enough forward, and reduced my elevon throws and it is pretty nice now, with a good glide.
Of course on the last trim flight, the igniter failed to light the motor, so I realized I had some q2g2 igniters in my box for deployment charges, I hooked one up, as it started to sprinkle, and found out the leads were too short to connect to my control wires, getting creative, I found my used fastfire juniors, pulled the wires, twisted them onto the q2g2 and gave it a go, no luck. One more attempt with a new q2g2 and she flew really well.
The good thing in all this was that using my starting CG I had to put the battery and receiver in the middle of the model using a hatch, now that I needed to move the CG an inch further forward, I was able to put the battery and receiver in the nose where it has easy access, and I was able to dump the useless nose weight!
So, since she had earned her stripes, I gave her some, painted up, with hand cut vinyl trim, added a few details, machine guns, nose art and I give you
Der Himmelsjäger
Sort of has a daddyisabar feel to it....or something you would see Dasterdley and Mutley flying in Wacky Races.....
I decided that since it was a rocket plane, and since Stanton had done a futuristic design using a Canard I'd do the same but keep the tail and wing shape a-la ugly stik.
I used a doubled kf airfoil wing and non movable canard and elevon controls, 27" wingspan, 30.5" length, 2.6" diameter. Weight all up rtf is 11 oz.
I've gotten pretty good at doing indoor test glides to figure out max rearward CG, however in this case, even with a good canard cg calculator in hand, I was pretty tail heavy. The first flight I should have called it der Bodenjäger because it was hunting the ground, not the Sky......
It didn't help I was maidening in a 10 mph wind that was blowing downwind toward the launcher...Off the rail it pitched forward into the exhaust trail obscuring it, and I tried to react, but it wound up doing three nice 50 foot loops about 10' off the ground at the bottom with no control input, and settling into a perfect landing in the field. This was due in large part to my piloting prowess and the luck of the Irish....
Deciding that either I got some inadvertent canard incidence or tail heaviness I added .3 oz nose weight and gave it another try. This time it boosted much better, I moved the launcher and myself so I was down wind and it was boosting into the wind, and while still very pitch twitchy got a nice altitude and a very nice hang in the headwind, and a nice landing. It took, four more test flights to get the cg far enough forward, and reduced my elevon throws and it is pretty nice now, with a good glide.
Of course on the last trim flight, the igniter failed to light the motor, so I realized I had some q2g2 igniters in my box for deployment charges, I hooked one up, as it started to sprinkle, and found out the leads were too short to connect to my control wires, getting creative, I found my used fastfire juniors, pulled the wires, twisted them onto the q2g2 and gave it a go, no luck. One more attempt with a new q2g2 and she flew really well.
The good thing in all this was that using my starting CG I had to put the battery and receiver in the middle of the model using a hatch, now that I needed to move the CG an inch further forward, I was able to put the battery and receiver in the nose where it has easy access, and I was able to dump the useless nose weight!
So, since she had earned her stripes, I gave her some, painted up, with hand cut vinyl trim, added a few details, machine guns, nose art and I give you
Der Himmelsjäger
Sort of has a daddyisabar feel to it....or something you would see Dasterdley and Mutley flying in Wacky Races.....
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