DIY electric manned ultralight (with cute puppy)

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Peter did have a nice flight today with some better batteries, and I see he was actually wearing his helmet today, and the strobe light. It looks like it is landing pretty slowly that maybe the non sprung gear ins't an issue unless he had to put it down in a rough field, or did not have a controlled landing.

Frank
 
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[video=youtube;eNSN6qet1kE]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eNSN6qet1kE[/video]

Well, with the improved batteries it certainly flew better. He said the used a bit less than half the capacity. I wish he'd said how long the flight was. Actually I suspect he made at least two flights, at least one the sun was 10-20 degrees above the horizon, the other was close to sunset, do not expect that was one very long flight! I did notice during the flying near sunset, the strobe light.

As for the previous issue with aircraft light and civil twilight thing......

Everyone who never never EVER has flown an unlighted model rocket or model plane after sunset, but while there is still plenty of light for flying, can do the Church Lady superiority dance to shame the rest of us. :) https://tinyurl.com/ChurchLadyDance

I'm not talking about true night flying without lights. I mean when one moment the sun has not set yet then one second later it HAS set (I often notice that, when driving my car near sunset time and my car GPS display goes from day mode to night mode).

Also, BTW - ever been to a night rocket launch where rockets were allowed to use dim "glow-sticks"? Often so poor that people have a hard time even seeing those models come down, to find them. No way an airplane pilot could see those things. But those weren't a guy flying his homebuilt ultralight that he never planned to fly after sunset, no higher than 20 feet, over private land. So I guess it's OK to jump on him about it during civil twilight, but ignore it as a routine thing in our own hobby, long after civil twilight becomes "night".
 
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George, your point is that I shouldn't point out a violation, simply because I have not pointed out other violations, and that since in your opinion we have all done it and it is common it isn't a problem? That's great reasoning. I have personally attended two night launches, where the 3-4 rockets flown had strobes not just cylume sticks. No I have not flown after sunset either rocket or RC airplane, I really don't get your justification of this...there is no justification for doing it, his flying was clearly after sunset, not just at the point of sunset time when the sky was still well lit, but he removed that video....

I too was hoping he was going to say how long he flew to get to half capacity. I never mentioned before, but I worry a bit about fire in the batteries, as we all know, batteries can let go, I think he was mentioning that if there was a problem he'd have to reach down and unplug things, which seems like a non-starter if he is trying to steer at the same time in a cramped cockpit.
 
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This thread came an anti-Sripol thread by the second post. It’s bizarre than a MODEL ROCKET forum has so many criticisms of this guy, compared to a model airplane forum like RC Groups.

People who have never built an ultralight, taking potshots at everything he was doing.

Then he makes it work and still the potshots. He NEVER PLANNED to fly after sunset. If you are building a thing like this, you want to put your focus into getting it to FLY safely. He planned to fly it hours earlier that day, they had issues causing a delay, the sun set. He wasn’t intending to violate any regulation.

Does that make it right? No, he violated it. But is it understandable that it happened? Yes.

Just what really “ticked” me off is that he GOT IT TO FLY, using “vacuum tube era aerodynamics” and not one of his critics here admitted that it worked.

I posted the videos about that flight on October 26th. NONE of you said a word about him flying near darkness, CRICKETS. Nobody said hey, it worked after all. NOTHING. Not until after his next video “It Flies”, that I posted October 31st. In that video, he himself pointed out he should not have flown that late in the day (without lighting). THEN the potshots again, none of you had picked up on that and said anything in the 5 days before he himself brought it up.
 
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George, I have made my observations as a way to critically look at things that are being done with my opinions on risk areas, and not just blindly love the guy because he made an airplane in his garage. I don't care what is or is not discussed on rcgroups or others, this thread started here. Because others are not looking critically does not mean every aspect of his approach and every aspect of his design is 100% correct. He has a lot of fanboys out there, that's for sure. I've been an engineer for 25 years, I try to look at things with a critical eye, even if aeronautical engineering not my professional field, that doesn't mean analysis is invalid and I have a lot of experience in RC aircraft more than this person.

You are stuck on the comment someone else made about vacuum tubes, and are not even reading my comments, as I stated above before your post today, he had a good flight, and he made some corrections. I heartily disagree with your comment, that is is understandable to get late in the day and then fly in darkness. I don't think it is understandable at all, it was a rush to stream live for an audience, which again is a terrible example of "go fever". I've explained that I watched him just after he streamed it, and that I thought he broke the rules when he did it, you choose to ignore that and say because I did not get online and post immediately afterward that it was untrue.

I personally have said nothing about the design or styling of the aircraft, my points were more about safety and proper analysis of the structure he chose before he flew it.

Again, if you think this is a good example of how to approach building, designing and flying a light aircraft good for you. I do not like his attitude toward the design in several areas and his off-handedness in places where I would think he should pay more attention especially with his life on the line. I hope that people do not think this should be taken lightly and kill themselves.

The guy is one of many internet personalities that are popular because they do stupid stuff that other people like watching. Not everything mind you is dumb or poorly done, however, the latest example is his thor airplane he flies around and then have someone holding fireworks shooting at it. Again, it's just dumb and goes to his general mindset. I'm sure some folks think it's cool. He has excellent AV and camera footage and editing skills, I'm sure that goes a long way in making people think things are well though out.

I'll put it this way, would you personally get in and fly the aircraft, assuming you had no other things preventing you from doing so. I would not, maybe you would. If you would not, why not, that's what I'm getting at.


Frank
 
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An interesting project, I'm very glad it worked out for him.

Would I have done some things differently? Yes, but I follow his thought process. Safety was high on his list of priorities, It looks like he never
put others in harms way.

Overall good job! and well done.
 
Well said Burke. The kid does have some talents derived from making model planes, remember The Flight of the Phoenix movie, where a model plane designer reconfigured a crashed bomber in the desert to take off and save the crew.
And the PLANE DID WORK SO FAR, I was WRONG in my prediction of a crash in the beginning. Corrected.

If you account for the scaling effect of Reynolds #, such experience does have some merit. But in looking back at aviation problems of the past, from the Comet to the Concorde, one learns the hard way that Murphys Law rules! We have tools
today to design better, stronger, aircraft that are safer, and hobbyists may not have access. But even a program like 3D StudioMax can model most of the physics of flight and structure, I have a friend that uses it, quite powerful, and copies can be "found" on the net. Running it is another thing, have to have a lot of interest and time to learn it.

Peters next project should be a dual O motor powered X-15! :cool:

x15.jpg

Forget dropping from a B-52, just do ground vertical takeoff.

If he survives that, I suggest an ME-163.

Use flourine oxydizer, and red fuming nitric acid fuel. Take the dog. :headbang:

me163.jpg
 
This thread did remind me a little of the New York Times article explaining that rockets would not work in space because they would have nothing to push against. [emoji3]


Steve Shannon
 
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