Scratchbuilt Foamies

[BLD52]

Well, been awhile since I posted any builds since my Bipe in post #3100.

Still been without a camera, especially for maiden vids. I gave mine to my daughter who lives elsewhere, but borrowed it with a low battery charge to get a few shots of the builds I've done.

I've retired a few of my regular flyers due mostly to being crashed and repaired many times, or getting tired of RET and wanting something I can practice more aerobatic maneuvers than loops etc.

Of course I usually don't use plans, just kind of make a sketch or measure out on the foam, then cut, glue and paint. I like the experimental aspect of doing that. Flying success has been pretty good, except for odd accidents from too windy conditions or spastic thumbs etc.

I made this one, similar to a Yak, earlier this year. I borrowed the landing gear from my Bipe that was temporarily decommissioned, until this week.

It was a little faster than I liked and required more airspace to fly around and land, especially at the smaller park near to my house so I have to drive a little farther to the large soccer complex which is mostly only available earlier in the day on week days during the sports season, but the grass is manicured.

I retired it after crashing enough times.

Sorry, I forgot how to load larger pics in line, but the attachments are at the bottom of post to click on.


This one, I called it "Flea Fly", just thought I'd do kind of a delta type with elevons. It zipped around pretty quick, but was hard to get the cg right and retired it after a few dozen flights and too many crashed and repairs, breaking off tips of wings or verticals.


Then I decided another experimental was in order. Didn't really come up with a name. After a couple maiden attempts, I also found out that V tail mixing was different than the elevon mix I used for the previous build above.

It originally was a bi plane with under cambered ribbed wings, but doing my first maidens when it would ROG, it would slightly veer one direction, so I'd counter and it would plow down in the direction it was turning. Mmm, ok, glue bottom wing half back on, but I forgot to remix the V tail, D'oh so up and down again breaking the bottom wing half off again. So I clipped the bottom wing completely off and flew it regularly, though crashing it into the back of a baseball back stop and other silly crashes. But it was fun flying, it is now retired.


Ok, so I had about 20 inches worth of the bottom wing of the above build and so decided to build around it and put ailerons on it. I like a full fuse with landing gear these days. I like to take off and land, do touch and gos. I came up with this one I called "Buzby" because it really zips around.

It was also the first of my builds that did a lot of maneuvers. Except the first 10 seconds of the maiden, where while I was trying to get the sense of the controls and trim it, it landed on a small maintenance building a ball park which I had to drive my GMC Jimmy next to to climb on top to retrieve it, it wasn't damaged.

After I got it stable, I found out it do some almost 3D stuff, until I crashed it into the door of the same building and smashed the nose off, that is.

But I fixed it, many times, which it is getting a little heavy and doesn't do the aerobatics as easy and takes more power (mahs usage), but it has been one of the funnest planes. I'll do a couple more repairs but will soon retire it.


So, thinking I'd build something that I could fly slow and low, maybe at the smaller park near me, I came up with another experimental, I call it "Staryan" (in my TX mix) because I like Ryan STA's.

It was such a sweet maiden. Gentle ROG almost perfectly balanced and trimmed. It has a long glide to land. I also built it with 2 aileron servos to program flaps, which helps to shorten landing distance. But I had to replace the landing gear with beefier material, adding a couple extra ounces.

It also has a fairly decent axial roll. Speaking of which, because I'm still a noob with aerobatics, I'm not too comfortable doing many aggressive maneuvers, because I'm afraid the wings will fold, but just a couple days ago I was working on my rolls and about 50 ft up during a roll out fly's the battery. It spiraled down nose first. I'm thinking major repair, if salvageable, but because I built up the fuse double thickness, it only took a little straightening and gluing here and there. Also a better battery containment method.

I'm flying regularly, hopefully for quite a while.

Ok, one more build, (but I sill have components for another 2-3)
This one I didn't really give it a name, and it's already retied as I tried modifying it (a couple times) thinking it would help the maneuverability by slicing it into more of a delta shape (to where there is only checker strip on the back)(no pic of new shape). It was elevons and rudder. It flew ok, but wouldn't roll very well, but would flip underneath upside down and fly around. I didn't crash it very many times.


I also just recently did some rebuilding/repairing of my Bipe that I haven't flown in a few months and have been mostly successfully flying. I programmed the flaps into the aileron mix which helps to shorten the landing glide, I just have to remember to leave some power and bring on up elevator as it slows and stops or it will nose over on the grass.

I posted pics of this earlier in this thread. I am now happy to be able to take it out to fly again.


I hadn't posted in the "Who's got flying weather" thread for awhile, but have been out regularly many times during the week all year so far, sometimes twice a day, of course after spending hours repairing just to get out again, yippie.

I've also had my eye on a Fokker DR-1, so if I could just stop flying and fixing, it will be one of my next builds since I have components for about 2-3 more planes, for a total of about 7, to be able to take out to the field, though the most I've taken out at once was 5 now it's about 3.

Happy flying guys.

Brian

[Crashalott]

Originally Posted by BLD52

Well, been awhile since I posted any builds since my Bipe in post #3100.

Still been without a camera, especially for maiden vids. I gave mine to my daughter who lives elsewhere, but borrowed it with a low battery charge to get a few shots of the builds I've done.

I've retired a few of my regular flyers due mostly to being crashed and repaired many times, or getting tired of RET and wanting something I can practice more aerobatic maneuvers than loops etc.

Of course I usually don't use plans, just kind of make a sketch or measure out on the foam, then cut, glue and paint. I like the experimental aspect of doing that. Flying success has been pretty good, except for odd accidents from too windy conditions or spastic thumbs etc.

I made this one, similar to a Yak, earlier this year. I borrowed the landing gear from my Bipe that was temporarily decommissioned, until this week.

It was a little faster than I liked and required more airspace to fly around and land, especially at the smaller park near to my house so I have to drive a little farther to the large soccer complex which is mostly only available earlier in the day on week days during the sports season, but the grass is manicured.

I retired it after crashing enough times.

Sorry, I forgot how to load larger pics in line, but the attachments are at the bottom of post to click on.


This one, I called it "Flea Fly", just thought I'd do kind of a delta type with elevons. It zipped around pretty quick, but was hard to get the cg right and retired it after a few dozen flights and too many crashed and repairs, breaking off tips of wings or verticals.


Then I decided another experimental was in order. Didn't really come up with a name. After a couple maiden attempts, I also found out that V tail mixing was different than the elevon mix I used for the previous build above.

It originally was a bi plane with under cambered ribbed wings, but doing my first maidens when it would ROG, it would slightly veer one direction, so I'd counter and it would plow down in the direction it was turning. Mmm, ok, glue bottom wing half back on, but I forgot to remix the V tail, D'oh so up and down again breaking the bottom wing half off again. So I clipped the bottom wing completely off and flew it regularly, though crashing it into the back of a baseball back stop and other silly crashes. But it was fun flying, it is now retired.


Ok, so I had about 20 inches worth of the bottom wing of the above build and so decided to build around it and put ailerons on it. I like a full fuse with landing gear these days. I like to take off and land, do touch and gos. I came up with this one I called "Buzby" because it really zips around.

It was also the first of my builds that did a lot of maneuvers. Except the first 10 seconds of the maiden, where while I was trying to get the sense of the controls and trim it, it landed on a small maintenance building a ball park which I had to drive my GMC Jimmy next to to climb on top to retrieve it, it wasn't damaged.

After I got it stable, I found out it do some almost 3D stuff, until I crashed it into the door of the same building and smashed the nose off, that is.

But I fixed it, many times, which it is getting a little heavy and doesn't do the aerobatics as easy and takes more power (mahs usage), but it has been one of the funnest planes. I'll do a couple more repairs but will soon retire it.


So, thinking I'd build something that I could fly slow and low, maybe at the smaller park near me, I came up with another experimental, I call it "Staryan" (in my TX mix) because I like Ryan STA's.

It was such a sweet maiden. Gentle ROG almost perfectly balanced and trimmed. It has a long glide to land. I also built it with 2 aileron servos to program flaps, which helps to shorten landing distance. But I had to replace the landing gear with beefier material, adding a couple extra ounces.

It also has a fairly decent axial roll. Speaking of which, because I'm still a noob with aerobatics, I'm not too comfortable doing many aggressive maneuvers, because I'm afraid the wings will fold, but just a couple days ago I was working on my rolls and about 50 ft up during a roll out fly's the battery. It spiraled down nose first. I'm thinking major repair, if salvageable, but because I built up the fuse double thickness, it only took a little straightening and gluing here and there. Also a better battery containment method.

I'm flying regularly, hopefully for quite a while.

Ok, one more build, (but I sill have components for another 2-3)
This one I didn't really give it a name, and it's already retied as I tried modifying it (a couple times) thinking it would help the maneuverability by slicing it into more of a delta shape (to where there is only checker strip on the back)(no pic of new shape). It was elevons and rudder. It flew ok, but wouldn't roll very well, but would flip underneath upside down and fly around. I didn't crash it very many times.


I also just recently did some rebuilding/repairing of my Bipe that I haven't flown in a few months and have been mostly successfully flying. I programmed the flaps into the aileron mix which helps to shorten the landing glide, I just have to remember to leave some power and bring on up elevator as it slows and stops or it will nose over on the grass.

I posted pics of this earlier in this thread. I am now happy to be able to take it out to fly again.


I hadn't posted in the "Who's got flying weather" thread for awhile, but have been out regularly many times during the week all year so far, sometimes twice a day, of course after spending hours repairing just to get out again, yippie.

I've also had my eye on a Fokker DR-1, so if I could just stop flying and fixing, it will be one of my next builds since I have components for about 2-3 more planes, for a total of about 7, to be able to take out to the field, though the most I've taken out at once was 5 now it's about 3.

Happy flying guys.

Brian

Nice hanger there Brian!
Crash

[mclarkson]

Nice hanger, indeed. I don't know what your budget or needs are, but you can snag an 808 high-def keychain camera from ebay for about $30. (I endorse this vendor, BTW).

Some velro and an old ball cap, and you've got a 'hat cam' to record your flights.

YouTube Video

[maxflyer]

Love your creative spirit. There's a General thread underway right now Re. the high cost of RTF airplanes. A lot of people will never experience the thrill of rolling their own and feeling the sense of accomplishment when one of their creations takes to the sky and proves there's more than one way to have fun. A shame.

[BLD52]

Originally Posted by Crashalott

Nice hanger there Brian!
Crash

Hi Crash and thanks.
Here is one you'll recognize the Slowly or in your case, the Erector

The Slowly is one that I've flown ragged and recently retired. In the second pic are a few more that have been in my hanger but retired.

Brian

[BLD52]

Originally Posted by mclarkson

Nice hanger, indeed. I don't know what your budget or needs are, but you can snag an 808 high-def keychain camera from ebay for about $30. (I endorse this vendor, BTW).

Some velro and an old ball cap, and you've got a 'hat cam' to record your flights.

YouTube Video

Thanks mclarkson. I've got a little bit of money to spend, though lately it's been for batteries, ESC's receivers and servo's. Sooner or later I'll pick up a new camera, might try your idea.

I've enjoyed seeing your pics too.

Brian

[BLD52]

Originally Posted by maxflyer

Love your creative spirit. There's a General thread underway right now Re. the high cost of RTF airplanes. A lot of people will never experience the thrill of rolling their own and feeling the sense of accomplishment when one of their creations takes to the sky and proves there's more than one way to have fun. A shame.

Hey max, thanks.

I do enjoy what I do making them. I actually am interested in picking up a RTF warbird someday, just to have something nicer looking. I don't mind spending up to maybe a hundred bucks.

Brian

[road king 97]

Originally Posted by BLD52

Hi Crash and thanks.
Here is one you'll recognize the Slowly or in your case, the Erector

The Slowly is one that I've flown ragged and recently retired. In the second pic are a few more that have been in my hanger but retired.

Brian

Jurgen B just posted a pictures of the new slowly bibe in the slowly thread. I might convert mine to a bibe. joe

[BLD52]

Thanks Joe. I like keeping up with the Slowly thread.