Blake 300 EL Scratch Built

[LipoPilot]

Hi guys,

While building my Concetto 30, a gentleman by the name of Mike jumped into my post with a sweet 40" balsa sporty plane. I liked it so much, I decided to build it in 6mm Depron. I start with all I had which was his photos in his post. After contacting Mike he informed me this Blake of his was named after his grandson to be born in April of this year, and at the sametime he only had some homemade drawings. After a few emails and paper plan swapping, heres what I came up with.

First his plane...what a nice one!!!




BLAKE 300 EL Number #04
6mm Depron
WS: 30"
Fuse 25"
Emax 2822 Outrunner
18 Amp ESC
11.1 1000mah Lousie Lipo
8.4 Master Screw Prop
AUW 11.200 oz.

The fuse is a hollow built with all the electronics inside the fuse. The bottom and top of the fuse are removable to get to all the electronics. I will return with the build process of this plane. Hope you enjoy Mike, it was fun to build and I'm sure fun to fly...we will see. Static says shes going be pretty cool!!! I numbered her 04 for the month Blake with be here.

[LipoPilot]

My build started with some photos and my overall measurements came from Mike. His Blake is a 40" WS and I wasnt wanting to make one that big as my prototype in 6mm depron, so I went with a 30" WS.

After making some drawings, I can as close as I could from the photos I had. After making my paper patterns I decided I would make the BLAKE 300 a full fuse like the Blake 40" Plus it's not as cool I dont think with all the gear hanging out and no pilot

After I got all my parts cut I pinned the entire plane together test fitting all parts. I learned on this full fuse my drawings had to be corrected, my fuse ribs were not big enough, so I corrected them.







After the plane was test fitted, before final assembly, I wanted to make sure I was on the right path with my set up, so I installed all the electronics to see my CG would end up on the CG line. Turned out just as planned. The lipo goes under wing in the fuse, with everything else on top.

[LipoPilot]

Now Mikes nice balsa ol school Blake has all the real scale curves in the fuse and of course the wing is all foiled up. My foam prototype will carry some curves, but I'm runnig a flat wing, and this is not normal for me, I usaully spend alot of time on the wings surfaces, but this plane is all wing and my glide test said no foil needed. But I'm sure next plane this will change.


The fuse I kept very simple and very easy to assemble, not counting the nose ply for motor, there is only three supports for the entire fuse making assembly a sinch. I start with both halves of the fuse exactly the same size to insure a nice and striaght fuse after gluing. Just true everything up and glue.




Not to bore you with each move in the build of the plane, I assemble all my parts in there location, and then made the top hatch where the servo access is. This is also the panel Blake the pilot...sits


After completely gluing up the plane, I put her on the scale to see my foam, wood, carbon fiber, and glue weight was. Little over 3oz. Not bad for a full fuse.

[LipoPilot]

Inside the fuse I routed all the wiring thru the fuse support ribs. I also made a fiberglass thin panel I used to keep my lipo off my servos. It is is simply velcro'd down both sides and held in place. The lipo goes on the panel, keeping it off the bottom fuse panel also.



My false floor that keeps lipo off the bottom of servos




I made a velcro on removalable fuse bottom that gives me access from front to back of fuse.


The panel that Blake the pilot is sitting on is also velcro'd and is removable to access the servos. Here you can also see my aileron setup.


The elevator is operated by a wire in a plastic guide tube. The tube "Yellow" is glued on both ends to hold it stiff while the elevator wire runs thru it.


The pretty little powerplant from my fav R/C store Heads Up R/C. Lipo pilot flies cuz Jeff has what I need for every plane and here i thought WI only had cheese... Kidding...

[LipoPilot]

Well the darn plane is done..and its fricken 30 degrees outside...flipping sucks..So I guess I will go build me some more stuff to fly one day.

This plane was a pure joy to build, and it was challange at the sametime. I hope the prototype flies like Mikes Blake 40, if so this baby is going in for some upsizing and mods I wanted to do on this 300 but didnt have time.

Shots before flight.....

Meet Capt. Blake Hes a breezy little blue eyed X warbird pilot...enjoys his breezy cockpit Blake 300 EL


Capt. Blake's scarfs always in flow mode...thank Pampers for the baby wipe


I'm thinking a windshield??


My favorite shot and how I hope to see it in the air...Thanks R/C Foam for the fine depron



All ready to go....I will update when she flies...later

[MikeJ]

Hi LipoPilot
What a great looking plane. Thanks for the compliment on the Blake design, I really like the way yours turned out, and I think your pilot is better looking than mine. I am definitely going to need to add the white scarf. Even more amazing is that you started this project two days ago, I think it may be time for me to look into foam. I hope you enjoy flying it as much as I enjoyed looking at your build.
Mike

[LipoPilot]

Hey thanks Mike, glad you like it. One my next version I will increase the curves in the fuse "make alittle sexier" and foil the wing just a bit, Im thinking the Blake 300 will move and my single ply 6mm Depron wing will flutter but we will see. I did do some toss and glide to land test yesterday and shes a flier no doubt just needs to be over 30 degrees lol.

While clowning yesterday I noticed Capt. Blake will eat bugs if I dont give him some cover...so in went a windshield and some gauges.

[LipoPilot]

Hope to maiden the Blake 300 EL in the morning weather permitting.

[smokejohnson]

Good luck on the maiden. You amaze me with how fast you can turn out some great looking planes...keep up the good work .

[rudderfeet]

Fantastic looking plane!

[LipoPilot]

Thank you guys, I will report the outcome when I fly...peace

[soar-ne]

LP:
Whats your source for the black foam

Great looking plane, hope the maiden goes well, Wx man says we will have nice weather in the heartland for the next week. Got two planes to maiden myself.....

Bob

[LipoPilot]

All of Lipo Pilot's planes are built using 6mm Depron "GREY". My foam supplier is HERE

You can also visit my website, link below, and this will show you who Lipo Pilot trust in this business of flying foam.

Welp it seems the Wx man in the land of Tornado's...and yellow brick roads was right...winds low, and the suns shinny..I'm off to fly a lipo or two, maybe three.

[LipoPilot]

Hi guys...

FLIGHT LOG 03-18-2009

Well today Capt. Blake suited up and took to the sky for a in his brand new Blake 300 EL sport flyer. He well enjoyed his trip around the park and even pulled off afew loops for the ladies in the 10mph's today. His trip started off alittle rough with some control adjustments needing to be done, but after a short flight and landing, the ground crew shored up the plane and Capt. Blake was off again.

On his second flight, the trip went terribly wrong. Capt. Blakes second trip around the park, ended in fear. As Capt. Blake pulled up from a high speed dive his right wing gave out and completly snapped. Thanks to the back up carbon fiber rod spar...landing was a total success and no one was injured. Excellent flyer, just needs a serious wing upgrade is all Capt. Blake had to say once on the ground. Then he headed to the washroom to change his flight suit

Pay close attention..wing snap mid air near end of video...but she lands so so nice...even crippled. Right wing completly snapped..CF only thing holding her.


BLAKE 300 EL....total success, nice plane design Mike and thanks for the inspiration to build a new foamie. I cant wait till I fix my wing.

BLAKE 300 EL MAIDEN on Vimeo

This is my overview on the planes I took up today...all scratch builts, all posted on wattflyer.

LIPO PILOT PLANE OVERVIEWS on Vimeo

[gramps2161]

I wanted to check out your video I can't watch it is there something to down load so I can see the vid. I watched mikes video wanted to see how yours flew.

[MikeJ]

Hi Lipo Pilot.
Great video, the wing looked to be bending from the first launch. I am glad Capt Blake made it back OK, I believe he will be needing a clean flight suite after that ride. My Capt Blake was also up flying today, three flights, nothing broken, just a great day. I really have enjoyed watching you work, and am looking forward to seeing the new and improved wing.
Mike

[LipoPilot]

Gramps I dont think you have to download anything..maybe it wasnt all the loaded to vimeo..should work though. Let me know.

Mikes Blake 40 by the way...ha ha ha will always fly better, its how planes are suppose to be built. Foam has its issues, but after today I proved Blake flies...now it's time to put a little more Lipo Pilot in it and tighten up the ship. I will be back with rice rocket Blake..no wingy thingy either.

[gramps2161]

No I tried again I noticed that it is hit or miss with the vmeo on other peoples threads for me.
I'll go to their site and see if there is something to download to make it play.

[LipoPilot]

Gramps it may be something your missing not sure. Sometimes if your missing something to run or play a video, it will put a yellow bar across the top of your browser. This usually ask you to run activeX player. Just a thought.

Well today I dug into the Blake. Wanted to see what went wrong or why the wings failed.

Because I made the plane a full fuse, I left the inside very open to install electronics. Well it just so happen to be what I was seeing in the wings yesterday, were not cracks at all but mear stress folds in the foam. The break accured in front of the wing and back of the wing in fuse. So I investigated more and found the issue.

Heres a motion photo of the Blake snapping the wing..incredible the CF rod didnt just delaminate in mid air...this was almost a death maiden.



As it goes the failure comes from me the designer. How most test pilots die LoL...While building the fuse I didnt know where everything was going to be, so I left the fuse open. As you seen in the air, no support meant near death of ol' Capt Blake,.

Anyhow..my bad and heres why she snapped.

Here is where the issue is. When building I did not strengthen the fuse for a area of 8" by 3", which houses the two servos and the lipo tray. The area for the lipo should have had the tray mounted firmly to the sides of the fuse, but instead I made it removable to get to the servos. This small issue allows the fuse to open along the bottom and well crack the fuse.





Four large cracks in the fuse two on each side both in front and back of the wing. To fix the issue Im going to foam the leading edge of wing and add structural beams in the fuse to keep the fuse from opening up in flight.




During the maiden I never opened the Blake up to top speed because of seeing my wing flex right from the start. I cant wait to get the wing issue and fuse fixed to fly again...I can tell the Blake is a cruiser, kinda like a Sunday driver.

I'm already working on a 50in Blake. My kid said I got to make Barbie fly if Ken does...she thinks Capt. Blake is Ken...Well a 50 incher should tote Barbie's butt up there.

[LipoPilot]

Oh also Gramps...you can visit my website and click on My Videos page, this will take you directly to my complete video page, maybe this will help.

[gramps2161]

I'm all set downloaded the latest plug in and firefox nice. I am going to have to try building with foam some time.

Like they say always fly better after a rebuild.

[LipoPilot]

Well let me know if I can help, I have the plans at a PDF maker now. Glad you got to see the video...its a segal it's a plane...no it's Blake with floppy wings LoL.

All fixed ready to maybe fly with my glider buddy in the morning, he built him a proped plane from GWS..he had maiden today took off & landed 6 times...yea baby. Maybe some formation flying in Lipo Pilot's future...hes likes the Blake too.

Picture of his flyer...nice



I will bring some more video of Capt. Blake and his skyward adventures over Kansas. I think a on board would be cool.

[Voyager2lcats]

Dude, you rock. Again, nice videos. Oh, yeah. You have a great web site also. You definitely have a hold of the spirit of electric flight! Keep posting, because you have some good things to say. Am I a fanboy or what? Okay, enough. Take care. I promise not to say anything about my P-40 until it's had some air time.

Bob

[LipoPilot]

Dude a FAN..har har har..SIGN MY GUEST BOOK FAN!!!!!

I share what I do to inspire others to fly a lipo..have you flown a lipo lately..it's my motto. I appreciate your words no doubt but what I do is passion...the more I get to fly...the more planes in my sky...Oh you like Blake 300..well check out the plane that brought that one on...the Concetto 30. i put link in Brewster post.

[UglyNet]

It seems to me that the failed wing is a perfect opportunity to refit it with a KF style wing, perhaps with some internal carbon fiber bracing. Cut a groove with a router, glue CF tubing in place, put more foam over the top and bottom bits and see what happens. Your results may influence my Edgy design.