ThisIsYourKaptainSpeaking

Hi everyone! This is my first post so let me make a quick introduction. I am a middle school student, turning 12 years old this year, and I am nearing the end of 6th grade and moving into 7th. I am planning to start a FPV Flying Wing Racing Club at my school next year, since I think that my school is REALLY lacking a model aviation club. I am currently in the process of racecourse design, since even though our school has a huge field, a lot of it is used for our varsity and junior varsity sports teams. So I have a pretty small chunk of field for my racecourse, and so it's a bit of a challenge to design. I am thinking of employing a "Le Mans" launch system, where the wings are set up on a aerotow, then the pilots run over to their wings and hit release, sending their wings skyward and racing. As for the racing craft themselves, I am thinking of making them a box rule, with some freedom for wing geometry, aerofoil shape, etc. As for power systems, 11.1V LiPos batteries, powering 70mm EDF fans. (EDF fans because otherwise my school principal would be worried of kids cutting their hands on running propellers during a launch, and surely my club would be shut down.) The race wings must be built with one of these three materials; Balsa Wood, Foam Board, and EPP Foam. However, I have no experience designing aircraft with these materials, my only experience with them being balsa kits and Flite Test kits. Help! Grazie Ragazzie! (If you get who says "Grazie Ragazzie" that you get ten points) Hint: It involves racing

formontoya

thanks guys...Vettle.

Go w/EPP wings...they're more "crashable". Crash Test Hobbies sell various size EPP wings that could be fitted w/EDF. You'll be surprised at how hard it is to fly within a pattern until you gain experience. And f/7th grader you do understand that you're looking at $100 easy after you factor in transmitter, complete wing, batteries and charger.
But I would say go for it!!

ThisIsYourKaptainSpeaking

Woohoo!!!! Congratulations, Formontoya, you get 10 Kaptain Points!!! Sebastian Vettel!! Woohoo!!! Just got taken out by Verstappen!! Boo!!!
(My favorite three drivers are Vettel, Verstappen, and Ricciardo, Fav team is Red Bull).

ThisIsYourKaptainSpeaking

But would building from a kit allow for the open wing geometry I'm looking for?

Stay Quiet

Going to toss in my 2 cents here.

If you really want the school to look at your idea, I would suggest a couple of things.

First and foremost, present your idea as a learning opportunity. Much like the robotics competitions, where teams of students and mentors (teachers / volunteer engineers) work together to design robots to complete a given task, allow teams to design and build their own aircraft within given parameters (materials, power, wingspan, total weight, for example.) If your school has classes in computer design (CAD), utilize that resource. See if there is a local AMA club in your area and contact them. Experienced builders and flyers may be interested in helping out.

Secondly, present the flying aspect as being done in a responsible manner. If you are flying anything RC, you will, at the very least, need an FAA registration number. And if flying FPV, mandate that a spotter be used to make sure the craft is not flown out of visual (non-FPV) range of the pilot. There may also be local ordinances that cover flying model aircraft on school property, so make certain they are allowed, or would be allowed if the school sanctions the competition.

Good luck!

(p.s.: Go Haas!)

ThisIsYourKaptainSpeaking

Also, this is a worry of mine. I suspect that most of the kids that will get involved in my club will have never in their life flown radio controlled aircraft anywhere, let alone high performance flying wings in a tight, technical racecourse. I'm worried about two things related to this. Firstly, who knows if anyone can even control their craft? They might destroy it learning to fly, which will first probably cause them to quit, and secondly I would need to buy them a new aircraft. Third, what if one of the kids loses control of their wing and sends it somersaulting to crash and hurt other pilots and spectators? If that happened my club would be shut down, and I would be in huge trouble with the parents. I'm thinking of having all spectators inside like a soccer goal, to protect them from the wings they're flying. Help!!!

pizzano

I'm thinking that the command and writing skills, aptitude for sentence structure and logic, this 11yr old has displayed of the English language is remarkable, almost "unbelievable".......anyone else agree..?

ThisIsYourKaptainSpeaking......if you're reading this, don't take it personal......at 11yrs old with your apparent IQ, nothing should be to much of a problem for you to solve........Hope you have great success with your project.......

birdDog

Perhaps if you started off with something a little more forgiving and less cost prohibitive to generate interest. Equipment is going to cost an arm and a leg for your average teenager. There are some decent ready to fly multirotor options available for under $100 complete. Goggles, transmitter, FPV multicopter, batteries and chargers. I have seen them down to $70 at times. These require a lot less investment and are far more forgiving for learning on. The one issue that I am uncertain of is how many of these can operate in the same airspace on different control frequencies.

ThisIsYourKaptainSpeaking

Thank you for your kind words, good sir! Although I disagree with your opinion of my having a high IQ, I will agree to disagree. I've been working hard to develop a box rule that I hope will make racing in my club more "fair" and less "pay to win", much like the way the FIA is hoping to develop Formula One with it's 2021 ruleset. My thinking here is to maximize the "student designed" part of the racecraft, I will use spec, prescription electronic parts, forcing all competitors to employ the same 70mm EDFs, the same servos and servo horns, the same receivers, and the same transmitters and LiPos. The rest of the race wing will be relatively open, however I will put in place a couple of rules, such as the maximum wingspan, from wingtip to wingtip, or if you have angled winglets, from winglet tip to winglet tip, will be 1600mm, and maximum airframe length, which will be measured from the nose tip to a parallel line measured between the outermost trailing edges of the wingtip. (since I assume that all competitors will be building craft with swept back wings.),will be 1000mm. I understand that some of you will think that 1600mm is quite large for a racing wing, being slightly over 5 feet, but the idea here is to maximimize the wing area, and therefore reduce wing loading, which will hopefully come together to make the wing a lot easier to fly. Of course I could massively increase performance by decreasing drag and weight by making the craft smaller, but as for now, during the 2018 season, those should be the rule set. (But if you guys have suggestions, I will take them into account and make changes accordingly, of course). Airfoil shape I will leave completely up to the individual teams, and other things such as winglet size limits and other aero limits I will leave alone for the 2018 season, with no limits. Tell me what you think, guys!

P.S. If you actually read all the way here, you get 15 Kaptain points.

pizzano

Sorry, this isn't some 11yr old kid.......reader beware......looks like a troll has been let loose.......have fun guys....!

ThisIsYourKaptainSpeaking

Great, is it just me, or do I have to talk like I'm three to not get called a troll? What the heck?

ThisIsYourKaptainSpeaking

You do know that some kids are actually quite intelligent, right. Do you understand that?

Stay Quiet

You could always eat a Tide pod just to make him feel better. (Just kidding.)

Ducted fan delta wings may not be the ideal platform for a club compromised of rookie pilots. Perhaps a better idea than an FPV racing venue would be some other type of competition. At a fun fly I attended, one of the contests was to get as much altitude as possible in 30 seconds, after which you had to cut your motor and glide for as long as possible. Extra points were given if you landed in a circle in the runway.

Contestant planes could be designed for light wing loading and high lift airfoils. Motors could be mounted in a pusher configuration to reduce the chance of injury - maybe even require a propeller shroud in the design parameters. Costs would be greatly reduced without an EDF and the battery required to run it, and with no FPV, less cost still. It would still make an interesting design and flight competition, and I think the school administration would be more inclined to grant permission if you take out the high speed aspect.

Just my thoughts.

ThisIsYourKaptainSpeaking

Guys, any other ideas?

Fishbonez

You may also need to realize that, possibly for full school support, you may need to require AMA registration, FAA registration and HAM Licenses. Just some things you may need to consider that I did not see mentioned

Panther

You are probably best to advertise this in your own community. Not much point here. Wings are generally used for combat or FPV. Drones are for photography and racing and pylon racers are generally conventional design fixed wing but good luck with your endeavours. I just can't see it going anywhere. Most of us on here are too old anyway... LOL