Blimp in the home?

[GHarvey]

I have been into electric RC for a little over a year now and have some interest in blimps. Living in the cold north it is sometimes hard to get outside to fly and indoor site times can be inconvient.

I've seen ads for some blimps, but many of them look like "toys". One big drawback to these is that the batteries typically are not rechargable. Others are for more comercial purposes for flying in large areanas. These typically are quite large and expensive.

Is there anything out there for the hobbiest that takes sub micro radio gear, rechargeable battery packs and can fly in a large room say 10x20?

[rc.hackmaster]

check out the megatech blimp. comes with tx and 2 mylar envelopes (blimp and ufo) i have one and it takes a 9v tx, 3v for power pod. last for a long time. we have flo..floated for 4 mos and not replaced the 3v yet. will fly great in a 10x20 room. try flying down a hallway and not hit the walls. really hard! blimp has up,down,f,r,and left and right. cost about 80$ and well worth it. just dont try to fly outside!
hackmaster!:D

[Jim McPherson]

You might also look to www.toytx.com. Their baloon craft 2000 was reviewed well here on the ezone and looks like loads of fun for the house.

[Greg Covey]

I have the blimp from Plantranco (http://www.plantraco.com/). It is about 4' long and 3' high. It works well indoors like a house or gym but at a trade show I took it to in Houston, the air currents proved to be too strong for it.

Eventually, I plan to replace the stock N20 motors and B2 props with a better GWS system. I would also replace the 27MHz. radio system with a GWS receiver and use my Futaba Super-8 programming for some programmable movement.

The $30 disposable helium tanks available at most party stores work very well. Once the blimp is filled, it stays good for weeks before needing a little boost.

Regards.

[Greg Covey]

I made a Blimp (http://www.gregcovey.com/blimps.htm) page on my Web site. I'll post a few pictures of it flying in the Houston Convention Center next week.

Click here for a larger image. (http://www.gregcovey.com/images/Blimp1.jpg)

[eparkflyer]

I would like to make one like Greg has, only use a GWS RX, and "real" radio equip...

what is the weight of your R/C stuff (with the clay! heh)?

[Greg Covey]

I never weighed it but there was enough clay weight to suggest that you could easily add more weight in better R/C components and a bigger NiCd pack.

I also never filled the blimp to capacity since it already required so much clay to obtain neutral buoyancy. So this can be used to offset even more weight.

I also had the 9v mini-camera installed but we never used it at the trade show since nobody rented a portable TV for channel 16.

[Greg Covey]

Here is a picture of my blimp tethered to the booth at a recent trade show in Houston. We had our company logo added to both sides.

Click here for a larger image. (http://www.gregcovey.com/images/BlimpShow1.jpg)

[Sparr]

On the battery note, it is a trivial task to mod the battery holder to take a 3 cell pack of rechargable sub-c cells. you could do other sizes too but more work on the mod. I have had the Megatech blimps for quite a while but havent played with them lately.
Now that I am getting my hands on some smaller electric motors (N20s in particular) I am probably going to build a new gondola for the blimp with REAL rc gear in it. The thing about a blimp is you have so many options for control configurations.
Thrust can be via 1, 2, or 3 motors. Altitude and yaw can be done via individual motors, or mixed combinations of the the thrust motors, or servo controlled rudder and elevator. Unfortunately Pitch and Roll arent doable unless you make a custom envelope, which I am actually considering doing just because a stunt blimp would probably be a unique addition to any RC event.

PS: After a 10 hour trip in a U-Haul and 2 months of not being used both envelopes still have enough helium in them to carry my custom gondola with all the stock megatech parts on it.

[niek]

Other blimp kits and tips at:

www.rc-zeppelins.com, models, blimps

[Buzz]

Here's a pic of my blimp manouvering through the portal between the kitchen and living room. These things are great for indoor home flying. Watch out when the a/c comes on though. I've been using the same batteries for 3 months and they're still going strong. Helium at "We Be Toys" costs me $20 a tank and I still haven't used it all. Great fun...
Buzz
http://www.buzzboats.com/blimp1.jpg

[Paul5910]

I have always been interested in lighter than air craft. I admire the Hindenburg (right up till' it had a blowout.) I have been kicking the idea around (for about 2 years now) about making a rigid airship. Maybe a balsaframed airship covered in monokote with an internal mylar bag. Any thoughts? I'm thinking maybe 6' long, 2' dia...Somthing like that.

Paul Fitch

[Sparr]

If I was going to make a rigid envelope, which it seems like I might have to do for my stunt blimp, I would use carbon fiber rods. Much lighter than balsa for the same strength, and you can make perfect circles with them VERY easily.

I have given up on the idea of making an envelope the right shape to allow me to put the electronics at the CG, just too complex of a design for a newbie mylar user like myself. What I am going to end up doing is two hemispherical envelopes with a gap between them to allow me full access to the center of the blimp. For thrust and control I plan to use 4 motors arranged around the equator of the blimp. The left/right pair will face forwards/backwards and generate thrust/yaw and the front/back pair will face up/down and generate pitch/lift. This will be more than enough control although if the electronics issues and weight arent too complex I may put a pair of motors on the top and bottom facing left/right for roll and 'strafing'.