The Perfect UAV Airframe :) Carrys a Ton of gear with great performance !!!

[JettPilot]

This was posted by a gentleman in RC Universe ( Steve Molmer ) and its so good I think that it may benefit some people here. This is an ARF 100 inch airframe that would make the perfect large UAV. Its ARF, so there is minimial building involved :D Its the perfect size for a reliable gas engine like a Zenoah G-26, so it has the power to go fast and at very long range. The LiftMeister is also stable and will carry a ton of equipment :D

Its called the LiftMesiter and is available from Cedar Hobbies.

http://www.cedarhobbies.net/index.php?id=product_desc&product=22

Below are some pictures courtesy of Steve Molmer that were posted on RC Universe.

[clolson]

Looks really nice, I saw that one advertised some place and tried to make a mental note of it's existance.

We've been running a Sig Rascal 110 here, and our main complaint is that the main open convenient cabin area is almost entirely behind the CG, so if you load up your gear in the easy access area, you get way tail heavy way fast. The trick is to figure out how to wedge just as much stuff ahead of the CG which is the trick.

Otherwise the Rascal 110 flies really beautifully even with 5-6 lbs of load. Here's some pictures from this past wednesday:

http://baron.flightgear.org/~curt/Models/Special/Rascal110_2/

Also, for at least a little while longer you can watch a google map animation of our flight here:

http://mpmap02.flightgear.org/

In the interface at the bottom of the screen, click the check box next to the Rascal2 call sign. Then just zoom in/out, turn on pilot trails change the server update rate, whatever you want to do. I'm replaying an actual flight (looping it repeatedly) in FlightGear and then that copy of FlightGear is connected up into our MultiPlayer system and you can watch all our MP traffic on the google map page. We can (err should be able to) even do this in real time and track our UAV live as it flies this way which is kind of cool ...

(We are hand flying the airplane for this particular flight which explains the erratic behavior.) ;-)

Oh, you can find the onboard video from the flight here:

http://www.aem.umn.edu/people/staff/nelson/MnDot%20CTS%20Flight%20Data/Flight2.wmv

Fun to watch the video side by side with the FlightGear 3d replay side by side with the google map tracking all in sync ... really helps put the video into context because you can look at the google map view to see what you should be flying over and then much more easily pick it out in the video and know what it is that you are actually seeing.

This stuff is way too much fun, kind of makes up for not getting paid much of anything to do it ... :-)

Curt.

[Unterhausen]

We are flying with a Sig Kadet Sr., and that plane solves my pet peeves with our plane. Sig used up all of the cargo area with servos in a very wasteful arrangement. Since it's an ARF, it means a lot of surgery to move things around.

Curt,
That's pretty neat. We flew the Crossbow for the first time the other day, but never got into autopilot mode. Too windy. I didn't understand the navigation logs that came from the flight, gotta go back and fly some more. I don't know if you've ever experienced the a/d problem, but sometimes all or part of the acquisition fails to start. A power cycle has always fixed that for us. I think that was part of the problem with the logs, we restarted the Xbow and didn't let it get a gps lock before I took off.

Wish I could figure out how to keep the backlight on when the laptop is running on batteries, can't see a thing.

[clolson]

We are flying with a Sig Kadet Sr., and that plane solves my pet peeves with our plane. Sig used up all of the cargo area with servos in a very wasteful arrangement. Since it's an ARF, it means a lot of surgery to move things around.

Curt,
That's pretty neat. We flew the Crossbow for the first time the other day, but never got into autopilot mode. Too windy. I didn't understand the navigation logs that came from the flight, gotta go back and fly some more. I don't know if you've ever experienced the a/d problem, but sometimes all or part of the acquisition fails to start. A power cycle has always fixed that for us. I think that was part of the problem with the logs, we restarted the Xbow and didn't let it get a gps lock before I took off.

Wish I could figure out how to keep the backlight on when the laptop is running on batteries, can't see a thing.

I've got a Kadet Sr. ARF in my garage intending to use it for a home brew uav which I haven't gotten all that far on, but it's such a blast just to fly it. I love flying approaches in moderate cross winds or howling head winds and practicing my slips and crabbing with that plane. It's big enough and reacts slow enough that I can stay ahead of it when I'm cross controlling, and plus it just looks really cool and behaves much like a full scale aircraft would in a similar situation. Some of my other aircraft have oddly coupled modes and do slightly goofy things if you get too cross controlled.

I'm hoping to test fly our xbow micronav maybe next week some time to collect data and try to get an idea if it sees a solid signal from our transmitter at the fringes of where we would fly.

I've been dreaming of a nice big cargo trailer setup with heating/cooling, generator, desk space, shop space, storage space, refrigerator, tv, etc. That would take care of the sunlight problem. Hmmm and then I'd need some big truck to pull it. In the meantime though while I'm waiting to win the lottery, I was thinking that maybe one of these portable folding canopy things might be nice for a sunny day at the field. At least you could get your laptop into the shade if nothing else.

Curt.

[Unterhausen]

I think the only thing that helps the laptop is the towel over the head trick. It was almost dark and I still couldn't see the screen. Now if there was an inverter in the trailer...

Testing radio range is a little scary. I'm not convinced that the micronav got a lock on the position/attude of our plane. I would really like to use flightgear to look at the data after a flight, but getting started is a problem.

The Kadet seems like a pretty good choice. If it weren't for the fact that we have other things to do, I would like to put the servos in the back and down low so it's easier to mount everything else. I saw an electrified version where the person had done that, and it was really nice. They also made it a tail dragger. I'm not a good enough pilot to enjoy myself in high wind. Plus we were underpropped, and when I got above about 100' into the wind the plane would just stop.

[clolson]

Testing radio range is a little scary. I'm not convinced that the micronav got a lock on the position/attude of our plane. I would really like to use flightgear to look at the data after a flight, but getting started is a problem.


My plan is to put the micronav + stargate + 2nd receiver in the aircraft as a complete independent/passive system. It will in no way be connected into the critical control path. It's pretty easy to tell from the data when the unit thinks it can't see the transmitter signal, so if I just put that into the plane and fly around for a while, I should be able to land look at the data and check for drop outs.

My longer term plan is to completely overhaul the default micronav/stargate code and replace it with most of my own code. At some point when I have something working, I'll post something someplace. I'm thinking I'll call it MicroGear since it will have many close tie-ins to FlightGear. :-)

But the very next thing on my todo list is to massage the code to log the data the way I want it logged and also see how much data and at what baud rates I can ship out via the maxstream radio modem. If I can get some non-degenerate transfer rates down to FlightGear in real time, then I can drive the flightgear view in real time, connect into the FlightGear multiplayer system in real time, and fun stuff begins to happen (almost on it's own.) :-)

Curt.

[Bg~]

Unterhausen,

If I remember correctly, you are at PSU right? I'm with the Aero. Dept/ARL flying several Kadet Srs with Piccolos in them. If it's any use to you, we've got several templates of the mods we do to the Kadets, if you wanted to save a bit of time with the servo relocation. We have about 5-6lbs of gear crammed in them, made possible by the servo relocation.

I'm also wondering where you guys fly at.

[Unterhausen]

Unterhausen,

If I remember correctly, you are at PSU right? I'm with the Aero. Dept/ARL flying several Kadet Srs with Piccolos in them. If it's any use to you, we've got several templates of the mods we do to the Kadets, if you wanted to save a bit of time with the servo relocation.
Yup, I'm at Penn State. The templates would be great. I know those planes have a lot more gear in them than ours do. But I'm thinking about stuffing a batch of Gumstix in the planes.

I was wondering about you since that division got reorganized.

We definitely should meet up sometime.

[dalbert02]

We are flying with a Sig Kadet Sr., and that plane solves my pet peeves with our plane....

May you please post a pic of the inside of your Sig Kadet Sr. like JettPilot has done?
Thank very much in advance,
-dave

[Bg~]

Unterhausen,

I'll PM you my email address, maybe we can meet up.
Edit: Whoops, it looks like I need to start checking my PM's, :) Didn't mean to ignore ya ;)


Dave,

This page (http://www.personal.psu.edu/faculty/j/f/jfh19/brg_webpage/uav_project.html) has a few pictures of our Kadets. The page is a bit outdated though.

[libelulamodelos]

its your own design cool!!

[dalbert02]

Any body ever use a Flying King?
http://www.btemodels.com/flyin_king.html
-dave

[JettPilot]

Any body ever use a Flying King?
http://www.btemodels.com/flyin_king.html
-dave

I do not like the looks of that... The airfram looks pretty inefficient, short stubby wing with a short tail :mad: It has plastic windows, who wants to deal with building and making sure they dont leak, I dont care about scale when building a UAV, I want a efficient, trouble free airframe. On top of all that, its a kit and I have to build it :( Not good !

JettPilot

[clolson]

Looks like it would be a big "forgiving" platform ... maybe really nice for development and testing, but perhaps not "purpose built" enough for any end application that needs speed, range, etc.

Curt.

[N2EC]

The T-26 ARF could also be considered as a nice UAV Platform. Fiberglass Fuse and foam core wings. Servos fit in the tail so plenty of room for equipment. G-26 powers the airplane well although pictured with a OS 160 below.

[JettPilot]

The T-26 ARF could also be considered as a nice UAV Platform.



That looks GREAT :) Durable, fast, durable and the correct size for my needs. Where do you get that ? I searched the web and could not find a place that sells it :( I will buy one today of I can find it :D

JettPilot

[brakar]

Hi anybody,

I have been surfing the web about the T-26 Airfame, but have so far had no success. I it anybody out there - who could tell me how to get hands on one of these beauties?

Regards Brakar