A thread for small, lightweight planes?

[willin]

I have a desire to try a small economical sailplane. I have a plan for a plane called the "Sunday Flyer" with an all up weight of six ounces for use with a Tee Dee .020. Not sure what the wingspan is just yet as it is not mentioned in the published article however I am guessing 48" span or less. The plan is a one page published in AAM. It was originally designed as a R/O plane even though it has no rudder! Looks pretty cool. Not a simple build though. I would have questions before I start such a thing.

Are there any reccomended planes that I could build for say 25 or 30 dollars or less? I have both standard radio gear and lightwight park flyer radio gear.

I also have some plans for more simple planes which are larger and are mostly made of sheet balsa including the wings. These seem rather heavy just looking at the plans but have lots of wing area and should still be able to thermal as long as the thermals were not puny. These planes would be super simple to build and being all sheet I bet they would be quite sturdy.

I have a Gentle Lady and a House of Balsa 2 X 6, both of which are on the inexpensive side and are fairly simple in design, yet are decent flyers. I looking for smaller planes however.

Robert

[cosmicpossum]

Well, if you're looking to thermal, you could pick up a Skeeter (Here's one on Ebay: http://cgi.ebay.com/SKEETER-GLIDER-SAILPLANE-NIB_W0QQitemZ170118429373QQihZ007QQcategoryZ2563QQ ssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem)

Here it is new from Tower (http://www2.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin/wti0001p?&I=LXE619&P=0)

An HOB 2X4 is smaller yet, but I've not heard very good things about it's flight characteristics.

Anything smaller and you're getting into the HLG category. Might ask those fellas in that topic category.

[willin]

Thanks for this lone reply... I guess I am just in a minority with this interest.
I thought I would get the best reponse in this forum.
I went through every single page of threads in the Hand launch foruim as this would be a similar sized glider but to the one request similar to mine seemed to be shunned becuase he wanted to use an .049 for power... according to one reply "my beautiful body" gets his up for flying.
So, I take it that unless you are to somehow hurl it into the air yourself you should not bother posting in that forum.

I know that power pods of electric or IC engines are not frowned upon in this forum which is why I chose here.

Robert

[KevinSharbonda]

The Guppy at Polecataero !

http://www.polecataero.com/products/guppy

[lincoln]

I don't know what kind of vertical performance you are looking for, but if you're patient, I wonder if you wouldn't like to have your TD on the front of a Chrysalis. The kit is $50, which I admit is over your budget a little. On the other hand, you could probably get away with HS55 size servos instead of HS50 sized. And it's a very nice flyer.

If you're around a lot of soaring people, many of them probably have old hand launch gliders that they're not using because they have gone to discus launch.

You might try scratch building something like a QF2:
http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=330977
which has plans available on line. I don't know if the Gambler also has plans available, but it's similar. My intuition says these would be slightly overpowered, but I don't really know much about .020 Tee Dees or anything else that spits castor oil. You could probably lighten up some of the structure.

If you don't already have a Tee Dee, I wonder if it's really that much cheaper than small brushless motors.

The Skeeter is a good suggestion but in my experience the Chrysalis outfloats it, and isn't all that slow either, but it's not nearly as strong as the Skeeter. Doesn't need to be in your application.

If you don't really need to thermal all that well, try the Bridi Tercel. Price is right, fun to fly, but comes down faster than some of the other gliders discussed here.

I'm not surprised you got dissed in the hand launch forum. After all, it's the hand launch forum!

If you scratch build, weigh all your balsa and be ruthless about selection. Unless you want to use a seismograph to time your flights. This applies especially to sheet models, where you probably need to make sure you have the right grain as well.

[willin]

Kevin, that Guppy is way out of my price range and I would not call it very simple but on the other hand it is one beautiful bird and the price is actually nice for the quality of the kit as far as I can see. Just a bit more than I am after.

lincoln, Heh! Thanks for the bit of humor! Things don't have to be so dry, now do they?
First I suppose I need to mention that I have no Tee Dees at all anymore. I do have a Golden Bee, several Babe Bees, a Pee Wee .020 and a Norvel .061R/C. I also have a few .15s and a brand new K+B .40 Perry pumper. I have other plans for these. No sailplanes for them. As for electrics I have some room there but nothing as big as a speed 400 with one exception and that would be the 540 or 600 that came with my Goldberg Power Pod. As yet I haven't an ESC for that amp hungry monster! Bought it and a GL as a package deal on that big auction site. My intention was to possibly bash the combo into a Goldberg Electra (not much to bash to get that!) till I found out the power requirements. I just can't see sticking a battery that weighs that much into her. Somehow it just don't seem right unless I were to slope. And there ain't no slopes around here!

Quote by lincoln:
"I'm not surprised you got dissed in the hand launch forum. After all, it's the hand launch forum!"

So, does handlaunching destroy the brain or the mindset somehow? nevermind, you don't have to answer. I will figure it out myself I suppose!

Unfortunatly I have gotten too old and fat to do justice to a good hand launch anyways.

I have a few small brushless motors and a CDrom I wound myself a few years ago learning about such things! I have a Fiegao 12mm X30 (GWS IPS replacement) and I also have a planetary gearbox for it.

I want to stay really small If I may. And light I might add.

Here is a look at the Sunday Fun.

Robert

[rdwoebke]

Kevin, that Guppy is way out of my price range and I would not call it very simple but on the other hand it is one beautiful bird and the price is actually nice for the quality of the kit as far as I can see. Just a bit more than I am after.

If you want to scratch build, you could probably scratch build the Guppy for about what you are asking for ($25 or so). You will have to hand cut out all your balsa parts, hand do your own canopy, etc.

Ryan

[MrThermal]

SoarWatt II by Modelair-Tech

If they are still available

A bag full of balsa sticks = about $26

[ablegreen]

I love a Skeeter and I love it. Haven't tried the Chrysalis, but I assume it's flies nicer than the Skeeter. The QF2 suggested by lincoln looks quite nice.

[lincoln]

I see we agree that people use excessively heavy drives on electrics sometimes. I think you'd have fun if you scratch built a glider for the small brushless. 4 or 5 feet, depending on watts, torque, etc. Gliders don't need as many watts per pound unless you want it to go up really fast. I once saw someone flying a Drifter 2 on an old Dustbuster motor. Was very cute.

The Sunday Fun looks kinda nice (except for that power pod). However, a more modern design will outperform it.

With discus launch gliders, you have to be awfully old and fat not to be able to get a good launch. (Not as high as the athletes, but high enough to catch some thermals.) I believe if you look at the videos of some of the popular ones, you will see some fat guys launching pretty high. I won't say which ones because I don't want to hurt any feelings. The Apogee (see charlesriverrc.org), if you have the micro components already, can be scratch built from plans for quite cheap. You have to find some really good balsa, and you might have to buy a tailboom (maybe $17 plus shipping). If you don't adapt it to pull pull, you'll need a guitar string and some very thin teflon tubing too. I got some of the latter from a local electronics place for several bucks. If you're a good scrounge, or have some of the stuff already, you could keep within your budget. A really well made Apogee flies fantastically well for it's size.

What you are looking to do isn't hand launch, and I think those guys stay pretty focused. I really like hand launch myself.
snip
lincoln, Heh! Thanks for the bit of humor! Things don't have to be so dry, now do they?
snip As for electrics I have some room there but nothing as big as a speed 400 with one exception and that would be the 540 or 600 that came with my Goldberg Power Pod. As yet I haven't an ESC for that amp hungry monster! Bought it and a GL as a package deal on that big auction site. My intention was to possibly bash the combo into a Goldberg Electra (not much to bash to get that!) till I found out the power requirements. I just can't see sticking a battery that weighs that much into her. Somehow it just don't seem right unless I were to slope. And there ain't no slopes around here!

Quote by lincoln:
"I'm not surprised you got dissed in the hand launch forum. After all, it's the hand launch forum!"

So, does handlaunching destroy the brain or the mindset somehow? nevermind, you don't have to answer. I will figure it out myself I suppose!

Unfortunatly I have gotten too old and fat to do justice to a good hand launch anyways.

I have a few small brushless motors and a CDrom I wound myself a few years ago learning about such things! I have a Fiegao 12mm X30 (GWS IPS replacement) and I also have a planetary gearbox for it.

I want to stay really small If I may. And light I might add.

Here is a look at the Sunday Fun.

Robert

[willin]

Yeah, that power pod on the Sunday Fun looks convenient but at the same time very draggy. I was thinking of a direct drive 12X300mm Feigao 4100

Direct Drive Volts Amps Thrust (oz) Thrust (grams)
30x20 -----7.4V --2.9A --3.3 oz --94.28 g
30x20 -----11.1V --4.8A --5.5 oz --157.14 g
A Tee Dee .020 weighs 21g or 24g with tank mount.
http://www.mh-aerotools.de/airfoils/documents/cox_test_teedee_020_aeromodeller_october_1979.pdf

I figure I can make a similar pod with decidedly less drag or better yet stick it in the nose ala the Electra. Much less drag!

I now think I should give the discus launch a try as I don't get the exercise I need and that should encourage me to be more active. I have seen videos od discus launch and there are more than one way to do it. I should start out with the "lazy man's" style and build my way up to the more energetic style.

Robert