Building my Predator

[TravisKy]

I have spent many hours looking into building a UAV and hopefully I am going down the right path. I am building the UAV for my student organization that is having a military field exercise at the beginning of April so realism is really important to me.

Airframe: 4 CH USA PREDATOR UAV from http://store.bananahobby.com/1048.html

Video: Aerial Video System 900MHz 500mW KX171 from rangevideo.com
My plan is to boar out a small whole in the front of the airframe to stick the camera in. I would LOVE to mount it underneath with a pan/tilt but just dont think it will work.

GPS: Need help. I want to transmit on the audio channel but what is the hardware that I need to do this? I am thinking about the tinytrak? Also the SJN [EB-85A] GPS 5Hz Receiver with Antenna from range video is in consideration.

Does anyone see any problems with this?

[zlite]

Did you consider this (http://www.nitroplanes.com/4eluavrqprra.html)Predator instead? In my experience, the short coupling of the Predator airframe makes ailerons essential. We used the 4-channel Nitro Models kit for our Predator UAV (http://diydrones.com/profiles/blog/show?id=705844%3ABlogPost%3A787) and were very pleased with its build quaility and flight characteristics.

The foam one you linked to has very flexey wings, which kind of ruin the scale appearance in the air (too much dehideral)

[TravisKy]

The reason I wanted the first one was because of the foam in case of a crash. I am a little rough on my landings. Much easier to repair the foam than the balsa

[badboy14]

does any one have the specifications on the wing such as chord, span airfoil thickness and if you could make balsa ailerons after reinforcing the wing

[Gary Morris]

The Art-Tech Predator listed by TravisKY is not a very good flier, as Zlite mentioned the wings flex greatly in flight and the overall performance is poor at best. At one time Hobby Lobby carried this and received many complaints of poor performance and even poorer workmanship. The wing and tail feathers screw into plastic plates which do not line up very well and are hard to get correct. I would strongly recommend NOT getting this craft, besides it's a brushed motor with NiMH battery pack and very cheap radio. Just my two cents! ;)

Gary Morris