some pictures

Got side tracked yet again...first the whisper needed sorting . a pushrod link ,I think was moved in a bump.
Then I decided to use a frame previously made for 1 cell use .. it was too large an area for good performance on 1 cell so I have gone with a 10gm motor and 2 cells..
The design is called the Simple, its one of the shapes that has been arround for a while
using a 2gm spektrum 4ch micro dsm2 rx..3 of 2gm servos ...6A esc .. 10gm motor ..
all the gear is in and working.. next I have to cover it..carrier bags again...
lastly some pushrods
with a prop and some pushrods the weight without a battery will be near to 65gms.... its at 60 now..the area is 1.5sqft..so it should be floaty enough..

This latest simple kite design with the added body has worked out well... The AUW is 90 gms with a 300 2s lipo. The little 10gm motor has more than enough thrust for vertical and draws under 3A using a 7x3.5gws prop..
Its one of those models where it all feels right...
The 18micron bag material went on with a few creases, but an iron at 107-110 degrees will shrink it nicely as can be seen in the pictures

The AUW is 90 gms exactly.. so its very close to 2ozsqft in its wing loading

The above kite has had its maiden...It is superb... It cruises slow and easy at less than half power, will hover perfectly.. its my easiest and best for hover so far...
The addition of the body to the simple kite has worked well..rudder gives tight turns and the extra control needed in hover...

At first I was disappointed with the roll and loop, at the low power cruise setting the roll was very slow and loops were rather large...
It was one of those DUH! moments when I realized a quick burst of power made all the difference
Loops now down to a few feet..rolls more than adequate.. all tight maneuvers just needed some airflow to get it sweet, so a quick burst does the trick...Once I realized that I was away..great fun in a tight space.
This kite is exceptional... with its 10gm motor I get a long and very quiet flight on a 300 2S lipo, so at low power I expect the draw is down at near 1.5A ..full power draws under 3A..
Hover is at about 3/4 power... full power will accelerate it up from the hover

The only problem I had was a mid air collision with of all people my flying buddy..his was fine, he was flying the Whisper model...mine got the covering damaged..both of the frameworks were fine despite crashing to the concrete floor, so we put them upright and carried on...

As a matter of interest,
Always trying to get lower build weights I made a 6mm epp delta with the same area, same gear, CF reinforcing on the wing, and a touch larger in the body... the AUW came out to 115gms .... 4oz...2.74ozsqft..... the body weighed 55gms
which is proving to me that CF and film is the way to go to get the strongest lightest builds..
I thought about using 3mm epp but it is not as strong nor stiff enough vs. the 6mm material...
3mm depron might have been better, but I read that its about the same weight as the 6mm epp. also its not particularly crash proof.

Great stuff as usual, Dave.

I've had the plans for a Traveler hanging on my wall for a couple of years now, I like your derivation better.

The biplane is a complicated build, I am still not finished with the covering that one, as I keep getting sidetracked...
Presently I keep thinking of a monoplane version, but I cant decide on wing shapes and areas..
idealy the wings want to be simple to make... and the area needs to be managable for rotation at 2g micro servo sizes..

The above kite is the one to beat, and all I want is to be able to get a good roll and loop at slow speed and low power...The traveller seems to have that sort of low speed handling, but its difficult to tell from the videos if its doing it at low power or if is using the prop wash at a higher power...just like the kite does...

It could be that I wont be able to better the kite.. but I must try with the all moving ideas, the whisper with its all moving tail and elevator is highly responsive at low speed, so it was dialed down massively on the rates, just to make it well easy to fly...

On futher thoughts ive decided to go with an all moving wing set and all moving elevator, with the addition of a body and fin similar to the kite build

the areas in front of the bearing rods are 1/3 of the full area for both the wing and elevator surfaces.. that will ensure the surfaces return to where they should as the servos return to central..
shown in the picture is the total area for the model.... the wings are 113sqin on their own..

this shape for the tailfins proved an easy build,and I used it on the whisper and the biplane... so I hope the bigger wings will be just as easy..

got sidetracked yet again with gearing up a previous kite frame.. a version1 micro kite at 1sqft+ area
this was one of my first builds, using heavier but fewer rods it never got flown because I made a lighter rod version which i did fly..it flew using a 1 cell micro block and 5gm motor setup
The joke was that the lighter rod version didnt save any weight because it needed more bracing rods to keep it stiff enough...
Now the old design has had a body added and will go with near the same setup as the kite above in post 32

Hey what are you guys using for hinges on these? I was using heat shrink tubes to make joints in the CF rods. But now I want to make something that can rotate freely.

On the micro kites the hinges are tubes on the rear spar.. seen in the pics above they are yellow .. the elevons are lashed to the tubes and CA'd in place.
Note the CA has a tendency to unstick from the tubes...score the tubes to get a better fix

the above kite has been further modified..I removed the body and reshaped it to follow the lines of the imp model Ive been flying lately..
http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showp...2&postcount=93 the imp is a great model so I am closing the gap between my kites and the epp imp..
Its now covered with carrier bag material and all the gear is fitted..
The model uses the 1811 2900kv motor from hobbyking with a 6x3 or 5x3 prop..
6A esc .. micro orange 4ch rx (small sockets) .. 3x 2gm servos.. all from Hobbyking

With a 300 2s lipo the AUW is 79gms ..the thrust should be twice that ...

here are the lines for the aerobat kite above

Looks great! Can't wait to hear how it flys.

Let me ask my question a different way. What are the yellow hinge tubes made of or where can I get them?

On another note, I have been looking at the Mini-IFO from WildRC. Looks like it can fly similar to vapor but portable and more durable. I have the Carbon Traveler Convertible with rip stop nylon and I can attest it is very durable.

http://wildrc.com/htmlpages/orderminiifo.html

Originally Posted by Docta

Looks great! Can't wait to hear how it flies.

Let me ask my question a different way. What are the yellow hinge tubes made of or where can I get them?

sorry...the yellow tubes are the outer tubes from the lightweight snake push rod sets.. from model shops..
most shops have large and small snakes ... they are about £1.50/ pr .. these outers fit nicely over 2mm CF rods, so are ideal on the smaller kites
alternatives are CF tubes .. or whatever goes on and rotates easily on whatever size rod you are using as the rear spar..

the IFO type are very similar to the one here, but the addition of a body gives better controll.... basic simple kites like those are the best starter kites , very easy to build by your self