Hello all,

I'm completely new to the world of foamie and fixed wing flying. I spent all last summer flying electric choppers and it was just too expensive ($2500 over 3 months in repair parts for a cheap chopper). I've now made the move to fixed wing.

To accomplish this move, I've bought, built, assembled and flown an Eflite Ultimate biplane. I'm currently running a Park 370 brushless, Eflite 20a ESC, Hitec 4-channel reciever and 4 HS55 servos. My two battery packs are both thunderpower brand with one being a 2-cell 1800 and the other a 3-cell 1300.

I recently bought myself a wadge of FFF (Blucor) and am interested in making some of the planes mentioned. I'm curious though as to where someone like myself can go for information on build techniques. I see many awosome foamies with nice rounded surfaces and 3-Dimensional fuse's but I'm unsure of how to build them or even go about starting them.

On the powerplant side, I've searched high and low and not found anything about my motor or ESC. I've found a bit of information on my batteries, but not much at all.

What I'd like is a beginners-guide to FFF construction and assembly of 3-D parts to include fuse's and wings. I'd really like to get a good grasp on foamies in everything from making nice, straight cuts to selecting the right powerplant for the aircraft. I'd like to use the Park 370 as much as possible as I've already spent the $60 on it.

I have about 1,000,001 questions about foamies and would much rather read a beginners how-to than ask inane boring questions that usually get asked when someone joins the hobby.

About the only questions I would quickly like to know the answers to follow:
1.) I'm currently running a 12x6 prop with a 6.6:1 gearbox on my Eflite Ultimate bipe. Is there any way I can get more power, more longevity or both out of my system? Either a prop change, drive change (tranny to direct drive), or motor change are viable options.
2.) How do I cut FFF smootly, cleanly and straightly?
2a.) If I need a hot-wire cutter, what are some how-to's on a DIY (do it yourself) hot wire?
3.) I'm running a futaba T6XH helicopter radio which dosent support either exponential rates or elevon mixing. Which radio would be a good decision to upgrade to? I'm not so much interested in price as bang-for-buck. Note that I'll likely be flying electric planes untill I quit hobbying, so suggesting a 9-channel bohemoth probably isn't necessary.
3a.) I'm ready to order the radio (Tx) today and am currenlty set up for Futaba-type recieving gear/crystals. Can you provide some links to the radios that I may learn more?

Thanks for your time, I realize that answering newb questions probably isn't that fun, but there isn't a ton of stuff that I've found through search about my setup or airframe.

Also if my questions are irrelevant (citing the drunk clause here....) please let me know insted of disreguarding.

Thanks all,
John

Originally Posted by Niven

1.) I'm currently running a 12x6 prop with a 6.6:1 gearbox on my Eflite Ultimate bipe. Is there any way I can get more power, more longevity or both out of my system? Either a prop change, drive change (tranny to direct drive), or motor change are viable options.


2.) How do I cut FFF smootly, cleanly and straightly?
2a.) If I need a hot-wire cutter, what are some how-to's on a DIY (do it yourself) hot wire?
3.) I'm running a futaba T6XH helicopter radio which dosent support either exponential rates or elevon mixing. Which radio would be a good decision to upgrade to? I'm not so much interested in price as bang-for-buck. Note that I'll likely be flying electric planes untill I quit hobbying, so suggesting a 9-channel bohemoth probably isn't necessary.
3a.) I'm ready to order the radio (Tx) today and am currenlty set up for Futaba-type recieving gear/crystals. Can you provide some links to the radios that I may learn more?

Thanks for your time, I realize that answering newb questions probably isn't that fun, but there isn't a ton of stuff that I've found through search about my setup or airframe.

Also if my questions are irrelevant (citing the drunk clause here....) please let me know insted of disreguarding.

Thanks all,
John

1.)Drop to an 1147 Slow Fly prop or change gearing to a 5.33 gear.. prop would be easier..

2.)Use a new #11 xacto blade and hold it as close to 90 degrees as possible.. change blade often... I use a new blade for every new plane cut out..

3.)I just got a Hitec eclipse... will hold 7 different models and has many types of programming.. also the optic 6 hitec would be a good one.. I almost bought one of those.. more model memory... both Hitec can be used on Futaba receivers and servos.. The Futaba 7 CAP radio would also be a good choice..

3a.) Look on the Hobby Lobby website as well as the Hitec website to get info on these xmitters..

Hope that helps.. and happy flying

I use a Utlity Knife (for sheet rock, ect) for most cuts w/metal ruler, exacto for detail.Sharpness is a must.Fairly new @ this my self.

check out foamfly.com scroll down to the bottom and Hippo offers a fan fold guide. It's a great place to start.

and welcome back from the DarkSide! Now you can actually enjoy your flying instead of wondering "how much is it going to cost THIS time"? My heli flying friends say the sound of their craft hitting the ground is not "crash, oops" its "ka-ching, @#$%%!

1.)Drop to an 1147 Slow Fly prop or change gearing to a 5.33 gear.. prop would be easier..

I'll have to pick up one or two of those and give them a try and see how they do. (I'm still a prop-killer with my landings...) Would the plane have more punch or more longevity with the 1147 prop?

check out foamfly.com scroll down to the bottom and Hippo offers a fan fold guide. It's a great place to start.

Very nice, now to buy a plan from them so I can get the password to the guide's PDF files...

and welcome back from the DarkSide! Now you can actually enjoy your flying instead of wondering "how much is it going to cost THIS time"? My heli flying friends say the sound of their craft hitting the ground is not "crash, oops" its "ka-ching, @#$%%!

I'll wholehartedly agree with you there... This 'lil foamy bipe I've got is a blast to wheel around the sky and try crazy spins and whatnot. So far I've gone through 3 props and one gearbox in the 4 flights I've had with the plane.

Flying a heli is like ballancing one racket ball atop another in your hand... The only major differance is that every time one of the balls hits the ground, you lose $$$.

Thanks for the help everyone, I'm off to go radio shopping now...

What are some of the "prefered" vendors for general equipment? Where can I get control linkage arms in bulk for future builds? (Control linkage arms = the triangular thingies you attach to the movable surfaces)

On advice from this forum, I got a Futaba 6EXA TX from Bruckner Hobbies for only $89.
Comes with battery but no charger cable. Tower Hobby has one for around $10
Best deal I've seen to date.

http://www.brucknerhobbies.com/7-6_channels.htm

As for general supplies, I like Tower Hobby and Aeromicro.com. They ship very fast via USPS, which is nice.

Thanks for the pointers, bolt. I'll go shop around. I'd like to get myself a 7C or something of the sort, but don't want to pay for the bulky reciever, servos and whatever other garbage comes with the kit.

I've flown the 11x4.7, 12x6 and most recently 12x8 on my BL S.S. (Brushless Slow Stick) with the 6.6:1 gearbox.
The 12x8 gives the best thrust at any given throttle setting and your BL set-up will handle it just fine. Props are cheap anyways, so buy 1 of each and experiment.

er... pardon the noob here, but what does S. S. stand for? I'd asume something bipe-like given the wording of the post, but just don't know enough about foamies to put S.S. to anything particular aside from Super Sport... and that dosen't mean much to me by itself.

When I go buy props I think I'll just buy a few and toy with them and see what they do. I'd post more specific details on the plane, but I don't have a scale that will weigh ounces. I asume a food-scale from wall-mart or wherever would do this for me?

Just out of curiousity, I've got a friend with a balsa funtana which is about the same size as my ultimate and slightly heavier, he's running some spiffy outrunner up front with a 3-cell 1300. He runs his prop direct drive. I'm interested in DD for the simplicity... is this a posibility with my current plane/set up? (Also note that this is a question of convienence as a screw came loose from the motor and the pinion buzzed the large drive gear pretty good which warped a few teeth enough to need some attention after work)

Thanks again!

Originally Posted by Niven

When I go buy props I think I'll just buy a few and toy with them and see what they do. I'd post more specific details on the plane, but I don't have a scale that will weigh ounces. I asume a food-scale from wall-mart or wherever would do this for me?

I snagged a baby scale (before I was married) at a yard sale for about three dollars. We actually (also) used it for babies, but it's still in regular use for airplanes, as I intended when I bought the thing (G)

Next noob question while I await answers on DD stuff....

Is there a new-to-the-hobby bit about motors/powertrain for planes?

I was browsing aeromicro.com looking at the brushless set up and saw many types of motors, but had no clue what size/application each was for.

This whole "speed" thing confuses the heck out of me further when I'm browsing foamfly.com trying to decide which set of plans to get. (so I can read the guide to foam construction and have something to fool with at home.) The X-bow says it requires a speed 400 motor... I have a massive brushed speed 400 on my Lite-Machines Corona (helicopter). It ran at 20-35 amps hovering on the chopper... They can't possibly mean for me to mount this massive can motor in the x-bow... IMO, the heat would melt the foam, lipo's would explode....<insert general calamity here> if I were to use that motor. Granted if it could lift it's weight, it would probably haul copious amounts of arse through the sky..... To give you an idea, the motor in question has enough torque to keep a ~3lb heli aloft for about 15 minutes on an 8-cell 3300maH subC pack. They can't possibly be serious about putting that in an x-bow.... either that or I've WAY underestimated foamies..... ....either is possible....

Anyway, I need something that explains motor "speed" sizes and how manufcaturers label their motors for size.... basicly how I would know a highmax 2015 would fit my GWS/Eflite gearbox and be decent for my application.... that's the kind of information I'd like to gain.

Niven,
Maybe this has some useful info:
http://www.ezonemag.com/pages/faq/index.shtml
Crash

Thanks for the link, Crash, it should help me out quite a bit.

I bought the x-bow plans yesterday and started fooling around with making 3D (as opposed to flat) airfoils out of FFF. Really cool stuff. I was using Gorilla Glue and it seems to have worked out nicely.

Mind you I've not done a search yet, but if anyone is bored, can ya post an opinion on gorilla? I'd like to start using it for a majority of my assembly as it's relatively inexpensive and seems to hold well. It also seems rather workable as the foam it's attached to when partially cured.... I'll keep playing with it though....

Originally Posted by Niven

..... I recently bought myself a wadge of FFF (Blucor) and am interested in making some of the planes mentioned. I'm curious though as to where .....

Hi John, I hope you are a "speed reader"; here's a link to Part 1, "I got this FFF - now what do I do?"
http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showt...threadid=25136
And here's Part 2:
http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showt...hreadid=132952

Cheers! Tom