I had posted a pic of my FPV platform in another post and had requests for info on it from several members. Its nothing revolutionary, but it is a fine flyer, a heavy lifter, and a cheap simple build. I fly FPV in two manners. What I call close in less than 2000' and long distance which is as far as you can/dare. The close in is flown with a DJI 450 quad which is a perfect AP/FPV platform. A plane is better at getting out there due to its more efficient use of battery. I looked at a bunch of designs and settled on the twin boom as the easiest/simplest. I basically borrwed the dimensions from Mikeys RC, but thats about it, Im no fan of flat plate wings for this type of application. The wing is the fine flying KFm2. Stable, will fly very slowly and basically wont stall in the classic sense. About the only negative I can say about the KF foils is they tend to stay in the condition where you left them, like in a climb or a turn. Once you get used to that it can actually work for you. The foil also handles wind well, so you are not stuck waiting for calm conditions.

Ok the plane. The first one is the prototype totally bare bones to test the concept. Its basically square @ 40"span/40"length. Flys on a small 2217 motor and a 10" SF prop. Cruises under 1/2 throttle and flys around 15min on a 2200 under normal conditions. It has a sparless wing that is super strong. The carbon rods are not lift struts but are forcing dihedrail, which I later found is totally un-necessary. The second and finalized plabe has a folded spared foam board wing and its dimensions are 48x48", it uses the same power system. It will easily fly all the FPV equipment, and either a 2200 or 4000 flight battery, and a second 2200 for the FPV vtx. I generally fly the 2200s. I hope the pics tell the story. One doesnt need plans for this one only measurements as its so simple. If there is enough interest I will post detailed measurements. BTW the prototype now sports a KFm3 wing which flys very well, but I still prefer the 2 for FPV. The planes BTW are nicknamed Pelicans by my clubs members because of the shape of the equipment area.

Originally Posted by Flyitall.

I had posted a pic of my FPV platform in another post and had requests for info on it from several members.

Thanks for the pics. I thought is looked a little familiar. The MikeysRC FPV twin boom was my very first FPV plane.

Ok been asked for dimensions. Basically its a square plane, x wide, xlong. So if you want to build the 40" span version its 40" long. The wing chord is 12" on both planes The yellow plane is 48x48. There is no magic in the #s its just what works to give the ability to shift equipment/batteries around to achive the CG. The long nose allows plenty of room for equipment. The under wing battery compartment also allows battery movement for the same CG reason. The plane is intentionally tail heavy to allow a lot of stuff up front, and the long tail moment allows for pitch stability.
I will give actual dimensions for the 40" the builder can add or subtract from there.
Wing: 40" span, 12" chord including ailerons. Ailerons: 12x1.5
Horizontal Stab: 11.5"
Fuse: 24" from the wings trailing edge, height 6". 1" thick pink foam
Booms: 28" from the wings leading edge to the leading edge of the elevator.
Fins:5x8" not too critical on shape, use the TLAR method.
Equipment tray and motor mount: light ply to the builders desired specs.
3) 9 gm servos and a motor combo of choice.

The wing is easily built using foam board and pink foam. Simply cut the wing panels to width/length and glue together. Cut the KFm2 step from 1/2" pink @ 50% of the desired chord and glue to the foam board. Cut the ailerons into the wing panels either using tape hinges or the live hinge method shape the leading edge to an airfoil shape and thats it. Cut the rest of the parts out and glue together. I use hot glue as the glue of choice, but use whatever you like that works.
This is a simplification of the build I will be glad to answer specific questions. Incidently the wing is very strong in this form. I tried to add dihedrial by stacking books on the center of the plane suspended between 2 trash cans. It took roughly 7 lbs of books to get the dihedrial I wanted. It sat like this for 2 days. When I removed the books the wing went right back to flat!

Originally Posted by daronj

Thanks for the pics. I thought is looked a little familiar. The MikeysRC FPV twin boom was my very first FPV plane.

No problem. Yeah thanks to Mikeys for all the cool stuff thats been offered. This is a whole nother animal though. This is a tougher build and thanks to the KFm2, Im sure a much better flyer. If the time is taken to cover the build in packing tape like the yellow plane, its a very durable, long lasting airframe. Will have much more lift than the flat plate wing and is way more pitch stable. Somewhat more efficient too I feel.

Plane built and flown. This thing was a hoot flying FPV.

El Diablo - A one day project (5 min 19 sec)

Diablo Twin Boom Pusher Maiden (4 min 41 sec)

Killer build!! Really like the coroplast used on the equipment deck. So cool to be able to adjust the hold down points. Looks like a great flyer! Are the aluminum booms causing the drop outs/interference? Looks like you are in the same part of the world Im in(SE).

Thanks, so far I really like it. I stuck a gyro on the ailerons tonight to stabilize the roll in the wind.

I hope the booms are not causing a problem. I am going to try mounting the video equipment a little differently to see if I can clean it up. I have some 24" antenna cables so I can try moving the cloverleaf antenna out to the wing tip. I'm in Baton Rouge, La. No other FPV fliers around here that I know if. Where are you?

Daron

DaronJ

Are your ailerons on a Y cable or plugged into separate channels in the receiver? I ask because I had a gyro I was trying to use for my ailerons and it did not work...was very glitchy. I was thinking maybe it was because of the Y cable I am using. Here is a pic.

Originally Posted by daronj

Thanks, so far I really like it. I stuck a gyro on the ailerons tonight to stabilize the roll in the wind.

I hope the booms are not causing a problem. I am going to try mounting the video equipment a little differently to see if I can clean it up. I have some 24" antenna cables so I can try moving the cloverleaf antenna out to the wing tip. I'm in Baton Rouge, La. No other FPV fliers around here that I know if. Where are you?

Daron

I now live east of Atlanta. The sand roads and Spanish moss in your vid reminded me of growing up in Fla.
I have several planes with the Armin wing, they are great fliers. I believe however being a cambered airfoil it would benefit from dihedrial for the desired stability needed in FPV. That was one of the advantages of the KFm2, very stable in a straight wing. The Armin looks a bit faster, probably an advantage if you are trying to get a lot of ground covered per battery. Be interested to hear how the gyro works out. Got several laying around from helis.
Hopefully the tail booms are not the issue. I have noticed the clover leaf antenna on my quad is more demanding on how it is placed than the standard antenna. Maybe the repositioning will set it right.

Originally Posted by Asymair95

DaronJ

Are your ailerons on a Y cable or plugged into separate channels in the receiver? I ask because I had a gyro I was trying to use for my ailerons and it did not work...was very glitchy. I was thinking maybe it was because of the Y cable I am using. Here is a pic.

Yes, they are on a y-cable. Should work fine. I can tell you that I did have some issues with the gyro acting crazy, but it was because of the channel setup in my transmitter. Make sure your aileron trim is set to neutral and also make sure you have zero subtrim on the aileron channel. Then try the gyro. I had to make all of my fine subtrim adjustments mechanically by adjusting the pushrods.

Good luck.

Originally Posted by Flyitall.

I now live east of Atlanta. The sand roads and Spanish moss in your vid reminded me of growing up in Fla.
I have several planes with the Armin wing, they are great fliers. I believe however being a cambered airfoil it would benefit from dihedrial for the desired stability needed in FPV. That was one of the advantages of the KFm2, very stable in a straight wing. The Armin looks a bit faster, probably an advantage if you are trying to get a lot of ground covered per battery. Be interested to hear how the gyro works out. Got several laying around from helis.
Hopefully the tail booms are not the issue. I have noticed the clover leaf antenna on my quad is more demanding on how it is placed than the standard antenna. Maybe the repositioning will set it right.

Good point, I may try a KFm2 on this plane once this wing gets banged up, and I see that happening sooner than later Making some mods on equipment placement and may get a chance to take it back out this afternoon.

This is what I built that I plan to try with FPV. I call it the S3 for my third generation small wing plane . It has a 35 inch wing span and uses a modified TL54 airfoil fatened to 15% thick so you can pack stuf inside the wing. I published the plans on my website at http://wings.surething.biz . I'm also working on a bigger one that's not completed yet called the Z54 that has a 54 inch wing span. it only cost me about $5 in material here in thailand not counting electronics and can be carried in the side bag of my bicycle to the field (very tuff).

Originally Posted by sacarlson

This is what I built that I plan to try with FPV. I call it the S3 for my third generation small wing plane . It has a 35 inch wing span and uses a modified TL54 airfoil fatened to 15% thick so you can pack stuf inside the wing. I published the plans on my website at http://wings.surething.biz . I'm also working on a bigger one that's not completed yet called the Z54 that has a 54 inch wing span. it only cost me about $5 in material here in thailand not counting electronics and can be carried in the side bag of my bicycle to the field (very tuff).

Nice looking wing. Did you cut if from solid foam with a hot wire? What kind of foam is it?