Hooray! So happy to hear you got NEKKID SUE flying ! More adventures tomorrow ? If possible , can you shoot a video ? Looking forward to the next chapter !

Al

Originally Posted by balsa or carbon

Hooray! So happy to hear you got NEKKID SUE flying ! More adventures tomorrow ? If possible , can you shoot a video ? Looking forward to the next chapter !

Al

Unfortunately, work occasionally gets in the way of having fun, so nothing more until next weekend ... probably. AND, the ESC is currently kaput. Any advice on that? Are they mysterious packages to be opened only after saying the proper incantations, or is it just something obvious with heat shrink over it?

I remember the first time I disassembled a door lock in college... nobody had told me it was full of springs and stuff. It took me a long time to find all the parts, and a longer time to get it back together so that it would work with the security master and my own key. That's always made me shy of disassembling things without doing my research first.

Videos are a bit hard. I don't have a hat-camera, and the Missus is fighting through medical problems which can make it problematic for her to get out to the aerodrome. We shall see...

Originally Posted by Low and Slow

Dan now at least you know the full throttle atlas booster on from a dead stop launch method isn't working so well huh?

Thanks for the input. Turns out that this was a significant part of my problem. I have found that 60% seems to be a good initial throttle setting. ooopsie...

Originally Posted by builderdude

Very entertaining.

Now, this weird paper airplane design, I'm really not so sure is the best thing to learn on.

SURE it's cheap. But there are other planes that really are so much better for the beginner. I still feel that what you need is good old fashioned wings and tail, preferrably a high wing or a powered glider.

Thanks.

The SUE has advantages and disadvantages... this whole journey started with the discovery of a GL kit in the closet. Then, half way through building it I was getting attached to it (in both senses of the word) and I decided to buy a Hawk Sky for practicing. It ended up in trees, in the dirt, and in a bad way... SO, I turned to this forum for help. The suggestion was "if you are having problems then don't wreck a $100 plane... wreck a $5 plane instead." It makes sense !

I have to admit that flying the SUE has been weird compared to the Rudder, Throttle, Elevator and Aileron that I got used to flying in the flight simulator. I hardly ever touched the rudder in the sim... I was planning on learning basic techniques using throttle, aileron and elevator, and then learning to use rudder to trim. I guess there is a huge difference between TRE and TREA ... and that might make transitioning a bit hard. But, considering that I've cracked up NEKKID SUE a dozen times - to a point where 1/3'rd of the plane had to be replaced - I think this is not a bad learning method.

Now, maybe somebody knows of, or could develop, a Dollar Tree foam board trainer with high wings that looks sorta like a piper cub or something... complete with throttle, rudder, elevator and ailerons. Once I get passible on the NEKKID SUE then I could graduate to that four control model. That might make transitioning easier. Anybody up to the challenge ?

Ad Astra

There is such a site online that has free plans to do just that. But I have to get ahold of my friend to find out what that is. When I do, I'll post the link here for you.

Originally Posted by Dan_D

Thanks.

The SUE has advantages and disadvantages... this whole journey started with the discovery of a GL kit in the closet. Then, half way through building it I was getting attached to it (in both senses of the word) and I decided to buy a Hawk Sky for practicing. It ended up in trees, in the dirt, and in a bad way... SO, I turned to this forum for help. The suggestion was "if you are having problems then don't wreck a $100 plane... wreck a $5 plane instead." It makes sense !

I have to admit that flying the SUE has been weird compared to the Rudder, Throttle, Elevator and Aileron that I got used to flying in the flight simulator. I hardly ever touched the rudder in the sim... I was planning on learning basic techniques using throttle, aileron and elevator, and then learning to use rudder to trim. I guess there is a huge difference between TRE and TREA ... and that might make transitioning a bit hard. But, considering that I've cracked up NEKKID SUE a dozen times - to a point where 1/3'rd of the plane had to be replaced - I think this is not a bad learning method.

Now, maybe somebody knows of, or could develop, a Dollar Tree foam board trainer with high wings that looks sorta like a piper cub or something... complete with throttle, rudder, elevator and ailerons. Once I get passible on the NEKKID SUE then I could graduate to that four control model. That might make transitioning easier. Anybody up to the challenge ?

Ad Astra

Hey Dan ,

So on the sim you did only throttle on the left stick , and you did elevator and turning ( left and right ) on the right stick ? If that is what you're used to try this : plug your rudder servo into the AILERON channel on the receiver , and then you can fly NEKKID SUE just like you're used to on the sim . That's actually how I fly all my RTE planes including my SUE's . Later when you fly an aileron plane you can add rudder on the left stick into the mix ( that has been my progression in the last 2 1/2 years ) .

The plane I learned to fly ailerons on is this one - also easy to make and protects the motor/prop if you nose it in . Once it's been trimmed it is SUPER stable and will even fly big , lazy circles hands-off ! But when you want to , it will do inside and outside loops , rolls , fly inverted , etc.

http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=981793

Here is the first one I made

Homemade PBF ( Pizza Box Flyer ) 3D RC plane. (1 min 15 sec)

Al

Originally Posted by balsa or carbon

Hey Dan ,

The plane I learned to fly ailerons on is this one - also easy to make and protects the motor/prop if you nose it in . Once it's been trimmed it is SUPER stable and will even fly big , lazy circles hands-off ! But when you want to , it will do inside and outside loops , rolls , fly inverted , etc.

http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=981793

Al

They called YOUR plane "ugly" ??? Oh wow, this one seems to be outside of my esthetic range... on the other hand... functional is good... but... I mean... this would be like buying a boxy Volvo when you really want a 1952 MG-TD.... or a 1963 Jag XKE 12 cyl... Talk about not looking like a plane. This looks like a flying cheese cutting board. I don't know.. really, I don't...

Originally Posted by Dan_D

They called YOUR plane "ugly" ??? Oh wow, this one seems to be outside of my esthetic range... on the other hand... functional is good... but... I mean... this would be like buying a boxy Volvo when you really want a 1952 MG-TD.... or a 1963 Jag XKE 12 cyl... Talk about not looking like a plane. This looks like a flying cheese cutting board. I don't know.. really, I don't...

Neither the SUE or Pizza Box Flyer is about looks , but they ARE about learning to fly RTE and then RTEA without crashing and breaking an expensive plane or one you've spent a lot of time building .

After learning to fly ailerons ( LOT'S of crashing/repairing ) with my cheap $ Tree PBF , I bought this plane ( never crashed it! ) .

http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=...QEwAw&dur=8261

Not bad looking , eh ?

What did you think of the " rudder servo in the aileron channel " idea for NEKKID SUE ?

Al

Found it!
It's called Mikey's RC.
Here's the website. Lots of free designs for foam board.

http://mikeysrc.com/Scratch-Built-Aircraft.html

Originally Posted by balsa or carbon

What did you think of the " rudder servo in the aileron channel " idea for NEKKID SUE ?

Al

It's a very interesting idea... I'm torn between the fact that it will somewhat function like ailerons so that it's not a total relearning curve... but at the same time something in me says "learn to do it with rudder so that if your future fancy pants plane ever loses aileron control your thumbs will remember how to do it with just elevator and rudder."

Another possibility... I came back from Dayton with a 9 Channel THX9 transmitter (and receiver) that one of the guys wasn't using and was willing to sell for a song. This thing has the capability for computer generated elevon control. So I could theoretically use the two servos indep and get all four: throttle, rudder, elevator and aileron from NEKKID SUE. Only problem - I haven't been able to figure out how to use it yet.

Congratulations Dan. I like the idea of hooking the rudder to the aileron channel too. I never liked turning with my left thumb that thumb does dumb stuff. Did your left turn problem go away when you moved the battery around to balance it better?

Anyway you need to look at the scratchbuild forums there has got to be something there you like. A lot of the planes are made from fan fold foam but you can use dollar store foam instead. You might also check flitetest dot com they have some dollar foam planes.

It sure is less stressful to fly when you don't have big bucks tied up in a plane.

Originally Posted by Low and Slow

Congratulations Dan.
[snip] Did your left turn problem go away when you moved the battery around to balance it better?

[snip] A lot of the planes are made from fan fold foam but you can use dollar store foam instead. You might also check flitetest dot com they have some dollar foam planes.

Thanks for the congrats... I still have a long way to go... but as they say, any landing you can walk away from is a success.

The problem was solved, but I can't say that moving the battery was the entire reason. I was also changing my behavior on the sticks, so it's a very uncontrolled experiment.

I assume you mean the approximately 1/4" to 3/8" thick stuff they sell at Home Depot for about $45 for a big bundle? That has a fairly different feel from dollar tree foam. How does it stand up compared?

Originally Posted by Dan_D

It's a very interesting idea... I'm torn between the fact that it will somewhat function like ailerons so that it's not a total relearning curve... but at the same time something in me says "learn to do it with rudder so that if your future fancy pants plane ever loses aileron control your thumbs will remember how to do it with just elevator and rudder."

Another possibility... I came back from Dayton with a 9 Channel THX9 transmitter (and receiver) that one of the guys wasn't using and was willing to sell for a song. This thing has the capability for computer generated elevon control. So I could theoretically use the two servos indep and get all four: throttle, rudder, elevator and aileron from NEKKID SUE. Only problem - I haven't been able to figure out how to use it yet.

You can definitely make NEKKID SUE a throttle rudder elevon plane - a few people have done it ( like Nightstone and Sailor03 here on RCG ) , but to be effective as ailerons you'd have to make the elevons longer than the current 6" elevators . And that wouldn't be hard to do at all - just cut off the existing elevators , cut out larger openings in the wings for the larger elevons . I would go almost full span .

About that THX9 transmitter , a flying buddy of mine has one , and I'm sure he'd be happy to help you with setting up elevon mixing , etc. His user name here on RCG is slim1357 . ---> http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/member.php?u=339373

I almost forgot , the ESC is just a shrink-wrapped PCB , no big deal soldering the wire back on .

And the fan fold foam is very sturdy - works fine for scratch-built planes . Praymond built a SUE out of FFF and didn't have to reinforce the wings at all - and he does loops , rolls , etc. Here's his video

Swazey2 (3 min 44 sec)

Al

Originally Posted by balsa or carbon

And the fan fold foam is very sturdy - works fine for scratch-built planes . Praymond built a SUE out of FFF and didn't have to reinforce the wings at all - and he does loops , rolls , etc.
Al

Watching the video of him doing rolls, loops, and taking off from the tail - I kept thinking about the poor guys in WWI who were thrown into combat with 10 hours of flight training, compared to the combat vets who had hundreds of hours and dozens of kills. Praymond is the Ace, I'm the self actuated target.

Originally Posted by Dan_D

Watching the video of him doing rolls, loops, and taking off from the tail - I kept thinking about the poor guys in WWI who were thrown into combat with 10 hours of flight training, compared to the combat vets who had hundreds of hours and dozens of kills. Praymond is the Ace, I'm the self actuated target.

It won't be long until you're the Ace , Dan ! Just practice flying when you can !

There are guys who actually do combat with cheap foamies , either trying to knock streamers off or actual plane to plane contact .