Inspired by Blue_bulls Bit SE5a is decided it was time for me to build a micro version. Here are the parts to far. All 2mm Selitac. Weight of parts is 2.7 grams. Wingspan is 24cm. It has app. the same wing area as my micro Jiglet which flies nicely at 13 grams AUW. I'm hoping to get this one down to 12 grams with lighter actuators, shorter wires and carbon prop.

Michael

Michael,

where will this all end? Time to make infrared rx's! Usually the fingers are too big to put rc stuff into and out of these tiny fuselages (at least mine are), so it is good to provide each of them with its own rc set that can be built in permanently.

Great work again!

Regards, Jochen

lovely plane!
i'll like to try selitac (i think it's different with wall foam i use for my planes)
if you have the adress i can try to get it from france.
thanks.
patrick.

Jochen, with the IR receiver it would only weigh 11 grams!

You are right about fingers being to big to fiddle around in fuselages this size. When I go to Dortmund in April I will buy some more tweezer and surgical clamps in various sizes. I find these indespensable for micro work like this.

Michael

Here I have trial assembled the model. For struts and U/C I am using 0.35mm fibreglass sheet. Great stuff; strong, light and cuts easily with a pair of scissors. Still to make: Interplane struts, wheels and cowl front.

Michael

Michael, really nice plane, love the use materials.

All right now youve done it. Call me inspired.
I did practice cutting some packing foam today.
I found out that the wider the stuff is the better it cuts and 2 6 volt lantern batteries are better than one nichrome works good.
Push the block through slow enough so that the wire does not bend for smooth sheets. I guess I should put this info in hot wire
thread. Anyways I'm going to have to go and build a N11 or DR1 now that you have built that. It is a nice looking model.

Billy

Started to add some color

I was getting a bit concerned about AUW but then I saw that Blue_bulls SE5a was almost same size but weighs 26 grams so this one should be OK even if it reaches 13-14 grams. The 4.5ohm pager is certainly up to the job.

Billy, the DR1 can be a tricky subject - either you need to add some dihedral to it or use ailerons.

Michael

Thanks for the heads up Michael.
Wonder if anyone has tried ailerons with 200 ohm coils on a ZTron or something?
The paint job look nice even on my monitor that makes everything look weird with no red.

Billy

What are you using for plans? I was tempted by the FRED too. Are the airfoils cut with a hot wire or are they formed from a flat sheet?

I'm a hardcore balsa guy, but seeing things like this may just turn me (a little).

I found the plan here: http://www.theplanpage.com (cannot reach it at the moment to give you the exact location of the plan). I just shrunk the plan using Paint until the size suited me. It is all made from 2mm foam sheet. Wings are formed by wrapping the foam around a bottle and then baking them in the oven at just below 100C. No reason why you couldn't build this model with 0.8 and 1.0 mm balsa.

Michael

I d'loaded this plan some time ago. The Wing and tail surfaces are fairly easy to convert to sheet structure. How do you go about translating the stick and tissue structure from the plan to the shapes needed for a 3-D sheet fuse? There are a number of planes I'd like to do in 1/32 sheet balsa.

Are the thin sheet foams more resilent than balsa? My Micro Moth has gained too much weight from repairs to fly properly. The Micro Taxi conversion I did had the heck beaten out of it and the structure never failed. Did I just answer my own question? I did start another Micro Taxi and put it on a diet. I'll have to get back to it.

The thin foam (depron at least) is more duarable then balsa. If it breaks, it is usually a very clean break that is easy to repair, but it will bend a lot before it breaks which is more than can be said for wooden structures.

Michael,

Very nice, you are like a factory.

BTW, do you want that wire?

Dave