Well, my son got his learners permit so I had him drive down to the Evergreen Aviation museum for some practice, got in some flight time on my dart at the RC field there and took some photos of the Dart they have. Right next to it is a dagger, and while I like the dart a bit better, I figured I could modify the airframe slightly of the dart, keep the same wing/CG and create a dagger as well. I've got the plans and parts done and cut out, it took a bit more work, and some extra pieces. The canopy is moved back and the nose portion is relatively longer. The tail and speed brake shape are different. I created some wing strake pieces and the tail strakes as well.

For the rear engine humps(my name) they lined up perfectly with where I wanted my motor mount so they posed a bit of a problem. I finally wound up laminating two 6mm pieces with just the outer ones having the extensions and they sort of surround the microjet motor.

Plans are on the plans page.

12.5 oz rtf with the same components I used on the six.

...Continue Reading

I've always wanted to do a dart, but there have been a lot of them and so I never got around to it till now. This takes a single sheet of 6mm 26.5x39" depron. I used one piece of tubular 1/8" carbon rod to do the wing spar, pushrod reinforcements, and nose reinforcement. No other carbon needed.

You simply print out the plans making sure they are not scaled and you are using borderless printing. Then cut out the templates and mark the depron. Once you have marked the right and left fuse sides, you can cut out the intake doublers and make a left and right of those as well. Only half the wing is shown, simple flip over and trace the other side. Cut out the depron. I grooved and inserted a piece of 1/8" carbon rod in the nose running to about 3" aft and below the wing leading edge to reinforce the nose. I used 3M77 spray to joint the right and left sides. I then sanded the rounded portions of the nose and fuse/vertical stab. Once that is done you can slot for the wing. I then rounded the left and right intake doublers and glued them with 3m77 spray just above the wing slot. You can cut out for the motor tube if you are makiing a rocket glider, or cut out to fit your motor. If you are mounting the motor on a plate you should put a small piece of carbon rod in the middle of the motor plate and drill and glue that into the tail to give it some strength. Make sure to leave clearance for the prop to clear the speed brake extension.

I then did all...Continue Reading

Here is my V-1 Buzzbomb rocket boosted RC glider,as a kit offering. 39" long and 26" wingspan, weight RTF is 11.5-12.5 oz and designed to fly on the aerotech reloadable 24mm D-7, E-7 and E-6 rc reloads. This will also fly quite well on the old D11P plugged motors. Or the Quest D5P motor available from Apogee components will work with appropriate adapter or taping it to fit.

I'm doing these one at a time, and they take me an hour and a half to cut, they are not laser cut, but are hand cut and fitted. I'm doing a lot of the work for you,. All tabs and slots are cut and test fit. Carbon wing spar is pre-installed as are the full flying tail surfaces. The motor mount is pre made. Basic steps are shown here along with instructions, basically the steps are gluing pieces together and taping.

Included:

Airframe with carbon spar and full flying tail surfaces installed
Nose weight
Pushrods
Motor mount
Rail buttons and screws or launch lug(your choice)
styrene strip for reinforcing
velcro for mounting rx/bec/battery
blenderm tape(for taping wires and reinforcing joints)

Needed to complete:
Receiver
BEC(voltage regulator for receiver/servos)
2s Lipo battery and nose weight, something around 1.5-1.7 ounces is fine, or use a lighter battery and add nose weight.
2 10 gram type servos, hs-55 hitec or similar
Transmitter with aileron/elevator mixing capability and ability to put elevator up-trim on a switch.
You will also need foam safe CA+ and accelerator.
Depron...Continue Reading

Flight video

Scratch built V-1 Buzzbomb RC pusher parkjet (4 min 7 sec)

I've been slowly going through some of my less flown rocket gliders to convert them for pusher so i can give them some more flight time. Normally this means a slight modification of the motor clip to use my grayson microjet V-3 that is mounted on an adapter. I have to swap a 20a esc for the BEC, and install the motor wires back to the rear and then re-balance. Most of the time I can just use an 800mah 3s pack for this motor on planes up to 16 oz. I normally use a 8002s pack for rocket boost and have the CG set for that, and with the pusher and the 3s pack I normally only have to add a quarter ounce or so to get the CG back to spec.

I decided to modify my Buzzbomb but thought a tractor setup would be better since I wouldn't have to trim the rudder to clear the prop if I did it as a pusher. I considered doing a tractor in the front of the pulsejet pod but there wasn't enough prop clearance in this small of a model(I had done it that way on my larger buzzbomb back in the day).

Well, it was a very interesting day yesterday. Really strange behavior, like it was tail heavy. Had to run it very nose heavy to get any control at all. Had all sorts of adverse yaw in banks. I tried all sorts of down and right thrust and it was slightly better. Finally upon suggestion I tried a bit of aileron reflex and it got better, but still wasn't flying normally. I finally concluded that the rotating...Continue Reading