Here is something I was working on, tried flying it without a tail, which it will not do. Too much vertical area ahead of cg I guess. Have since added a fin but not flown it. Will do so when weather gets better.
EPP laminated.

I was using old rubbers and did a loop during which the wing separated from the fuselage just enough to jam up the aileron servo and plow into the dirt (snow).
Had to replace cowel with makeshift plastic Sprite bottle. Also my little ski toes fell off. This plane is getting uglier by the flight but is still a hoot and flies well no matter what I seem to do to it.
LanYu 747-I Cessna.

Have been out in the snow flying my wing. It's finless and waggles abit but I think it is kind of funny and very controllable so don't mind at all. Never have to worry about knocking the fins off. This plane is pretty indestructable which is good because I tend to get disoriented near the ground a lot.

31" WS - 500g AUW - 9mm laminated EPP foam - 1500kv - 7*6 prop - 1100mAh lipo

Video here: http://ipikz.com/Winter-Flight-BoneYard-4-Wing_v1937

This is a strange beast. Haven't got the bugs worked out yet but still ran two batteries through it and had fun trying to control it.
I think it needs a bigger tail. I did move the battery to the rear and angled the motor up a little more and that seems to have helped a little but it still just wants to mostly run around in circles. In powder snow it tracks straighter but any little ice bumps will throw it onto a new track, no real pristine snow available here.


Online video of it running around on ice here: http://ipikz.com/Snow-Skitter_v1333

Update 02/2013 I made a much larger tail and rudder and tested it outside my house - much more control. Will go to icy parking lot tomorrow and test it out.

Tried it, better control but still goes in circles. Too much nose weight I think.

Did some takeoff and landings today with my homemade skis. They don't look like much but they are functional. Put bungy in front and wire in back. Before I just had a wire in front but the plane would do a nose over on landing.

I just give it full up elevator and full throttle and away it goes.

It is -17C, but great fun.

I hardmounted the skis to the plane and now just put the battery in under the wing. Much easier than having to remove landing gear to put in battery.

Link to video. Can't get to youtube anymore so loaded it to here:
http://ipikz.com/Cessna-Skis-Take-Of...Landings_v1246

Ok, the green things came off in a hard landing but the skis still work. Wish I could form a little bend in the acrylic ruler but spring will be here soon.

I haven't gotten to fly anything for 3 months now so made some skis today out of an acrylic ruler and a plastic mop handle. Tried it outside in the driveway and works great on hardpack but digs into soft snow. Hope to try it out tomorrow on the football field.

AUW is 600 grams but the motor with 8X4 prop is rated at 24 ounces thrust so should work fine.

Took it out next day and liftoff from ice was beautiful but landing in the powder snow was eventful; it would glide in, slide a few feet and then nose over. I didn't have any wire supporting the back end of the skis so it would just rotate and let the nose go into the snow. No damage though, nice clumsy way to land.

Now I have wires attaching rear of skis to the landing gear and a bungy attaching the front of the skis. Should work better for landing.

I had one sheet of 9mm EPP foam left and wanted to see how big a wing I could build. Note: 1 sheet is large enough for both left and right wing and elevons.

Here is a 40 inch airfoiled wing that comes from a single 600mm by 1000mm sheet (plus using a few scraps to make the spars. I love making these wings, takes about 4 hours and they are virtually indestructable. The hollow wing isn't prone to splitting in half when going into the ground at full speed. Am not using any carbon fiber or additional taping (except for edges) or string - just foam - except for the elevons which are reinforced with bamboo barbeque spits. The end product is laminated with copy shop laminate.
Very strong, can't bend this wing (unless you really really try).
The only problem is that I got in a hurry and made two right wings. Fortunately it is almost symetrical so hopefully will fly ok.
Weight without electrics is 290 grams.

I made a powered airplane mobile that is hanging and running all the time from my living room light fixture. It is powered by a 5 volt transformer with a pot to control the motor speed and a slip ring. See it at my instructables.com site here:
http://www.instructables.com/id/Spin...rplane-Mobile/

I bought this as an empty plane and put in 950kv motor, 40amp servo and 9x7.5 prop. I haven't flown it yet but it did try to take off in my living room when I was fooling around with the radio settings and accidently set the throttle on full power. It tried to chew its way through my sofa. Anyway broke the prop and the motor mount broke off. Just as well as I epoxied it back on stronger but it would be nice to get it in the air before I crash it.
Update 11/7: Maidened this morning. Horrifying flight but didn't crash. Rates were too high and it just took off skyward and was almost harriering. Then got it under control, barely moving the sticks then had a nice few minutes of flying around, thought about landing it then it took a funky dive toward the ground (have no idea what caused that) and luckily got it down with only one landing gear slightly bent. Scary. Got to lower the rates then find what caused the dip. Otherwise it was fun and looks cool in the air. Never had a scale plane before. Also it is fast, I was using less than 50% throttle. I'm used to poking around except with my wings but an EPP wing is crashable, this one isn't so.
Update 11/10: I don't know why everyone brags about this plane, you look at it wrong and something falls off. Mine doesn't even look like a p51 anymore, it looks like the phoenix, front wood frame is filled with epp, motor is held on with a bamboo rod and rubber bands. The wheels bend or break at the slightest pressure. It makes me...Continue Reading

I made a few rolls and loops with my 1 meter Bobtail Plank and edited at double speed so I wouldn't get bored rewatching videos of flying my planes.
Watching the plane at a faster speed makes flight characteristics and imperfections pretty apparent, gets me through the video faster and it is kind of beautiful in some weird way.

1 Meter EPP Bobtail Plank with Few Rolls and Loops at 200% Speed (0 min 0 sec)

After a number of false starts my wing is finally flying. I got a 10 minute flight on a 1500kv motor with 7*6 prop and 1100mah lipo. The front fuse is mostly a piece of bamboo plywood I cut from a clipboard. AUW is 600 grams. It's tough getting the cg to 10% which is only a few centimeters from the LE. Thanks to Averan for his help.

Added first video of few loops and rolls.
Second video was of first flights.
I like this plane so much that I am going to strengthen and steamline the fuse. Will use some graphite fishing pole sections inside few layers of 9mm epp foam, wrap with strapping tape, then wrapped with colored tape then laminated. Then affix wings with couple of bamboo chopsticks. Then make a wood motor mount and use a faster motor. Will also move forward a larger tail.

1 Meter Bobtail Plank A Few Rolls and Loops (0 min 0 sec)

BobTail Plank EPP Foam Wing (1 min 38 sec)

...Continue Reading

I wanted to make something besides a swept back wing so was looking at Bill Evans Scimitar wings and decided to try one. I can build a wing in 3 or 4 hours but the addition of a fuselage requires another 3 or 4 hours. I like the wings better because they are pretty crash proof but when this plane noses in, something is going to break.

Bobtail Scimitar EPP Plane (4 min 37 sec)

Mine is quite ugly, quite evolved or devolved and took a while for me to figure out why it wouldn't fly.
My first one was finless but had the rear fuselage angled up, not realizing that that would act just like up elevator and make the plane into an infinite looper. Then I cut that off and angled it down which of course had the opposite effect and it would try to fly but as soon as it got level it would make an instant dive. Also since I cut off most of the tail I had more vertical face in front of the CG so the plane would take off then promptly switch ends.
Finally I added a tail but was too tail heavy so it just wallowed around in the air.
I also cut the elevons shorter because someone told me they were too much. I think I will put them back full length now that it flies.
In the end I got enough weight into the nose that it flew and I like the way it flies and looks in the air so I am going to build another one that is lighter, with thinner wings, a higher kv motor and shorter tail. It should really scoot.

(Photo #1) My first attempt probably would have flown fine without the tail...Continue Reading

X45WL II - Finless EPP Delta Wing (3 min 59 sec)

Previously I had built a wing (X45WL) in dollarstore foam but after a few crashes it wasn't airworthy anymore and so I promised myself I would build one again in EPP foam. Here is its successor in laminated EPP foam, finless, bigger motor with a little larger dimensions and pretty crash resistant.
Although it looks like a stepped wing in fact there is laminate over the exposed spars on the leading edge that makes for a crude airfoil without an actual step.

Material: laminated 9 mm EPP foam
Construction Time: 3 hours
WS: 700 mm
Root Chord: 540 mm
Tip Chord: 80 mm
Sweep: 580 mm
Wing area: 336 sq.in.
Weight: 350 grams
Wing load: 5.29 oz/sq.in. - WCL: 3.5
Motor: 1800kv 7*6 prop
Batt: 1100 mah lipo
Esc: 30 amp

Used this exceptionally great CG calculator and could have gotten a more exact calculation using multiple panels but I was lazy: http://wingcgcalc.bruder.com.br/en_US/

I am really happy with how well it flies (for me anyway) though it is definitely not spin proof (imagine a tail would cure that but I think the spin is funny). Guess I need to learn spin recovery next. The video shows how to land a delta wing like a helicopter.
Attached photo of approximate dimensions.
Update 9/24: Took it out for a flight this morning at 5:00am and it flies different than before, wing rocking. Nothing has changed, except the temperature which is 15 degrees Celsius colder. Looked at the wing and one is warped now. Nice theory anyway.
UKpdate 9/25: After reironing the laminate and putting some weights on it I got most of the wing warp out and it flew beautifully this morning. I can make it go into an inverted flat spin by rolling it too tightly for too long - there is no recovery though, I have tried everything and nothing seems to work - it just floats down like a leaf.

Got it flying pretty nicely now. Bit of a hog at 680 grams but nothing a bigger motor won't cure. No stalls but you can still dive it into the ground if you want.

Forward Swept Finless EPP Foam Wing (2 min 4 sec)

My thick finless wings are very stable while my thin finless wings want to waggle in the turns and I just let them.

I have been working on a forward swept EPP finless wing for a week or so and finally after the third version I got a successful flight.

FSwEPP Wing - Forward swept flying wing (2 min 5 sec)

The photos show how I constructed the first version and then I had to modify it by lengthening the nose to get the CG out where it is supposed to be.

This Wing CG Calculator, http://wingcgcalc.bruder.com.br/en_US/ helped me a lot because it allows multiple wing panels and negative sweep. I couldn't believe how far forward the CG had to be placed.

Motor: 1800kv (I think) and 8*6 prop
esc: 30amp
batt: 1100mah
AUW: 600grams
WSpan: 1 meter
material: 9mm EPP that has been laminated with copy shop laminate (very strong)

The video is unedited and taken at 5 am (haven't reset the clock in the video) - had to fly before the campus students woke up and started milling around.

Haven't flown it enough to get a feel for flight characteristics but it seems pretty stable - wind was blowing a bit and it doesn't waggle like my conventional finless wings.

Update: 9/14: flies nice in no wind, waggles in wind. Going to try dihedral.

FSwEPP Wing - Forward Swept Wing (1 min 37 sec)

...Continue Reading

...

I started flying a year ago and this foam Cessna was the first plane I bought but I never flew it. I robbed it of the electrics to build foam wings and learned to fly on them.
Finally last week I put in a new brushless motor, esc, lipo, prop, prop saver and with a new radio maidened it. Great little plane. Very easy to fly and predictable.

Can now do inverted, loops and sort of rolls. I broke the original landing gear and used bike spokes and a couple of cable clamps to kluge one together. Going to change to aluminum flat gear soon.

I love flying wings but this plane is a much more relaxing fly. And it was cheap.

TX/RX: WFLY WFT07
Motor: emax cf2822 (the screws tend to vibrate loose)
esc: 30amp
lipo: 3s 900 and 1100 mah
prop: 8*6 with prop saver

RC LanYu Cessna TW-747-1 Flight (3 min 15 sec)

Update: 9/11 Added pictures of my new aluminum landing gear. Nice strong gear and smooth axles.
Update: 9/15 Wow landing gear is great, tough. Its the simple things. Flying rolls now and outside loops. If I had flown this plane first a year ago instead of learning on wings I would be a much better pilot with more airtime. But the struggle with wings was tough and satisfying.
Rats, flew 40 minutes today and then on last landing hit the landing gear pretty hard - landing gear is fine, but the plastic bracket it is bolted to a little bent in. Still flyable but not as pretty now. Guess that down side of the aluminum gear is that all that force has to go somewhere else now. Well,...Continue Reading

I added up the cost of planes, radios, materials ($500) and the total number of hours in the air (21) to arrive at a cost of about $24 per hour to learn to fly in my first year. That includes a computer radio and receivers, lipos, motors, escs, servos, sheets of epp foam, chargers, tools, etc. that I still have use of and two flyable wings.

So my second year of flying should be much less expensive. I had a RTF Cessna in which I used the gear to build foam scratchbuilts. Went through Nutball, UFO, 1B1M, Blucore Wing and my own design to get here with numerous crashes and one lost plane but am very satisfied with my progress.

I have finally gotten the Cessna together with a brushless motor and lipo and new radio and will maiden it tomorrow - taking the long way around.

[

Willow Run 2012 Airshow - B17 (0 min 28 sec)

Here are a few pictures of the Willow Run Air Show in Detroit, MI.
Later I will upload some video, great sounds of these planes making passes....Continue Reading