Originally Posted by tctele

Neither can I and I have two bad ones! I have had Vipers motor mount 3D printed but it's not as though I haven't had a chance to try them it's more of I can't be bothered to try them. I think that's because I have no faith in the design and expect more troubles, lots of trimming etc. That's obviously my perception as they could/might fly ok with that mod. I've even managed to hold off on the wing warps after applying the cheapest clear tape I could find which is super sticky, that's after boiling the wings many times to find the warps coming back after a few days, not as bad as they were but still there.

That's a lot of trouble to go through for this plane. It doesn't cost a fortune, but it's still money wasted. There are so many other planes that seem to fly well. Try a mini SkyHunter.

Originally Posted by AleRRon

If it's touchy and nose dives easily, I have two thoughts

are you unable to trim it out to fly flat and steady in manual mode? I find that with KPL you can fly a plane that is not properly trimmed in stab mode, but of course it's very hard in manual. I'd try to get it to fly well in manual mode first, but I find that I have to set up dual rates and fly at low rates in manual, but switch to 100% rates for proper flying in stab mode.

Also, have you reset the Neutral calibration and the Radio Calibration?

Actually I have a 3rd thought
are you courting a new girlfriend???

I am able to trim it out, but I would need to set the trim to only be active with the 3 pos switch in manual mode, right? Wouldn't it command a climb in stabilized mode with all that up trim? I really see no need for manual mode unless KP dies, but then again I'm not sure what the reversion failsafe mode is (probably should ).

I have no problem flying it in manual mode, I've been flying fixed wing planes for over a decade, maybe 15-20 years? I was around 10 or 12, it just isn't aerodynamically stable without input.

Radio is calibrated, and the plane was calibrated flat on the ground per the KP lite manual.

Not courting her, moving in a week to work on C-UAS tech for the FAA writing AC's and white papers. Just nice to have someone around. Seems like I always find a girl to spend time with literally within a month of when I move

I finally had a good flight with my Drift. I replaced my failed elevator servo with an Emax ES08MD metal gear servo. It was almost an exact fit, maybe 1 mm longer - I had to do a wee bit of sanding before it would slide into the spot. The Emax servo has a lot more power. It doesn't bog down on the foam hinge like the Zohd servo. I set the CG about 4 mm ahead of the marks on the wings, and between moving the CG and adding the metal servo, I was able to ditch the weights on the tail. MUCH more stable! This time I didn't have any trouble climbing clear of the trees, and it flew quite well despite winds of 6 or 8 mph with higher gusts. Unfortunately I botched the landing. With the wind, I thought there would be turbulence in the trees when I came down. I went to fast, rolled, caught a wingtip and cartwheeled. I'll blame the roll on a gust, lol. It cracked the nose, but a little SuperGlue and it's as good as new. This flight was again with my 2S 3200 mah lithium ion pack. I don't feel any tendency to go nose down or nose up when I push the throttle - I think the pod on mine must be at a good angle. It flies nicely inverted, does loops and slow rolls. I'm feeling much better about this plane now.

Drift success, CG 3-4 mm fwd of marks (12 min 5 sec)

Originally Posted by mutski

I finally had a good flight with my Drift. I replaced my failed elevator servo with an Emax ES08MD metal gear servo. It was almost an exact fit, maybe 1 mm longer - I had to do a wee bit of sanding before it would slide into the spot. The Emax servo has a lot more power. It doesn't bog down on the foam hinge like the Zohd servo. I set the CG about 4 mm ahead of the marks on the wings, and between moving the CG and adding the metal servo, I was able to ditch the weights on the tail. MUCH more stable! This time I didn't have any trouble climbing clear of the trees, and it flew quite well despite winds of 6 or 8 mph with higher gusts. Unfortunately I botched the landing. With the wind, I thought there would be turbulence in the trees when I came down. I went to fast, rolled, caught a wingtip and cartwheeled. I'll blame the roll on a gust, lol. It cracked the nose, but a little SuperGlue and it's as good as new. This flight was again with my 2S 3200 mah lithium ion pack. I don't feel any tendency to go nose down or nose up when I push the throttle - I think the pod on mine must be at a good angle. It flies nicely inverted, does loops and slow rolls. I'm feeling much better about this plane now.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X2hH7X1L8Jg

Obviously I can't say for sure because I don't know the stick feel, but that flies A LOT closer to the way mine flies. I recommend performing an autotune if you haven't, and then modifying values from there.

P.S. Please edit out GPS coordinates when possible, it's just good practice. I always do even though I have a BVLOS, Ops over humans, above 400ft waiver

Originally Posted by AleRRon

That's a lot of trouble to go through for this plane. It doesn't cost a fortune, but it's still money wasted. There are so many other planes that seem to fly well. Try a mini SkyHunter.

Never heard of the mini SH I shall do a search and have a look, ta.

Herp
Re your previous post

I think the best way this works is to fly your plane in normal manual mode, get it flying straight and level by adjusting rates, linkages and trims. Adjust your “lower” dual rates (for manual mode) and expo to make it easy to control to your liking. Set the “upper” rates, for stab mode, to 100%. If you need a lot of trimming then land her and adjust your control rod linkages so that you don’t need to use radio trims, or very little.

Then do a neutral calibration and a radio calibration.

After that, theoretically at least, it should fly easy on manual mode on low rates, and then when you switch to stab mode (in high 100% rates) it just stabilizes and becomes smoother and easier.

That’s what I do and it really seems to work well. I am using FlySky so I have to have one switch for flight modes and a different switch for rates and I have to remember to do that. But if you use FrSky/OpenTX you can set one switch to do both things simultaneously.

I also set a switch with a mix so that when I flip it down, the elevator goes up a little more. That’s for launching in stab mode. I’m experimenting with it- not sure I need it.

What is the white hour glass like thing on the control rod for?
is that printed by you or included in plane?

Did a maiden flight today and it flew very well as far as I can tell. I'm not very experienced with fixed wings. Straightened the wings as best as I could with some strong packaging tape. Only needed a few clicks on elevator and ailerons in manual mode. Landed and measured the position of the control surfaces and then adjusted the control rods to the trim I had after landing. I think that's the correct way?

Homemade Crossfire RX antenna ain't looking great on it but it works very well. Tuned it with an vector analyzer. I managed to shove the RX, ESC and VTX in the bottom compartment separated with a grounded aluminum shield, which also acts as a heat sink for the VTX. No noticeable interference in the video and RX at full throttle. Glad it works because I didn't know where else to mount the VTX. AUW weight is 335g with a 2s Sony VTC5D 18650 2800mAh 25A pack.

That motor looks bigger than the stock 1406 motor. What is it?

It's a emax 1606 3300kv I had laying around. I bought the kit version drift.

Got this plane a couple weeks ago and all I can say is that she is a pretty good FPV slope plane. If you get the whole FPV package which I did you will find the camera is junk. I swapped it out after the first flight. The camera I have now is still low end but much better. I am flying it basically stock on 3 cell 1000 MAH batteries and up on the slope. With this set up I get a good hour if I rarely use the throttle and using an XM frsky receiver I have been out over a mile with a 200 MW VTX. I went that far just for kicks and only after testing all the FC functions of the Kopilot and making sure they work (which they do quite well if they are setup right) The auto launch is great and I keep mine on RTH in the setup. My AUW is 298 grams and finding lift in light wind is no problem, I am able to nearly keep up with a Dream Flight Libelle in the lift band. I plan to be building another FPV aircraft in the near future with all the bells and whistles soon that will go much farther with pan/tilt camera etc. I have done many years of LOS planes, 3D stuff and FPV quads but this is a whole new experience for me. I just wanted to say that this plane is capable of all the stuff in this thread and I recommend it completely but keep in mind of what it is intended to be. In manual mode it isn't the greatest handling plane and I miss the rudder a lot but it is certainly a good value and a good place to start if you are thinking about trying FPV aircraft.

YMMV, enjoy

Originally Posted by whirlcap

Got this plane a couple weeks ago and all I can say is that she is a pretty good FPV slope plane. If you get the whole FPV package which I did you will find the camera is junk. I swapped it out after the first flight. The camera I have now is still low end but much better. I am flying it basically stock on 3 cell 1000 MAH batteries and up on the slope. With this set up I get a good hour if I rarely use the throttle and using an XM frsky receiver I have been out over a mile with a 200 MW VTX. I went that far just for kicks and only after testing all the FC functions of the Kopilot and making sure they work (which they do quite well if they are setup right) The auto launch is great and I keep mine on RTH in the setup. My AUW is 298 grams and finding lift in light wind is no problem, I am able to nearly keep up with a Dream Flight Libelle in the lift band. I plan to be building another FPV aircraft in the near future with all the bells and whistles soon that will go much farther with pan/tilt camera etc. I have done many years of LOS planes, 3D stuff and FPV quads but this is a whole new experience for me. I just wanted to say that this plane is capable of all the stuff in this thread and I recommend it completely but keep in mind of what it is intended to be. In manual mode it isn't the greatest handling plane and I miss the rudder a lot but it is certainly a good value and a good place to start if you are thinking about trying FPV aircraft.

YMMV, enjoy

I can deal with the AIO VC400 for simplicity, but I agree the camera kinda sucks.

Would you elaborate on the camera you use and how you put it in place so I can consider following your steps?

Originally Posted by Herp Derpula

I can deal with the AIO VC400 for simplicity, but I agree the camera kinda sucks.

Would you elaborate on the camera you use and how you put it in place so I can consider following your steps?

The Runcam Racer 3 lens fits snugly in the Drift nose. Use a couple of fingers to support the foam when you push it through - the rim of the lens is a little wider than the hole, but if you are careful it goes through and the foam supports the barrel of the lens The camera space is slightly wider than the Racer 3, so I cut thin pieces of foam and shoved then between the camera and fuse, then put a piece of hinge tape behind the camera to hold them in. The pic below shows a wedge of foam between the bottom of the camera and the fuse... I later removed that to restore airflow through the bottom vent in the nose.

The Racer 3 is not an AIO camera/vtx, so if you go that route, you will have to use a separate vtx. I am using the TBS Unify Pro V3, which runs on 5V from my Matek F411-WSE flight controller. You could also use the Unify Pro HV and power it from your flight battery. My vtx is stuck to the top of the wing.

I looked at the Runcam Split Micro, but the lens is too wide for the hole in the Drift nose. Installing the Split Micro would require adjusting the foam in the nose to accommodate the wider lens or putting a narrower lens on the Split Micro. Same problem with the Foxeer Micro Toothless 2, which I had originally planned to use in the Drift.

Originally Posted by Herp Derpula

I can deal with the AIO VC400 for simplicity, but I agree the camera kinda sucks.

Would you elaborate on the camera you use and how you put it in place so I can consider following your steps?

Sure,
I had a 200 MW VTX on hand but it didn't have the 5V for the camera so I had to power the camera (NOT the VTX) from the AUX servo port on the Kopilot. The VTX was able to run off the JST plug (battery voltage, in my case a 3 cell) and a friend of mine had a Caddex-turboeso2 camera on hand. I did check on the camera draw before I used the AUX port and if anyone uses that port keep in mind it must be low current (well under 700ma).

If I had to buy one, I would probably look for a 200 to 600 MW VTX that runs on 7-20 volts and has a 5 volt supply for the camera. I wouldn't use an all in one camera/VTX like the AIO VC400 as it is better suited for a small quad that is flown in close and doesn't need to see well far. The Caddex-turboeso2 is a low cost 1200 line camera that is great for the price but it still has a small lens and also best suited for a quad. A good VTX can be had for under 20 bucks and the camera will run 20 to 35 or so depending on your choice. There are many out there and many opinions of what is best but an internet (or here) search of recommended cameras and VTX's should narrow it down. A decent VTX will give you battery voltage at least in your goggles, mine doesn't. I will keep the VTX I am now using since I am getting used to how long my battery is good for but I will likely get a full sized camera soon. I have quads with better cameras but I am not willing to gut one of my quads at the moment. OSD on this plane would definitely be nice but the Kopilot doesn't support it, battery voltage is about the best you will get if you use the flight battery to power the VTX. On a side note, my 200 MW VTX runs cool, a higher power one may get hot inside the fuse and you will have to mount it outside in the airflow. 200 MW will get you pretty far and if you are using a standard range receiver it is all you will need. A good pair of goggles with good antenna's should have no problem.


Post #643 also has a good solution.

I thought I would recommend taking a good look at the tail feathers on this plane. My stab was not level but only off a little so I ignored it. After the first flight I noticed I had to trim a bit of aileron to make it fly straight and a second look at the tail I saw the rudder was not in line with the boom either. I had a rudder causing a slight turn to the right. To fix it I cut the rudder at the base most the way back as if I was going to cut it off. I did a second cut from the back just above the stab and I added foam tack glue to both cuts and twisted it straight. The cuts did not meet in the middle so there is about a half inch that remained uncut. The rudder is now perfect and she fly's noticeably better.

-Whirlcap