Indoor Talisman

Owen Cameron sent in these pics of his own designed Talsiman Indoor electric model. Wingspan 24 inches.

Ornithopter

The weather has been bad lately so I thought I'd try something different. It's a FREE BIRD II ornithopter. Flys OK in the lounge room but the space is too restricted. I gave it a few flights outdoors at 6:00am one morning before the wind got up. Only used 40 to 50 turns and got about 10 seconds flight time. Weight is 0.2 ounce. The covering is Solarfilm LITESPAN.

Had a quiet Christmas Day today so I built this before lunch. Tried it in the lounge room. Wow! It flys FAST.  It's a MINI GYMELLO RP. I got the plan from Hip Pocket Aeronautics. Weighs 0.8 ounce. I used a Hobby King prop assembly and Undercarriage  that I had on hand so that made construction easier. Litespan covering.

Peanut Scale

Here are some photos of Owen Cameron's first attempt at Peanut Scale. The kit was picked up at a deceased estate sale recently. Owen and I have great respect for those modellers of peanut scale, what with all those fragile, fiddly bits. Patience and a soft touch is certainly needed.

More Indoor Fun......

Owen & I decided to see how a couple of R/C 3D Foamies would go converted to Control Line. Not bad, as it turns out. A bit more grunt and a couple of adjustments should sort things out.

R/C 3D Paiget converted to C/L

Owen's R/C 3D  Hawk  C/L conversion.

Result of trying to loop the Gee Bee with not enough power. It did
 it and continued to fly with the outboard wing flapping like an
 injured  bird.The wings are joined just outboard of the fuselage and
 the glue join keeps letting go after a thump with the floor.
 Next one will be a one piece wing.

My Paiget

Indoor Control Line Trial.

Owen and Lyal Cameron and myself had some fun trying out my GeeBee indoor control liner today.

I carried out a 20 second test flight to see if everything was OK and it was. Although a little slow at 6 seconds a lap on 15 foot lines = 10.7 miles per hour (17.2 kph)!

To say it felt graceful is an understatement.

Owen managed to hover it a few times until he backed it into the floor. You will notice the panic of the camera man (me) running to disconnect the battery when the motor was stalled. We chipped a prop, no other damage.

We got in a total of 5 flights with “Crash Cameron” decking it again when trying to do a slooooow loop. It's easily repaired. The motor was running at 47 % (4700 rpm). The speed needs to be upped a little and I am looking at getting an accelerometer for the ESC. This will provide constant speed whether flying horizontal or vertical.

I had only rented the gymnasium for an hour but we reckoned it was the best hour any of us had spent. We had great fun. Now I'm waiting for Owen and Lyal to build theirs. There's even talk of slow indoor combat.

A view of the pits.

Ready for the test flight.

The Test Flight.

The Hover

Oops!....Crash Cameron.

Well, this is my attempt for Indoor Control Line Flying. I downloaded Tania Uzunova's plans from Stunthangar.com. 

I bought the depron foam from Trade Warehouse Direct in WA. (good, fast service). I got 4 sheets of 3mm and 3 sheets of 6mm. The Gee Bee took a little over one and a half sheets of 6mm and close to a full sheet of 3mm.

The rest I got from Hobby King in Sydney.......

1 Turnigy MAX80W 7A LiPo charger with balancer

1 AM1002A/17459 2mm gold connectors (20 pcs)

1 Tz12A/25867 Hobbyking 12A ESC

1 pack 9329000028/30299 Slow Fly props 1045 (4 pcs)

2 N850.2S/35168 Turnigy Nano Tech 850mA/Hr 2S (2 cell) ~40C LiPos

2 2205C-1400/20627 2205C 1400KV outrunner motors  Edit: 20/08/13.  These motors are listed as 1400KV, which means they will do 1400 revs per volt. I am using 2S Lipos (7.4volts) and I cannot get more than 4700 rpm out of either motor. They should do 10000rpm. I do not recommend buying them.

1 ZTRON Timer, Model CLT3 (contact Sergio at: zigras_sergio@yahoo.com )

The timer is used for the following functions:

When the system is turned on the timer provides an adjustable delay before the motor starts to give you time to get out to the control handle. The motor then starts and runs for a pre-programmed time up to 10.5 minutes. The motor will turn off and on 3 times to alert you that the time has almost run out. Fifteen seconds later the motor stops and the plane can be landed. There's a bit more to it than that but it gives you the basic idea. There are other timers available also.

Dubro wheels and 2mm carbon pushrod from Tiger Hobbies, Launceston

Bellcrank , control horn and engine mount made from PCB (Printed Circuit Board).

Some guys are using old Compact Discs for the bellcrank & control horn. (Light and strong)

Braided fishing line - local tackle shop. Minimum 14lb (6.3kg) breaking strain.

Paint is acrylic poster paints from the local newsagency. $12.00 for a pack of 12 colours.

The Depron must be cut with a very sharp knife. Replace the blade often to avoid tearing the depron.

I did not have a great deal of luck using foam safe super glue as recommended and had to use kicker to get it to go off. If too much kicker was used, it melted the foam. In the end I reverted to Titebond wood glue (which sticks like poop to a blanket!) and 5 minute epoxy for the engine mount, bellcrank and control horn.

I hinged the elevator by using 50mm wide, clear post office sticky tape the full length of the hinge line.

I am not sure where the C of G is supposed to be but I will start at 25% chord. [EDIT]: Peter Allen advised that CG & LO positions are listed half way down this page:-  http://stunthanger.com/smf/index.php?topic=19265.0  (CG 2" back from LE, Lead out 6" back from LE.)

The weight has ended up at 250 grams (approximately). I probably should not have painted it. Paint is heavy.

Anyway, this will do me for my first attempt. Now I just need a place to fly it. I am hoping the local council will let me use the indoor basketball courts. Hopefully I will post a video of the first flights in the coming weeks.

Here are the electrics from Hobby King.
The rectangle at the lower right is the ZTRON timer.

I even put the depron offcuts to good use
with this foam version of a Hangar Rat.

Putting the airfoil into the foam for the hangar rat was interesting. I rolled the depron with a dowel about the diameter of a broom stick, (actually, it was a broom stick), while exerting a lot of downward force. The foam would not deform sufficiently to give a decent airfoil and I found that the depron seems to have a "skin" on one side and a "grain" running in one direction.  I ended up using a piece of scrap depron and tried rolling it each of four different ways. Only one of those ways was satisfactory. I can't tell you which was the right way because you can't see the "grain" or the "skin".

So if you are going to try deforming depron, use a piece of scrap to find the correct orientation to roll.

If anyone wants any further info, contact me at johnmoody@westnet.com.au