RC India

Hi guys,

I thought this is (Beginners Zone) the most suitable place to post this build log. Actually this is the model called "Trainer One", designed by an US guy, but from Blue cor! And that exact building is somewhat difficult to us, the INDIANS with all the stuff available in our market! So, I started to modify it a little bit and started to build!

You can see the original hot thread of 'Trainer One' here: http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=383687 (Plans are also available there)

Here we go:
This is a complete foam plane based on our Favorite THERMACOL (Technically, its an half inch EPS sheet). The plane is 34 WS, 3Ch (Throttle, Rudder and Elevator), Tip dihedral (3") Trainer.

Other specs I wish to incorporate are (I have selected from my collection of RC stuff):
Motor: GWS 12-R-XC Brushed (http://www.gwsus.com/english/product/MOTOR/MOTOR.HTM)
ESC: GWS ICS100 Brushed (http://www.gwsus.com/english/product/speedcontroller/speed%20controller.htm)
Prop: GWS EP3020 (http://www.gwsus.com/english/product/propeller/propeller.htm)
Receiver: Some 6 Channel Hitech (But only 3 ch are required)
Battery: I am gonna use EP Kokkam 11.1V 650mAh 3S, but it will be better if 2S 7.2v is used!
Servos: One is GWS micro and other one is Park zone Micro servo (Which I wanna use from my scratch)
Landing Gear: Custom landing gear (I have composed from scratch).

Tools required (As an INDIAN):
Hot wire Foam cutter (It is easy to make one; If not no problem, one craft cutter will do the thing, but should do cuttings with care, to get smooth surfaces)
Bamboo skewers or Sticks of approx 0.5mm dia
Hot glue (I got one easily in our market of Vizag)
Fevicol SH (White glue)
Araldite (Epoxy; but unfortunately it needs overnight)
Other Misc. items like packing tape (Cello tape)..etc

See the pics of those stuff, and I hope you enjoy this build, which I can post regularly, parallel to my Step wise build. I think I can answer any doubt about these steps.

So, let us continue to build the body first. We can have the tiled plans from the link I have given you in the beginning at RCG. So, I took the half inch EPS (thermacol) and nicely cut the wing with flat bottom airfoil, and all other parts like Fuse, Stab by using Hot wire Foam cutter. See the pics!

I have hinged the control surfaces of Ruder and Elevator with Packing Tape (Cello tape). Remember to cut one of the surface to 45 degrees slant angle!

Actually all the previous steps were done two days back, but I started to post today! And today I have marked for cutouts for the equipment on board!

Here are the pics!

Stay glued till it flies! And any doubts are really appreciated, as they may keep me thinking about most practical bugs to fix!

Let me see how all you guys feel up to now!

nice one merog will be keenly watching  :)

best

sahil

Merog,

How do you manage to make a hotwire cutter?

Dear Pankaj,

The hot wire cutter is a simple Bamboo Bow of 34inch approx. with guitar steel string (ask for guitar steel E) connected to a 12V 3Amp power. Thats all it does the thing.

If you want me to get you some pics of it, give me a day or two, as am very busy at work these days!

Regards...//MEROG

Guys, welcome back...

I forgot to tell you the modifications I have done, apart from the plans there in RCG. They are as follows...

1. I have made it a wing with solid flat bottomed airfoil, so, obviously need to flatten the upper surface of the fuse where exactly the wing will be placed.

2. The battery slot, I made it in such a way that the batt. sets horizontal to the ground (you ll see it in pics later)

3. Changed the servo positions...

4. Ooops, forgot, the main thing is we need to cut the motor and prop grove according to our requirement!

Thats all, these are the modifications.
Am going for the next post for the building process...

Stay glued.... ;)//MEROG

Guys,

Now, lets start with the wing. Am attaching all the pics of most possible details, hope they may explain better, as 'one picture speaks thousand words'!

Unlike in the plan, I took the wing in 3 pieces (not 4), to decrease the weight by avoiding glue!

And when attaching the tip pieces for tip dihedral, take the angle to cut at the tips of the middle main piece as shown in the images. Hope the images explain well. If not understood, please post,  I'll clear!

And try to avoid the Hot glue. Be patient, and apply fevicol only and wait! It reduces lot of weight!

And when it is glued and placed to get fit, the dihedral should not be disturbed. The set up for that is in the pic, have a glance!

The pics continued...

When we glue it set it up to settle... pics contd....

Remember the height at the tip is 3", which gets the enough dihedral!

Guys,
So, nice wing was made!

Now this is the time to up with the Fuse. Stab is attached again with the Fevicol and a grove at the bottom of the fuse is made with the help of Soldering iron. But should be very careful that it should not be deviate from exact center of the thickness of the thermacol!

And I have made the control horns out of Mobile SIM bearing Cards (I think you got it), or the used credit or debit cards can be used. And the push rods are too in the pic.

While installing the control horns, care should be taken such a way that the hole of the horn comes exactly above the hinge of the elevator/rudder! For that, use a scale as shown in the pic.

That's for now, up to this post, am going to another post to continue!

Stay Fevicoled  ;)

Folks,

now lets do build the most stronger part, the Bamboo Chasis, bearing wheels and tail dagger!

Here, to stick the wheels very tight and strong, I have made a slit in the bamboo stick, inserted the wheel holders' upper tip in that and Hot glued and twined!

Then the tail dagger is of the bicycle spoke, twined and hot glued.

Remember the total length of the Bamboo base stick should exactly be the total of the Fuse with stab. And should fit good in the grove.

Then I put the Bamboo chasis with the Wheels and Tail dagger in the grove and Hot glued.

That's again for now...

Neat man. keep the updates and post your maiden. All the best.

Good going  {:)}

Friends...

Hope you are enjoying my post! As no body is posting some doubts to clarify I feel that I could explain very good! And friends, I forgot to tell you another important modification, that is: As this plane is to be equipped with the pusher prop, the motor should be connected reverse. No problem with the function. It plays well, just reverse the polarity, thats it! Orelse the planne goes backwards and hit something (happenned to me before when I was testing one! :'(, which had broken the plane).

Ok, lets have a glance at how the mounts are made on the fuse. Have a glance at the pics, they could explain you how. I have used tooth pics for motor and wing and again Mobile SIM bearing card pieces for the screw mounts for servos.

And according to the pdf plan, we need to place a bamboo stick at the cockpit!

Stay (bamboo)sticked ;).... till another post!

Guys,

Now lets install the wing. As I wanted to make it detachable, I have fecilitated it with the tooth pick mounts, so it can be rubber banded. But we need to support it with Bamboo sticks. So, we need to hot glue them under side. But still no problem, if it to be transported, it can still be removed carefully, but need to hot glue again at the tips of bamboo, underneath the wing.

Here are the pics. So, finally the airplane's body will look like this. When we place on the ground, along with the wing, it should stand balanced. If not, need to check out the orientation of the wheels.

It is getting HOT! Is in't it?

merog what is your target AUW ???

1.the fuse has to be covered with clear tape to give it a very good strength and cover the wing as well !

2.the battery mount section in the fuse's front part is too week please reinforce it !

3.smooth your horizontal leading edge surface!

nice to see the thing coming to life.

best

sahil

 

and reinforce the wing center top section with two small pieces of wood to give the foam some strength and prevent the rubber band from damaging the wing

sahil

Excellent build.. {:)}

I love to have the braces on the tail feathers like you did. It always proves to be worth it.

-Ismail

Dear Sahil,

Thanks for all your suggestions. But I have taped the rubber band portion of the wing, to protect it from tearing, but the tape is invisible as it is transparent.

AUW should be less than 300g, as the motor/prop has a thrust of 300g max. Lets see how it will perform!

Thank you very much once again...//MEROG

Guys,

Now lets go on to the next level. The installation of the on board equipment. And sahil is right. He want me to reinforce the body to have good strength. But let us see, how it does naked!

Here are the pics of completed airplane, with everything RTF.

Friends...

Now as am so anxiuos to test it's functionality and balance on land, let me test it!

So...

Shut all the windows (as it may sounds like hel!)

Shut all the doors...

Switch off the fan...

Here we GOOOOOOOOOOO.......

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kIk-HaF0ulE

Thanks for watching. As it is raining here today, I need to find another day wothout much wind and rain, and with good weather to take off! Here in our city Vizag, as it is a beach city, all the days are WINDY!

Please stay glued to watch it flying REAL!
Hope you enjoy!

MEROG

is this the power setup you are using ??

http://www.gwsus.com/english/product/powersystem/edp50.htm

then it can produce only 60grams of thrust at 7.2volts with a EP3020 prop

in the video did you give full power at the end ?? if so then.....lets see what other could say

bye

sahil

oh in the video was the fuse twisting while testing servo movements or cam effect ?

sahil

great work merog bhaiya just sand the rudder to v type end and the elevator too


subbu

a noob question....

Is the motor always on? I mean I see some switches for the receiver, but the motor is always connected to the ESC and the battery - straight. So does it mean that the prop always turns?

Pankaj

Dear Sahil,

Thank you very much for your thought! Unlike in the link you have browsed, the power system I have used a tailor made, which I have composed.

The same motor and prop but the ESC supplies 10amps, and the battery is 11.1v 3S 15C, so the thrust will be 280g approx. You can calculate and check!

And regarding the fuse, you are right, it should be reinforced with tape. Agreed ;)

  :) ;)

BTW let us see who will finish there model 1st,after seeing your thread i just got my spark back  :) 

best

sahil

I'm as skeptical as Sahil. If you are getting 280g thrust out of that, my prediction is that you'll burn out the motor pretty soon. I don't even see a heatsink on the motor. Would be interesting to know about your "composition" to get that much more thrust.

That motor is one of the most efficient brushed motors I have come across, more efficient than a lot of the brushless motors out there.

Pankaj,

Switches are just for ourselves, to ensure safety. If you check all the connections prior to every flight, good enough, no need to put a switch. Orelse, no need. In my case, I always keep the set up dosconnected from the batt. when not in use. So, no need of switches.

And regarding the motor activeness, as the ESC takes the power from the Batt and supplies to Receiver, and cut it off at ZERO throttle input all by itself, the motor is dead at aero throttle input! So, no spinning when your throttle leaver is completely down.

Regards...//MEROG

Guys,

I have taken some suggestions from Mr.GPW, who invented this design as 'Trainer One' and some other RC friends of US and NZ about the power system for this plane, prior to the start of the build.

So, let us see if it burns the system or not!

Let me fly with it and check it!

Thank you for your point...//MEROG

Guys,

Some serious RC guys warned me about the power system as some of us did. So, to ensure safety, I'm gonna change the LiPo... I'm gonna deploy 2S 7.2v 15C 650mAh. Wish me all the best!

Thank you...//MEROG

Good decision. The less serious RC guys are glad to help :)

hi, good basic work. friend i see an inherent design weakness of ur effort. Ur fuselage is a sheet and when ur yaw servo operates there will be Newtons third law. Also dynamic behaviour is way different from static operation. Run a T secton of balsa strip from nose to tail. Also, electric motor mounts are too powerfull for sheet themocole to handle. Re enforce with fevicol and balsa dust/ table salt paste.

fevicol and salt paste!!! this is something new to me. What does it do?

Pankaj

fevicol by itself is just a synth glue. I does not have a catch. Salt crystals give structure. If u are working with balsa, on joints and small gaps, drop a few grains of table salt and drop cyno. U can sand it off in about 5 minutes. For slow drying, do the same with quick fix.

I use Cyano and baking powder, the process is the same as stated above. Must try salt, thanks Foamy!

check my thread 'first attempt' this plane is almost unbreakable and it is also strong against wind further more all items are easily available even in a small city except electronics and battery. and if u calculate electronics there is not much difference

Hi Merog,
Just a suggestion before flying it outdoors.... The stress of rubber bands digging into the leading edge will create a dent and break your wing in half in 2 flights.
Add a tooth pick along the leading edge and at the back of wing with tape or fevicol so all the stress is on the stick.

I would also add a balsa spar or a bamboo skewer underneath the wing section so it doesnt buckle by cutting a slot into the wing section.
See the image attached hereby; (both tailplane and wing have a carbon strengthener on both planes) A balsa or bamboo skewer will help strengthen the wing and tail;


Happy flying and safe landing,
Deepak

Any flight video?