This is my continuing effort to make light weight, practically indistructable trainer plane from standard gear and available materials.
This time my aim was for an all up weight of 170 - 180 grams.

The wings are from 2mm Depron.
The fuselage is Thermocol cut and packing taped.
Carbon 3mm boom.
2mm depron sanded for the tail.
full body weight w/o electronics = 62.4 grams.
Will use 16 gram motor, 5x4 prop, 6A esc, Assan rcvr, 3cell, 600 maH.
was building it step by step, each time carefully checking the weight.
Plane is ready to mount the electronics.
pl see the photos.
ashta

some more photos.

 

Pusher prop ?

especially when u are a beginer (even otherwise) nose in is inevittable. Pusher configuration protects the motor and the prop and hence indistructable.

finishes the gear mounting and now ready for maide.
with a 240maH 2cell my overal auw comes to only 140 grams. This is the lightest i have so far made with regular gear, though i have a 25 grams micro with RFFS rcvr and Actuators, scratch built.
i have few more oics.
ashta

some more pictures

when a plane is ready for the maiden, u know what happens.

Here is the video. 1. It was very windy (12 KMPH as per weather report), but could manage.
2. It is really nice flier, a floater.
3. With a 600maH battery, i could get about 20 min flight.
4. Very gentle and stable.
5. Still have to adjust the CG by removing some more tail weight.



thanks for watching

Ashta

Once again...     

What glue did you use to attach the foam pieces to the carbon boom ? 

Quote from: anwar on November 05, 2009, 04:45:56 PM
Once again...     

What glue did you use to attach the foam pieces to the carbon boom ? 

Thanks Anwar. Hot Melt Glue.

here is two small videos taken after some more  fine adjstments with my light foam pusher. Littel more work is left.
One is taking off and trying to land on top of the car. I could not land successfully ( more practice required)

thanks for watching

ashta

hello,

Did few more fine tuning on this light plane.
The final figures are:
AUW with 2cell, 240maH= 145 grams. ( can reduce this by another 20- 30 grams in the next trial i suppose)

Added two more carbon (3 grams) to give more stability to the tail.
pl see the photo attached.
After this it has really become silk smooth. The main features of i find is:

1. very light weight and hence practically survives lot of crash/ bad landing.
2. very slow and steady flier for flying in small places like a small park.
3. In case of Pilot error, cut the throttle. it will glide smoothly and will land w/o any damage.
4. Ideal for beginers.
5. has flown in > 12KMH wind.
6.Very easy to make from local materials.
7. Very low current drain, and in normal flight a 450maH 3cell lasted more than 30 min flying.
8. Can do loops continously again and again.
9. Can fly inverted. ( this is really surprising for a non aeleron plane !!!)
my approx cost:

Foam/ thermocol = Rs.30.00
Carbon = 100.00
Motor = UH 16 gram = about 500.00
6a ESC=550.00
Rcvr, Asasan= 1000.00
Servo, 5 grams 2 nos= 350.00
Battery 3 cell 450maH = 250.00
< 3000.00
heres a video
Thanks for watching.


ashta

please post build details and also plan.

Great Ashta , any specific reason it is flying with an up and down kind of flight path.

It seems to be stalling,nosing down then gaining airspeed and with an up on elevator it again gains altitude .It is a kind of sinusoidal path

This was my only observation in an otherwise great flight  

Quote from: rcforall on November 19, 2009, 08:27:04 AM
Great Ashta , any specific reason it is flying with an up and down kind of flight path.

It seems to be stalling,nosing down then gaining airspeed and with an up on elevator it again gains altitude .It is a kind of sinusoidal path

This was my only observation in an otherwise great flight  

Sai,
the stall speed may be around 10Km/hour.
pl note that i am myself taking the video with my cap- head camera. its bit difficult. Secondly those nosing downs are when i try to keep the altitude low ( bit suddenly..not good.. i have to improve). No nose down on throttle, in fact had to  provided slight up  tilt for motor to prevent nose up on throttle.
it will fly hands free on a calm day for > 2 mins if trimmed. no bad tendencies at all.

Sai: i was also a fan of CORO few months back. I thought that it is very durable and crash resistant and very suitable for electrics.
My further experiments ( Especially my F22, 18.5 inch, Silentmite etc..) made me think...
now i try to,
1. make the planes light but strong with Depron/ thermocol etc. with carbon
2. more of a conformance to the requirement, nothing more/ nothing less kind of an approach.
3. This plane is a the result of that, being light it is crash proof. (i realised that making it crash proof by choosing crash proof materials is like creating a problem and later trying to solve it. By making it light we kill two birds at the same time.)
4. And making it strong enables, it  to take lot of wind (tried with 12Kms wind.)
5. And last but not least the power saving? a 450 maH, 3 cell and a more than 20 mins flight.

My F22, 18.5 inch weighed, AUW 216 grams. uses the battery i had bought from u. it takes wot aroud 8A. but flies normally at > 2 amps. (This was with a GWS reciever and was glitching as u can see in the flight.) Has flown it in winds above 20Kmh. Quite speedy ( >70 KMPH, assumed only). All this with the samall battery!

And thats when i started concentrating more and more on "Light and strong" philosophy.
pl see the video.
ashta





I do not have a plan for this can post the dimensions and one can easily make it from this.

ashta

Hello all,
here is a video of some distructability tests on my light plane. After i took the video, i felt that i should have shown it on a hard land. Nevertheless, the crsh resistnace is due to the light weight so it does not matter much. and due to pusher prop it is ideal for the beginers.


and here you see a flight on a non windy day. Note how gentle and also wild it is when throttled



thanks for watching
best regards
ashta

Very nice   

So all one has to do is to cut throttle before impact ! 

Hello Ashta,

Besides the blue baby I am already making, I want to build this plane as well. Can you please post the dimensions? Thanks...

Shrikant.

sorry. this palne is not with me now. Abhay took it from me to remake. i will get the dimensions after i get it from him

Quote from: Shrikant on January 29, 2010, 06:30:33 PM
Hello Ashta,

Besides the blue baby I am already making, I want to build this plane as well. Can you please post the dimensions? Thanks...

Shrikant.

Thats ok.. Let us know when you get it back...

Hi Ashta,

Have your got your plane back? Could you post your build plans?

Anwar,
Would having a separate section specifically for build plans be a good idea? That way searching for build plans posted by members would become easier.

Quote from: ashutoshn on May 11, 2010, 07:24:53 PM
Anwar,
Would having a separate section specifically for build plans be a good idea? That way searching for build plans posted by members would become easier.

The problem is that most of the plans are copyrighted, and we do not wish to host them.  There are other sites who have collections of them.

We prefer just having links to such external resources, where the owners/designers have posted them.

Quote from: ashutoshn on May 11, 2010, 07:24:53 PM
Have your got your plane back? Could you post your build plans?

yes i have got. i will try to give some build guide next week. i am out of station for next four days.

Quote from: ashutoshn on May 11, 2010, 07:24:53 PM
Anwar,
Would having a separate section specifically for build plans be a good idea? That way searching for build plans posted by members would become easier.

Yes, Its better to have a separate section for these. Even though we dont host the plans, it becomes easy to find the links.

here is some dimensions. This is not very critical. just try making it and you will realise how easy it is.
ashta