RC DeltaGliderIV project

[RisingFury]

Yea, it's true that it's all about personal preference. I'm just more kinda "big plane + nitro / petrol guy".

I recently took this video:

A bunch of us got together to fly our planes. There were some small electric choppers and planes, but the scene was dominated by a very large Cesna-182, 3 meters across and a 5 m wingspan DG-1000.

Eventually I hope to fly such models, but it will take a lot of time before I get the flying skill, money and time to build.



I suppose you're gonna like big, wooden planes if you enjoy spending a long time building them.

 

[Dig Gil]

Seeing the first 2 minutes and thinking: "this is the kind of things they don't do in my country" eheheh.

 

[RisingFury]

Yea, you gotta be a bit of a nutjob to fly like these guys do. And those are expensive things! Nobody would care if you smash a foamy, but these planes can cost like 1000$.

The guy flying the large Cesna - the one he used to tow the DG up - fly it under a telephone wire, between a building and some trees. He had like 2 meters of clearence on each side and flying 2 meters off the ground. Too bad I didn't have my cam at the time...

 

[Ashaman42]

First of all thank you for this thread, I'm now back into flying R/C for the first time in about 6 years, not sure why I even stopped but loving being back

I myself fly a Parc-Amber Funem at the moment and am working with my grandad to finish my Fu2 that I started building a short time before I quit flying.

I was just wondering about your DG model, would it not be practical to skin the wings (at least, if not the fusalage as well) with solar film rather then balsa plate? I imagine that would bring the weight down a fair bit.

 

[thomasantony]

Use a brushless electric ducted fan. Lots of thrust ( 500g+ is possible) .. Hobbyking.com has some pretty low price but good quality stuff. I have bought a few brushles motors and lipos from them.

>> http://hobbyking.com/hobbycity/stor...tname=EDF+Systems&idCategory=153&ParentCat=58

This one:
http://hobbyking.com/hobbycity/stor...Fan_Unit_74mm_/_2570kv_/_860g_thrust_w/_Motor

Pulls 45A, costs around 20 bucks and puts out around 860 grams of thrust. Not bad ..

 

[RisingFury]

500g? That's pitiful. I need 4 kg.

In genral, for the same power, a propeller pulls much greater thrust. That results from a larger diameter.

 

[NuttyPro67]

Yes, if you read further back into this thread, you can see we already said that an EDF is out of the question because its like rowing a boat with your hand vs an ore. Much more efficient to use an ore/prop.

So how far from a maiden are you?

 

[RisingFury]

Well, now that university has started again, I only get to work on the DGIV on weekends... but thankfully I managed to do a lot before weekend started.

Tomorrow I'm hopefully getting a speed control, a charger and a good motor.

Overall, I'm estimating between 30 and 50 hours of work remaining.

 

[Brycesv1]

sweet. only a few more weeks until we can get a flight video then eh? i wanna see a good STOL

just a thought and its prolly too late for this but could u put the engine on a servo to get really short takeoffs?

 

[RisingFury]

I thought of doing thrust vectoring... but I would need a very powerful servo.

I just got the motor (and other bits - pics tomorrow) and in the event of a crash, the weight of the motor would smash everything. As is, I'll have to redesign the engine mount and glue in something that would prevent the motor from becoming a projectile, smashing the interior in a crash.

 

[Brycesv1]

(not sure if anyone here plays eve)
you could try the minmatar approach and secure everything with super glue and duct tape

 

[NuttyPro67]

I've worked alot with breaking points on my jets to keep repairs easy. Instead of building a "shield" for your motor to go up against to keep it from turning into a rock of doom, try to deflect it out of the main part of the model. It takes alot less energy to change the motors direction slightly when its flying off your model than it does to turn it around or even try to stop it.

Or you could just not crash it.

 

[Dig Gil]

Sticking the motor to the model's outside is not an option? (Probably not: disturbs aerodynamics and leaves a large empty room inside the model).

 

[Brycesv1]

Sticking the motor to the model's outside is not an option? (Probably not: disturbs aerodynamics and leaves a large empty room inside the model).

well u need a cargo bay if ur gonna bring up supplies:lol:

 

[RisingFury]

The problem with deflecting it is that I where ever I deflect the motor, it will break something. A 5 mm thick plywood slab should be enough to stop it...


Other then that, in a future rebuild of the DGIV, I might actually include stuff like retractable gear and opening cargo bay.

 

[UASOMCPKING]

Or you could just not crash it.

I'm, with nutty on this one - I dont see boeing placing their engines on top of the wings in case the gear fails during landing - with anything experimental - or even common - there are inherent risks. if it were me, I would get loads of practice on a sim and be sure to have a contingency.

e.g. with my WOT 4 (r/c trainer/sports) - the underbelly hosts a drag chute that i can deploy with a switch - for those situations where control is lost without hope (power loss for example) - just in case. it has saved my model on one test occasion (prop bit the dust on touchdown, but what can ya do?) I'm not suggesting a chute will help in your case, but I'd rather see something repaireable than something being replaced - at financial, labour and worst of all.. morale cost. i flew exclusively on sim under various conditions for months before my first flight, and made sure my club trainer was linked up (as ya do).

on a slightly more positive note - I'd like to give this model a shot - I have a little time, a workshop and materials - and I'm a huge fan of the dg (compiling a complete mission in orbiter for dgIV at the moment) I have a foamee that crashed a few weeks ago I can scrounge useful stuff out of (batts, servos etc). any chance i could see those plans and share constructive notes?

keep it up mate - your project is really an original.

 

[Dambuster]

Could you put some sort of parachute inside the fuselage, that deploys if you hit a button, or if you're running out of battery life? I know that the plastic parachutes on Estes model rockets are light weight and very effective...

 

[Brycesv1]

use a high explosive charge to self destruct in case of loss of control. make everything into very small pieces so theres no collateral damage:rofl:

 

[Dig Gil]

That way and (after the neighbours telling stories about meteorites or UFOs) there will not be much to put in a Orbiter museum.

 

[RisingFury]

on a slightly more positive note - I'd like to give this model a shot - I have a little time, a workshop and materials - and I'm a huge fan of the dg (compiling a complete mission in orbiter for dgIV at the moment) I have a foamee that crashed a few weeks ago I can scrounge useful stuff out of (batts, servos etc). any chance i could see those plans and share constructive notes?

keep it up mate - your project is really an original.

I can send you my AutoCAD plan, but it's a bit rough around the edges and probably won't be good for foamy building. Though if you go for a wooden plane, wait till I redraw the plans to include all the things I've learned and to actually test the model...

Could you put some sort of parachute inside the fuselage, that deploys if you hit a button, or if you're running out of battery life? I know that the plastic parachutes on Estes model rockets are light weight and very effective...

Any kind of a chute that would be big enough to lower the plane down and deploy fast enough would probably rip the plane in half. Keep in mind, this model will exceed 100 km/h in level flight. I'm worried I'll tare the wings off if I pull up to steeply from a dive

use a high explosive charge to self destruct in case of loss of control. make everything into very small pieces so theres no collateral damage:rofl:

So, instead of one large piece that I can dodge, I'll have shrapnell all over the place.

Although if a RC plane strikes the tarmac, little pieces are usually the only things left.




Let's get something right here... I don't *want* to crash, don't get the wrong idea

But these things crash. That's the nature of the business and usually you have just enough time to watch, let alone react.

Foamies are forgiving. They're small, slow and floaty. Big wooden planes are not. Keep in mind that these large planes usually land at higher speeds then your average foamy flies at.