Credit Card Motor Mount Nutball & Snowball

Hi Flyers, I am trying to make a slow flying Nutball for indoor fun during this cold snowy winter we are having in New York, USA. I have built a couple of FT Nutballs and learned to fly somewhat using them outdoors in a hay field. Thank you very much Flite Test. They are too fast for my indoor skills. In an attempt to fly in a gym I built a mini nutball with an 11 gram outrunner. It flew well but was still too fast for indoors. I was using the walls and way too often. The last straw was I damaged a fellow flyers Night Vapor in an unplanned attack (it was on a table near the flight line). I am attempting to built the full size FT Nutball without the powerpod to decrease weight and wing loading. The problem is the motor mount. I think this is a good solution. First I cut a credit card in half and bent the ends 90 degrees

 Motor mount first built on a piece of scrap dollar tree foam.

 Here it is ready to be installed on my Nutball wing.

Here it is finished mounted on the wing. There is a layer of extreme packing tape wrapped around the wing from top , across leading edge and around to the bottom. Then the credit card is taped on top of it. This will make removal much easier by not ripping the paper.

Landing gear was made out of control rod material (.047) to reduce weight. Simply bend two 90 degree angles and push through holes drilled through the credit cards.

On the bottom of the wing spread out the wire until you have the desired angle. It will auto matically lock everything in place. Very sturdy installation!!

Alas the wire was too small to fit my wheels properly. I just stripped some yellow insulation off from some wire that fit very snug on the axle.A couple of credit card squres hot glued onto the axle completed the installation.

I haven't maidened my Nutball yet because it is snowing outside and the gym doesn't open until Tuesday. The servos are mounted very forward to help with CG. It is still tail heavy with my light battery. I am sure to learn something from the first flight.

Well.. I did fly this baby but it was tail heavy with the small battery. I flew all right with a much larger battery but was then too fast for my indoor venue.. The motor mount design proved valuable however. I adapted it to the recent Nutball to Snowball conversion. I simply removed the landing gear and cut the tape holding the credit card motor mount. It was them a simple job to build the Float-Skis and add the new motor pylon which I also adapted to the credit card mount. This solved the tail havy problem and I can fly it outdoors in my back yard. Now my Snoball flys with an 11g motor. And fly it does. It is for sure underpowered but it works and is slow enough for this unskilled pilot

 Because the motor is so small I decided NOT to use the plans wooden motor mount. Instead I put in a small shelf of foam and fastened the credit card motor mount to it. This is a win win for me. I flew it several times today off of snow and did not put it in a tree once!!