All of the episodes and articles mentioned are listed below in "Related Articles"!
David shares some more details about his custom 360 Degree FPV Camera Pan system. Let us know if you'd like to see a build video for this or if you'd like to see his custom setup available as a kit!
We just finished up an interview with The Crash Cast.com, an R/C Podcast covering all things R/C! If you haven't heard of this Podcast series, be sure to check them out HERE!
While talking about some of our favorite episodes, one of Josh's was an episode that never aired called The Mid-Air Package Exchange. We tried to do a mid-air package transfer using our EPP FPV.
Flying FPV with the Tek Sumo wing, David tried to connect to the lead plane flown by Josh Bixler.
The 'package' which was a toy frog hanging on the end of a long cord. Using industrial magnets, the mid-air exchange would happen if the positive magnet got near the negative magnet on the chase plane.
It was a fun idea and David spent hours getting the transfer rigs setup but we never made a successful transfer.
Not completing a successful transfer, along with additional technical issues, the episode just never came together.
Maybe we'll visit the idea again in the future! Let us know if you'd like to see that.
Keep an eye out for Chad's Rotor Bone kits! These are multi-rotor components that will soon be available in the Flite Test web store!
We'd like to give LazerToyz.com a shout out for offering electronic packages that are designed specifically for some of our Speed Build Swappables! Check out thier website to find out more! CLICK HERE!
Thanks again for all of your feedback and support!
Be sure to check out the great articles mentioned in this episode. That are all listed below.
Youtuber "MrCycost" - FT Cruiser - Maiden Video:
Airplanes Mentioned in this epsiode:
- Skywalker X-8 FPV / UAV Flying Wing 2120mm
- EPP-FPV 1.8M X-Large EPP & Carbon Fiber R/C Plane
- Hobbyking Teksumo EPP Wing 900mm (ARF)
- Durafly P-47 Thunderbolt w/flaps/retracts/lights 1100mm (PNF)
Log In to reply
Take a look at how air-refueling works to make this exchange work.
In modern combat history we had 2 versions of air refueling, the old one where the tanker airplane had flexible hose dropping and the modern one with rigid hose.
In the old one, combat fighters had to both balance the airplane, and move it to the hose.
This was very difficult and sometimes was referred as threading a needle while flying at 100mph.
The modern approach is way safer and requires way less from both the fighter pilot and from the tanker pilot. The fighter pilot needs to approach his jet to the tanker and open a hatch behind the cockpit (usually). A Refueling Operator then guides a rigid hose to the fueling hatch.
So my suggestions are:
1. Make the tanker airplane one with 2 engines rather than 1.
The reason for that is air flow. If you have 1 engine the air low moves along the body and pushes anything that comes directly behind the body. Using two engines creates 2 turbulences (especially if using counter rotating props) along the side of the body, this creates low pressure area just behind the body area that airplane can come and stay there with low amount of disturbances.
2. Regarding the fetch mechanism, I strongly recommend that you use a rigid mechanism rather than flexible one. Make some one that is not flying the tanker or the receiving craft as the drop mechanism operator. Using FPV he can guide the drop mechanism to the receiving aircraft while both tanker and receiver pilots focus of stabilizing the craft and maintaining distance.
If you want to simulate the fueling mechanism, you need movement in 3 axes, right/left, up / down and length of the stick.
I’m sure David can fix something up.
Hope this helps on the next try.
Log In to reply
Log In to reply
Thanks again for all of your hard work. Good luck getting your own space and a flying field, hopefully without a tower near by!
David, I have a radian pro, and I pretty much agree with you it may not be the worst plane ever but it sure doesn't live up to the original radian and that is why I think a lot of people have been disappointed in it.
Log In to reply
I found that the v2 BB plans were much more professional in appearance which I appreciated - but they took more paper to print out. I actually ended up opening them in Photoshop and cutting the pieces out into their own files to print so I could save paper and do less taping. I also noticed the rounded corners that were discussed and assumed they were for the benefit of laser cutting - but didn't bother trying to cut them myself and just squared things off like the V1 plans. The rounded corners are a great little detail and I wouldn't ask for them to be eliminated - but I'm not going to bother trying to cut them by hand either ;)
I hate to make a request that makes more work for anyone...but would it be possible in the future to make versions of the plans with tiled printing more in mind? Not pre-tiled plans - but stopping to think a bit more about where the pieces go on the page so the breaks between pages are in less critical spots and fewer pages are required for the prints. The BBv2 fuselage for example printed out across 6 sheets of paper if I just printed the plans out straight - but by cropping the file down to just the fuselage and printing that by itself I was able to fit it comfortably on only 3 sheets of paper.
For the BB wings I actually ended up just redrawing the plans manually right on my foam board because I hate tiling printed pages :D The wing design is so simple it really didn't take long. The only hard part was laying out the slots the fuselage fits into and I did resort to printing that out to transfer that part...but it only took me 2 sheets of paper so it was no big deal. BTW - Can't wait to maiden my BB2 - got my linkage stoppers yesterday and finished the controls, just need to build some landing gear tonight and pray for some calm air this weekend (we've been having 10-20mph winds the past 3 weeks, boo!)
Keep up the great work - I love what you guys are doing. I'd love to try a speed build kit but just can't quite swing the cost right now...but I just ordered a pack of the control horns to try since I like the laser cut firewalls so much and I figure every bit helps :)
Cutting out the planes by hand and drawing the wings manually like I did it felt like getting a peek into Josh B's brain and how he's designing his airframes. A lot of things started to make sense and it blew me away just how simple the BB is - yet how gorgeous it turns out! I'd encourage everyone to try doing one from scratch just for the experience and insight it gives.
Log In to reply
Log In to reply
Log In to reply
Log In to reply
Log In to reply
speedbuild kit out of wood please!!
Log In to reply
Log In to reply
WOULD LOVE A KIT ON DAVIDS GROUND STATION, or at least the Heli. ant. build...great and I bring in some of the old timers as well we love your show to.
Log In to reply
Log In to reply
Log In to reply
Log In to reply
Log In to reply
Yes a build video on the 360 camera mount would be great, could you add tilt to it without getting too complicated?
Log In to reply
Log In to reply
+1 for many, many thanks for providing so much to the rc community at such accessible costs.
Congrats on your success and impending expansion!!!
Log In to reply
Log In to reply
Log In to reply
- Use a gyro (guardian, KK2, orangeRX) in the receiving plane to make it more stable
- The little thing that is towed by the tow plane could also have some aerodynamic shape to make it stable, maybe even with control surfaces and also a gyro. Like what is done in the bomb drop episode?
Keep up the awesome show guys!
Log In to reply