FT Cruiser Baby!

FT Cruiser Baby! 

Alright, alright, alright...I, as I'm sure many of you, have been really waiting for this one.  I started on this fine young lady Wednesday evening and she is complete Friday mid afternoon.  Twenty hours all tolal.   This my friends is one hell of a build.  My plans didn't come with the doublers or the turtle deck cover.  It took a little extra time to fab em up, but no biggie.  That being said, Josh B. and the gang at FliteTest have outdone themselves again.  I should really stop saying that because each build is better than the last and I think it's just common knowledge.  I can't think of any build instruction I've received to be better than this.

This is a big build, much bigger than the Baby Blender Baby and the FT3D combined imho.  Just stick with it and push pause on the build video. It'll come together.

Man is she tough looking.  That canopy is just menacing!  Ha!  Fabbed it up from a two liter bottle and a coat of black from a rattle can on the inside.  You can't see it but I taped the inside, after the paint dried, and it qaudrupled the strength.  I'd recommend taping the canopy onto the fuselage, as when I initially tried glueing it on the glue melted the portion it touched. 

Landing gear.  Gotta put your pants on.  Adds a little weight but man does it make her look good!  Besides, where I fly the foam wheels wouldn't hold up for long.  See those blue motors?  Two Hextronik DT700s swinging 10x4.7 slowfly props (one regular and one pusher) with two Turnigy Plush 18A ESCs, a 3S 2200mah battery and a Spektrum 6115 (I think) with satellite.  The all up is 2lbs 7.5oz.  As there is no motor mount for these motors, at least that I saw when I orginally ordered them, I had to fab em up.  Not fun my friends, not fun. I had originally intended to use them on the FT Fokker triplane, but figured she wasn't my style so here they are.  Well after a test run it turns out one of the motors was put together a little tighter than the other.  This put a "crazy" mode on her without programming it in.  Not good to say the least!  So took the offending motor back off, "fixed it" and put her back together.  While testing her out she was purring perfectly, then just stopped spinning and startded making a weird thunk sound and doing nothing.  Glad that happened on the bench and not in the air.  So, I think I'll rob the Extra 300 and the Spitfire, they have matching motors and ESCs, throw a little weight on the back and have one insane gal.  This is also the reason there is no maiden video for her today.  Going to put the new motors on her in the morning and will have her up (the video) by the afternoon.  Figured out the Hextronik motors and left them on her, she did great!  Maiden flight video is up.  Second flight as well.  The second flight always seems to be more fun!

Front view of the landing gear, before canopy. Why yes, I did use a red and a white spinner on purpose.  I like the way it offsets the checkers and the number.  I've been thinking/planning on this plane since I saw her hanging around behind Josh in the FT3D build video.  I also see the De Havilland .88 Comet when I look at her so the wheel pants add to that effect, for me inho.

Landing gear side shot, also pre canopy.  Really taking shape.  The number 12 is my answer for everything.  "Hey do you know how many...." 12, I say.  Oh yeah, I really do own other colors of tape besides red and checker.  Just can't get past how good I think the color combo looks.  Someday I guess.

Tail wheel.  Couple bends  and a 3/4'' wheel and she's good to go.  Got some chrome bling....nice.  One could put this on the rudder with a little extra reinforcement.  I went with the suggested location, figured she wouldn't be on the ground very long anyways.  So, get to building and post some videos guys.  I'm sure we'd all like to see them.                                  Again maiden coming soon...Maiden is up.

The end.