FT Versa - The Sad Story of a Fail

by Davo6 | April 17, 2014 | (0) Posted in Projects

This is the story of my Versa wing Build, Tune and Crash. It all started when I bought some foam board at Officeworks ( Australian shop for office supplies and craft). I bought green and yellow foam and printed out the plans.

Before I knew it i had already asselmbled 1 wing ( I used the dining table as a workbench! Not good to get hot glue on!)

Before I could finish, I went on a holiday to Rottnest Island and got some awesome photos.

And met a local quokka!

But now its time to get back to the scratch build. I cut out the Simple firewall using a simple tool. The Hacksaw.

And put it together with a Turnigy 1100kv motor and 8x6 prop with a 30amp Turnigy plush ESC running on a 2200mah 3s

Now the sad part. I forgot to take photos of the finished product but it was pretty scary ( good enough since im only 13 ). It had green winglets and elevons.

Then came the maiden. I was very nervous and didnt want to wreck my first scratch build. I launched it and it went up and down into the ground. My HD camera flew off so theres no footage. I tried again launching it alot harder but the battery flew out. Then, when im about to give up. I try one more time and as soon as I launch it, i hit full up elevator but i had very high throws and it did a tight loop and for some reason the MOTOR flew off! After I had put so much hot glue on it. Here is the final product:

I I dont think I will fly for awhile now.

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COMMENTS

HilldaFlyer on November 5, 2014
Thanks for sharing both the success and failure. It make the story complete. One thing about the FT Versawing pusher... they are very tail heavy. I've built 4 of those FT Versawings and the first pusher was so tail heavy that I found it impossible to balance on the CG points without added weight in the front. To make a long story short, it died on the 3rd launch. The next pusher I built I modified by cutting a notch about 10 cm deep into the wing from the trailing edge. That did the trick, the thing really rips and is blast to fly! I'm making a build article now with plans.
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jrvalentin62 on October 11, 2014
Hoorah for scratch building. Helps keep you in the game You'll love flying your own scratch builds. Makes it soooo much more enjoyable. The foam board and hot glue can be very rewarding. Clear Skies, Calm Winds.
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alibopo on October 11, 2014
Ouch! :( The motor mount probably got weakened by the first couple of fails - it happens. The good news is you can just glue it all back together. However, if this is your first attempt at solo RC flying, this probably isn't the best first plane. You want something that 'self-rights' and is basically stable in flight until you tell it to turn etc. A great plane for this is the FT Flyer. The wing dihedral keeps it level, and its simple, lightweight design means it can fly slower and give you time to build up your flying skills and responses. Don't give up, re-use your components in an easier to fly build. They don't put learner car drivers in F1 racers to teach them to drive! Why should RC flying be different? Cheers, and nice holiday shots, alibopo :)
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Davo6 on October 11, 2014
I've been flying for four years and have had over 20 planes. This was my first scratch build and flying wing. I probably should of put more glue on the motor and it didn't help with my untidy cutting. Thanks :)
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alibopo on October 12, 2014
Me again :) I just spotted you had a fixed prop mount. I'm a convert to prop savers, all the times I've used solid prop mounts I inevitably end up breaking props. Often it's due to repeated knocks and not one single event - half a dozen slow speed nose-overs and the prop starts to show white 'stretch marks' at the root. With these flying wing 'belly landers' there's always the risk the prop will stop at the 6 o-clock position, which even with the smoothest of landings still puts a shock into the prop and motor. Cheers.
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alibopo on October 12, 2014
OK - 'red face' - quickly extracts foot from mouth :) Maidening a new build is always a tricky time for anyone. Still my comments about the rebuild still hold. Foam board is very rebuildable (not sure if that's a real word, but it should be). I'm amazed how easily it repairs. Regarding throws, I'm not sure if FT are still including throw gauges with their plans. They did with the earlier planes, I found them very helpful for first settings. Even using one from an earlier build gives a reasonable start point. Cheers.
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Andre Meyer on October 14, 2014
Hi Dav06. I use to live in Perth and loved Rotto. Anyway back to your Versa. Its a pity the wing was crashed but don't be put off it is one of my favourite planes to fly. I prefer the fixed motor mounts as well and can say with experience make sure they are well glued. I wrecked mine at full throttle when the mounting broke off and disintegrated the rest of the plane. Looked like one of those space shuttle blow ups. I found that with the motor mount I use wood glue to glue it to the plane it stops the mounting from coming loose when the motor gets hot.

I buy my foamboard from foamboards.com.au works a great deal cheaper than office works. The sheets are also larger. Thought I would mention this as bulk building material leads to great things.
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Davo6 on October 14, 2014
Thanks. I think I will buy my next lot of foam board from foam boards.com instead of office works.
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FT Versa - The Sad Story of a Fail