Hobby on undeveloped country: Lockheed U2

Hi, my name is Lucas and I am trying to enjoy the hobby here in my country, ARGENTINA, it is not an easy thing nowadays, we are suffering from a lack of components because we cannot import many items, usually the servos and other electronic components that we can buy are only from someone who brings them with him when comes from abroad (or from the smugglers)
That´s why to start the hobby is very hard, mostly because you cannot spend much money.

Some items cannot be replaced easily if you are a beginner (this was the 3rd plane I made), such as the 9grs servos, TX and Rx. Other components I replaced with what I could get, like a battery from an old phone and servo extensions made of computer parts. Here is hard to find special glues for foam, so i use just hot-glue gun, horns i had two since i was a kid, i never use them. and i made other with a credit card plastic. Of course is a glider, because was hard for me find a place to buy a engine+ESC+lipo battery+charger. (all that togheter is more that half basic salary here)

With this plane i learn how really fly, was the first that use ailerons and because i learn how to fly by myself is that my learning proccess was slow, (only my 4th plane had engine). Thanks to the guys of Flite Test this was easily.

So, I used these items:

3 9grs servos

Futaba T6EXAP (FM 72Mhz) Tx

Futaba FP-R127DF Rx (Both second-hand)

Li-Ion 3,7 v battery from an old Nokia Cellphone.

Coins to add nose weight.

Usb cables and hard disks connectors to make servo extensions.

First, a recommedation: Do not use a single Li-Ion battery for a plane, this works fine with me (it was 4v full charged but i know it is below safety standards) 

This proyect started when i was drawing and i though: "why not make this bigger, i had few servos donated by my first model" (crashed).

Some Videos of the flights:

[video='https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tVWr-z7KxwE&list=UUSTijUDuloNGazUlW_WSbJQ']

And few more flights on winter...

[video='https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kVDgSUUJMYA']

Here some photos of the contruction proccess:

The first drawing... as you can see I was looking for a PSS (Power Slope Soaring) shaped plane. The only problem: I don't have slopes close to my city with easy access, so finally the glider was hi-start launched.

I have a special need: This plane is 1,6 m long from wing tip to wing tip, and must be easy to transport because i don´t have a car. So the rudder and the wings are swappable.

I use 5 mm foamboard for tail and fuselage, sadly, the only foamboard i could find was quite heavy with paper on both sides.

For wings i use Depron, called here "Polyfan" and Armin Wing style, as you can see the influence of having discovered the Flite Test channel on YouTube is clear in the design.

 .

First mistake: I used just a piece of balsa for the main spar on the wing, after many flights finally it got broken by a hi-start missfortunate take-off.

3 mm depron wings.

Piece that support the wing, into the fuselage. Made of 10mm depron.

Servo extensions made of hard disk connectors and USB cables from a old computer.

Cockpit made of a coffee cup:

Finally all the parts together.

On the firsts flights the plane had a servo rudder, but after I decided to take it out cause i used mostly ailerons and the elevator, the rudder didn´t work that well for my taste.

I made a trip to my birth town to make the test flights, is a pitty that I didn´t have the video of the maiden flight.

Anyway... i have met the tip stall for the first time:

But soon i fixed it up, checked my CRAP and i flew it again.

Here, the U2 is ready to come back home: (you can see the zip tie that fixes the rudder in position)

And once i came back to the city i use the tape to make it more visible and reinforce the structure:

City bus transported plane, believe me, is not the best way to carry the plane...

As i said before, the main spar was not hard enough, so I replaced it with a pinewood spar inside a pen tube. No carbon spars here! that´s a luxury. 

In any case, after all the challenges that someone who wants to start the hobby in a undeveloped country had, with many difficulties and hard situations to resolve I can say it is not impossible start the hobby and enjoy the RC flight!

PS: I learn my english moslty from the Flite Test videos, so thanks again Josh and Josh!!! Extra education to add to your videos and podcasts 

anyway, scuse me for the languages mistakes :)