How To Make A Long Range Small Techsumo/PopWing

I wanted to get into flying wings and after spending some time flying one on my flight simulator I figured I'd start out with something cheap. I opted for a Turnigy Tek Sumo from Hobby King. This little plane was super easy fly and had some great flying characteristics. It has the ability to do some crazy slow flight and has a really good power-off glide ratio. I flew the heck out of this little plane and eventually put a basic 5.8 fpv setup on it. I was getting some seriously fun flights out of this thing with flight times around 25-30 minutes on a 1300mah 3S battery.

Eventually, I crashed it just one to many times and decided to order another one. I really wanted to make a longer range version this time. This plane is marketed as a Tek Sumo by HobbyKing as well as a PoP Wing by some other retailer such as NitroPlanes.com. They are only around $35.00 and don't seem to stay in stock too long.

My minimum requirements were the following:

• Longer range than what 2.4 control offered.
• Some way to record HD footage.
• RSSI so I know the health of the control link
• Some way to know how much power I had used and how much remained

Based on these requirements I decided on the following:

• EzUHF for the control link - I used the 4 Channel Lite receiver
• Mobius camera for the HD footage which slides into a small bracket I made from balsa and light plywood
• TBS Core OSD for the RSSI and power consumption/power remaining/time (There is a new plug and play version of the Core that does not require soldering.  Soldering this thing is a pain.  Tiny soldering. It is worth the extra $20 to get the plug and play version!)
• ImmersionRC 600mW 5.8 video tx
• Circular Wireless Skew Planar Wheel
• Motor: Turnigy 2822/14 1450Kv
• Servos: 2 Corona 9g
• Turnigy NanoTec 3S 1300mah battery
• Lumenier CS-600 Super - 600TVL D-WDR for flight camera
• Prop: 7x5
• ESC: Turnigy Plush 18A

This video is from the maiden of this plane. 

Here's a picture comparing the size of the Teksumo/Popwing with my TBS Capirinha. The wing chord on the Teksumo/Popwing is much longer than the Capirinha's which making it a bit more stable and forgiving.

The Turnigy Aerodrive D2822/15 1450KV motor with a 7x5 prop provides plenty of power.  Will do straight vertical as long as you can hold it there.