Quad-copter held together with cable ties

All you need is balsawood, a sheet of Coreflute, glue and some Cable Ties and you can have a rock solid, easily replaceable Quadcopter (excellent for motion photography) with just about any camera for less than $30 from your loacal Hardware store. No bolts or screws and virtually no vibration leaking to your camera. A steady flyer with great tilt response from the double V pushed up against a centre shaft and plenty of room to make additions for additional cameras. This craft was an evolution from much work my engineer savy brother Dean had made when building a H-Quad. The big thing we learnt was that weight and crash repairable/replacement are two of the main criteria when building a multirotor. Whilst Dean remained on the path of perfection and precision of Aluminium to complete an elegant robust machine, I began persuing less and less weight to the point of obsession. Every day I would return home from work and have the scales out checking different materials and reporting to my brother Dean. Eventually I reached a point where I trashed the elegant Aluminium frame Dean had built for me and started looking past the H-frame I was having trouble with as things got lighter.

The main aspect that drove me away from the H-Copter design Dean and I started with was body twist. Finally, after much experimentation, I came up with a double V configuration which is certainly not new - but the regidity of the Vs when pressed against an elongated retangle core was amazing. Taking into account that we want to preserve our Motors and cameras from impacts, the thought of a body that had parts that would give before the more expensive items really appealed to me. So here I now have "Clark Cable" 1. The base is a balsawood matt covered benieth with a Core-flute skin. The balsawood stem if glued to the matt and the front and rear triangles are layered Coreflute, excellent for cable ties to pull against and retain tension and form. Again, special thanks to my brother Dean for the inspiration of this project. Deans H-quad far exceeds "Clark" and led the way for this project to happen. Also special thanks to Josh, Josh and David of Flite Test of which as a team, form an inspiration to get into this great new hobby.

Hazza