Well the time has finally come for me to put it out there and release the plans for my swappable trainer and each of the wing plans. (3ch Dihedrial wing and 4ch Aileron wing) First off, I apologize for the build video quality but hopefully it will suffice. I know the videos are a little long but I'd rather show too much then not enough. If you've done any of the FliteTest scratch builds you probably don't even need to watch the videos. The plans are in line with the FliteTest scratch build plans, same color coding, same style of assembly, ect. I wanted to make them as easy as possible to understand.
The body is pretty strong on its own but I highly recommend the additional bracing. Which wing you choose will depend upon the flight control and characteristics that you want. In either wings case, the center of gravity is directly in front of the wing spar. This of course can be adjusted to fit your personal flying style and preferences. Neither wing will provide the very stable beginner style flying like the FT NutBall or the FT Flyer, but I was shooting for a much more old nitro style trainer feel.
(Please note, due to trying to keep the build as simple as possible this design is a steerable tail dragger. Most all trainers are in a Trike configuration for easier landings but this complicated the build quite a bit. Hopefully it will be an enjoyable flight none the less)
The Dihedral wing will provide an easier to learn, slightly lighter airframe that flies pretty well on the Park 300 motor with an 800mah 2s battery and throwing a 8x4SF prop. It will run with the NTM 28-26 and the 3s but the added wight makes landings a little rough as it pushes the glide slope slightly over the edge.
The Aileron wing provides a much faster flight, lower glide slope and a more scale flying experience. If using a 5+ch receiver you can set the ailerons up for flaperons and provide much easier take offs and landings. This wing will fly on the 300 Park motor with the 800mah 2s but it really comes together and screams if you use the NTM 28-26 with a 4s, the same setup as the FliteTest crew uses in the FT Bloody Wonder. (I tend to run a 2200mah 3s which will give you about 20 minutes of flight time). On this set up I like to run an 8x5 MA style prop.
(The following tip was copied from a FliteTest scratch build article)
TIP for printing the plans:
To print "tiled" use Adobe Reader XI and in the print dialog select "POSTER", select "Cut Marks" and make sure "Tile Scale" is 100%. Then overlap and tape as required (after trimming the top overlapping edge).
(Thanks youtuber larrybarrick for this suggestion!)
Body:
Download the plans Here
Dihedral Wing (3 Channel):
Download the plans Here
Aileron Wing (4 Channel):
Download the plans Here
Also wanted to share my current transmitter settings.
For the 4 Channel
D/R & Expo-
High Rates:
All 100% Rates with all 30% Expo
Low Rates:
Aile:50%
Elev:80%
Rudd:50%
with all 25% Expo
Travel adjust-
Moved elevator to 115% as it felt a little anemic to me
Flaps:
Normal: 0%
Land: Down 65%
Wing Tail Mix-
Dual Aile: ACT
For the 3 Channel
Set my rudder to operate off the Aileron channel. Just how I like to fly it, your choice.
D/R & Expo-
High Rates:
All 100% Rates with all 25% Expo
Low Rates:
Aile:65%
Elev:80%
Rudd:100%
with all 25% Expo
Travel adjust-
Moved elevator to 115% as it felt a little anemic to me
Due to a few requests I'm re-uploading the plans with a few measurements and a measurement key on each set of plans to enusre they are printed to a proper scale (Within a few percent is fine, as long as the Fuse fits).
Trainer Body Plans with Measurements
Aileron Wing Plans with Measurements
Diheadral Wing Plans with Measurements
I'm always open to any suggestions or changes that you feel will make this a better flying plane. Thanks so much for following this project and please upload and share your flights and build experiences.
Happy Flying!
By the way, you really need a Turnigy servo tester - I was sceptical until I bought one !
Trevor.
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(no pun intended). You'll really enjoy it. I'm still building up my RC tool collection. I finally have a watt/voltage meter on order and I'll take a look at servo testers, thanks!
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Plastic tie off bread wrapper. Lots of things work,
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Keep up the great work!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ;)
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Great job nonetheless :D
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In the mean time,do I print it on A1 paper or A0 paper?
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I am very much interested in your swappable trainer build,but my cutting and artistic skills are very poor :/
So I was wondering IF you could give me these plans in the Corel Draw format or anything similar so that I can directly give the file to my local cutting shop so that the parts can be cut automatically?
It would really help out with saving all the time and effort there,I would be using 5mm foamboard so an outline would really help which is full scale and ready to be cut.
If you do have any such file,or can work on creating one,please let me know :)
And is there any way I can contact you personally (outside flitetest) such as on RCGroups or email or chat or something?
Thank you vey much and as I said earlier,it's a real great thing you are doing there,I really appreciate it
Thank you and have a great day
Jack :)
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By thursday maybe?
I really want to get the parts cut out and build this trainer and flyyyyy it :D
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Any way you could send me the raw file (With the measurements) so I can maybe work something out with that?
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https://dl.dropbox.com/u/4669357/Flight%20Test/Trainer/Diheadral%20Wing.layout
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/4669357/Flight%20Test/Trainer/Main%20Layout.layout
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/4669357/Flight%20Test/Trainer/Wing%20Layout%20Alpha%202.layout
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I build this trainer plane, however I used the dihedral but I added ailerons. I wanted to train using ailerons but at the same time I knew that the dihedral would recover mistakes. The only issue is the small area for them I think I ended up having 0.75 inch of depth on them, which looked small, but totally worked. I tried three props. The first was a 8/6 which was somewhat okay, however I had trouble getting high enough before I could make mistakes so I nosedived that one. The next was a 9/4.7 which climbed nicely. I had three solid rounds around the field, got more comfortable with yank and bank, and even recovered from a couple of near crashes. I mostly flew with 1/3 throttle so I thought: Why not try a smaller one, and my son was also curious about it, since the 8/4 which I had in mind was orange! However, no lift with that prop, but still enough control to get the plane to the ground with any bigger damage. I had to put a rubber band around the power pod and the nose after the first crash but that was it. In summary: Indeed nice trainer, and in my setup very helpful for me to ease into yank and bank. Thank you for the nice design, this one will be flown more often! Cheers Arend
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Flew fantastic even with a bent tail. I think when glueing it up I didn't have as much bend on one side as the other so was skewed off to one side. didn't matter at all.
Maiden went great today, just after getting back from a short flight in a real Cessna. She barely needed any clicks of trim... though it was a purely compulsive maiden as I knew I needed to adjust the elevator control rod (no ez adjusters) to give more up than what I had. Was enough for a few circles around my field until I thought hey, lets give 'er full flaps. wouldn't have been an issue if I wasn't over the oak trees bordering the field. Oops. Lotsa flaps needs lotsa up elevator. I know this, but numbly fumbled to get rid of the flaps a bit too slowly... A few sections of PVC duct-taped together and I've got the plane back. Will do some simple repairs and get her up again soon. Thanks for the plans, video and the patience to put it all together! Great trainer! But also a great all-around flyer!
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Thanks
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1) What type of material you are using for building? I wonder if i can find it in my hometown.
2) Is it possible to share the DXF or any other vector format of the desing for scaling it to;
I have 2 servos and a DC motor which is left behind a crashed helicopter (unfortunately this model has no spare parts :/ )
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