The Galaxy v1 - The Huuuuuuuuge Glider

So picture this: You're out at the field with some buddies of yours.  It's been a slow day, and you choose a plane to fit the mood.  But you're arm is sore from whipping up DLG's and you want something a little bigger than the Tiny Trainer, and even the Simple Soarer can't quench your thirst for size.  So this is when you bring out your (insert David the Swede here) Huuuuuuuuuge Glider!

I had thought of this plane one day in my biology class after I finished my work.  I knew I wanted a trainer, because I had been teaching my dad to fly, but the first plane we built for him couldn't take off.  We only had the Power Pack A for him.  It needed to be three channels, and be very docile.  I drew out plans one day after school, and cut out the plane that night.  The original plane had a 30" wingspan (762mm) and is was 21" (533mm) long.  It flew fantastic!  It turned out to be another of the so-called happy accidents, aside from a polyhedral angle fix which I corrected easily.  It had a fantastic glide slope for something so small, and I could fly it in the front yard.  I would have pictures of it, except I was flying it one day and I lost orientation, and it landed well, except it landed in a tree.  Here's a video of that-

After that incident, I decided I wanted to build one for myself.  The only thing is, I wanted it to be BIG.  So, I scaled up the small plans 300%, and this is the result-

Before I first flew this, I just stuck the battery onto the bottom to figure out the CG and to just mess around with it on the driveway.  I figured out the CG was 45-50% back from the leading edge, and then I started sprinting with the plane in my hand.  The battery wasn't even plugged in and I had no control, but it started flying out of my hand.  It gained about 10ft./3m of altitude, and I had to run under it until it glided down.

I went to maiden it, and I wasn't sure if it had enough power, but I just chucked it.  It was beautiful.  After I trimmed it out and gotten a feel for it, I brought it up to altitude and cut the throttle.  It slowed down a ton and I thought it would stall, but it didn't.  I believe it glides at around 7-9 mph, and the glide slope is like nothing I have ever seen before.  I can take it up to about 50 ft./15m, and I can glide for 1.5 minutes before I have to throttle up again.

One amazing characteristic of this is how it it flies itself.  I can just let go of the sticks and let it glide for 15-20 seconds at a time, and I only need to touch them to steer it away from a building or road.

This glider can be flown from a 3s1300mAh all the way up to a 3s 3000mAh.  It could very likely fly much higher, I just don't have enough batteries to test it.  I only fly with a 3s 2200mAh battery because I only have 3 3s batteries and that is the only one big enough to fly it with the CG correct.  With that, I can fly for about 20 minutes.  I will soon get another and run the in parallel.

Here is the maiden.  There is not too much flying footage, because the camera wasn't recording when we thought it was-

Here is the second flight-

Here it is next to a king size bed.  It is huge.

A top-ish shot of the fuselage

Here is the 12 inch chord wing a compared to a 15 year old hand.  My hand is about average for my age, so if you know any teenagers, you have a reference point.

Because the control surfaces are huge (90in./580.6cm sq.), I decided that 9 gram servos wouldn't cut it.  So, I got some cheap 17g servos from Hobbyking.

Here you can see the stabilizers.  The vertical stabilizer is 12 in./305mm x 12 in./305mm at its widest point.  The control surface is 3 in./76mm x 12 in./305mm.  The elevator is huge.  It is the width of an entire sheet of DTFB.  At its widest point, it is 12 in./305mm x 30 in./762mm.  The control surface is 3 in./76.2mm x 30 in./762mm.

Here you can see the underside of the wingtips.  I have a standard box spar, and no wood reinforcements.  Even though it looks otherwise, the wing is incredibly strong.  I have a feeling this will not break.  Also, I put the undercambered wingtips in.  So now when it stalls, it just looses about 2 ft./60cm of altitude and just keeps on floating.

You can't see in the picture, but the wing is standing on its end, and I am standing next to it.  I am 5' 8"/1.7m, but you can still see it is taller than a standard doorframe.

Specs:

Wingspan: 88 in./2235mm

Length: 63.5 in./1613mm

Weight: Without Battery-830g/With 2200mAh 3s-1019g

Wing Area: 7.5 sq. ft./0.696m sq.

Wing Loading: 136g/sq. ft.

Electronics:

Power Pack C and 3s 2200mAh

OR

Motor: NTM Prop Drive Series 28-26A 1200kv

ESC: TURNIGY Plush 25amp Speed Controller w/BEC

Servos (Needed with either motor/ESC): HobbyKing™ HK15148 Analog Servo 2.5kg / 0.14sec / 17g

Now, one thing that you might notice is the absence of plans.  I do this for 2 reasons: 1.) I don't know how to make plans online like the Flite Test plane plans.  If someone could help me, or at least tell me of a software that can do that, please do!  It would be much appreciated!  And the other reason is 2.) It has some bad tendencies that I would like to fix, and there are some minor convenience changes.  One thing I need to change is the thrust angle.  Whenever I give it throttle, it wants to nose up.  So, on my next version I will have a lowered thrust angle.  Also, back of the fuselage flexes rotationally quite a bit.  It is fine gliding, but when under power it twists up to 15 degrees in either direction.  The good thing is that no stress lines have appeared on the foam.  If anyone knows of a way to fix the flexing, that would be great!  I was thinking of some BBQ skewer cross bracing.  Another thing I want to do is to make the wing be able to split in two pieces.  As it is now, it is quite difficult to fit in a car.

Look out for a version 2 in the future, and if anyone has any solutions to my problems, that would be wonderful.  

Overall, this is a great glider.  I have built about 13 planes so far, and this is my favorite by a long shot.  Despite its size, it is very simple to build.  It uses 5.5 sheets of foam, which is pretty good for a plane this big.  I will work out the kinks and post plans later!