Thursday 29 May 2014

Red Sloper


Here are the specs for the Red Sloper fuselage, designed and built especially for the 1.5m depron 10% chord wing detailed in the previous post. 

Aileron servos - TGY 9018MG metal gear micros
Elevator and rudder servos - HXT900 9g
Receiver - Hobby King 6ch
BEC - Hobby King 5A

The 750mm fuselage is a square tube 50 x 50mm outer size constructed using Flite Test style joins rather than ExAir style bends. 

A 15mm x 350mm tapered slice is removed from each side, and the bottom bent up and re-glued to close the gap. That gives the tapered rear half.


Horizontal stabiliser is 440mm x 130mm, tapered to 100mm at the ends, and the 50mm elevator is cut from that. 




Vertical stabiliser is 200mm high, 120mm at the base (for a longer glue join) tapered to 40mm at the top. Rudder is 50mm tapering to 20mm at the top. 

The control surface tapers are just for looks, but looks are very important. A daggy tail ruins the overall impression of the plane.

Elevator servo is stuck inside the fuselage near the rudder servo. 

There is no need to have the tail servos mounted forward with long push rods. The amount of weight saving is not significant for a speedy slope soarer. In my normal 10-15kn flying conditions more weight is often needed.

The nose is soft EPP foam with a tongue extending into the fuselage. It holds the battery, nose weight (4 large washers), BEC and receiver. 

Nose is held on with 2 velcro tabs.





Wing tie-downs are 4mm carbon tubes glued in and reinforced with ID card plastic 



Here's the maiden flight of this excellent glider, probably my best design and build so far.


19 comments:

  1. How far back is your CG from the front of the wing? I liked your wing design and made a similar model that is pretty close to your design. Having trouble flying it... CG, decalage, the darn wind doesn't stop blowing long enough to analyze!

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    Replies
    1. Mine is at about 50mm I think. Will check later tonight.

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    2. That is probably it. I'm at about 60mm... Looks like I will have to add a lot of weight or modify the airframe. After scaling off your pictures, I think my wing is an inch farther forward than yours.

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  2. Fantastic, it looks better than mine. For the first flights start with test glides on flat land to get the CG in the right spot. Mine balances 60mm back from the leading edge of the wing. You probably don't need full throws on the ailerons. Good luck and let me know how it goes.

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  3. ...and make sure the wing is sitting flat, might need some packing under the trailing edge to lift it up.

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  4. Hello! For the fuselage, have you used the A/B Flite Test style fold or the Flite Test "checkbox" style joint?
    Thank you!

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    Replies
    1. Hello Marco, I used the A/B style fold. I don't know the checkbox joint. Will have to look it up.

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    2. Thank you for your fast reply, Andrew! I mixed up words... I meant "check board" joint or "box joint"! Apparently they published a new type of joint which is much more resistant to crashes but in my opinion is too complicated to make it for foamies.
      This is the link to their guide.
      http://flitetest.com/articles/box-joints-for-foam-board

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    3. Oh I see. Looks a bit too fiddly for me but thanks for the link.

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  5. Hi Andrew,

    I am following your videos from las couple of days and become a big fan of your design and models. I woult also get in to in this passion and want to make acrobat or beautiful sloper...the problem is unavailabilty of material like spar and 6 mm depron..can this model built with 5 mm depron? Or insted of spar balsa wood can be used

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    Replies
    1. Greetings, Glad you like the videos.
      Yes you can use 5mm depron or foamboard. Maybe try foamboard spars like Flite Test models or Experimental Airlines.

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  6. Hi Andrew,

    I am following your videos from las couple of days and become a big fan of your design and models. I woult also get in to in this passion and want to make acrobat or beautiful sloper...the problem is unavailabilty of material like spar and 6 mm depron..can this model built with 5 mm depron? Or insted of spar balsa wood can be used

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  7. Hi Andrew... very much excited to take first Flite test tomorrow morning...have tried to make one of your aircraft model i.e red sloper...i will share video or snaps for the same

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    Replies
    1. Yes please do show me your results, good luck

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    2. https://youtu.be/tt54T8U22oo

      Hi..plz have a look and give valuble comments to improve this model...

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  8. Thanks for the feedback..i will defineatly look in to it and try to resolve...

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  9. What is the flying weight please? Thanks!

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