My original 22″ David wing was an ugly thing, made even uglier by all the times I flew it into he ground like a lawn dart. I’ve finally decided it’s time to rebuild it.
Its poor, poor schnoz.
meanbaby from RCGroups built the airframe for my first wing and, when he sent it, he included a second airframe which has set on a shelf until now. Time to put it to use.
I stripped all the parts off of it, then put it in the ‘spare foam’ box.
Past time for retirement
One of the mods I made to my original wing was to build a pair of little pylons for the pushrod tubes to rest on, keeping the pushrods straight and offering extra support. I wanted to incorporate them into my new wing in a less ad hoc and crappy-looking way.
I decided to integrate them into a pair of vertical fins, set inboard in a position similar to my Strykers’.
I was also determined to do something a bit more elegant with the battery than just Velcro it to the top of the foam. The 3 layers of foam are almost exactly as thick as the 3S LiPo batteries I use, so I cut a hole all the way through the foam of a size to just fit. It’s actually really snug in there, but I felt compelled to put something over the bottom of the hole. I cut a rectangle of thin plastic packaging material, super glued it in place, and then criss-crossed it with 2″ strapping tape. The strapping tape also adds strength to the wings which can get a bit floppy, as I’m not using a spar.
The battery fits snuggly within its cut-out.
Plastic cover for the bottom of the battery compartment.
All kinds'a tape.
The biggest problem, in terms of creating a cleaner design, is the profusion of wires. I’ve cut out a small bay behind the battery and in front of the motor in the hopes of being able to fold, roll and cram all the servo wires, light wires and so forth in there.
Finally, I’m trying out a canopy made from a block of carved Elmer’s Foam Board. Since all my 450mAh batteries have Velcro on them, I decided to use the Velcro to fasten the canopy in place.
Velcro holds the canopy onto the battery.
Here’s what she looks like, all finished up:
