After suffering a catastrophic de-lamination when moisture and humidity caused the paper to separate from the foam, this plane has been retired.
I’ve convinced my wife to build a plane and she’s chosen a nutball, which she plans to decorate like a ladybug. Herein lies the chronicle of its buildenating. I’ll be updating this post as the build progresses.
She’s using these plans from FliteTest.
Build setup:
- One sheet of 20″ x 30″ Dollar Tree foam board
- 20″ wingspan
- Keda 2730 0.9 oz 1700kV “Blue Wonder” motor
- 7035 propeller
- Emax Budget 18 Amp ESC
- (2x) HK15178 10g analog servos
- OrangeRX R610 Spektrum-compatible receiver
- AUW – 275 grams / 10 ounces
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- Finished paint job with ‘googly eyes’
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- Some spots in place
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- Tape dots, ready to stick on.
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- Cutting dots out of black packing tape.
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- A black ‘head’ created with black packing tape
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- Pre-visualizing the final design.
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- Ready to maiden.
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- Scotch Heavy Duty Fastener (Velcro) will hold the batter in place on top.
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- Firewall glued to the fuselage and motor mounted.
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- Firewall cut from 5/16″ Birch plywood.
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- Servos mounted in hole cut through the wing. Secured with hot glue.
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- Electronics assembly and test.
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- Proud of her completed airframe
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- Fuselage bent, taped and attached to the bottom of the wing.
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- Truing up the tail
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- Rudder covered with tape
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- Test-fitting the rudder atop the finished wing.
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- Another look at the dihedral in the wing.
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- Dihedral set, and rudder cut free.
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- Hot gluing dihedral in the wing.
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- Careful X-Acto work
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- Cutting slots in the wing
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- Wing fully taped
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- Finishing up the tape
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- Applying red packing tape
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- Plans, printed up large.
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- It all starts with a sheet of dollar tree foam.