RC Aviation Thread (mostly videos?)

Marcus Brody

I'm not really sure why we didn't have a thread like this before, since a few of us have dabbled in RC planes/helicopters at one time or another. If nothing else, the videos should be pretty generally entertaining, even if you're not into the hobby.

Some generally good ones, just to start:

TeamBlackSheep has been doing gorgeous aerial photography with small copters and flying wings for years now. If you like the stuff below, there's a whole lot more of it on their youtube channel.

^If anyone's watching this on a device that can handle it, make sure you set it to 1440p.

John and I have recently been following Flitetest and David Windestål, who are sort of an international buddyclub of dudes who build their own planes and do fun stuff with them. The production values on their videos are pretty excellent.

I'm currently building this thing:

Marcus Brody · Posted: Mon Sep 14, 2015 5:48 pm Post subject:

Well, so far, I can at least say that the FT Cruiser crashes fairly well.

The first attempt was a couple of days ago, and I was trying to do a runway-style takeoff out of short grass, which I've never done. When I finally got the landing gear away from the friction of the grass, it kind of leaped into the air, forcing me to pull it through an overhead loop and then crash-land it in another part of the field, which broke a propeller.

I actually took the time to properly balance the plane after this, and discovered it had been a bit tail-heavy, which would explain why it did what it did.

I made another attempt at the maiden flight today, despite inadvisable levels of wind, and I managed to keep it in the air for a good 20(?) seconds before a strong gust caught the flat of the wings and pushed me toward a hillside. I tried to loop out of it, but the ground was about a foot higher/closer than I thought it was. Broke another prop, but overall the flight was a lot more successful.

Given that I've crashed hard enough to break two propellers now, the foamboard airframe is holding up really well. The wingtips are a little bit dented, but there's been no major damage to speak of (I did reinforce the elevator with a small strip of balsa wood after the first crash tweaked it, but that was a five minute job).

Think I'm going to switch to more flexible props (after I finish breaking my current batch) and maybe add a little more elevator throw to fight the wind a bit.

Raptor · Posted: Tue Sep 15, 2015 1:05 am Post subject:

Marcus Brody · Posted: Tue Sep 15, 2015 8:32 pm Post subject:

Kept it in the air for about three minutes today before I fucked up a stall and ate the ground pretty hard. Given how loud the crunching sound was from about 40-50 feet away, it really wasn't too fucked up -- nothing that a couple of minutes with the hot glue gun won't fix.

I think it might still be tail-heavy.

Total broken propeller count: 4

(By the way, if anyone else ever wants to try flying something, I have a smaller 3-channel plane that's fairly hard to crash and even harder to break. I'd love to see more people get into this.)

Harrypeaches · Posted: Sat Sep 19, 2015 9:40 pm Post subject:

I'd love to...if only I knew I could afford and actually have the time to do it. The latter is probably more difficult.

Marcus Brody · Posted: Sun Sep 20, 2015 12:36 am Post subject:

In terms of money required to get started, there are good quality, crash-worthy planes AND helicopters available that would get you flying for under $100 (all inclusive).

If you really get into it, you'd eventually want a better transmitter (that's the radio/controller...the thing with the sticks), which would cost about $200+ (lots of options there), but you can have a lot of fun and get pretty decent at flying before you ever reach that point.