Shark Attack!!

SHARK FINS!

Today brought more rain and more time indoors.  It also brought and opportunity to add some artistic touches to my original F22 Foamie.

My girlfiend’s son received a Crayola marker airbrush kit for his birthday this year. So while we had it out we took the time to stencil my nearby plane. We started with a test run on a scrap of paper. Then onto the plane. The results look fierce!

theFLEET

The past few days have been rain filled here in the City. So what better to do but watch old flight footage.

Checkout a this short video I put together this week.

Leave a comment. Let me know what you think.

F22 Build – Day Two

Last week I finished cutting all of the foam and this past Sunday afternoon I assembled the main airframe. So let’s review.

Step Three: Airframe Assembly

Before gluing down the FK airfoil cut a 45 degree angel on the leafing edges of the narrow forward section. It’s much easier to do now before it’s glued in place.

Staring with the main airframe glue the KF airfoil in place. Focus on aligning the leading wing edges. Any hangover on the wing tips can be trimmed as soon as the glue drys.

The next step is to cut the leading edges of the wing. With a NEW blade cut near a 45 degree angle through both the main deck and the FK airfoil. Use a straight edge for best results.

wing’s leading edge

The next step is to attach the upper and lower vertical sections.

1/2 way completed airframe; we’ll be flying in no time

Once in place start test fitting all of the lower structure. Take your time to make sure everything fits snugly and aligns true.

test fitting the lower deck

I’ve come to love the zippy 4000 mah 4 cell batteries. The pack a punch, give decent 16-20 minute flight time, and are a good weight for this airframe. So on this build I decided to build a custom battery holder in the main cavity.

custom fitter Zippy 4000 mah 4C placement

Cutting the lower vertical to fit the battery I then build guides for the sides of the battery. Finally I tied it all together with the lower deck.

a little customization goes a long way

It’s now time to glue the runners and lower deck into place. It’s great to have an extra set of hands to hold it all together. Also don’t be afraid to toque the runners inward to meet the lower deck. This will give you a firm solid fix.

Find some heavy objects to hold it all together and let the rig rest for 10-15 minutes. During this time the glue will harden and set.

Heavy objects help hold everything in place as the glue sets

At this moment I took time to cutout the control surfaces on the tail, add some camo duck tape details, and then glued on the verticals. Take a scrap of foam and cut a 60 degree angle to help old the tail verticals in place. Keep this template for future builds.

use scrap foam cut with a 60 degree angle to hold the tail verticals as the glue drys

Step back and enjoy. The final airframe looks great.

finished airframe

Next week we’ll move onto building the motor mount and control surface linkage.

Part one of the build

-Miles

ParkJets: Home Built DIY Fun

Over the past few years there has been an explosion of RC ParkJets. Many manufacturers have started selling EPO foam EDF jets. These beautiful planes come fully loaded with details. Scale decals and paint, armaments, landing gear that all add up to truly realistic scale fighter jets. Unfortunately it also adds up to an expensive, underpowered plane with horrible flight characteristics. Now there are a ton of sites that can help you buy one of these jets and mod them to be stable reliable birds.

40 inch F22 build – December 2012

But there is another option for awesome ParkJet fun: Home built or DIY Foamies. There are a plethora of plans out there on the web. Sites like 6mmflyrc.com, RCPowers.com, and flitetest.com all have free plans. I’ve built about 15 ParkJet foamies to date and have found a platform that I love. Starting with 6mm fly RC’s F22 plans I have modified them through a few versions to come up with my own plans. Each build hones my building skills, improves the plans, which increases performance, reliability, and enjoyment.

Built from light, durable, and easy to obtain foam board, these airframes are cheap to build. With a total DIY airframes cost around $5-$8. Add in control surface hardware, 9 gram servos, cheap motor, ESC, and receiver you can build  a ready to fly plane for under $45.

Not only have a built a number of these beauties I have also crashed a bunch of them. And I can attest they really do hold up well. Often in small or light impacts no repair is needed. For harder hits sections of the plan can be cut off, replacement panels constructed, and then re-glued into place. Also the box-like design naturally protects the electronics, motors, and batteries from nose first “landings”.

Over the next few weeks I’ll be posting a complete build process of my tweaked F22 design. Followed by some first flight posts focused on trimming and tuning. Finally some flight footage of the new plane.

-Miles