Foamy park flier FUN!

[scottm]

This is a $39 plane kit from my LHS made from 1/4" Dow blue-core foam. I have been flying for about 2 years and this is my 7th plane, and by far the most fun I have had flying. It is a hoot! Within 20-30 flights I was getting good at hovering, and I'm now able to lower it backwards and hover it 2 feet off the ground! I did my first tail-touch yesterday. I don't even know how many times I crashed it - 15, 20 times. No big deal, I just patch it up with fiberglass cloth and a little epoxy.

I have 2 nitro planes that can also hover, but they are much more stressful to fly. Until it is back on the ground stopped with the engine off, you are nervous! The foamy is just pure fun, no worries. I am excited to fly my Edge nitro plane again, now my skills are better.

There are several places to get this type of plane, but this kit is made by Insane foamies. Go to thier site http://www.insanefoamies.com and watch the videos. I originally put on a GWS 350C brushed motor with a "D" gearbox and a 1047 prop. With a 2 cell li-poly it would hang on the prop for a few seconds but not hover. Then I put on an E-flight Park 370 brushless ($49.00) in the GWS gearbox with a 3 cell li-poly, and it accellerates straight up. Launching means pointing it straight up and letting go!

More experienced pilots will love this kind of plane. It is not for beginners though. It is not an airfoil wing, more like a sheet of cardboard, so it is not stable at all and super responsive. It has no other use but learning how to hover, harrier, knife edge, etc, with minimum investment.

Here is the brushless motor:
http://www.horizonhobby.com/Shop/ByCategory/Product/Default.aspx?ProdID=EFLM1000

 

[Candyman]

Scott, that's so cool. My winter project this year is going to be something like that. I was looking at a Shock Flyer. Either that, or E-flite has a foamy 3D biplane on horizonhobby. So they don't fly all that hot with the stock brushed setup? And that brushless fits into the gearbox with no mod? What brushless ESC are you using?

 

[scottm]

This plane is basically a scaled up shock flier. The shock flier is smaller and will fly well with a stock GWS 350C. Check rc universe on the foamies forum, they have 30-40 page threads about the shock flier.

None of the $40 foamy kits come with motors, so the 350C brushed motor is the best starting point. They come in four different gear ratios, A to D. All the slow fly planes need the lowest gears C and D, C is 5.3:1 and D is 6.6:1 ratio. The problem with the stock 350C is they don't have quite enough power on a 2 cell li-poly, but a 3 cell will kill it. You can run an 8 cell nimh, but the power to wieght goes down. Brushless love 3 cell lipolys, so its only a matter of time before you have to step up.

Several brands of brushless fit right into the GWS gearbox. The E-flite I have, plus the Hacker B20, the Himaxx, etc. I am using a Castle Creations Poenix 25 amp, which is overkill. I wish I had gotten a 10 amp, though there isn't a big difference in size.

 

[Candyman]

So now I have another interesting question which you eluded to. Say you buy a kit and power system that says you need like a 15A ESC. What happens if you decide to buy like a 25A ESC thinking you might eventually use it in a bigger system? How does using an ESC rated much higher than spec affect performance?

 

[scottm]

Until recently, the esc people recommended bigger ratings than you needed, supposably (thats a word, right?) because smaller esc's couldnt power 4 servos. But the new escs, like the E-flites for brushed and all brushless escs are made for hi perf 4 channel systems. I could have gotten the 10 amp since my motor only draws 8 amps, but when I ordered I didnt know what it would draw. Plus there is the possablility of running bigger props that would pull more amps.

 

[werks21]

is there any way i could put a regular 350 can in a shock flier? if so how much is the gearbox?

 

[scottm]

Werks, you need a geared motor. Just get a GWS 350C motor/gearbox with the D ratio gearing, they are only $19. It should work well on a shock flier with a gws 1047 or 1147 prop. It should hover easily on a 2 cell li-poly, but it won't rocket straight up like a brushless.

I was flying around in the yard yesterday practicing knife edge flight when I hit the agave cactus sprout! I shook the trunk until the plane fell out, then it fell straight down and broke the prop and gearbox. Luckily there was no damage to the brushless motor.

 

[hb1111]

holy poop....thats what would happen if i try to fly...

 

[Candyman]

That figures, doesn't it Scott? You could be flying in a totally clear field with only one tiny bush in it and you would inevitable fly right into the bush. I did the same kind of thing. Flying on a double width soccer field. One goal. Ended up flying right into the goal post.

 

[Rolex]

One goal. Ended up flying right into the goal post.

Score. One point.

 

[scottm]

Here is what the poor thing looks like now:

It has been basically destroyed twice in the last 2 weeks. The front broke off along the leading edge of the wing, so I wrapped it up like a mummy with figerglass cloth and epoxy. Then I had a full throttle lawn dart plunge last week that shattered the wood motor mount and the front inch of the foam. This time I glued the broken bits of wood back in first, then buried it in fiberglass and epoxy. It is 3 ounces heavier than it was originally, but it still flies great.

A few days ago I soldered up LED's and taped them to the wing tips for night flying, red on the right and green on the left. They are 2.5 v each, so I wired them in series and plugged it into a spare port on the 6 channel reciever for power. You can see the servo extension wire taped to the top of the wing behind the flames. It works great! I was flying until 9 last night in my yard. I did loose control once when I couldn't tell which way it was going, but i cut power and it landed safely. Heck, I crash it a lot less at night!

 

[Diver6127]

That sprout must be related to Charlie Brown's kite eating tree

 

[Rolex]

scottm, when you bought it, was it complete with the foam fuse and wing, or was it just the flight package (motor, esc etc.) and plans?
My neighbor wrecked a small electric plane, then went to Home Depot and got foam panels. They are folded like an accordian, and meant to be sliced and put between 2x4s. There's enough foam for 50 planes. He gets plans off the internet, cuts them out, tapes them together, then just adds the motor, batts, etc. Almost indestructible. Too much glue and tape on repair jobs makes them heavier than they should be.
Since you still have an intact plane, just trace it out on the new foam and it's brand new.

 

[scottm]

Diver, that cactus thing is a big hazard! There is another pic of it in my gallery. I have hit it several times, but it only grabbed the plane once.

Rolex, the plane kit is complete for foam and misc parts, but without motor and radio gear. I have another one from the same company but I havent built it yet. It takes less time to patch up the old one than to build another from the start. The extra weight of all the repairs is hardly noticable, except it allows the plane to do awesome elevators - it literally drops straight down like a harrier jet. I am getting a Sony dig camera, so I will post some vids pretty soon.

The foam is just Dow wall insulation. The best plane design uses thin carbon fiber strip glued to the front and back edges of the wings. I am trying to hook up Jason at insanefoamies.com with woodie to get a mfr forum, so hopefully they will do it.

 

[scottm]

I finally gave up on the old blue one and finished this new one.

It is the same company, insanefoamies.com and the same design but a different brand of foam. I added a few tricks of my own, like wrapping fiberglass cloth around the outside edges of the foam to resist cracking. Ready to fly wieght with the same motor and radio gear and a 3S 1320 Etec li-poly is 14.7 oz, about 2 oz lighter than the blue one at the end. It flies great - it hangs in the air like a paper airplane, and rockets straight up at half throttle.

 

[Rolex]

Nice. If you get some of that foam board, you can trace out all of your control surfaces (ailerons, rudder and elevator) and enlarge them for even more aerobatic control. A friend of mine has me build his nitro plane kits, stick and skin balsa, then he gets the plans and makes much larger control surfaces and attaches them. A stock kit plane now becomes an incredible 3-D flier.

 

[scottm]

Crap, I can't believe I crashed into the cactus sprout AGAIN! Charley Browns kite eating tree is nothing compared to this evil beast.

This is my second insane foamies plane. I was being real careful and hadnt crashed it at all until this.

 

[Rolex]

I haven't figured it out yet, but there's some kind of static charge that builds up in an airplane that's attracted to leaves and bark.