I am a big fan of flying wings; they are agile, fast, climb vertical and visually indisputable. Most people seem to go with the Ritewing Zephyr for FPV possibly looking up to Trappy. Admittedly it is a safe bet but there are few things about this wing that I don't like.
1. First, I am not sure if the wing is correctly redesigned. It seems that motor needs to be placed too far forward to get the CoG right resulting to a narrower and weaker area as shown on the web proto below.
(http://kiwirc.com/blog2/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/matandzephyr54.jpg)
2. I don't like much either of the covering methods they suggest. Riteaweve + glue makes the wing heavy and very stiff possibly causing more harm if it hits something/someone. And the lamination method does not seem as strong compared to how I built combat wings before.
3. It does not appear to have a well planned method for putting the wing together. You melt the foam and insert support rods here and there which you them cover with glue.
The other option:
(http://www.freewebs.com/sasepp/venom.jpg)
I have a slope soaring SAS Venom (http://www.freewebs.com/sasepp/Venom.htm (http://www.freewebs.com/sasepp/Venom.htm)) for nearly 8 years now and it has seem tremendous amount of abuse (combat, bouncing it off hard surfaces on purpose, ect). The wing structure is still very stiff almost like new and I don't remember ever making any repairs to it other than possibly re-attaching the end fins. It came with absolutely everything (glue, covering tapes etc) and I am must say I am very impressed with the quality of the tapes as the adhesive still holds strong after so many years. The Vemon is first covered with fiberglass reinforced tape stretching side to side and then a thin coloured tape for looks. It has pre-cut channels inside the wings for carbon rods which are also supplied and cut at the correct lengths.
Overall I am extremely happy with the Vemon for slope soaring but does it make a good FPV platform? To start with the wing is much thinner than the Zephyr making it harder to fit large battery packs and space for electronics will be tight. There is a thicker centre section on the underside which I could make a bit wider to accommodate the battery pack and electronics. Also I will need to move the servos further out to make space for the motor. Finally I have no idea if this will balance right after the modification and may end up moving the motor too far forward which will weaken the centre section like on the Zephyr. Even if everything works out it will most likely have smaller battery packs than the Zephyr but the model should be a little lighter too.
Or maybe I should build one of each and see which one is better! :)
-Angelos
I slope soar more than anything else and used to have a Venom... that was until I found Windrider and their Bee series wings, they out perform the Venom in every aspect apart from recovery after being hit in slope combat... and that doesnt matter if you're not combating!
As most of the chaps here know, I rate them very highly and use a Ele-Beevolution as my wing FPV ride.
Heres a thread I started in the Members Rides section
http://www.fpvuk.org/forum/index.php?topic=1144.0 (http://www.fpvuk.org/forum/index.php?topic=1144.0)
cheers
Steve
Thanks for the info, I will have a good look at the Bee wings.
Quote from: Pasty on January 01, 2011, 05:47:28 PM
... they out perform the Venom in every aspect apart from recovery after being hit in slope combat... and that doesnt matter if you're not combating!
Hmmm, you are bound to hit a tree branch sooner or later. And with my flying I suspect it may become a regular event. :D
Cheers,
-Angelos
I've bettered the low speed handling on my Beevo by enlarging the fins quite a bit, works a treat.
Small wings tend to wobble in the yaw axis which makes the video tiring to watch. I heard about someone extending the fins with gyro controlled surfaces which totally solved the wobble. I may do the same but will try without first.
-Angelos
Quote from: Angelos on January 02, 2011, 04:36:06 AM
Small wings tend to wobble in the yaw axis which makes the video tiring to watch. I heard about someone extending the fins with gyro controlled surfaces which totally solved the wobble. I may do the same but will try without first.
-Angelos
might be easier to use a gyro on the camera pan and tilt
Quote from: Angelos on January 02, 2011, 04:36:06 AM
Small wings tend to wobble in the yaw axis which makes the video tiring to watch. I heard about someone extending the fins with gyro controlled surfaces which totally solved the wobble. I may do the same but will try without first.
-Angelos
wow... if only someone had already mentioned how they'd fixed that...
Quote from: Pasty on January 01, 2011, 07:17:41 PM
I've bettered the low speed handling on my Beevo by enlarging the fins quite a bit, works a treat.
:D
Sorry to labour the point but this vid shows my 48" wing with no yaw issues... I simply enlarged the fins... not a gyro in sight! simple solutions are always the best!
FPV - Getting Braver (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cQ3ZTJjHfE8#)
Quote from: Angelos on January 01, 2011, 06:18:54 PM
Thanks for the info, I will have a good look at the Bee wings.
Quote from: Pasty on January 01, 2011, 05:47:28 PM
... they out perform the Venom in every aspect apart from recovery after being hit in slope combat... and that doesnt matter if you're not combating!
Hmmm, you are bound to hit a tree branch sooner or later. And with my flying I suspect it may become a regular event. :D
Cheers,
-Angelos
Now if only I had read this a few weeks ago I would have taken my blooming carbon fishing pole that extends to 4 meters when we went down to see Owen on the night flight. THEN I WOULDN'T HAVE HAD TO CLIMB THE BLOOMING TREE TO GET YOUR VENOM BACK!!!!!! :P :P :P
Paul
It was the Slipstream that I very skilfully landed at the very top of the only tree in 200m radius :D It seems that a fishing pole would be a useful accessory for my Sport Billy flight box.
-Angelos
i think i will stick to my zephyr thanks. the best fpv videos on the internet are taken from a ritewing zephyr ;D
i'll have no problem fitting 2x 14.8v 4000mah lipos and the rest of my gear in my zeph :P
1.) getting the CG right and the motor back is determined by the position and size of your battery. so it has nothing to do with how the wing is designed, it's how the wing is built.
2.) I can hit a tree full speed with the lamination method and it just keeps going. the electronics will give in way before the wing does. doesn't mean you can't use your tape covering method, though. it's up to you. the riteweave and laminate is optional.
3.) the spar slots are pre-cut and the correct spars are supplied. you even have 3 slots for 2 spars so you can choose where the spars should go depending on motor placement.
The zephyr is designed for FPV, so it's made to carry extra weight and fly smooth. the other planes will be more efficient, but will not fly as smooth and will have problems carrying the extra weight.
Bloody hell, never thought you would join us mate :)
Trappy,
1. I agree, you can use the battery and motor to adjust the CoG. However the design (primarily the sweep of the wings) is also very critical as it determines where the CoG should be. Have a play here: http://fwcg.3dzone.dk/ (http://fwcg.3dzone.dk/) If the CoG needs to be too far forward you may be forced to add extra batteries that you may not necessarily want or need... or shift the motor too far forward which was my concern.
2. Equally, I have crashed my Venom countless times during combat and I have good confidence in the fibreglass tape method. However, I must point out that I have seen such tapes to age and come come off. The tapes that SAS supplies with their wings are best ones from my experience and lasted over 5 years without any signs of ageing. But, I am keeping an open mind on this one and I will try the lamination method this time.
It seems to me that the only thing that makes the Zephyr special is the thickness of the wing at the centre which provides amble space for the electronics and big battery packs. Unfortunately the Zephyr comes to the UK very expensive (£290 going by this post http://www.fpvuk.org/forum/index.php?topic=1399.0 (http://www.fpvuk.org/forum/index.php?topic=1399.0) ) so I opted for the locally produced, much cheaper and almost identical Stealthwing: http://www.fpvuk.org/forum/index.php?topic=1455.0 (http://www.fpvuk.org/forum/index.php?topic=1455.0)
-Angelos
Call up Flyingwings.co.uk and ask them about their Manta.
60" span, huge ammounts of space inside, cruises at about 60~70 MPH and best of all costs about £65 with all the carbon bits and fittings etc...
You won't find it on the site as it is made to order ATM, but I have a build blog on one.
I hear it is an early version so a new one will be better I guess, but they say that one of their customers uses one for A.P. as a job, and they themselves fly them via GPS control so it was designed purely with that in mind.
Anyway, here is the blog: http://uavbuild.blogspot.com/2010/03/manta-epp-build.html (http://uavbuild.blogspot.com/2010/03/manta-epp-build.html)
You'll find the flight vids under 'Old Glory first flight' for some reason :S
Sheldon