Mini FPV plane for racing

[krikey]

Bruce from RCModelReviews recently mentioned that he may start to develop and build a small lightweight FPV plane especially for racing. So think 250 quad racing but using a plane.

I really like the idea and I think that with foamboard or depron one could make something quite durable/cheap enough to crash it about.

Peter from Flitetest.com recently released his FT Pun Jet which was designed to sit in the back of his own design Guinnea Pig which would then release it at altitude, pop the wings open and fly about and I love the idea.

Now that Aomway have released their tiny 200mW VTx and boardcams/mobius are small, I may have a go at developing a small 3 channel plane especially for such racing.

Has anyone got any ideas or thoughts on this?

[skyscraper]

http://www.fpvhub.com/index.php/topic,30323.msg193703.html#msg193703

Dunno if anything's happening about it. (Since I'm working on OSD etc I dont have time to do this as well and not much room for OSD on these!)

regards
Andy

[gowen]

I also thought of the Pun Jet, but wondered if it would be to fast and twitchy for proximity flying down low.
I was thinking more of a small twin prop design.   This would keep the props out of view of the FPV camera and using counter-rotating props will cancel any torque roll.

[Billy_boy_2010]

I'm not sure if it would catch on in the same way as quad racing. It would be a heck of a lot more difficult than mini quad racing and they wouldn't stand up to crashes aanything like as well.

I don't think a regulated plane would be that useful. It would be so difficult that a fast plane wouldn't offer any real advantage. Big planes would be too cumbersome- so most would use tek sumos,  ravens, sky fun and other small wings. If they were too heavily laden the stall speed wwould be so high piloting low down would be too tricky.

I also think you would need a much larger course. A layout involving rugby posts would work quite well. I fly in such an area quite a bit. My flying has improved hugely since- and I'm using a slow tbs cap. I couldn't possibly use a bigger wing or a faster jet thing. I would either crash or miss the posts all the time.


Having said that- I would totally be up for it if something existed. 

[krikey]

all valid points, so things to consider:

1. Can a small plane carry a battery and FPV gear to fly for around 5 mins and have the ability to fly slowly as well as fast.

2. Can the airframe be built that would either be incredibly cheap or stand up to crashes, and componets easily swappable.

3. Agile enough although of course not as agile as a 250 quad.

4. course would be different to a quad course, as presumably the plane will be on average faster than a quad

[_tj_]

all valid points, so things to consider:

1. Can a small plane carry a battery and FPV gear to fly for around 5 mins and have the ability to fly slowly as well as fast.

2. Can the airframe be built that would either be incredibly cheap or stand up to crashes, and componets easily swappable.

3. Agile enough although of course not as agile as a 250 quad.

4. course would be different to a quad course, as presumably the plane will be on average faster than a quad

A modified Hobbyking Rarebear would be insane.
Flight times on mine are around 4-5 mins on an 850mah 4s

Top speed at least 80mph +, flies slowly also.

Just a thought :)

[Billy_boy_2010]

This is quite exciting!

[dp106]

I saw Bruce mention this and got me thinking as well.  A small wing out of Depron might work with a smaller motor on it.  Use a KFM-3 Aerofoil would make for an easy build and stick some packing tape over it I reckon would make it reasonably crash proof.  The one thing I think might be an issue with a small FPV wing would be whether it would fly slow enough. If you're flying really close you need to be able to see whats to the left and right of you, easy in a quad to rotate around while not flying in that direction. With a plane if you look left, you fly left so if there's something there you're going straight into it.

Still think it would be great fun on the right sort of course.  This is my FPV40 wing made out of Depron using a KFM-4 aerofoil flying down pretty low:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NbmkHX99VbY

[mrwilljackson]

I remember that g.collins was doing loads of mini depron builds including his Wii Wing - see here: http://www.fpvhub.com/index.php/topic,14916.60.html

I wonder if this would work with nano fpv kit...?

[krikey]

boardcams are light enough and firstpersonview.co.uk do some 1g and 2g cams. The aomway 200mW video transmitter is also tiny.

As much as I love the rarebear idea, it could be a costly one what with all those crashes with gates etc. I'm still thinking cheap depron or foamboard construction, easy to make. The airframe should be pence.


Krikey

[skyscraper]

Why not just make a set of rules and leave people to come up with a plane.

e.g


1) Pay £5  (or whatever)

2) At 10.a.m You will be given :

  1 600 mm x 400 mm  (or whatever) sheet of 6 mm Depron.
  1 m of 2 mm carbon rod, 2 * control horns, 4 * clevises

3) You supply your own tools, glue, FPV and RC gear .. and creative genius !


4) racing starts at 11 a.m. 

:)

regards
Andy

[Billy_boy_2010]

I like the idea of a standard component list.

But I wouldn't want to mess about building on the day. I would rather bash out half a dozen airframes in advance and then do more flying on the day.

[skyscraper]

I like the idea of a standard component list.

But I wouldn't want to mess about building on the day. I would rather bash out half a dozen airframes in advance and then do more flying on the day.

Well the fun bit to me would be to get something built and flying in an hour.. Would be fun to watch and do a video of bit like Scrapheap challenge  :laugh:

18 Minute RC Plane Build


regards
Andy