BlueFlyer's Skywalker X6 Wing

[BlueFlyer]

Strangely I've found myself nearing the completion stage of this build, and havent taken any pictures so far lol

so I quickly nipped down to the garage and took some snaps, just to share some of the features of my build...



Battery bay, just waiting for some heavy duty velcro strip to arrive which will line the bottom of this area. Vector GPS on the top shelf, Vector PSU at the bottom.


Vector main unit installed on some reinforced popsicle sticks and lego (more about that later....)


TGY 4409MD Servos were the perfect depth for the recess when on the side, but I had to cut some foam out to resize the hole itself.


Went for my usual M2 threaded steel pushrod with a Z bend at the servo end and a steel M2 threaded clevis at the horn end. After a few flights, when I've adjusted the rods to the correct length, I'll secure the clevises with heatshrink tubing


EzUHF 4Ch Lite rx in the pre-moulded slot, covered with some correx and fibre tape, the other thing further down near the leading edge is a lost model buzzer operated by a switch on the tx which will also be set to go off as part of my failsafe settings.


1.2GHz VTX de-cased and installed into the opposite, pre-moulded slot, once again covered with correx but this time I've deliberately left the holes poking up from the wing surface in order to divert airflow into the VTX area.






I was going to design some elaborate way of keeping the GoPro in the hole in the nose, but found that shoving in a bit of popsicle stick keeps the GoPro in there nice and tight (ooh err!)

[BlueFlyer]

The rear compartment has little ledges on either side of the fuselage... at first glance you probably think they're there to house a shelf of some description... well unfortunately no "shelf" is included with the kit, so people have made their own.

This presented a problem for me as I had already glued my fuselage halves together before noticing I could have put a shelf in there.... and now the hatch at the back is too small to fit a shelf of the right dimensions through

So I came up with a plan... Rather than a single flat shelf spanning the width and length of the rear compartment, I thought it would be a good idea to have ample access around the Vector and to the wires/plugs underneath it.

I got some popsicle sticks and cut them to the right length to span the gap. I glued one on top of the other in order to stiffen them and make them stronger. I then wrapped the ends in fibre tape for extra stiffness and strength.

In the middle I glued a 1x4 flat lego piece



on the underside of the vector, I attached 4 2x2 flat lego pieces using double sided foam tape.


I now simply push the vector onto the long flat black lego strip then push that onto the lego on the popsicle struts.


I can hold onto the vector and lift the entire weight of the X6 without the lego coming apart, but if I need to take the Vector out for firmware updates, or to make it easy to connect/disconnect plugs/wires etc all I need to do is twist it off.


The good thing is, when I put the vector back in, it's always in exactly the same place as it was before.

[Dizzy]

Its an impressive beast make sure your batteries are well secured I remembered a accident i had many years back where on a abrupt arrival my rx pack( four c size ni-cad cells) went straight through my instamatic camera  :( I am thinking of your go pro here ;) I was landing on a cow field but found one of the few rocks hidden in amongst the cow pats :D

dizzy :)

 

[Miles]

Looking good BF :)

What motor / prop combo you going for?

[FPVSteve]

Looks very nice as usual, I trust you'll be flying it gently and treating it like a lady.

[BlueFlyer]

Looking good BF :)

What motor / prop combo you going for?

Turnigy 3548 1100kv motor, in fact it's from my first ever skyhunter when I ran it off 3S

I'll be running a 10x6 prop on 4S

Looks very nice as usual, I trust you'll be flying it gently and treating it like a lady.

nope :) that's what the skywalker 1900 is for

[iwan_canobi]

Looking good as usual Chris, loving the lego! Nice idea!

I haven't managed to post the saw filter yet, as I can't actually find it! Still hunting though so will let you know, sorry man!

[Gundummy]

That lego idea is pretty nifty Chris  :)

[Billy_boy_2010]

Looks great

[BlueFlyer]

Looking good as usual Chris, loving the lego! Nice idea!
I haven't managed to post the saw filter yet, as I can't actually find it! Still hunting though so will let you know, sorry man!

I'm not in a hurry bud... don't worry if you can't find it.

I've just rebuilt my groundstation with the Lawmate RX which doesn't appear to need any modifications (or so I've read... and I've been over 5km so far on stock antennas so all's good)

That lego idea is pretty nifty Chris  :)

Cheers mate... I was looking around for something stiff enough to span the gap, and saw the big box of lego and went hunting lol

Looks great

Ta buddy

[BlueFlyer]

Well it's completely finished now...

All switches and channels are programmed in the transmitter, EzUHF bound, Vector receiver wizard has been run and failsafes set.

Vector is all programmed for Elevon airframe and the control surfaces move in the right direction... which is always a good thing :)

all I need to do is find a day when I can fly it.... and a field that isn't flooded around here lol

[BlueFlyer]

just a few more pictures, mainly of the FPV camera installation.

I know it's poking out a bit on the top, but it's fairly aerodynamic anyway so I'm not too fussed. Much better than having a mobius or runcam velcroed to the top of the hatch, or god forbid a full on pan/tilt setup

in my opinion, planes like this shouldn't have pan/tilt setups... completely ruins the profile of it.

anyway, I think this still looks sleek and fast, and I certainly won't be worried about anything breaking off lol.

[Miles]

... or god forbid a full on pan/tilt setup

in my opinion, planes like this shouldn't have pan/tilt setups... completely ruins the profile of it.

Ooops.....

[BlueFlyer]

haha, well good luck with it mate, here's hoping you don't fly it fast enough to rip that mount off lol

[zagifly]

Hi Blueflyer, just working on my X6 and wondering if you have found out where the c of g should be. According to my calculations it is just in front of the wing joiner tube.

Thanks
zagifly