BlueFlyer's Skywalker X6 Wing

[zagifly]

Sorry, just found your crash video and not a very polite question to ask.

zagifly

[BlueFlyer]

Sorry, just found your crash video and not a very polite question to ask.

zagifly

Oh no... that wasn't the X6 that crashed lol

the X6 is still in one piece, had to abandon the maiden

[BlueFlyer]

X6 maiden update.... there was no maiden lol

Got to the field and before I set any of my gear up properly, I chucked my falcon wing in the air to get a feel for it LOS before popping the goggles on... mega tail heavy and a crash ensued.

I recovered it, put the mobius on the front in the hope that this would make it less tail heavy, and launched again.... LOS... still completely unflyable and another crash happened, this time completely wrecking my mobius.


So not a good start, but I thought heck, I've brought 3 planes, I've still got the X6 maiden.

first thing... I forgot to put my GoPro in the nose, then I forgot to press record on the GoPro... then I realised I had forgotten to put the wing screws in... By the time I thought I was ready to launch, my head was all over the place.

so all powered up, surfaces checked moving the right way, stabilisation checked moving the surfaces the right way, prop nut checked, thrust test..... and there it was.... the straw that broke the camel's back.

I took absolutely NO notice when plugging the 3 motor wires into the ESC, because this particular ESC you can change the motor direction by simply plugging in it's programming card and telling it to.

The motor was spinning the wrong way, and with the wires buried deep in the tail of the X6 and my programming card at home on the bench... I had no option but to abandon the maiden flight.

Good job I had my trusty Skywalker 1900, otherwise the morning would have been a complete waste of time lol

So there you go... the crash on new year's day was NOT my X6 and the X6 is still unflown, motor now spinning the right way but it's currently hanging on my garage wall :)

Here's to the next good weather window :)

[BlueFlyer]

Still no maiden... and I realised I hadn't done something extremely important....

I hadn't checked the CG

I was all ready to chuck my X6 into the air without checking the CG was OK. It's a good job all those things happened that led me to abandon the maiden because as people have already said... this thing is MASSIVELY nose heavy.

I picked it up earlier tonight and checked the CG without the GoPro in the nose but with the LiPo in place... and it's nose heavy... with the GoPro its a nose dive waiting to happen.

I've decided I need to use a dedicated 3S LiPo in the rear bay to power the BEC, FPV cam, VTX and the Vector... may take a little longer to get this baby in the air now

[BlueFlyer]

Today was the maiden of the X6. It was very windy, gusting up to 35mph at times but the X6 is substantial enough to cope with the wind. The launch was pretty uneventful (that's a good thing ;) ) and I'm happy that my motor/prop combo is suitable for this airframe.

Here are a few points:

1. The X6 likes to send itself into what some may call a "Death Spiral" without much warning. I will be fitting some wing fences to the top surface in an attempt to keep air flowing over the wing instead of along it. I think on swept back wings like this, lateral airflow can result in a sudden loss of lift near the tips of the wing which causes one wing to drop violently, making the X6 roll quickly.

2. The X6 was bobbing around all over the place... This may be because of the awful flying conditions today, but it may also be attributed to high gains within the Vector flight controller. I will put the gains back down to their defaults and see how it goes next time

3. I wanted to maiden the X6 exactly how it was designed... with the wings attached as per the included methods. The clips in the middle and the screws did a fine job of keeping the wings on, and after I landed the wings were still attached fully (thank goodness). Also, the D-SUB connectors for the control surfaces, VTX and EzUHF wires worked perfectly throughout the flight. However I'm not overly happy with the small gap left between the wing and the fuselage. I can transport the X6 in my car without needing to take the wings off so I might end up permanently gluing and taping the wings on.

4. I actually quite like the slightly downward angle of the footage from the GoPro... it's different from my skywalker as I like to keep that pointing straight ahead for a more real feel to the flight. The GoPro angle from the X6 means it's always got a lot of the ground in view.

things to address:

nodding dog syndrome... look at gains and control surface throws.
death spiral... wing fences
wing attachment... glue/tape

Flight footage to come later....

[iwan_canobi]

Good stuff, I helped my friend maiden his last week and it was also uneventful, seems like a nice flying platform. He did comment on the gap at the wing join as well, looks like it is a common issue. I've yet to start mine but not in any rush at the minute, and this weather isn't looking like it will let up any time soon either!

[Loopdreams]

My mate and I have a couple of these to setup too, although I'm also in no rush as I'm not really sure it's going to do anything vastly different to the Falcon I bought off you.

[BlueFlyer]

cheers. I'll try that.

At the moment I've got the CG so that the x6 balances with my fingertips placed in the centre of the wing clips.

I'll move the main LiPo forward a bit. Like they say... a nose heavy plane will fly badly, a tail heavy plane will fly once ;)

[Billy_boy_2010]

Try moving the C.G forward. That will cure that problem

regards
Andy

This too imo.

Had a couple of planes death spiral and it has always been a very slightly tail heavy problem in hindsight.

[English Turbines]

Looking forward to your X6 Maiden Blue, and that that downward viewing angle on your GoPro is pleasing after all...more ground, less sky...:)

See, clouds are just not that interesting, except perhaps when flying through them...lol.

:vulture:

[BlueFlyer]

Looking forward to your X6 Maiden Blue, and that that downward viewing angle on your GoPro is pleasing after all...more ground, less sky...:)
:vulture:

my flight cam is still pointing straight ahead

I don't think it's worth posting the X6 maiden video, it's dull, it's windy and the vector was bobbing the wing all over the place... I'd probably just end up making you all feel queezy lol

[BlueFlyer]

This evening I made a few minor changes to the X6 that should help get it a bit more dialled in for the kind of flying I want to do with it.

1 - In order to avoid the dreaded death spiral, I've moved the rear 3S LiPo forward about 10cm. It now sits underneath the Vector lego shelf.

2 - I've moved the pushrod clevis to the upper-most hole on the control horn at the elevons, the Z bend is already at the lowest hole on the servo horn. This will physically reduce the throws to the minimum possible before adjusting endpoints in the TX.

3 - I've reduced the gains within the Vector software back down to 50. They started at 50 as default, but for some reason I had set them to 75 before the maiden.

Gains/Throws - Too high gains make the vector too sensitive to movements, and this causes it to put a fair amount of opposite signal down to the control surface. Add to that, the large throws and the aircraft over-corrects the movement, causing the over-sensitive vector to once again send a signal to the surfaces to correct this new movement... it's over-correcting and over-sensitive all at the same time and the plane just ends up bobbing along. It starts off slowly and eventually gets to the point where it induces vomiting lol

Hopefully by reducing both the throws and the gains, I can get the X6 flying without making myself sick :)

[wayneuk]

loving the use of the lego !

i made this if you need one  http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1419025

[BlueFlyer]

did that take you long to get it the right shape/size?