LiquidSky

If you are applying monokote to a structure with a complicated surface, chances are you will have an uneven application sooner or later. When this happens and one area is not as taught as the others, or even has a bit of “puffyness” in extreme cases, you can tighten it up with an application of heated air. Word to the wise though, if your heat is concentrated in a small area, you are at risk of a spot burning though very quickly. I had a test wing segment that had a bit of sag around the leading edge, so I applied some heat from a butane lighter with excellent results – right up to the point where it melted a dime-sized hole!

Monokote + butane lighter you ask? Surely I should have known better? But ofcourse! That is what experimentation and improvisation is all about.

Kyle Humor, Remote Control Airplanes Balsa Construction, Medicine Man Glider, Monokote

If you are making a balsa wood wing, notice how many wing spars there are. Want to make them all a uniform size and shape? Cut them all out slightly oversized and use a small piece of what will be the wing spar to line them all up together and shape them all at the same time. Or…. search ebay for a CO2 laser CNC machine!

Rough Cut

Smoother Finish

Before & After

Kyle Remote Control Airplanes Balsa Construction, Medicine Man Glider

My second design decision was to use a foam wing from  a Piper Cub trainer kit. The idea was that foam would absorb more impact force generated from the guaranteed-to-ensue carnage. This wing, however, was designed for powered flight, not gliding.

Aerospace Law 1:
Short Wings = High Speed
That’s why fighters have short wings and Cessna’s have long safe ones

Combine this with previously mentioned factors – more weight and more speed = bigger crashes! Let the fun begin.

Kyle Aerospace, Humor, Remote Control Airplanes, Uncategorized Balsa Construction, Medicine Man Glider, Sailplane

There is a fundamental rule taught in every middle school science class: only change one variable at a time.  I wasn’t in class that day! The Medicine Man is a great glider, but if you are like me – your curiosities sometimes get the better of you.

First off: I built mine at about 150% scale. This does not a negative thing outright, but it does mean that you are dealing with more mass. This brings us to:

Physics Law 1:
Force = Mass * Acceleration
In practice, the ground will bring your plane to a stop in a hurry, and the more plane you have, the more there is to break!

Don’t worry, this is only important in a crash, and I don’t plan on crashing! ….yeaaaaah

Kyle Aerospace, Remote Control Airplanes, UAV, Uncategorized Add new tag, Balsa Construction, Make Magazine, Medicine Man Glider, Monokote, Sailplane

We went to go fly the Medicine Man glider in the vast empty student parking lot at McNeil highschool. It was a pretty windy day, so I was excited to see how the glider’s stability would fair in a breeze, and I was not dissapointed! However, I was concentrating so intently on watching the stability that I did not notice a rather tall light pole. Turns out a 1lb or so balsa and foam glider does not do so well against a (relatively) unmovable object, and carnage ensued.

On a more positive note, sting launching went fairly well! We just used a length of kitestring, tied a small loop in the end for the belly hook, and then ran like fools across the parking lot!

I also made a modification for testing purposes involving the removal of the bottom lobe of the tail so that it was flush with the bottom of the fuselage. This modification lets the fuselage absorb impacts, as I had experienced a few rough landings where a considerable ammount of energy went directly into the rudder, sheaing it from the tail.

This particular frame will surely have a few more modifications and “battlefield repairs” that will keep it far from bueaty contests – but that is kind of the joy of experimentation – you are not so afriad of scratches that you don’t push the envelope a little!

Kyle Aerospace, Austin TX, Humor, Remote Control Airplanes, Uncategorized Balsa Construction, Make Magazine, Medicine Man Glider, Monokote, Sailplane

With the oak pollen hitting full force this weekend, it was a great time to stay in and work on the plane some. I decided in the interest of cost, timeline, and simplicity that I would keep this plane a glider, saving the resources for future projects. Next will come some basic glide tests to set up proper center-of-gravity, as well as to gauge stability, then the ArduPilot and camera instillation.

Things that I have learned so far from this project:

1) In the words of pretty much every single middle school shop teacher: measure twice, cut once. Working with photoshop and flash all day gets you in the bad habbit of relying on an “undo button”, turns out roughing out a cut and then trimming it down requires alot more time and wastes supplies too.

2) When trying to develop a new skill, go out on a limb. This can be especially true for learning things like how to apply Monokote – all the manuals and tutorials in the world will not preparing you like just trying it does. Make a test area, or try it out on a not-as-critical area first. Square, flat, and small-er sections are great to experiment on. I think that we are becoming overly-reliant on pre-built solutions. Although you can be mostly sure that the “ready to fly” park flyer foam plane will work out of the box, you are missing out on half of the fun!

3) Ability may come from inspiration, but craftsmanship comes from practice. There are imperfections in the structure, the Monokote is warped in places, and some of the cosmetic details are slightly less than pretty, but by the time I was getting to the last cross members or final film coat, I had done it enough to feel confident that the next one I build will be a great deal better – and even more so for the one after that. Just like you learned in school that a good scientific experiment only has one variable, when it comes to building an airplane, it’s best to take as many variables out as possible. If you are new to the building aspect, start with a proven design!

Kyle Aerospace, Remote Control Airplanes Balsa Construction, Medicine Man Glider, Monokote, Sailplane

This engine is a bit too big...

Here is the frame so far, now there’s the question of how to mount the hardware so that it doesn’t tear away in flight.. or worse, on landing!

Kyle Aerospace, Remote Control Airplanes Balsa Construction, Make Magazine, Medicine Man Glider, Sailplane

I have been researching different R/C airplanes to use as a platform for various UAV experiments. I figure that it would be reasonable to have a pretty simple and durable test airplane to first use to get familiar with things like landing and how wind effects smaller aircraft, as well as testing basic navigation without (too much) fear of a horrific crash. I’ve looked at various park flier “foamies” and came to the conclusion that a stable, slow 3 channel craft would fit the bill nicely. However, it bothered me how cheap looking the foamies I was considering looked, and I am worried about structural integrity after carving a cavity for the ArduPilot, GPS, camera, etc.

And then … Make Magazine.

I was reading the hot-off-the-press issue 17 and came to an article about the demise of model aircraft. In short it put forth the idea that “Ready To Fly” foamie are to airplanes as fast food is to cuisine – yes the airplane did fly, but it’s a totally disposable experience after a few hours. It then offered a solution – a simple, stable balsa constructed, traditionally designed sailplane model that could be built by anyone with some patience called the Medicine Man. They even included the plans to build on and several pages of step-by-step instructions. This was the ticket!

So I downloaded the plans an took them to my local blueprint shop, had them print it full sized for like $1.80 and was ready to go!

Kyle Aerospace, Remote Control Airplanes, UAV Balsa Construction, Make Magazine, Medicine Man Glider, Sailplane