Ground Control RC F-22 Mini V3 build log part 2 - cutting out the parts

Hi Everyone -

There are several ways to cut out the parts for a foam RC plane.  Some folks will use the plans to make templates that they trace around on the foam.  These can be made with inexpensive poster board and then recycled as many times as you want to build the plane.

I temporarily glue the plans to the foam, cut out the parts and then peel the plans from the foam.  I use this glue that holds the plans firm, but doesn't permanently fix the plans to the foam.  I know people also tape the plans down, whatever works for you or you find easiest.😊

I like to cut the parts out of the main sheet of the plans after printing them off, then place them on my foam in a way that works for me and reduces the wasted foam.  I find it much easier to handle and place these smaller pieces of paper rather than trying to place a large sheet which can cause issues with wrinkling, etc.  To build this plane, you will want two sheets of the 20"x30" Dollar Tree foam (DTF).

If you have never built with DTF before, I shot this video with all my lessons learned having built with DTF for over two years now.  If you watch the video on You Tube, you can go to the video description and find links to blog posts I wrote discussing my journey building with DTF.

Once I have my parts laid out on the full sheet of foam, I like to cut this sheet down into more manageable parts so that they are easier to handle and allow me to orient the foam so I get the best quality cuts.

Before going any further, I will mention that it is important to be patient when cutting out the parts, ensure you go over the plans for any instructions or marks you need to make before taking the plans off the foam.  If you forget to mark something that is important later in the build, it can be difficult to do once the plans have been removed, especially if you have thrown them away😕

Also, take your time, don't try to cut through the DTF in one cut, sometimes you need to lightly score the foam and then go back over it another time or two to get clean cuts.  Since you are cutting through two (or three if you are cutting through the plans also) layers of paper and the foam, it can dull your knife quickly.  Either change your blade or sharpen it as soon as you feel the blade pulling on the foam rather than cutting or you will tear the foam and end up with ragged edges.

You will note that on some parts, there are two required (elevons, vertical stabilizers, landing skids, KF airfoils).  There are a couple of ways you can cut these out.  You can use one that you cut out and trace around it to cut out the second, or if you use the method that I do, you can carefully peel the plans off the piece you just cut out and recycle it to cut out the second piece.

On the fuselage and the top nose panel, you will note the checkerboard areas where that foam will be removed, but paper left behind.  Carefully remove this foam to leave paper behind.

On the larger fuselage piece, I find it easier to crack the foam and then carefully using my thumbnail remove the section of foam, leaving the paper behind.  Picture below shows that the seam on both sides of the foam to be removed has been cracked, then the foam can be more easily removed.

Here are the parts above with all the foam removed and paper left behind.

On the score lines, I like to use something where I can crease the paper and foam gently through the plans so that the foam will bend the way I want.  If you do not crease the foam slightly, when you go to bend the foam, it will bend wherever it wants to, not necessarily where it should.  

To mark the CG (centre of gravity) which is very critical to being able to properly balance the plane for flying, I use a pin and poke it through the foam, ensuring the hole is big enough that I can see it afterwards, especially if I am going to paint the plane.

To make the motor mount, you can use thin wood, plastic gift cards, etc.  Again, I glue the paper to the wood, then cut it out.  In this case I used some small pine wood pieces I got from a craft store.  Then ensure you drill out the center hole to allow the motor shaft to spin freely and the holes to accept the motor bolts to secure the motor later on.

If you want ideas on how to make your motor mount from old plastic gift cards, this video might give you some ideas.

With the plans still on the foam, also ensure you poke a hole through where the bamboo skewer will go to support the hatch for the electronics bay.  I find it easiest to gently push the sharp end of a bamboo skewer through using a slight twisting motion.

I gently pressed down on the foam to mark where my control horn will go, ensure you lay out your elevons so that you mark them correctly and don't accidentally mark the same side on both of them.  The elevon control horn will be mounted on the top of the elevon.

Please note in the last picture I have now marked that small groove with a pen so that I will know where to put my control horn.

As mentioned earlier, carefully go over each part to ensure you have marked or creased important lines that will be important later in the build😊

Next up, part 3, prepping the parts for assembly including treating the foam to make it waterproof.💦

Cheers,

Scott

#ParkJetnoise

#ParkJetpilot

#GCRCF22MiniV3

Ground Control RC F-22 Mini V3 build log Part 1 - Intro

Hi Everyone -

Welcome to my build log series of the Ground Control RC (GCRC) F-22 Mini V3.😊

Here is some flight video of this little steed in action😎

As I mention in the video, this plane is build with Dollar Tree foam (also known as Adams Readiboard) but could with the necessary adjustments to the slots on the plans be built with just about any foam you have available.  You can see much more information about this awesome little park jet at GCRC's You Tube channel and his Patreon site.  

Here are the basic dimensions of this park jet.

Wingspan - 22"/559 mm Length - 28.75"/730 mm Height - 4.75"/120.7 mm

In the video, my AUW with a 1050 Mah 3S 75C battery is 326 gr/11.5 oz.

Between us to this point, GCRC and I have accumulated well over 200 test flights with this plane with different props, motors, ESCs, batteries, KF (Kline Fogleman) airfoil combinations. Therefore it is a very well tested and evaluated park jet right from the plans through to the finished flying product😊

In the video, my plane is equipped with the following inexpensive components.

Prop - RC Timer 6x3 electric sport prop;

Motor - Racerstar BR2406S 2600 kv motor;

ESC - Turnigy Plush 30A with built in 2A/5V BEC (good for up to 6 servos)

Battery - Tattu 1050 3S 75C; and

Servos - Two (elevons only) GOTECK GS-9018C 9 gr nylon gear servos.

This is a very agile and fast park jet with the current setup and I would say is in the intermediate category, so I would not recommend it as a beginner/trainer park jet.  However, if you check out GCRC's You Tube channel and Patreon site, he has some better options if you are just getting started in the hobby or park jets.😊

Next up, part 2, cutting out the parts.

Cheers,

Scott

#ParkJetnoise
#ParkJetpilot
#GCRCF22MiniV3

FRC Foamies F/A-18 Hornet - my first tail mount park jet

Hi Everyone -

As the title suggests, I finally got around to building my first tail mount park jet, the FRC Foamies F/A-18 Hornet😎

I modified this plane in a few areas, primarily downsized it, added KF4 airfoils, if you watch this video, I discuss my build in far more detail including many lessons learned.

If you want to see more details and pictures of my build, please go to the RC Powers thread on the FRCF F/A-18.  Also, you will find a more detailed flight report there.

Being that this was my first tail mount park jet, I also shot this video discussing what I feel are some of the differences between the more popular mid mount "prop in slot" park jets and tail mount.

This park jet erased many of my "paradigms" and pre-conceived notions about tail mount park jets and I have been having a blast flying it and accumulated over 100 flights in about two weeks😊

Some flight footage on 3S (after paint job😉)

And some 4S fun😎

I am not going to be changing my entire "hangar" over to tail mount park jets anytime soon, but I will be building an FRC Foamies F-22 Raptor later this year as it is tough to beat the scale look of a tail mount park jet when you want to show off a little😎

#ParkJetnoise

Cheers,

Scott

Resizing Park Jet plans to print from home computer - 09 Jan 2019

Hi Everyone -

If you have been following this blog and/or my YouTube channel, you may know that I often will downsize a plane from it's "stock" size(what it would be if printed at 100%).  Since I have been using quad racing motors in my planes I do this quite often as I like the planes to be a little smaller to compensate for the lower torque and of course to help them go faster😃😎

Most park jet plans come in "tiled" (you print them off at home and then tape the sheets together to make one large sheet of plans) or "untiled" where you can send them to a professional printer and have them printed.  Unfortunately, most designers "lock" their plans, so without a password, you can't get them downsized by most print shops using the "untiled" format.  However, there are a couple of options I have found that work well using your home computer and printer. 

I am using Windows 10 on a PC and always have, if you use a Mac or other operating system, I'm not sure if your print window will look the same.  I have taken pictures of my computer screen, I apologize the pictures aren't terribly clear, but hopefully it will help you out.

Tiled

If you decide to use the tiled plans, the only option is to downsize.  I have had reasonable luck with these aligning for most park jet plans.

So using an RC Powers Su-30 V4 set of plans as an example, if I want to downsize to 85% lets say, once I enter the print window, I go to this area and select 85% under Custom Scale.

I also like to select Print in grayscale and Save/ink toner as there will be several sheets printed and I like to save as much ink as possible😃

When you look in this area of the window, it will give you what size the printed area will be on each sheet of paper (this is based on 8 and 1/2 x 11", I'm not sure if it does the same thing for A4, most plans are based on 8 and 1/2 x 11").  You can always print off one sheet to see how it looks, then if you are happy print the whole plan off and then trim and tape together.

I have found more often when doing it this way that there might occasionally be places where the parts don't line up exactly, so you have to take some care to "extrapolate" a bit when taping together or cutting the foam to get good pieces from which to build your plane.

Untiled plans

I seem to have the best luck getting the plans to line up using the "untiled" plans and printing them using the Poster function in the print window, so that has become my choice for resizing plans I have to print on my home printer.

After selecting Print, go to "Poster" and you will see these selections.  Put in the scale you want in the Tile Scale window, I leave the Overlap the way it is and then select cut marks.  The cut marks will give you small guide markers to help aligning the pages.  You may still need to trim and tape the pages together just like when using the "tiled" setup.

After selecting the scale you want, you can click on the right side of the print window in the area where you see the magnifying glass with the "+" sign.  It will calculate how many sheets of paper will be required to do the job.  The dashed lines show how the original "untiled" plans will be divided into individual sheets of paper that will then have to be taped together so that you can cut out the parts.

Again, if you want to minimize the amount of ink used, select Grayscale and Save ink/toner as described above.

Although I have never tried it, you should also be able to "upsize" plans using the "untiled" plans and this method.  Just as an experiment, I typed in 110 in the Tile Scale  window.

As you can see below, this results in several more sheets of paper being required to print these larger plans.

Cutting plans after resizing

One thing you do need to be conscious of when cutting out the plans after resizing is ensure that the slots you cut will fit the foam you are using.  I have found that normally when downsizing, if I cut the slots along the outside edge of the black line that denotes them, most foams will fit snugly.  Better to cut a little narrow as you can always gently pinch the foam of the tabs to get things to fit when you do your dry fit, but cutting too big and the plane will not go together easily.

Cheers,

Scott

Quad motors in park jets - summary after over a year of testing - 13 Sep 2018

Hi Everyone -

This summary has been a long time coming and if you already follow this blog and my You Tube channel, much of what you are about to read or watch has already been covered.  However, I wanted to do a bit of a wrap up to review some of the more important points and some of the items I may not have discussed to this point.😊

I have certainly become a convert to using quad motors in my single motor, prop in slot park jets.  Their light weight and incredible power certainly fits the way I like to fly.  Of course this power does come with a cost in both money and amp draw and requires some consideration about which plane to choose and how to build it, but for me it has been worth it.

Here is a video I shot that this blog supports.

I mentioned three major sources of information that I found very helpful making the correct choices to achieve the power setups I was looking for.  Here they are.

• rcplanepirate's You Tube channel;
• EngineerX's You Tube channel; and
• miniquadtestbench.com. 

You can also find all the my bench test data on my motor test spreadsheet.  Each motor I tested has it's own page, so if you scroll along the bottom you can navigate to whatever motor you want to view.  Also on this spread sheet is test data from the 2212/6 2200 kv and 2212/5T 2700 kv motors which are the two most popular park jet motors around and what I replaced in all my planes.  I put this data there for info and to compare.  Also, rather than providing links to every motor, prop, ESC and battery I used in testing in this blog post, you will find links to all of these on the motor test spreadsheet.  Where applicable, I also put what custom settings I selected on certain ESCs to maximize performance.  All these setups have been thoroughly tested at the field also.

I also started a thread on the RC Powers forum which may also cover some items missed in this blog post or videos.

From the first post of the RC Powers forum thread, here are the advantages and disadvantages of using quad motors over the more conventional 2212 motors in 2200 and 2700 kv.

Advantages

• quad racing motors tend to be much lighter, saving anywhere from 15-25 grams just in motor weight alone;
• paired with the right prop and ESC, they can produce equal to or often far more power than the standard 2212 2200 kv or 2212/5T 2700 kv motors, so very high thrust to motor weight ratios;
• with so much time and effort being put into the development of lighter, more powerful quad racing motors all the time, the performance is increasing in leaps and bounds whereas the 2212 2200 kv motors other than perhaps becoming cheaper, have not changed much in the last several years from a standpoint of weight and power output;
• although quad motors are often more expensive, because there are so many different companies making them, the competition is fierce and you can often find them for a very reasonable price. For example, I have only paid full price on about 25% of the motors I have purchased in the last year, the rest were all picked up on sale (although one could say I might have gone broke saving money😏);
• many quad motors are designed to be run on batteries from 2-6S, so a wide choice of battery options;
• if you find a motor you really like, they are often sold in bunches of four at a more reasonable price.

Disadvantages

• due to their smaller physical size, they often might not have the torque of a 2212 2200 kv motor. Even though the test bench numbers might show incredible performance, sometimes because they are about half the physical size of a 2212 size motor, they just don't have the "muscle" to push a larger, "draggier" plane around or deal with windier conditions. Therefore airplane size and weight becomes very critical. I have found that planes with about 27" wingspan or less and under about 21 oz AUW work the best, as always, the lighter the better;
• when you build your "prop in slot" plane, you do need to adjust the front of the prop slot quite a bit to compensate for the much shorter "bell/can", otherwise the prop will run far too close to the leading edge of the prop slot causing a lot of noise and causing the prop to run much less effectively/efficiently;
• with a couple of exceptions, I have found that motors with a stator size of 2306 or better (2406, 2307, 2207, 2208 for example) and greater than 2600 kv seem to give the best power when looking for equal or better power than produced by the 2212 2200 kv motor setups;
• they are often considerably more expensive than 2212 2200 kv motors which can often be found on Ebay for $5 USD, but there are some fairly reasonable options available that are pretty peppy and much lighter than a 2212 2200 kv motor setup; and
• they are considerably more "amp hungry" than the 2212 2200 kv motor, normally requiring a 40A ESC on 3S whereas you can often run the 2212 2200 kv motor with a 30A ESC.

As mentioned in the first video, here are the final reviews I did organizing the motors into "budget", "middle of the pack" and "serious power where cost doesn't matter"😉

Budget/value

Middle of the pack (includes a couple of motors to avoid)

My top five choices where cost and efficiency isn't an issue😎

I have also created several playlists to organize other "table talks" about motors, ESCs, batteries that I tested during this process.  As time goes on and I have evaluated these components more thoroughly, these play lists will be updated.  Also is a playlist of all the flying tests at the field.

Thorough reviews of individual quad motors can be found here.  

ESC reviews can be found here.

Battery reviews can be found here.

Field testing play list can be found here. 

One thing I should mention that I did not mention in the video, if you don't want to spend money on new ESCs, experiment with higher timing and different PWM settings if you can.  Even if you don't have a thrust stand to evaluate, normally the quad motors I tested all seemed to like a pretty high timing setting for max performance.  Having said that, monitor the heat build up carefully in your ESC as often most ESCs will run warmer with a higher timing setting.

So certainly none of this information is exhaustive and I will continue to evaluate and learn as my park jet journey continues.  I may still test the odd motor that comes along but for now I am pretty satisfied with the setups I have discovered and will continue to use quad motors in my park jets for the foreseeable future😊

Park Jet noise...the "other" sound of freedom😎

Cheers,

Scott

Setting up the FlySky FS-i6 transmitter for use with RC Desk Pilot simulator

Hi Everyone -

In my continuing journey experimenting with and evaluating the very inexpensive and capable FlySky FS-i6 transmitter, I recently set it up to be used with the free to download RC Desk Pilot simulator.

I should also add at this point that my transmitter screen may look different than yours if you have the stock FlySky FS-i6 as I have done a firmware upgrade to have a timer, 10 channels, etc.  You can learn more about how that went by watching this video.

I got the inspiration and information I needed to accomplish this in the easiest and most inexpensive way by watching this video by Mirko FPV.

I picked up the required cables from Banggood and Ebay.  I couldn't seem to find both suitable cables from just one vendor unfortunately, but shipping was free from both😊  Here are the links.

• 4 pin S-video to 3 RCA female plugs (this part plugs into the back of the transmitter) $1.41 USD from Ebay;
• 3.5mm jack plug to 3 RCA male plugs (this part connects to the first cable and then plugs into the microphone port on my computer) $1.66 USD from Banggood.

I went to the SmartPropoplus website to download that software so that my transmitter could interface with my computer.  When you clink on the link, you can do much more reading about the basics and more advanced properties of SmartPropoplus.

Once loaded up on the computer, this is what it looks like before connecting the transmitter.  A few shots taken from my computer screen, apologize for the quality😊  I should mention that I have a PC using Windows 10 in case you have another setup or a Mac, I do not know if it will work or look like the pictures below.

Since the transmitter must be turned on when using the simulator, I built a "plane" in my transmitter strictly for the sim so that I would not interfere with any settings on my real planes.

I then connected the two cables, plugged them into my transmitter and computer and opened SmartPropoplus.  If the transmitter is turned off when you do this, you will see transmitter disconnected in the bottom window.

On the Transmitter page, you want to select Standard in the PPM window, I didn't change anything else at this point. 

I did check the Joystick page to ensure that when I moved the sticks, the green moved up and down accordingly and matched the channels in the transmitter.  I have a Mode 2 transmitter, so Channel 1 is aileron (roll), Channel 2 is elevator (pitch), Channel 3 is throttle and Channel 4 is rudder (yaw).  I'm not sure why it shows channels 7 and 8 active, however, I didn't worry about that too much as RC Desk Pilot is a simple simulator with primarily 4 channel or less models in it's data base.  I couldn't really see any way to change this in SmartPropoplus anyway😊 vJoy 1 is the only selection I had available which is my transmitter.

I'm not sure if it makes a difference, but on the Input page, I selected "Auto" on the Bit Rate and Audio source channel in hope that the computer would optimize the settings.

Once SmartPropoplus is happy and the transmitter is turned on and communicating correctly with the computer, you should get this message at the bottom.😊 If not, it will give you a message of what needs to be corrected before the transmitter will communicate properly with the computer.

I then downloaded RC Desk Pilot to start setting that up.  Here are a few notes of the requirements from the downloads screen.  Interestingly, I guess with my Windows 10 computer, as I was going through the download process, it would not download RC Desk Pilot until DirectX 9.0c was downloaded, the "down loader" essentially told me this and I just agreed as I went along and it worked out fine.😁

RC Desk Pilot is fairly simple to use, to make any changes, you need to "hover" your mouse cursor in the top left corner of the screen to make changes, selecting "menu" will take you to the page you need to ensure your controller is working properly.

Once you select menu, you go to this page where you can change between aircraft and other items, to set up the transmitter, select controls.

Your transmitter may be different I'm not sure, I had to change most of the channels in this menu to correspond to the appropriate channel/axis on my transmitter controls.  

Also of note, I had to reverse three of my channels to get things working properly.  Fortunately, when you have your plane on the runway in RC Desk Pilot, you can see the controls moving when you move the sticks, so that is a visual way to see if things are set up properly.

There are several other settings you can experiment with, but I won't go into those here, I simply wanted to cover the basics so that you can get your FlySky FS-i6 connected to a simple and free simulator😊

Park Jet noise...the "other" sound of freedom😎

Cheers,

Scott

"Table Talk" - How I make KF4 airfoils for park jets

Hi Everyone -

I am asked often about how I do KFs for my park jets, so I thought it time to do a more detailed video rather than trying to answer the same question numerous times.  Some of the information in the video below is obviously opinion and suited to how I like my planes to fly, but it is also backed up by a lot of field testing of different size and shapes of KF airfoils across a wide variety of planes.

Here is the link to the blog post I wrote as part of my blog series called "Which Park Jet for me?".

A close up picture of my drawing for the F-18 wing plate mock up I used in the video above.

The terms "fuselage notch" and "engine notch" are unique to RC Powers V5 plans, so when drawing the top KF on other plans, I just ensure I make the inner line along where the fuselage will be.  Then again for the bottom KF where the inner edge is indicated in red (sorry that it is a bit blurred😕), it should go along the outer edge of the engine/nacelle/intake part of the plane along the bottom.

Here is the close up picture of a Mig/Su style swept wing where the trailing edge sweeps forward.  The measurements and calculations are essentially the same as shown above.  Once I make the calculations for the wing area, I also draw out the top KF using the LERX which you can see in orange at the top of the picture.

For F-22/T50 style wings, it can be a little bit trickier as the wing has such a unique shape, so as mentioned in the video, I don't use the normal trailing edge to calculate the 40% as this would cause the KF to be too large.  In the case of this style plane, not only could this introduce more drag and the negative behaviors mentioned in the video, since the horizontal stab and elevon are so close to the wing, the "vortex" caused by the KF could interfere with these if the KF was too big.  Once making the calculations for the wing, I also include the area along the intake marked in orange at the top of the picture for the top KF.

In the video, I realize I might not have done a very good job of explaining how to trace out the bottom KF if you don't use the method of recycling the plans to cut them out.  In the picture below, I have highlighted the outer edge of the top KF in orange and drawn a line in red where the inner edge of the bottom KF would be.

Imagining that you have the top KF cut out, what I do then is lay it on another piece of foam and trace the portion to the left of the red line, making marks or using pins to mark on the foam where the inner edge of the bottom KF will be.  Then I join all the lines and cut out the bottom KF.

KF airfoils are certainly fun to experiment with and with a little foam and testing it is an inexpensive way to enhance the performance of your park jet or any other foam plane for that matter.😊  

Park Jet noise...the "other" sound of freedom.😎

Cheers,

Scott