rolled sticksRossyspsce wrote:How do you guys make your motorsticks? Rolled, similar to f1ds?coachchuckaahs wrote:Rossy:
Since you have build form a kit, I would consider building your own. Bill Gowen's Finney 19 is very good. Bill's construction techniques have formed our basis for 3 years now. The carbon approach builds up easy and straight. I think FFM (Dave) went to all carbon spars this year as well.
There really is not much to laser cut. Ribs? You can EASILY make a cardstock, metal, or wood template. However, my preference is to curve the sheet the "hard way" around a form (we cut a form from 2x4, but a bucket would work). Soak the wood briefly in water, then wrap on and tape or bind down. Let it dry, or if micro safe, cook it low power for 4 or 5 minutes. Now the grain follows the rib, much stronger than laser cut.
The hard part to keeping weight manageable is the motor stick. We have several "very good" sheets of light 3/16, that is also stiff. We have been using this for motor sticks for several years. For LPP we used the same sheet that worked for Heli last year. When you find good motorstick stock, you set it aside and don;t use it for anything else.
We have been building around 6g this year. Very careful use of glue is important.
If you must do a kit, take a look at Josh's kits as well.
As noted by others, Dave's kits are always filling the top ten at Nationals. Dave leaves a little room for students to experiment. Josh is new to the SO market, but is a highly accomplished indoor flyer, and his kit looks excellent too.
Get building, you need a number of sessions to optimize a plane. You can get it trimmed and flying well "as is" in the first session. Second session you can work on optimizing the rubber choices you have to the prop you have. Then further sessions are spent optimizing the system, including prop, rubber, and trim. By the time we make Nationals, we'll have 400 or so logged flights.
Coach Chuck
specialized balsa you just buy sheets soak em roll em and bake em
glue the seam w a jig pole holes for the tubes and you're all set
