The OpenSwift is now covered, has a bit of color and is ready for its maiden flight. I think I’ll make the maiden flight next weekend.
Fly, baby! Fly!!!
Awesome!!!, will print one for me!!!
I love the color scheme. We will finally start printing ours today!! Out of curiosity, did you model the skin?
No, I didn’t model the skin. It’s all balsa. I recommend 1/16" balsa sheets. Covering is Monokote and/or Ultracote.
Sounds good, I’ll stock up on supplies.
You’ll also need 3 or 4 7mm carbon fibre tubes, 1m lengths.
What’s the final weight? Wing span? Any issues with reaching the required CG? Can’t wait to see the first flight videos.
@D_Myers , it weighs 850g. Everything included but the batteries. Wing span is 1m. I’ve got a bunch of wiggle room for the CG, the electronics bay is pretty far forward. I’m estimating the CG should be placed right in front of the back panel of the electronics bay.
Hopefully, I’ll have the CG set correctly the first time. It all depends on the accuracy of my center of pressure estimate.
I made a few attempts at a maiden flight today and learned a few things. Firstly, the frame is tough and can take a bit of a beating. No damage. Secondly hand launching is sadly impractical. Will figure out an easy way to get this in the air… Keep you all posted.
Newbie here: why don’t more drones launch from wheels / landing gear? Is it unwanted drag?
For landing gear, you need a hard flat surface (no bumps). Those are hard to come by in general. That’s why I want to hand launch. It’s more accessible.
I’m going to try launching this with an elastic sling launcher next. I might try my hand at a making a different model after this one. One that can be hand launched. Maybe a scale model of something.
So landing gear would be possible, right? So mole, not complex with retraction.
I don’t see why not.
I just bought myself some rubber tubing from HobbyKing, I’m looking at a 1 month lead time I’d say. Flight before the holidays! Stay tuned.
Since you have a bit of time before first flight, you may want to think about some winglets. This usually helps all fixed winged aircraft with softening snap roll tendencies, especially delta wings. I flew a friends delta wing on a trip to Mesa and I could easily ride a stall without a violent snap partly because it had winglets. Can’t wait for the video.
yeah you really need some vertical stabilizers on her!!
OK, I’ll have some for the next attempt.