Flying Flea

25 July 2016

Yesterday, a big predatory bird swooped and attacked the Flying Flea repeatedly. At one time, it caught the wing, but theFlea managed to escape. Its talons went through the starboard wing of the Flea. Everyone was excited at the spectacle.

 I think some tape would be fine to patch it up.

 

 

 

 

4 July 2016

I flew the Flying Flea yesterday after I hotglued the undercarriage wire into the slot, clipped the propeller short and made a battery connector to receive the spade type of batteries. At the field I discovered that the elevator is inverted when I used my WLToy's V911 transmitter, so the Flying Flea was flown in 2 channel mode: Throttle and Rudder. It flew easily to a great height using minimal throttle. On descent with throttle off, I can see it bobbing its nose slightly, indicating a slight stall condition on the front wing. There was a marked veering to the right, perhaps that got to do with the fact that the motor was spinning a smaller propeller?

The second flight ended prematurely when it dove to the ground and broke off the motor and the fin and rudder tore clear off the tail. It is fascinating that it requires such small amount of thrust and it appears that the front wings have high lift capability.

When I get my FS-i6 transmitter, I shall try again. All it now needs is some dabs of hotglue to re-secure the motor and tail.

4 January 2016

26 December 2015

Yes it flew!

It was over-powered. I think less than 1/3 throttle is required for level flight. I heard the propeller coming on and off intermittently at the lowest throttle I can maintain in order to reduce altitude.

Rudder control was ok, but the torque effect was significant. Even though I had set up exponential on the elevator, it was touchy to use elevator. To climb add throttle, to descent reduce throttle.  It was too windy to do meaningful flight adjustments.

25 December 2015

With the WLTOYS 8mm geared motor, a small cell but no undercarriage, the model weighed 35gm.
The undercarriage I had on the old Flea, constructed of CF rod running in aluminum tubing and commercial 1.5" wheels, weighs more than 7gm. That meant a 20% increase in weight if I use that.

The 7mm geared motor is much smaller and lighter than WLTOYS 8mm (which is a 8.5mm?). That meant a 10% reduction in weight if I use that. Also, the propeller is much smaller, and I will have less problem with trimming the torque.

The model is designed for 6-7mm geared motors, the thrust of the 7mm geared motor ought to be enough. However, I had the mount slotted to accept the 8mm and the 7mm mounting involves a square section rod so I hot glued the 8mm to the model. Looking for a reason for this decision, apart from the hassle of making a mount for the 7mm, I think 8mm is beneficial to the CG's position and I can keep the 7mm for something else.

The main wing was warped, so I raised a lower corner, mist and weighted the balsa wing. After 3 tries, the wing was corrected. I then used the remaining kit supplied 1mm CF rod and cut two lengths to the width of the main wing's ply pieces. They were inserted through the vertical ply wing mounts and superglued in placed. I think this is better and lighter than using the 4 missing kit supplied screws.

As for the undercarriage, I will leave them off for now, i.e., not going to make them, until the model had its flights. I superglued (Daiso's) small plastic tube to the hubs of the broken main gears of V977; they shall be the light weight wheels to replace the missing kit-supplied wheels.

Transmitter set up, model set up, cells charged, need to try in a big field on a calm day. I had to review how to bind and set up the Flysky transmitter.

21 December 2015

http://www.banggood.com/TY-Model-NO_7-292mm-Wingspan-Wood-Park-Flyer-RC-Airplane-KIT-p-1004972.html
T'is the season to be building, fly la la la lah, la fly la lah
From Banggood, a small laser cut balsa kit that looks a lot like the Flying Flea. The kit was selling for about $23.
Scary, the way it came in.






The balsa sheets were bagged and inside the folded corrugated board. (single edge razor blades not included)









Missing parts? Don't see the pair of wheels.










It looked ok.











The 3 sheets of balsa were complete, so was the ply piece. There're no wheels, and I don't think the wires/rods were all there.

Whatever it is, I started building.







I started by colouring the balsa sheet.


Time: 0:00







I drew the lines and coloured in with a red colour permanent marker.

Time: 0:11







Ah! The kit is missing 4 magnets! The missing magnets must have been 3mm diameter and perhaps only 1 or 2mm thick.
I have some 4mm magnets but they are too big for the formers. The awl cannot be used to enlarge the hole.

I would have saved some time if I had the 3mm magnets.



I enlarged the hole in the ply former with a round file and glued my 4mm x 3mm magnet into it.
Of course the former broke!
Then I assembled the 2 fuselage sides against the tray and glue them together. It is better to do it this way otherwise the ends might be mis-matched.

Time: 0:36



After the sides were glued to the frame, I found I needed to colour more balsa.

I painted the dashboard black and the top decking red.






They were glued to the fuselage and attention is now turned to the motor mount.

The motor mount had too small a slot to fit my WLTOYS 8mm motor.

Time: 1:43





The motor mount was marked out to receive the WLTOYS geared motor.










The motor mount was slotted ('dremel' type rotary tool rocks!) and drilled to accept the pins of the WLTOYS geared motor.

Time: 2:09







The motor mount was glued to the fuselage and I have to pre-colour yet another piece, this time the bottom of the nose before gluing the nose doublers and this nose bottom piece.








I assembled the pivot mount and glued it to the top of the fuselage. I pre-coloured the tail skid and glued it to the tail.


Time: 2:21






Work halted for the day, time for dinner.










I wrapped the pieces around a glass bottle, sprayed their top surfaces with water, some wood were used to spread the load of two rubber bands to prevent crushing of the moist surfaces, and left to dry in the morning sun.

Time: 2:30





When the pieces were dried, they were flattened out because I used a small glass bottle.

Drying and flattening time not included in the time taken to build this model.







The wings were assembled and glued 'in the air'.
Daiso's $2 5gm superglue rocks! And of course the precision of the parts were vital!

Time: 3:30







I marked out where the sewn hinges were to be. But I made the mistake by sewing from the other un-marked side. The kit is missing the plastic hinges in Banggood's photos.


Time: 3:45

It seems a dreaded task to mark out the locations, but actually it was very fast to do. 1 cm spacing.









The sewn hinge looked neat enough. it would have been faster, easier and neater if I had started the threading right on those pencil marks!


Time: 4:00

This is where the stale superglue can be used.












The hatch had two washers and these were attracted to the magnets in the fuselage.



Time: 4:10

The orange tube is the Daiso's superglue! Good product! Because it sticks well and it is cheap!











Another mistake I committed was to open up the rear slot for the rudder pushrod because I later decided that the front slot was more appropriate.



Time: 4:30












The kit is missing thin wires for the pushrods! The kit had enough carbon rod and heat shrink sleeve but no wire to make the connection. I had to use my own wires: a short length of thin music wire for the rudder horn connection and some lengths of thin flexible wire for the other 3 connections.

This took a long time to figure out and do.


Time: 5:00









Then I discovered that the motor wire was too short to connect to the board.

Flipping the WLTOYS receiver board didn't help, so the connections were fitted again and the receiver board was then hot glued in place. The sleeves were shrunk with a heated piece of paper clip.

Thang will give me an extension. He said he will give me a spare 7mm too.

Superglue was used throughout. I bought a fresh 5gm tube of cyanoacrylate from Daiso for $2.00. Good product! My stale balsa superglue (bought from model shop) didn't stick too well.












I still have to:

1. Wire up and hot glue the motor
2. Fixing the landing gear
3. Fixing the top wing. The kit is missing the 4 screws in Banggood's photo.

List of missing items in the kit:

1. 2 wheels
2. plastic hinges for the rudder
3. 4 screws
4. thin wire for the pushrods.