Slow Flyer

27 February 2017

Removed the board from the Slow Flyer on 25 February 2017 and used it in a F15 SG.

1 July 2016

I wanted a simple small delta with WLTOYS receiver board and a direct drive 8mm motor and hubsan prop pusher. Unfortunately, the FS TH9X transmitter had its throttle full on, and until such time I get it fixed or found a replacement, I am stuck with WLTOYS transmitter. So I stripped away the motor and board from the failed delta and did this BD5 instead. The curved shapes are free hand, the dimensions were what I had left over of the 2mm Daiso foam from the failed delta project.

The Hubsan propeller is only 55mm, maybe I made the BD5 too big, will it fly....

Well, if it does fly, it will be a slow flyer. On the bright side, the board is a V949, so I have the direction control on the right hand stick; feels more natural. And the wings are simple curled 2mm foam sheets glued at a dihedral angle after making appropriate concave cuts to the roots. The wing halves are hotglued and stiffened with strips of PVC sheet. The failed delta had the elevons hinged one at the top and the other at the bottom, I did a samehanded pair of wing halves! hahaa....

On 26 June 2016, the field was windy but I was there. The wings are too flexible, they curved up easily and it wasn't possible to fly. I shall stiffen the wings span-wise and try again because there seems to be enough thrust from the 55mm propeller.

I clipped the wings so it can fit in my motorcycle box. I have also added a carbon fibre strip to stiffen the wing. On 30 June 2016, test flights resumed. Test glide looks ok, but I still think the CG needs to be forward because it seems to sink more instead of glide. The wing does not distort out of shape now. The high thrustline makes the model dive, so the throttle was minimal during test flights. The fin and rudder was too large, it goes inverted easily and it doesn't turn with the rudder. The elevator is very sensitive even with small throws. I think the tall rudder is acting like an aileron, which is against the direction of intended turn. Back home, I reduce the fin and rudder's height, so it is ready for test flights. If that doesn't work, I have three options:

1. cut and hinge the rear fuselage below the tail to make that as a rudder
2. cut and hinge the rear fuselage above the tail to make that as a rudder and because the motor is glued to that, I get thrust vectoring.
3. buy and use that FS-i6 and use elevon mix. This seems to be simplest option.  

On 25 June 2016, I wondered and came up with this sketch.

Since my TH-9X transmitter is not working, these shall be controlled by the WLTOYs' V911 transmitter, that is, rudder/elevator/throttle. The receiver board will be hotglued through a rectangle hole in the top of the model. The servos and servo horns will be exposed. The battery will be routed forward of the board and velcroed to the nose.

For thrust, WLTOYs' geared motor and prop will be glued on to the wings, tractor-mode so I don't have to fabricate a pusher prop. The top half of the prop spin will be covered by the top and two sides; the lower half arcs through the bottom through a slot in the wings. I would prefer that the props be clear of the wings, but if I do that, the nose of the model which carries the battery and will have to sustain a lot of impact force will only be hanging at the top to the trough and structurally that would be too weak.

I could have chosen to use the 55mm prop, but I think it would be more interesting to have a boxy plane that has more thrust.

These are inspired by the RC 'Egg Planes'. I don't do them because they are a lot of work and a lot of foam. Thin foam sheets are not readily available off-the-shelf in Singapore. The Daiso foam I am using is 2mm thick. They are cheap, $2.00 for 5 sheets of 300mm x 450mm.

 I call this type of boxy planes, 'Cuboid Planes'. Simple to build accurately since they don't need extensive rolling or curling. The 90 degrees bends are easier to do and these are far and few apart. Cuboid Plaines are Profile Planes that uses straight edges and square bends to achieve the cuboid look. They are simple to design, just enlarge the section of the fuselage in height and width to house the propeller and blend the rest to suit.

I think the ducts in a ducted fan increases thrust, but the small fans reduces efficiency because the blades are of reduced span. Overall, propellers beat ducted fans, at least for model use. So I give away something by using a rectangular duct, but it is better than nothing! And not forgetting that I retained the full span of the propellers. Who knows, perhaps my square/rectangle ducted props might give out more thrust than a simple prop?

The square/rectangular duct has 2 horizontal and 2 vertical surfaces. They are far apart from each other, so structurally, that's a plus! The 2 horizontal surfaces are bi-planes, so they contributed to the wing area. The duct is short and goes directly to the horizontal tail surfaces, so the tail surfaces will be more effective; even though the prop stream is only to one side of the tail surfaces.

My idea of a F4 Phantom. Hoping this would be stable for a RET RC plane. Area above wings is dihedral. Motor at bottom lowers CG, partly offset by the receiver board which is mounted on the 'ducts'. The 'Duct' wing is bigger than the low wing. Anhedral tail is ok since it is above CG. Battery will be velcroed to nose for CG balancing. If CG balances alright anyway, then maybe the battery can be slung under the low wing? Instead of rudder at the rudder position, how about moving that triangular bit as a rudder? If I do that I get some indirect thrust vectoring?

Through the observation of BD5 I think this F4 Phantom's rudder will not be effective but the triangle bit will be. Simplest option is still to buy and use the FS-i6 transmitter, choose elevon and either make the elevators into elevons or make the bottom of the duct into elevons. For the first option, the horizontal surfaces will be huge and the CG can be located aft. For the second option, the horizontal surfaces can be reduced since it has become a flying box and the rest is appendage, so the non-moveable tail surfaces should be reduced with the CG located forward.

13 June 2016

I got 30 minutes flying time on a 520 mah cell. The model went up sedately under power, and with the motor cut off, it came gently down. The flying speed is slow, I can catch the model easily when seated. The rudder response is good, coupled with the dihedral, I could turn very tightly, sometimes, it seems it can turn around along the fuselage length.

Obviously the incidence of the wing relative to the fuselage is too great and the model doesn't require that amount. As the model sinks slowly to the ground, the fuselage is pointing downwards at a noticeable angle. If I reduce the incidence, the fuselage will appear more in line with the direction of glide and there should be less drag. The high wing incidence relative to the horizontal stabiliser (which is mounted flat along the fuselage) also meant that the elevators have a large amount of down. If I reduce the wing's, less down elevator will result and better efficiency. The two wheels are still there although they could be safely taken out because landing would not be any problem without them and more drag reduction.

The soft wire connectors are great, I could tighten the pull strings to give the controlled surfaces more left/right or up/down trim.

8 June 2016

Yes it flew. In the end I managed to get the model trimmed at around 50% CG with drooping elevators and responsive left and right turns. 15+ minutes of power and glide is no problem with old WLToys' V977 520mah single cell. Main construction material were from bought from Daiso and hot-glued together.

It flies slowly, it was the slowest plane on the field. Short blips of power would cause the model to surge forward before slowing down again visibly. Landing is on the spot.

Structure

Assembled, the plane was placed in the car boot, but on arrival, the front cabane strut to fuselage was detached. On inspection, wood fibres were stuck to the hot glue, so I come to the conclusion that hot glue is 'stronger' and therefore perfectly ok. A tinsy bit of UHU POR from our Philippines freinds got the model repaired for flight testing.
The tip panels were bendy, pulling up on a dive has the tips bend upwards and too much down elevator has the tips flattening!
Fuselage is too bendy and it can't resist the left pull of the left sided elevator pull lines, I hotglued a line on the right to pull the tail.
There is no wing struts. I figured I would let it flex.
A single rubber band is used to secure the wing to the pylon mount.
My fake spoked wheels held up, perhaps because my landings were on the spot and not rolling landings. Whatever it is, I think I can adopt the spoked wheel making method used for my WLToys' planes.

Layout

CG: The CG was shifted from 75% to 50% and I did not foresee having to drop the elevator so much, I could add area to the tail since I can't add tail moment. I could also remove the pylon mount and hotglue it rearwards. On last flight I reversed the wing's planform. I placed the trailing edge infront and the leading edge behind. The wing's centre of area is shifted backwards relative to the CG, therefore causing the model to react as if it had a slightly forward CG.
Wing's angle and motor's downthrust: I thought it would. The fuselage stick pointed lower than the glide slope. If I reduce the wing's and elevator's angle to bring the stick fuselage along the glide slope, I will have to increase the downthrust angle by the same amount because now it flies ok power on and gliding power off.
Right thrust: I think it needs a bit more of right side thrust, the model turns more readily to left (could be the side pull of the elevator pull lines), but currently it turns left and right ok.

Mechanical

I tried correcting the pull pull conversion at the field by heating with a lighter (to cater for the large down elevator setup), instead of softening the hot glue, I softened the plastic at the same time!
The pull lines were doubled back and hotglued with heat shrink sleeves and not adjustable.
I could use smaller levers and horns.
Next time use thinner lines and braided lines would be better than monofilament lines. Current (thicker) lines does not cut into the plastic holes but they have largish bend radius.
Everything is hot-glued: the motor, the receiver, the undercarriage, the struts, the wings, the tail surfaces etc. At end of flying session, no problem.

Improvements

Here's an idea to replace the pull pull lever set.

A soft wire is bent into a V and hotglued to the WLToys' F929 F939 receiver board. The arms are in lined with the hole of the servo horn that is to be used and the line path to the rear. If they are too far off, then the pull in the opposite direction will be lesser.

Short plastic sheaths, such as a section of the plastic cotton bud, will be allowed to rotate freely on the arms. Even if they got snagged, it ought to be alright too because the pull strings will glide across the smooth surface. In the interest of efficiency, we don't want that, so a short plastic spacer (not shown) can be hotglued to the V arms. The short plastic sheaths can be made to look like tiny sewing bobbins, but I think a simple cylinder will work well as a pulley, the string will not run out of the cylinder because of the geometry and tension.

The pull string for a servo is one length. A loop of string passes through the hole of the servo horn that is to be used. To prevent the looped string from pulling out of the hole, we could tie it or, as suggested, to make a keeper from thin wire. This wire is kept in placed on top of the servo horn by the hole it entered (the other hole, not the hole occupied by the string) and the loop of string. Perhaps a twist or two before inserting the Z bend will prevent the string from sliding too easily. With the looped/hooped string 'caught' by the servo horn, one end goes around the pulley one and a half times and head back to the control surfaces.

2 June 2016

 I decided on bellcranks (without any bell or crank, a pivoting lever). I have this waste plastic piece for mobile sim card and 2.54mm pitch electronic pins.

1) I hot glue the pin bank to the edge of the plastic. I used the black plastic spacer and the copper pins as drill stops.



2) I drilled a series of holes with a 0.9mm drill bit on a dremel rotary tool. I didn't have to 'centre punch' and electronic bank guided the drill bit well. The holes went clean through.

3) I cut the drilled plastic with a pair of shears. I used the tips of the electronic pins as a guide. I removed the hotglued pins with alcohol.

4) I cut the drilled plastic to shape and I have my bellcranks and horns (maybe I shall re-do the rudder and elevator horns, but it really doesn't matter much).

To keep the pivot and levers in their correct position, I used a paper puncher and made many discs of the plastic. I will make a hole through these discs with the same 0.9mm diameter drill bit on a dremel by hotgluing them to a scrap holding piece, drilling, and removal and cleaning up with alcohol.

30 May 2016

I throw out the previous attempt, the wood kinked easily and I can imagine them breaking easily at a later stage. I think that 2mm foam sheets from Daiso would probably be as light, but much easier to do, so I did a bigger version with 2mm foam sheets. I also want the CG to be behind the 50% wing chord to get a short nose, so I chose to have a large tail and long boom.

Centre panel was two sheets with two 2mm diameter rods for the leading and trailing edges and an upright 10x3mm wooden strip for spar.
Tip panels, fin/rudder and elevator (with a 2mm diameter rod at the leading edge) as of 2mm foam sheet.
The left over 10 x 3mm wooden strip was the fuselage.
Hot glue was used throughout, motor was hotglued and the receiver board hotglued to 10x3mm wooden strip which was glued to the fuselage.
The main undercarriage was a thin wire bent and heat shrink sleeve applied to provide bigger contact area for hotglue. A failed pair of wheels was installed on the wire undercarriage. Tail skid was a triangular piece of 2mm foam.

The wing mount was a T-section made up of 2 pieces of 10x3mm wood strips. They will be glued to the fuselage with 10x3mm uprights later.
Before I continue with the pylon wing mount, I want to link up the control surfaces to the WLToys' receiver board. I don't want to use pushrods because it would be so long and heavy, so I am thinking of using pull-pull for the tail surfaces, either with bellcranks or pulleys which can be mounted on the fuselage, to the rear of the receiver board.

This is a learning experiment with short nose and lifting tail before I continue on my R. Sommer's Monoplane.

Yes, this is too big for a basement carpark flyer.

31 December 2015

Daiso is selling a packet of 10 wooden sticks of 2mm diameter x 910mm length. The wood is light and flexible. It is not springy like bamboo and retained some curves after bending it dry by hand. I don't know what tree or plant they came from, but their mechanical properties are useful to modelling.

Yesterday morning, I decided to try my hand at making a slow flyer.

I started with the wing.
I marked out the single piece into 4 segments.
The two ends were connected so that the single piece became a loop. The ends were connected with CF rod, heat shrink and Daiso's superglue.
I wetted the loop at the 25% and 75% markings and started to pull the loop at those markings.
Then the loop snapped, so I re-joined the ends to make a smaller loop.
This therefore became the elevator.
I wetted the smaller loop but didn't want to pull the loop anymore, so I pinned the joint and the centre marking down onto a corkboard (Daiso's), forming an oval.

Another piece of wood was cut approximately in half, wetted and bent so that the area is slightly less than half elevator.
This is the fin/rudder.

A third piece of wood was made into a loop, and pinned to the corkboard like the elevator.

























With the wing, elevator and rudder pinned, I sprayed the frames and left them to dry out for a few times.

I wanted to leave the frames pinned for 24 hours but didn't resist the urge to remove them and played with the frames.

If I want a simple rounded tipped wing, I should pull at the 25% and 75% mark. I pulled but the frame snapped. Thang was telling me I should have used CF rod because I wasted so much time.















I am not going to throw it away, so I transferred the length of the snapped side and cracked the other side of the wing frame.



Now I have to figure out how to do the rest of the model.

The objectives of this model are:

1. Slow flying. This means it has to be light. I shall use the Hisky 7mm geared motor that Thang gave me (3gm?), a WLTOYS F929 939 receiver board, and V911 batteries. I will use a curved airfoil at an angle of attack near the stall point. The elevator shall be lifting foil and the CG shall be set rearwards.
2. Small. The model shall be small so it can made single piece and be resilient.
3. Cheap. Using Daiso's wooden sticks, some CF rods, paper clip, hot glue, superglue, plastic covering.
4. Easy. The model shall be easy to build, setup and adjust.
5. Fast. The model shall be fast to build.

The targets:

1. Fly in basement carpark.
2. Fly at walking speed.

F15 SG

27 February 2017

F15 was completed, test flown, adjusted and handed to Mr. Wong. Which he subsequently lost sight of after a few minutes in the air. He didn't find it, so we formed a 3 men search party, panned out and Mr. Tan found it (Mr. Wong went away much further).

The F15 is now "F15 SG" because I applied a "I ♥ Singapore" temporary tattoo to the wing. Temporary tattoos work well on foam board.

Specifications:

• Wing Span 10" thereabout
• 8.5mm motor with Hubsan 55mm propeller
• 260 mah 1S cell
• AUW 32 gm
• All flying tailerons
• 3 Channels
• Special ability: 1) Flick roll. Enter high angle, torque and CG takes over and model performs a half flick roll. 2) I didn't get it to spin on the few flights I had. The twin fins acted like dihedral on the planform and the model is very stable.
• Time: 3-6 hours prototyping, I think 2 hours maybe sufficient if everything is gathered beforehand and I didn't have to set the transmitter mixes. If many identical models were made at once, it would be even faster especially with hotwire jig.
• Cost: At the field, a few of us figured that the cost of the expendable airframe, i.e. excluding re-usable parts such as receiver board, 1S cell, control horns, motor and propeller, is less than a dollar if all material costs were divided proportionally to the quantity used.

Special interest:

1. 8.5mm was pushed into a very light and flexible open cell foam block which acts as a motor mount. I didn't use any glue.
2. Open cell foam motor block was hotglued at four corners to the underside of the receiver board. Since the open cell foam is so flexible, I didn't have to make any holes or grooves.
3. I looked for but didn't find any problem with underslung motor or thrustline adjustment on this model.
4. My first use of temporary tattoo!

Both for Mr. Wong

That's my transmitter

32gm AUW

21 February 2017

Comments on 20 February 2017.

1.5hrs to come to this stage.
I pasted (glue stick) the modified plan to 2mm foam sheet, cut away and peeled off the plan which I am keeping to pass it to Mr. Wong.

The 10mm nose pod was similarly cut and was slotted to the planform with one fin temporary fixed to perform test glides. The purpose of the test glides was to note the CG position. The CG is approximately 1 cm back from the swept leading edge.

The weight of the full set of gear, including the new 1S, is 18gm.

I marked the centre line and the tailerons pivot line on the bottom side of the planform and taped top and bottom in a fore and aft manner with packing tape for some durability.
I made the pivot mechanism to exact length. The ends were simply very short tubing (1mm long) superglued in placed.
I cut away the tailerons, glued the twin fins and pushed the pivot mechanism through the fins. Then I glued the tailerons to the free revolving tube. Kicker on the tubes, CA on the tailerons. I have still to hot glue the bamboo axle to the planform.
Airframe weighed 10gm.

Currently all in is 28gm.















Todo:

1. Remove and replace battery connector and solder motor leads directly to board (or the connector to board, I am still undecided).
2. Cut planform to accept board (square for the two servos tops or only the horns? I'm undecided but am leaning towards square hole because some clearance is required under the servo horns to prevent binding/scraping.
3. Make and mount two horns to the tailerons.
4. Install two pushrods. They will be thin wire z-bend hotshrinked to 1.8mm bamboo dowel on the servos ends, either hotshrinked z-bend again or right angle bend with nylon keeper at the tailerons ends. Then I will hotglue the bamboo axle to the planform.
5. Run battery connector and decide mounting of battery location. Check it is of appropriate length and will not interfere with the prop.
6. Fix the motor to bottom of pod. If I am using the simple 10mm pod, I think I can superglue the motor to a mount (balsa, ply, foam, aluminium?) and have the mount pivot on the pod for thrustline corrections.
7. Option to cover bottom of intake.

Should I replace the pod with a better looking one? Maybe a plunge moulding of the canopy?

Ideas for plunge moulding canopy:

1. Carve mould from blue foam.
2. Mount mould in vice.
3. Make two rectangle frames using Ice cream sticks hotglued together.
4. Hold the thermoset plastic sheet between the two frames with binder clips.
5. Heat plastic with hot air gun and plunge it down on the mould.

Ideas for pod:

1. Heat bend single sheet of 2mm foam over the rear end of current pod. The foam must be long enough at the front to reach the back of the nose cone. Trim to shape.
2. The top front portion from the back of the nose cone to the cockpit will be a single thicker piece of 10mm foam and glued to the previous piece.
3. Glue the canopy in placed.
4. Glue the bottom piece and the nosecone (2 pieces of 10mm foam?)
5. Sand to shape.

17 February 2017

Detailing the idea.

The planform can be drawn on tracing paper over the printout, allow that the two sides (and fins) extend to the nose intake by widening the intake and drawing in the two side strakes.

There won't be a happy coincidence of finding the correct sized tubing and wire/rod axle. Here are two alternatives to making a good fitting tubing over the selected wire/rod axle:

1. tape the wire/rod, making it slightly bigger for rotational clearance. Roll the tubing from paper with white glue (messy but definitely no superglue), extract wire/rod and remove tape.
2. tape the wire/rod for clearance as before, slip a heat shrink sleeve and shrink it down, remove tape from wire/rod.

Obviously if I have another wire/rod just slightly thicker I wouldn't need an extra process of taping and removing.

I think method 2 using heat shrink sleeve is simple and can work on this model. I might have a problem extracting the heat shrank sleeve, if it is pulled, the clearance gets lesser and binds to the wire/rod, so I will have to be extra careful when heat shrinking (or if I use different sizes of heatshrink?). If I need a harder tubing, I can substitute with ear bud plastic tube, but this time the tube is heated and stretched/rolled. By stretching, the tubing reduces in diameter and I probably don't need to prepare the wire/rod with tape. Either way, it is not fool-proof. I will give heat shrink a go unless I can find a match for the axle and pivot tubes. (20 Feb 2017: well, I made them match by scraping and sanding bamboo dowels to rotate freely in the cotton bud's tubing. Also the white tubing is smaller than the blue one. And I realized that the previous idea of taping the axle is unpractical.)

Since the motor is below the wing, I have wing drag at the top causing a pitching up moment. The CG will also be above the propeller, another pitching up moment. But if I deflect the exhausts at the rear, I might be able to introduce pitch down moment which is also proportional to the thrust. By having the motor glued on so that it blows on the bottom of the wing, I can amplify that effect. It is not all bad, considering that the CG is below the wing, I ought to have some static 'right-side-up' stability, just like a high wing model. To lower the CG and have a clear path for the pushrods, I can mount the board by cutting a rectangle on the planform and expose the servo horns topside so the pushrods can ran above the wing. Maybe the board is so deep that at the same time, it can also be glued to the bottom piece of the duct, making the duct structure strong, which is also good as a motor mount. (20 Feb 2017: No, the receiver is not that tall.)

I laid out the printouts, drew cheatlines and pivot points, looking out for the line of pushrods and thought where can the 1S be located. I thought about building a box fuselage with hinged canopy top for 1S replacement. I was not able to lay out all the visualized shapes, if I was to include the fuselage pod onto one piece of 300x450mm.

I thought of shaping the pod from 1" blue foam and use it as a mould. The mould will be wrapped in cling film, then wet paper strips applied to create a shell.
But it is so much simpler, lighter and probably stronger, to cut a profile from the white 10mm foam. And a slot to slip in a Velcro to hold the battery directly underneath the pod. (20 Feb 2017: Thang bought on my behalf, the 1s 240 mah 45C from HK, 5 cells with the appropriate white spade connector for SGD 20.00, good buy and quick delivery. The cells are compact and light too, the idea of a build-up-pod or slip-in-pod gets very attractive.)

I found the right match of axle and tubes for the pivoting tailerons. A short length (just about 10mm longer than needed) of white fiberglass rod left over from a piece I picked up at the field and which I had used elsewhere as a pushrod (black paint and superglue remants), and the blue plastic cotton bud tubing. A very good match with minimal free-play. The 1.8mm bamboo rod is too large for the tubing. Then I held it in my hand and decided that the model can be made lighter if I use tape hinges. I didn't weigh the axle and tubing, but I think it is more than 1 gm. I have to think about more cheatlines, then I discovered that that would involves notching the fins for elevator movements and I don't want that. Then it dawn on me, I could chuck the 1.8mm bamboo and turn it slowly while sanding down the diameter with a hand held piece of sandpaper (20 Feb 2017: no, this idea didn't work out well, far more effective by scraping it with cutter and then sanding by hand). Quite simple and it will be lighter than the fiberglass rod (20 Feb 2017: fiberglass rod weighed 0.3-0.5gm, the thinned bamboo and the matching tubes didn't register on the weighing scale). For strength and rigidity, I will glue the inner portion of the axle to the planform, rather than having it floating in tubes. For a neater appearance, instead of gluing on very short tubes to the ends, I could pierce the ends through pieces of tape, sticky side out and non-sticky side towards the pivot tubes, and apply super glue to the 1-2mm exposed ends. This is to be done before the tailerons are glued to the pivoting tubes.

After marking the bottom of the planform for the servos cutout, tape it first and cut later. Plug in the motor before gluing the servos to the taped cutout with hot glue.

(20 Feb 2017: Wong asked for help. I will just do one for Wong and pass him whatever mould, plan etc so he can do another one himself. Sounds like a bad deal, but it is ok, because although I don't get to keep it, but why would I want to keep another plane? I will get to test fly it for sure anyway, it's the process that's fun, not the final product or the notion of possession.)

8 February 2017

WLToys F929 F939 receiver board, 8520 motor with hubsan propeller. Motor mounted to base of the plane, half arc of propeller protrudes beyond the bottom of the fuselage but there is no surface behind the propeller to decrease the thrust. Throttle and tailerons controlled.

Enlarge this jpg which I downloaded from the internet. The wingspan is approximately 10". I made a pdf of the image, auto-fit to A3 (150%), then enlarge the plan view and side view from A4 to A3 (approx. 141%).

Components

• 2mm foam: 1 x plan shape and 1 x pair of tailerons.
• 2mm foam: 2 x jet engine and fin side (optional: 1 x pair of air-inlet against fuselage side)
• 10mm foam: 1 x side shape of the fuselage pod with slot for wing (note: if the planform includes the nose, then this pod will not be scale, so if a scale side-view is desired, then it is better to build up the pod, or better yet, exclude the nose area from the planform. Regardless, it might be a good idea to magnetically attach the front portion of the pod to the rear portion of the pod or the wing. The F15 will crash many times and having a 'crash-proof' nose pod is beneficial and the additional portability is desirable.)
• 2mm/5mm/10mm foam: 1 rectangle piece to mount motor.
• 1 x carbon fibre rod and some plastic tubes for pivot mounting of tailerons
• 2 x pushrods and horns
• 1 x WLToys receiver board
• 1 x Velcro strap
• some 1S cells for flight

Assembly

1. Place wing upside down and glue carbon fibre pivot mount axle (can use axle mount to displace the axle to scale position).
2. Slip and glue the 2 side profiles (engine and fins) to the inverted planform.
3. Slide the plastic tubings to the pivot axle and glue the retaining tubes to the axle. The tailerons are then glued to the free rotating tubings (options are to make slots to receive and to add clear packing tape). Finally, install the tailerons' horns. The tailerons are not in the scale position, they are just under the wing/fuselage, although they can be lowered to scale position, but why make the effort?
4. Glue receiver board and make and assemble the 2 pushrods connecting the receiver and the tailerons, passing through the side profiles.
5. Glue the fuselage pod and install the Velcro.
6. Glue motor to the motor mount, connect to receiver board and glue the mount to the bottom of the air-inlets.

Scraping and sanding down bamboo

I thought I could chuck a piece of bamboo dowel into an electric screw driver and sand it down by spinning the dowel between sandpaper block. 
The idea is so simple that it must work. Then putting theory to practice, I observed:
1. 80 or 100 grit removes matrrial quickly. 80 permagrit is too coarse and the surface is rough. 240 is very fine but takes very long.
2. If the sandpaper are of different grit, the spinning dowel will try to run up the coarse sandpaper.
3. Pressure needs to be applied, foam backed sandpaper is too soft for 1.8mm dowel.
4. Electric screwdriver spins too slow, dremel spins too fast.

Paring with a NT cutter removes fine curls of bamboo. I held the dowel on a cutting mat and rolled it as I scrape away. I observed that if the dowel was scraped to lop sided, by rolling the dowel, I can feel where the flat spots are when rolling it on the mat. I would then roll perhaps 90 degrees to either side and scrape again. Finally, I would replace the scraping motion with 100 grit and then 240 grit sandpaper block.

Making a tube from 2mm foam sheets

7 February 2017

Idea for hollow and round fuselage with a 8.5mm direct drive hubsan prop. It is a lot of work.

Former

1. Those prop are about 55mm, so choose plastic bottles that is slightly larger.
2. If length of plastic bottle is too short, use 2 plastic bottles that are hot-glued bottom to bottom.

Rolling 2mm foam sheet

1. Cut an oversized rectangular piece, the width will be the circumference plus 1", the foam grain running fore & aft.
2. Draw in panel lines to one side. The panel lines should be centred on the foam sheet. This will be the outside of the fuselage. If packing tape will be used, then this is also the time to put in as much colour and decoration.
3. Apply clear packing tape to the panel drawn foam sheet.
4. Roll the foam sheet gradually, using the bottle former. The foam sheet will open up and un-curl.
5. Roll the pre-curled foam sheet with a smaller diameter rolling pin until the sides of the foam sheet just about overlap by 1".
6. Tape one edge to the bottle former, let the other foam side overlap the taped end and temporary tape the free side in it's position.

Trimming the basic tube

1. Place a steel edge in the middle of the overlap and slice.
2. Slip off the curled sheet, remove the taped foam pieces from the bottle former and the curled sheet.
3. Secure a piece of clear tape, sticky side out with pieces of tape onto the bottle former.
4. Apply UHU Por to the edges of the curled foam but do not let the edges touch each other.
5. Position carefully one edge of the curled foam so that it is at the middle of the clear tape. Rub it down so that the clear tape sticks to this edge.
6. Bring the other edge and butt it against the first edge. Rub it down so that the clear tape sticks to this edge as well.
7. Run a piece of clear tape over the butt joint.
8. Slit the clear tape loose of the bottle former and slip the foam tube out. Remove waste tape from the bottle former.

Embellishing the tube

1. For tapered ends of a tube, calculate how much foam needs to be trimmed away. Apportion this to the ends of the tube. The more segments, the better the taper will be but much more work is required. Mark the centre of V-cuts, cut away and join the exposed edges, one at a time.
2. If a compound slit is desired, start with a narrow slit throughout, then progress to the wider slits.
3. The tube will now resemble the fuselage.
4. Immerse the fuselage in hot water to relieve the stress so that its shape can be retained easier. If the tape will wrinkle because of water, then substitute with some hot air from hot-air gun or hair-dryer.

Access hatch and gear installment

1. Mark all openings for the wings/tail/battery access/equipment installation using the drawn panel lines as reference.
2. Some areas will be glued together and some made removable.

Idea for a larger hollow and round fuselage with a propeller inside like the Caproni Stipa.

Former

Same bottle former of the size for the 8.5mm direct drive, but in this case, it is not a former but a temporary support for cutting and gluing the tube.

Rolling 2mm foam sheet

1. After cutting an oversized rectangular piece like the previous example, there is no panel lines for the Caproni Stipa, but mark where the width lines are so you will know how much to overlap (1/2" from the oversized edges).
2. Decorate the foam sheet and apply clear packing tape (for strength) as before.
3. Roll the foam sheet gradually, using the bottle former until the sides of the foam sheet just about overlap by 1".

Trimming the basic tube

1. After curling, cut the curled sheet to exact width and lay one edge to the sticky tape on the bottle former like the previous example. Then bring together the other edge and tape it on the outside.
2. Release the tape (inside) from the bottle former and slip off the curled sheet.

Embellishing the tube

1. Follow the same procedure as previous for tapering and stress-relieving.

Access hatch and gear installment

1. There is no panel lines for reference, but the tube can be marked on the outside with a pen on a fixed height stand. When cutting openings, use the bottle former to support the tube against the straight edge.

Quick to build and yet it flies

6 February 2017

Wong asked me to give him a WLToys receiver board so he can build a 1S F22 and fly it with his Flysky transmitter. He wasn't detailed in his request, because he would also need a matching pusher motor and prop, some suitable 1S cells and at least a simple 1S charger with the correct connector. All of these, does not have.

He also received from Thang the F959 2s version with folding prop and thought of putting it on his F22 board which is maybe 8-10" only, 5mm foam with transparent tape both sides. Thang and I both think it would be too heavy and small. From the F5 experience, it would be difficult to fly with 8.5mm motor let alone a 2s motor which seems to be double the diameter of the 8.5mm.

He's an old man. On one hand, it would be good if he can start building, on the other hand, would that be too much to expect of him? Perhaps I can build another 'Mirage' (as he called my delta) just for him. This time with the following changes: 1) prop slot instead of tail pusher because I don't have long wires and he prefer prop slot, 2) take Thang's suggestion to cut off the 'nose cone' tip off the hubsan prop, this way I will not have to drill through and waste a few props along the way, 3) I could tie the motor to a short CF flat bar cross-wise or a wood strip with cotton thread and then hot glue the assembly onto the plane.

Another idea is to thread tie motor to one end of a stick and hot glue the receiver board to the other end. This assembly is then hot glued to either the top side or the bottom side of the plane and then the 1s cell is on the other side to reduce the vertical displacement of the CG. Yet another idea is to have the motor and prop as a tractor but that idea has other limitation.

To concentrate equipment weight at the front for short nose subjects: epoxy geared motor prop to servos of receiver board.

16 January 2017

I said goodbye to this pusher jet yesterday when it went out of sight.
It was flying great, spins were entered with the CG back and elevator and aileron stick to extreme, recovery was to level aileron and push elevator down with throttle.
It didn't glide like a glider but it was stable and quite good.
On the last flight it was following two eagles and suddenly it entered their thermal, and it went very high up. Then it went too far, probably encountered down draft or updrafts (major turbulence for such a light plane) and it disappeared.

Wong was impressed with it, he flew it a few times, once with his own Flysky transmitter too. Wong wanted to do one but he doesn't have the foam or the right gear. I didn't create any paper plan so it won't be possible to give it to him.

The 8.5mm motor has enough zoom even on my tired 1s. Flying gently it can fly about 8 minutes or more. I think pusher with hubsan prop is great. Thang had a small 6mm prop slot, flies good but it was underpowered even though it was lighter because he used dsm2 all in one. Maybe I shall do another pusher jet because it was a durable, easy to repair reach-to-plane (compared with Sakura and Flying Flea). No matter how badly wounded, it would still fly.

26 September 2016

Skycolor flew again with my single aileron modification. In effect, there is not much difference and I supposed that the single strip aileron is too narrow. Skycolor turns left quickly but turns right hesitantly. It would be better to have equal response in both directions. Since it glides straight, much more right thrust is required.

Nothing broke and Skycolor can still be improved, but it's kind of boring now, maybe I shall choose a new target.

19 September 2016

The $10 plane is "SkyColor", it says so right there on the wings although I prefer
"Lefei". The chuck glider was about 37.4gm. I got it from Rotor Hobby. $11.00 before 10% discount.

 The steel ball bearing weighed 7.1gm.

The horizontal stabilizer weighed 2.9gm

The wing weighed 11.5gm.

All together it weighed (without the steel ball bearing)  30.3gm.

 A template was made by hot gluing ice cream sticks to the canopy.

 The canopy was hollowed out.

 Two brass thumb tacks was the template for the motor mount groove.

 A thumbtack was used as template to cut out the front of the canopy so that it can fit over the motor.

 Pushrods from 2mm dowel sticks, supported by one wire guide runner each and both ends has soft wire ends secured by heatshrink and hotglue.

 Velcro was hotglued to secure the battery.

It flew on the morning of 17 September 2016 but it was extremely nose heavy. The elevator was bent up considerably and it sinks instead of glide.

Later that afternoon, I sliced up a slot underneath the wing so that the battery can be slide all the way back. I soften the hotglue supporting the motor mount with my hotglue gun and set more right thrust.

On the morning of 18 September 2016, it flew better and it can glide, but it was still nose heavy. I could glide for about 2 minutes and the power is now sufficient for looping from straight and level since I have reduced the elevator drag considerably. Because I have the battery located at the CG, I should be able to use a wide range of 1s cell battery and not affect the CG too much.

The model is tame, the rudder works but this plane is better flown with ailerons because it takes a while for the rudder to change the direction of the plane because of the minimal dihedral.


Pretty good for a $10 plane.
To improve glide and control:

1. I could remove the geared motor and install a direct hubsan propped pylon to reduce the drag that was caused by the wheeling propeller.
2. Trim the canopy to fit over the receiver board (don't move the receiver board back because of clearance and length of pushrods but I have to find an extension for the pylon motor) to streamline the model slightly. If necessary, to make a removable battery hatch at the bottom if the canopy has to be glued.
3. Make an aileron at the port wing, connect it to the pushrod so that it has a single aileron coupled rudder.

13 September 2016

I bought this chuck glider from Rotor Hobby. 10% discount off listed $11.00.

1. Remove canopy (and ball bearing weight). Make a moulding of the canopy. (Less work then gouging it out to avoid the receiver board.) Make it into a battery hatch.
2. Hollow up the exposed cockpit to make battery space.
3. Hot glue WLToys receiver board to cockpit, over the battery space, check that battery can be slipped under the board.
4. Modify the tail surfaces to make them operable.
5. Connect receiver board to tail surfaces with wire pushrods running in short lengths of tubing or wire loops, which are in turn anchored to the fuselage's exterior.
6. Mount a 7mm or 8.5 mm motor with hubsan prop to the tip of a pylon, insert pylon through the fuselage's top through the wing to anchor.

Some more ideas

1. If I can figure out how to make small accurate tunnels through the fuselage then the pushrods can be concealed better. The usual serrated tubing advice apart, I found from RC Groups, a poster who wrote that when they had to make lead-out holes in foam wings for control line planes, they set up a jig so that a piano wire runs vertically up and down. The wing is positioned below the lower end of the piano wire. The lower end of the piano wire is heated up and allowed to drop through the foam wing.
2. From elsewhere, another modeler described that when he makes lightening holes in foam wings (before they are covered with veneer), he first cut a slit in the foam with a straight edge and sharp cutter, then he insert the hot wire into the slit, fix up his root and tip templates and proceed to hotwire out the core.
3. Instead of a direct drive hubsan propped pylon mounted motor, I could also mount a WLToys' geared motor on the nose.
4. If I want to use pull-pull with a WLToys' board (and I can make accurate tunnels in the foam fuselage), I can mount the pull pull conversion to the cockpit but this would mean that I cannot insert the battery from the top. In this case, I can make the battery hatch at the bottom of the cockpit floor so that I can swap battery from the bottom of the fuselage.
5. Or perhaps I can mount the pull pull conversion levers at the back of the cockpit against the 'fuselage former' infront of the wing.
6. Single aileron wing is a possibility.

7 September 2016

Wong is saying I am flying this delta too much. Actually it's only a month, but I have let him and a few others tried and I have flown it for dozens of flights. Tight turns, low passes, easy flying!

I have moved the CG backwards and increased the elevator throw until it spins easily. It still didn't manage a proper "down-elevator" maneuver, there's still forward speed. But with the rearwards CG, I can loop from level when the battery is fresh.

I went to combat mode and managed to whack Kasim's flying wing, bringing his down but mine also as I had dislodged a pushrod. Got a creased wing tip as my medal.

I could do a micro skysurfer type, or how about a powered 'Alula' wing type?

18 August 2016

I brought the model out for a flight on 16 August 2016. It flew but I had to apply elevator and aileron. The trim was upset. So yesterday I replaced the pushrods with a pair made with 2mm wooden rod and the 0.55mm soft wire. The previous all-wire pushrod was 0.4gm, the new pair is 0.8gm; a weight gain but noticeably stiffer. The soft wire ends were heatshrinked to the 2mm rods. When I have the flying setting, I shall apply CA to lock them in position.
I also brought the CG back by cutting 1cm of the foam spine aft of the battery location, this way the battery/cell can move 1cm back.

9 August 2016

Last Sunday, 7 August 2016, woke up too early. I had a slow breakfast at a hawker centre and changed the F5 planform to a delta type, maybe a drakken/Eurofighter or something like that. I ripped off the F5 planform and although I wanted a simple  small delta of 9" span, that would mean throwing the remaining foam (300mm width), so I made the span to the full available width of the foam sheet. Then I looked a bit and decided it was too large ("drag"), so I trimmed the planform to reduce the wing area slightly. Larger elevons, instead of the tiny tailerons of the F5 was built in this time. The tail fin seemed a bit too small, so I used the offcut and made a new fin, bigger but small in relation to the new wing area. The fuselage is of course the same F5 Fuselage and keel. Very quickly the recycled model was assembled and I went to the flying field.

A bit of reflex (by curving the soft wire pushrods) to the wing, at mid-throttle, a toss and it was away for its first flight. The torque problem is gone, the CG and reflex combination is right and the model is flying for perhaps 10-15 minutes on its first outing (not bad considering I'm using 3-4 years old single cell) including failed loops which I shall call stall tumbles, rolls and inverted flying.

There is insufficient thrust to overcome the drag for a loop from level attitude. Next flight had less reflex (battery shifted minutely aft), and I think it flew faster. After that, I could go over the top for a loop from a dive but it was untidy because I don't have enough thrust control. If wing area is trimmed a bit more, flying might improve. Being so light, crashes hardly mean anything. It turns tightly and doesn't spiral in, it would be possible to fly this in a small space. It glides safely, but not like a glider. At one time I got it into a spin, and that was kind of fun. I tried replicating but wasn't successful in my attempts even though I increased the elevator throw mix. It was windy, but the model flies ok because it wasn't as draggy as the Flying Flea or the little birdy.

25 July 2016

It was very top heavy and the torque was difficult to overcome. It managed 2 flights with one into a tree and the other in the thistle bush on Saturday; short darts, upside downs darts and right rolling darts notwithstanding.
Still at the field, I heated my cutter with a lighter and used the heated blade to soften the hotglue at the motor and set in some side thrust. The propeller was causing the model to roll to the right, so I pointed the propeller to the left side. The idea is to make it yaw left to counter the right roll. This newly introduced side thrust combined with the down thrust (propeller pointing down), makes the model screwy on tap. It was even more difficult. Ah... maybe less side and down thrust and more wing area?

Back home, "fuel tanks" added and the battery was relocated to the bottom.
The fuel tanks will give it some area at the tip to counter/resist the torque. I also added a replacement fin because the original fin was missing.

Then I put in a profile canopy because that area now looks too vacant and the TV programme was not engaging.

Thus modified, I went back on Sunday. I could throw it further away but after a few tumbles, I noticed the wing has a tear developing and has buckled. All those darts and tumbles has taken weakened the foam wing. Too bad the F5 Tiger has to end now.

If I get back this Saturday, I will strip the F5 Tiger wing planform and glue on a Dassault Rafale wing planform, which is basically, a right angle triangle with tiny canards to give it some pointy bits. More wing area will help to resist/counter torque.

18 July 2016

Last Saturday, 16 July 2016, I made the first cut, and my Pistachio scale F5 Tiger was completed yesterday, on 17 July 2016, with pushrods installed and everything, ready to test fly.

I started with the abandoned BD5 project.

I placed it on my weighing scale.

The broken BD 5 weighed 49 gm.

To compare flying weights, I placed my Banggood's flying flea on the scale.

The Banggood's flying flea weighs 34gm.

I drew the planform on 2mm foamsheet, approximating from a F5 Tiger picture off the internet.

 The foam pieces were cut out. The planform and the fin are from Daiso's 2mm grey foam sheet. The fuselage pieces are from 10mm foam sheet, also from Daiso. I noticed Daiso is not carrying these foam sheets on Sunday.

Temporary weight was added to the wing piece (less the pointy nose) to check the approximate balance for a short glide. Yes, tested without the vertical fin, so the glide will easily slip and fall off to one side but should be good enough.

I salvaged all I can from the broken BD 5. A bit of alcohol and the re-usable components were rid of  hotglue and superglue.

The thin carbon fibre strip was also salvaged, even though it was not used in the F5 Tiger.

A cotton bud dipped in alcohol was applied to the glued surfaces. The glue was picked at and peeled away. For the carbon fibre strip, a piece of tissue was employed to rub away the glue residue.

The components of the F5 Tiger was placed on the foam pieces to find the balance point.

After that, the horizontal fuselage piece was recessed to accept the WLToys F949 receiver board. The motor slot was grooved to accept the bottom plastic ring around the 8.5mm motor.
the horizontal fuselage

The rest of Saturday afternoon was spent experimenting with making 3D objects from foam and plastic.

On Sunday afternoon, I cut and hinged the tailerons with tape and hotglued the control horns.

The wing piece was hotglued at several spots to the bottom of the horizontal fuselage. Then the nose piece and the white keel piece was spot glued.

Then the salvaged pushrods were straightened and re-used on the F5 Tiger. The wires were first straightened approximately by hand, then I rotated the soft wire while withdrewing it bit by bit through the opening and closing long flat jaws of a long nosed plier. I carried out and passed the stiffness tests of the pushrods. This involves pushing the pushrods against the table and feeling the amount of force it took to bend the pushrods while

When sizing up the pushrods, I realised I could have saved myself some trouble if I glued the white keel piece after I linked up the pushrods. Because with the keel piece in placed, I cannot place the wing and tail flat on the table. I had to raise the model by sandwiching one side of the wing and tail between a steel ruler and a base which is high enough to clear the keel piece. In my case, my base was my TV remote controller which was placed upside down over the table and because the steel ruler was too light to cantilever the model by itself (the battery was still strapped to the model). I used my mobile phone portable charger to weight the steel rule down. If I could place the model flat on the table, I would have skipped all that.

A point to note is that the servo horns were raking rearwards when the pushrods were bent to length. The idea is when the servo horns are re-positioned to their respective 90 degrees positions, there will be 'up' tailerons. I think it is necessary for the F5 Tiger to have a forward CG and plenty of 'up' tailerons because of its size and weight.

A piece of scrap grey foam was cut and curled to form the top nose piece (and wind shield) and glued to the fuselage. Another piece was glued to the front of the receiver board. I wasn't sucessful in my attempts on Saturday, but I could still use one of those pieces to impart some notions to the model.

Finally, the fin was hot-glued to the fuselage. Only two thirds were glued, this is so I can tweak the fin during test flights. I kept telling myself that I must glue the fin after the pushrods were sized that I omitted to consider the effect of gluing the keel piece before sizing the pushrods.

This completes the building of my F5 Tiger.

No sandpaper was used in the process, salvaged parts and hot-glue were used throughout. The only new resources used were the foam sheets and tape.

AUW 34 gm with the 520 mah single cell (old V977 cell, useless for flying V977 now).
Nose heavy, so more up tailerons would be required.
This is already 15 gm lighter than the BD 5 but the wing is much smaller.
If I used a lighter cell, and I should because I don't need so much capacity, it will weigh much lighter. If a 200mah is used instead of the 520mah, the AUW will reduce to 29gm.
As it is, the thrust at full throttle is not enough to push the model up.


It feels heavy for its size, I can imagine it will have to fly fast so I will have to throw it quickly to bring it to flying speed.

I shall bring for test flights a screw driver for adjusting the servo horns and some sub-200mah cells if the 520 mah is too much.














34gm AUW (if using 520mah cell), Span 7", Length 12", 8.5mm dc motor with extension wire, hubsan propeller fitted as pusher, WLToys F949 receiver board with elevon mix at the Flysky FS-i6 transmitter.

Will it be a useless dart or a flying model? I held the model lightly pointing upwards and full throttle on a lighter 1s cell (@4.0V after the experiment) and I think thrust to weight is around 1 to 1, but the model wants to roll to the right because of the torque reaction. I adjusted more 'up' on the left taileron and of course it has no effect, it surprised me for a while until I realised that the model was not flying so there can be no airflow over the taileron to roll left. I was thinking of adding wing area or wing tips to lengthen the span, but I should try it as it is and see how it is. If I get this flying, the rolling right will be a blur to the eye. Prop to Span is 55mm/175mm = 31%, not ridiculously high, like the Doraemon and the Flying Flea, not low either since the wing area is so tiny. The torque increases with throttle almost instantaneously and the resistance to roll by the wing and tail can only increase proportionally with an increase in flying speed. My initial launches should be at half throttle with the F5 Tiger banked to left as it leaves my hand. And if that is successful, not to jerk to full throttle once it is flying until I discover the F5 Tiger's quirks. The CG is high, so if the model turn turtle frequently, I can also consider mounting the battery below the wing. The keel piece gives me confidence that it will withstand a few nose dives while I discover the quirks.

In any case, modification is definitely possible, for example, I can re-use the fuselage and fin and attach them to a new delta wing which will give more than twice the F5 Tiger's wing area.

15 July 2016

Quick to build and yet it flies, that's the theme I am after.

The BD 5 with its wings clipped to fit my motorcycle box, wing span supported by a CF strip, the vertical fin and rudder clipped (adverse yaw, ie, yaw became aileron) and a few grams added to the nose to bring the CG forward floundered for the last time on 3 July 2016 when the nose snapped on impact and my patience ran out. It would be a simple procedure to glue it back on but getting it flying will not be that easy because the CG still appeared to be too far aft. Oscillating purpoising movements developing into sharper and sharper stalls indicated a rearward CG. I don't think it will develop into a "nice" flying model unless more modification and adjustment is committed, so I'll just pass. I gave up on the BD 5, and will re-use all the components for a 'quick to build and yet it flies' pusher jet.

Salvaged parts will be: motor, prop, motor lead extension plug, receiver board, velcro, soft-wire pushrods, control horns and the magnet and metal screw used as noseweight.

Last night I used my newly arrived Flysky FS-i6 and tried its Elevon mix and reverse functions on the BD 5 and it works. I am therefore ready for an elevon equipped plane using the parts from the BD 5.  But I should record the AUW of the BD5 before salvaging them. Although the propeller is small, there is sufficient thrust to fly the BD 5. If I make a small pusher plane, the same motor and 55mm prop could possibly zip it around in a fast fashion. A model for a mid mounted motor will need a shorter nose than if it is rear mounted but I think that's where it will be structurally weak too. If I want to motor rear mounted, the nose has to be longer than what was with the BD 5 which I had to use nose weight in the form of the magnet and a large metal screw.

So I came up with the idea of a flat horizontal fuselage of 10mm foam or whatever material handy. To hot glue the pusher propped motor to the rear and receiver board midway, connect the motor to the receiver board with the motor lead extension wire, then hot glue the velcro strip to the front. Then I shall make a hinged pair of tailerons and hot-glue them to the rear, at the bottom of the horizontal fuselage and below the motor. The tailerons shall be connected to the receiver board with the control horns and soft wire pushrods. Then I will place the battery onto the velcro, and find the balance point. I will make a pair of wings, find its 25% point and glue the wings to the bottom of the horizontal fuselage, coincide the 25% point and the previously found balance point. Sure the overall CG will move backwards slightly, but it ought to be ok.

If I feel like it, I can also cut and glue on the vertical fuselage profile. Within limits, smaller wings are lighter, fly faster as they have less drag, and perform kinetic aerobatic moves, bigger wings are heavier, fly slow but they are draggy and get carried away by the wind easily, they are also more sluggish and cannot perform kinetic moves. I am thinking of a F5e Tiger.