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3D printed RC Aircraft.... Who would have thought???

Tom O

Ultra Member
You’ll have to keep us informed. My son and I tried RC planes around 2002 when there was a club with a airstrip by the Roadking Restaurant, as we were beginners a buddy pack was used and the experienced flyer turned over control to my son but it turned out the controls stopped working and no one had control as we watched it piledrive into the ground burying the engine.
 

YYCHM

(Craig)
Premium Member
You’ll have to keep us informed. My son and I tried RC planes around 2002 when there was a club with a airstrip by the Roadking Restaurant, as we were beginners a buddy pack was used and the experienced flyer turned over control to my son but it turned out the controls stopped working and no one had control as we watched it piledrive into the ground burying the engine.

Have you ever tried single channel controled RC? One blip of the button for left rudder, Two blips for right rudder, and three blips to advance the throttle. Was horrible.....
 
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PeterT

Ultra Member
Premium Member
There is actually quite a bit of 3DP RC model activity. Here is a sub forum, I'm sure there are many more.
https://www.rcgroups.com/3d-printed-planes-1006/

The early ones suffered from weight & strength, but looks like the materials are evolving. Heck, its probably easier to get a spool of plastic than balsa wood & aircraft ply these days LoL. Keep us posted on your progress. I'm curious much print time it takes. I wouldn't tape my control surfaces like that, feel free to PM me with better solutions.

I had to chuckle. High tech manufacturing & still old school rubber bands.
1620622775734.png
 

Perry

Ultra Member
The rubber bands brought back a great memory for me ...and probably one of my first metal working projects.

I built a "Gentle Lady" glider when I was young. The rubber bands that held the wing in place would give enough on landing(I called it landing, probably more of a controlled crash) to let the wing move forward. This would cause the electronics access cover balsa door to break.

The fix? Build an aluminum access door. No more breakage, right? Well the lesson of the "weakest link" was started. :)

On the first landing with this new high tech door, the aluminum sliced the nose clean off the glider.

gl337.jpg
Photo borrowed off the web from
https://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?1466287-Goldberg-Gentle-Lady-Glider-ARF-Review
 

DPittman

Ultra Member
Premium Member
I had to chuckle. High tech manufacturing & still old school rubber bands.
I have an ultralight airplane that I've been building on and when I first started on it I noticed the landing gear suspension was nothing more than bungee cord wrapped around the moving components. I joked about that to an experienced pilot saying " you've got to be kidding me, could it be any more Mickey mouse?" He said " it worked, it was lightweight and was reliable" I guess those are pretty important aspects and I've learned that mickey mouse method has been in use on other planes for years.
 

DavidR8

Scrap maker
Administrator
Moderator
Premium Member
I’d like to fly again but there’s no where to fly where I live.
The local club has a 50 person limit and the wait list is near as long.
:(
 

YYCHM

(Craig)
Premium Member
I’d like to fly again but there’s no where to fly where I live.
The local club has a 50 person limit and the wait list is near as long.
:(

When we returned to Canada with our single channel stuff no club wanted us anywhere near them LOL.
 

YYCHM

(Craig)
Premium Member
Update...…………..

3dplane.jpg

"Wings and fues done. All the little mounts and attachment fittings done. Tmrw flight controls get made. Starting to try to source electronics and hardware"

He hasn't been keeping track of print times but his slicer s/w says about 8 hours for the 5 piece fues and some things he has had to print twice. He also had a extruder head failure and replaced it with an all metal one.
 
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YYCHM

(Craig)
Premium Member
Was invited out to this fun fly by my son today......

https://www.amasrc.ca/

Was mostly a bunch of old farts like me:p

They had a really good turnout and all appeared fanatically addicted to their hobby.

Lots of electrics, but some 2 stroke, 4 strokes, and radials as well. One guy had a 5' long model 737 all dressed up in WestJet colors but didn't fly it due to a glitch. Very cool... had nav lights and retractable landing gear.

Had fun.... but I don't think I can afford another hobby....
 

charlton

Member
Did you see the latest episode of veritasium? Relativity Space is basically 3D printing rockets...fascinating stuff.

 

Proxule

Ultra Member
Very cool work, Never done planes as the crash factor is too much for me, I stuck to RC tanks and trucks.
Keep us posted!
 
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