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| The Shorty |
| My second attempt at scratch building is called the shorty. Rather than use a stick fuse like the lite stik, I went with a glued foam fuselage.The resulting airplane is stiffer than the mattstik and I think it looks alot nicer too. I kept the same basic dimensions on the plane and they are: 25" wingspan, 6 1/4" wing chord, 18" length and ~6ounce weight. Components used were a GWS 4-channel receiver, 2 amp ESC and gws pico servos along with the gws DX-A motor. The battery used was a rayovac 9volt nimh which yields me 5-6 minute flights and only weighs 1.5 ounces with wires. The plane is setup as an elevator/aileron/throttle ship. Control throws are approximately 3/8" on aileron and 1/2" on elevator.The following pictures are provided to show the building steps. |
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| Installing the aileron servo in the wing. |
| A shot of the completed plane before painting |
| A shot of the completed plane after painting |
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| Here is the foam fuse with foam bracing |
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| A simple tail notched to fit in the fuse |
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| Foam wing made from 2 meat trays. Ailerons were cut from material (see next) |
The shorty was alot of fun to build. Other than the electronics and motor, it was dirt cheap. About 50 cents worth of glue, 50 cents for wire and 25cents for tape. All the foam was free since it is meat trays you can get from any local butcher or grocery store. The plane took 2 trays for the wing one for the fuse and another for the tail.Build time was about 10 hours total. I imagine I could do the second one in about half the time.Don't know how it flies yet since I'm waiting for calm winds. Will post pics and review as soon as I get them. I hope others give scratch building a try. It is fun, cheap and did I mention fun? |
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| The final product, ready to shred the sky! |