[NSRCA-discussion] foamy

[george w. kennie]

Scott,
Wasn't sure if anyone would be all that interested, but I found it a fun project.
If you Google "Click XL" you'll find the inspiration for the effort. You may be aware that there is a 36" W.S. foamy called the Click that is designed to be a competent indoor airplane and has the same side force generators. Well, some guy scaled it up to a 52" W.S. and I viewed a video of his flying and thought it was a good idea.There is some chat associated with the site and you can pick up some of the specifics there. 
He used a type of Blucor sold by Lowes that's 1/2" thick. It's totally different than the fanfold stuff that comes in 24 sheet packets. The fanfold is printed on the outside of the Mylar skin and can be cleaned with De-Solv-It. This 1/2"stuff is printed on the actual foam surface and then the skin is applied so you cant easily remove the printing. I tried some De-Solv-It and it ate the skin so I peeled (easily) the skin from that printed side and washed most of the printing with dish-washing detergent. It's still lightly visible in the original areas. This stuff is a completely different chemical composition than the fanfold and this stuff does not like the De-Solv-It (some breakdown of the material).
The only thing that I knew for sure was that the W.S. was 52", so I worked from there. Being a Pattern buff I happen to like a little longer tail moment so the fuse on this baby is 58".  I had some concerns whether or not I would be able to get it in my compact wagon, it being a one-piece airplane, but hoped that I would be able to tilt and diagonal it through the rear opening and it makes it O.K., but not much to spare.
I knew that I wanted this to be a 3D capable bird so I made the profile very deep (like K.E. at idle) and what I ended up with resembled a Great White, which I was O.K. with. The surfaces are all oversize with extreme throws on hi-rate. I used 2 CF spars 48"X 3/16"dia. and think now, that I probably should have used 1/4" because it weighs 3 pounds on the nose and I am seeing some slight wing flex. The area is 600 squares with about a 22% stab. The rudder is highly effective. At 50% lo-rate it's difficult to finesse a small amount of deflection. Go K.E. and put in about 1/8" stick and it wants to head for the sun. It will take some getting used to as I just maidened it yeasterday, but I think it's going to have enormous potential. 
Going the Hobby City route I purchased a 60 amp ESC for about $47, the motor is ( I can't remember for sure) either a KD or a Turnigy supposedly 720 Watts, but I do remember the cost was $32. I had a 4 cell 3000 ma pak that accounts for much of the weight. 
Oh, I put a piece of thin flat CF in the L.E. to prevent dings and a C.F. tube under the elev to stiffen it up. I also put some more of that thin flat stuff in the surface balance tabs so they wouldn't flex on deflection.
There's a skid under the fin and a 2" wheel on the bottom about 3" ahead of the C.G. that only protrudes from the bottom of the fuse 1/2 the diameter of the wheel. It has waaaay too much power, but I'm not going to complain about such a nice problem.
I remembered that the guy who scaled up the Click commented that he had a C.G. problem (tail heavy) so I extended the nose about 5-7 % longer than what I would use if I was building a glow pattern model.
Because it's electric I was originally going to call it the "ampeRAGE", but ended up the easy way out.

Thanks for the interest Scott,
You provided me a platform. 
I included the list just in case there might be one other interested individual.
Georgie




  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Scott Anderson 
  To: geobet at gis.net 
  Sent: Saturday, April 26, 2008 8:45 AM
  Subject: foamy


  George,

  More info please.. all the vitals ? 

  how thick is the foam , ws, sq in,  weight..etc....

  looks good

  scott anderson
  nsrca529

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