Ass-kicking RC plane

[LandQuail]

Think tha Quail's too good to play wit toyz?

THINK AGIN MOFOs!!!!!!!!!!!

Here's my Fokker DVII, built from a 23-inch wingspan Herr Engineering kit and converted to RC by none other than UCP's favorite gamebird, LandQuail.

Don't think for a second that it was easy, you N00BZ. Tha Quail's been at this shit for like a YEAR.

I really have been working at this since last winter. I'm decidedly giddy about the prospect of actually flying the thing. The local electric RC club has taken great interest, and I expect quite an audience at my Fokker's maiden flight. Oddly, I've gotten a lot of E-mails asking to see my model Before I try to fly it.

DON THEY KN0 THA QUAILs THA MOTHAFAKIN BOM AT FLYIN THA RC SHIT???

No, they don't. This will be the first time I've ever flown an RC airplane. Back in the day, when things were cool, I built scores of freeflight rubber-powered jobs, often with great success.

I'm confident on the building side of things. I built a Guillow's Fokker DR. 1 Triplane (Manfred von Richtoffen's, known to history as the Red Barron's, final mount) and a Guillow's Morse Scout as static display models for practice last year. Both these models took about four months to complete. The DR. 1 fell victim to a horrible apartment moving accident, which smashed it flatter than hammered shit, but the Morse Scout is still intact and ready to be hung from the ceiling somewhere.

As for the flying side of it, well, I'm pretty good at Microsoft Flight Simulator...

At any rate, my Fokker DVII will look damn good doing whatever it does after (or if) its tiny wheels break contact with mother Earth. The small skull and crossed Spandau machine guns on the fuselage are the model's master stroke. I looked everywhere for just the right skull to cut out and use as a stencil, and finally found it in the liner notes from my wife's Zack Wilde album.

The larger skulls on the wings come from an As I Lay Dying album I bought years ago hoping the band would be as good as the brilliant American southern writer William Faulkner's novel, As I Lay Dying. It wasn't. It wasn't even in the same ballpark, but when you need a three-inch skull you need a three-inch skull...


U TRY TO FIND 1 WEN Uz NEEDZ 1 U NOOBZ THEN CUM CRYIN BOUT STUPID LUKING WING SKULZ!!!!!!
1337!!!!!!!!!!!!

The Budweiser bottle is there only to give a reference of size. No, wait, building this model and drinking have gone hand-in-hand.

I'll have someone running the newspaper's HD video camera whenever I fly it, which will be the first calm weekend day of 2008 that I'm not epically hung over, probably.

[cmcpokey]

did you ever know that youre my hero....


brilliant stuff, look forward to the battle damage assesment

[LandQuail]

I expect the results to be epic, whatever the outcome of the first flight.

Would anyone like a lengthy explanation of any aspect of building the thing? I'm ready to go all night boring the trousers off all of you talking about how to go about bending tiny aluminium tubes and shrinking Japanese tissue...

[orshow]

I expect the results to be epic, whatever the outcome of the first flight.

Would anyone like a lengthy explanation of any aspect of building the thing? I'm ready to go all night boring the trousers off all of you talking about how to go about bending tiny aluminium tubes and shrinking Japanese tissue...

Go for it , how much did it cost you?

The only RC i've got is a homemade scooby ...it's wicked

[baddabang]

This thread is full of win. Nice plane, is it electric or gasoline?

[Sledgehammer]

Looks like a rewarding project. How did you come up with the structural strength part. Did you try several variations before finding the best arrangement? Did you use an existing plane as a model to base your RC off? Ok to many questions, ill let you answer.

[LandQuail]

All the electronic bits and motor/battery/speed control came to about $250, give or take. The good news is that all the really expensive stuff (receiver, servos, speed control) should be damn near indestructible.

The airframe itself is from Herr Engineering (Herr Engineering Main Menu)
and cost about $25 (£1.05).

Of course, the freeflight kit is supposed to be powered by a windup rubber band, and how do you explain to your friends that That's not a toy? Converting the airframe to full four-channel RC was a huge undertaking. Building movable control surfaces int the wings and tail surfaces took a lot of work, but it's not the impossible task you'd think it is by reading through RC airplane forums (not nearly as hearty a crowd as we've got here at UCP).

It's covered with Japanese tissue (Esaki, the good stuff) sealed with Krylon clear spray enamel and, of course, black and white spray enamel for the skulls.

Sure, I could have gone and got one of those styrofoam RC kits, but where's the sense of adventure in that? Also, since these balsa kits are so cheap, I'm really only out about $30 if it does auger in.

Now that the airplane's basically done and I'm just waiting for decent weather to fly it, I've turned my energies toward experimenting to see how much Jack Daniels you can bake into a from-scratch Southern pecan pie before it just doesn't cook up right. I'm up to two shots and so far so good...

[NSXType-R]

Thanks for the explanation, because from the original pictures, it looked barely airworthy.

It looks like you just stuck a couple toothpicks together and called it a day.

Definitely a nice project!

[Super GT]

Yes I agree it is a nice project, but be careful, I had an RC plane about a year ago and I was flying it and a gust of wind took it. It hid the ground. I also got nothing from it.

So just make sure the weather is nice and you have a big open field!!!

[LandQuail]

Great Advice Super GT!

I Take NONE OF IT TO HEART.

The ****er either Flies or it Don't. If it does, I'll have CHUCK YEAGER-LIKE control over the thing. If it even gets off the ground and achieves stable flight, I'd be a PUSSY not to try for a barrel roll or High Speed Low Pass, wouldn't I???

I take no half measures in my hobby. Either it's the most MEMORABLE THING my model airplane club (average age:115) has ever seen or it it NOTHING.

However it ends up, this 'Quail will have a big bottle of Martini and Rossi champagne sitting half-cocked. Whatever way it winds up back on Terra Firma, there'll be a small party.

Worst Possible Result?
I'll build another and see everybody back again in 2009.

SQUAWK.

[IBrake4Rainbows]

I have a mate (who, funnily enough ,has just become a Pilot) who has about 5 or 6 of these planes.

Epic, Epic Win.

[Matra et Alpine]

Nice.
But remember and watch out for the lady in your life
Toyota Yaris Plane, Ad, Advert, Video Clip | visit4info | TV/Cinema

[LandQuail]

Nice.
But remember and watch out for the lady in your life
Toyota Yaris Plane, Ad, Advert, Video Clip | visit4info | TV/Cinema

Thanks, but there'll be no stylish mulatto at the helm when my Fokker takes to the sky.

It's getting about that time now. I'll try to fly the thing the second weekend in March.

I've figured out that my battery pack it about twice the size it needs to be for this kind of model. I need to order another one, but my wife's put a freeze on my money ever since I drove my Subaru WRX STi into a tree while trying to dazzle a crowd with figure-8s in a tiny backyard.

You have no idea how much WRX fenders and headlights cost...

[revetec]

Check out this RC Helicopter, it is the most awesome flying I have ever seen.