See if you can get Santa flying around for Christmas this year This design has not been flight tested by me, but Santa has logged a ton of hours on this one This design has a 20" Sleigh Span (wing span) :mrgreen: Here is the link for the Christmas Show build http://www.phlatforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=180&t=1450&start=0 Enjoy Mark Attached files Santa.skp (5 MB)Â Santa_Sheet_1.cnc (32.2 KB)Â Santa_Sheet_2.cnc (136.3 KB)Â Santa_Sheet_3.cnc (61.2 KB)Â Santa_Sheet_4.cnc (34.3 KB)Â
How much would you quesstimate it weighs Mark? I didn't get to finish watching the show last night. Did you weigh it?
Its at 9.2 oz with no electronics in it I thought that was pretty light considering the size and all the parts involved, not to mention the quick build causing a ton of glue to be added Mark
Got some electronics installed But will it fly.. It was pouring yesterday so I did not have the chance to really try it out. I did get a quick toss in the rain but it was tail heavy so I am going to move the battery forward and try again. Mark Attached files
Did you move the elevator and rudder? From the picture it looks like you moved the servos and possibly changed to elevons behind the reindeer?
I did move them from the design mainly because I did not have servo extensions. It works out better because you need the weight to the front. I will test fly and if I can get it to work I will post the revised plans Mark
Hi folks, I could not exactly call it a successful weekend, my first try of getting Santa airborne was last Sunday with an underpowered outrunner, so I could only fly straight and level, and landed straight ahead, as I felt that the craft was barely hanging in on there, but by the standards of the Wright brothers it surely must have counted! (as I flew it for at least over a hundred feet straight and level! ) So off to the house to find a bigger motor, but by the time I had that installed it was already dark outside...Monday all day at work, so no time, Today Tuesday, with nice freezing weather and some sunshine I went out again with my 9 year old son who is holding the (iPhone)camera. What can I say? The good: it flew (3 flights!) The bad: the all ended with CFIT (well UCFIT to be more specific). The motor used was a Turnigy 1900kV outrunner, prop 8x3.8 which made a heck of a torque, but since the A/C was built HEAVY (when I first made it I had no intention to fly it, since I did the "original" Santasled (without Santa himself on it) that I found on the Phlatprinter DVD #III, before the Christmas show by Mark and Trish was aired, with an updated Santa) The rudder works super for yawing it around to turn (hardly any roll induced) but the aileron part of the elevons was way way way sensitive (even with the 50% expo I had set) Pitch control was fine as well. The CG was about abeam 2/3 of the length of the belly of the aft Rendeer, which was achieved by putting a hefty 1800mAh 3 cel LiPo on top of the motor stick, extending as far forward as possible, (so it even almost touched the prop...)(I would have liked it to be a little more forward, but this was the best I settled for, as the thing was already so heavy, so I did not want to add any(more) ballast weight to it) The second and third flight ended when the A/C rolled over suddenly, and I did not have the altitude to correct it in time...Surprisingly the damage in all the crashes was more or less only cosmetic (lost some rendeerparts, legs, antlers and such) but on flight#3 the prop broke (despite the prop saver :? ;-( ) and unfortunately no more spare props...(in fact I took this last one off of my SilverSurfer, so he is out of commission for the time as well...) Anyway, it was great fun while it lasted! I'm thinking shall I rebuild it lighter, or make a 50% copy, or go on with the next project, or go on with the ongoing project...So much foam so little time... Well ther'ya go, the footage of the first flight (the whole minute it lasted anyway ) of today: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MrkKfuWsNtg Seasons greetings! Martin
That was great Martin! I am glad someone got the chance to try this one out. Thank you so much for sharing the details and video. As for my set up, I am going with a 10x4.7 prop with a 1000 mah pack on a blue wonder. I am finding that the more weight up front the better too. I have moved the servos forward as well. From the little flight (if you could call it that) I tried today I know it needs the rudder for sure Next move is to take some of the weight off the back as well. Thanks again that was a lot of fun to read and watch Here's a quick test flight I did on my lunch break today needs some work Hope it makes you laugh Mark
Here's a picture of mine. My daughter assisted with painting. I almost hate to put it up in the air this weekend - but I will... :mrgreen: Attached files
You guys did a great job BP! Just a suggestion from my test flights, you need to lighten that back as much as possible and get the weight as far as you can to the front. Good luck with the maiden hope that is goes great! Mark
I never replied to this. Santa flew great as long as you didn't need to turn :mrgreen: ... He made it back with his sleigh, but unfortunately all of the rheindeer were lost in the crash... Greg
in the first post, just below the image is a link to the Sektchup file 'santa.skp' . that is a full rendering and CNC ready layout of the parts.
