Mini Jet

[Sylvain Le Gall]

Hi Guys,

I finally maiden her. I used a bungee for take off. I set my timer at 4 min.

Set 2 clicks of up elevator. I took a deep breath and.....go. She went straight right away. I am still impressed by the stability. She flys like on rail. The roll rate can be impressive. My high rates were too high, though. Well, nothing special to say, you can slow her a lot, with throttle management. She is not super fast, but her small size make her quickly out of sight. I guess my color scheme is not the best....Vertical performance is good, but she is not a 3D machine. Landing is a non event an grass. I would say similar to my Great Plane Spirit sailplane ! Easy. Mind you, she is not for beginner.

On first flight, I flew with a cheater hole that I made after first construction...Maybe I thought it would be better on high alpha manoeuvers. I fill the hole in second flight and i was better. So, no cheater hole. Note that my original design was 'by the book' (Air inlets, Exhaust, etc...) and it seems tha it was right.

So no major upgrades on the plan. She is just good.

A mate at the field filmed the 3 flights I made today, so I will post them as soon as I will get the vids !

Overall, I'm very pleased with the result. Easy, cheap and quick to build, she is a blast to fly and she is rather pretty in my humble opinion.

Stay tuned, I will try to publish the plans for those who may be intersted.

Cheers.

[Sylvain Le Gall]

Some complements:

I made some tests with static thrust :

- With cheating hole : I get around 900 g thrust

- Without cheating hole : around 750 g

Again, in flight, without cheating hole, the plane seems to be more smooth, maybe a bit more better in vertical climbs, not noticeably faster though.

the plane, at the end, with some reinforcment and mods (battery hatch,landing skids) is 1098 g.

I guess with lighter EDF units, and some mods on the wing, you would be under 1000g as per my initial plans.

Edited By Sylvain Le Gall on 29/05/2013 19:33:08

[Sylvain Le Gall]

Here is a video (Thank you Jean !!) of the maiden flight.

 

Edited By Sylvain Le Gall on 29/05/2013 19:22:50

[Sylvain Le Gall]

Hi,

Another video, with slow speed.

 

Some additional information:

I am flying the mini jet on 4S 2700mAh. I logged 6 flights, most of them with no throttle management.

I set my timer at 4 min. I put 1700 mAh (average) in my battery packs after the flights.

So I guess that I can get 6 min alternating low and fast passes.

The fuselage can handle 25 mm wide battery backs. There are some 3300 mAh available at Hobby king...we may get 20 % more flight time.

Note also that generally, EDF with less blades are more efficient, so this also may be a way to improve performance (less the noise, that is so nice on 10 blades...)

 

 

  

Cheers.

Edited By Sylvain Le Gall on 31/05/2013 16:58:23

[Sylvain Le Gall]

A few infos on the exhaust tube

[Sylvain Le Gall]

I put 4 more flights in a windy weather today. It's not a problem at all. She's not draggy, so she will move easily. Stability is amasing even at really (really) low speed. I was able to stop her in the sky !

With throttle management (not that much ) i'm getting around 5 min flight time.

A few more pics

[sgwlm]

is nice to hear everything going ok now, i do have a soft spot for delta aircraft, the pics look great

[Sylvain Le Gall]

Guys,

I've been upgraded the original design with some improvements on the air intake, battery hatch, servo installation, etc...

I'm thinking about producing kits with Laser Cut wood / hardware / Vacuum formed canopy...

Would someone be interested ?

Chears