Designing my own plane

[Zachattack#9]

hello all

 i am just wondering how hard it would be to try and make my on plane from scratch. using my busted cessna as guide. all comments welcome

thanks zachary

[David Ashby - Moderator]

Well Zach the best thing for you to do is fill in your profile and tell us about yourself and your experience levels. Cessna - which Cessna is that out of the many R/C Cessnas on the market?  

Your question is too broad at this level so the simple answer would be that designing your own plane would be very easy or terribly difficult depending on what you already know......

[Brian Parker]

With all due respect. If you have to ask the question then it will be very difficuit.

[Bruce Richards]

Designing your own plane is the easiest thing in the world. Building it will be harder. Then whether it will fly is a different matter entirely. If you are happy to fail and keep trying again until you get something that works then give it a go. If you will loose heart after a failure then I would suggest you find another way into t he air.

You should also realise that designing and building your own model is likely to be model expensive that buying an ARTF. What I did was study the various SPAD (Simple plastic Aircraft Design) here models on the Internet then I built something along those lines. First off I built a chuck glider version to get something that sort of flew. Than I added electric power and some radio control.

Good luck and have fun whatever you choose to do. 

[Former Member]

[This posting has been removed]

[Zachattack#9]

thanks for all the help guys keep it coming im still going to have a go at it though.

i have just filled out my profile probably not enough but its a start

[David Ashby - Moderator]

How badly was the model broken Zach - a total write-off? or just a few dents?

[Andy Green]

I would suggest a half way house and build from a plan.

It will give you a good idea of what you need to do.

Then I'd take a ruler to the plan and measure things like decalage, right thrust ect and using these same (tried and tested) meaurements, design and build your own.

Andy

[Zachattack#9]

well the tail has snaped off and it has been a bit of a challenge to glue back to gether and the elevartors have broken

[Zachattack#9]

but the rest of it isnt to bad.

[Simon Chaddock]

As an old timer I would say that designing, building & flying your own creation is very rewarding BUT do not expect to be very (or at all!) successful until you know what you are doing.

I am sure most of us started out building kits and then slowly progressed from there, learning by our mistakes as we went along. Remember there are three distinct stages. Designing, building & flying. Few can expect to be good at all three.

At least working from a published plan should mean that, providing you have the building skill, the plane should atleast fly, providing you have appropriate flying skill. That is more than enough for most of us!

Much of the skill in flying (if indeed it does) an own design is understanding what is wrong with it and how to make it better.

So how about starting by building a new "own design" fuselage for your Cessna? If you keep the engine, wings & tail in the same place (and alignment) you stand a fair chance of something hopefully as good as the Cessna you had - however you did not say how good that was, only that it broke.

[Ady Hayward]

Simon, You hit the nail on the head there.

I suggest the best route is to start with wood-built kits, move on to plans and when happy with the building and modifying of those the time is right to design from scratch having built a sound base of experience of what works.

 

Adrian

Edited By Ady Hayward on 26/05/2010 10:47:31