BipeOne

[Colin Leighfield]

As I get on with my other builds in the shed I’ve been to Shawbury a couple more times. The last time two weeks ago was disastrous, I couldn’t seem to get anything to fly properly and it was completely demoralising. However the co-incidence was that all are flying on my trusty old DX6i, which has never given me a moment’s bother. However I went to Fradley and on my first flight with the HK Grasshopper/Cub, I lost all signal immediately after take off and the plane went in, fortunately into soft ground with little damage. I checked the radio range afterwards and it seems ok, so something’s going on. I flew the Tundra three times after on my DX7,no trouble at all. I don’t feel like committing to Taranis yet, so stuck my neck out and bought the latest Orange DR6i from HK and I’m transferring all of the indoor planes onto that. It looks very good. I also wanted a simple robust yet light indoor flyer for indoor practice, so drew up BipeOne, made from Depron and a little 1/32” balsa. It’s 22” span with the usual PZ geared P51motor, which gives an amazing amount of thrust. With a 3S 160 mah Lipo it only weighs 6.9 gms, as the wing area is 150 sq ins the wing loading is only 2.4 ozs sq ft. I’ve not tried to conceal the mechatronics, it’s about practicality rather than aesthetics, but I think it looks ok. Only took a few hours to draw it and knock it together.

[TJ Alexander]

Cute!

[Denis Watkins]

What a belta Colin, perfect for indoor and Jadelski wings too, should be a floater

Have done many builds this size in EPP too, but never done a bipe, though am inspired now

[Geoff S]

Love it! But then, I love bipes anyway

I didn't know you could get 3S 160 mAh LiPos. I thought all LiPos that samll in capacity were 1S as I use in my indoor helis (V911) and old the Vapor I have that's getting heavy from the Blenderm repairs.

Geoff

[Colin Leighfield]

Thanks chaps. Geoff has noticed my “senior moment”. The Lipo is of course 1S 160 mah. Apologies for that.

[Wilco Wingco]

Would make a great Free Plan in RCM&E

[Colin Leighfield]

Thanks Wilco! I want to get a chance to test it and set it up before the next visit to Shawbury, the steel structure of the hangar isn’t the best place for the first flight if trimming is needed, at least for a half competent pilot like me! The problem is where because you really need nearly zero wind for something like this and we haven’t seen much of that lately! This afternoon I got home early and grabbed the chance to go the airfield, taking the Grasshopper/Cub that I have repaired after the incident with the DX6I, re-booting it onto my Dx7. I had three perfect flights with textbook landings, pretty much confirming that the problems previously were related to the other transmitter. When I got back home and put everything away I realised that the wind had gone. Although getting a bit dark, I grabbed BipeOne and took it into our cul de sac. It tracks straight and lifts off cleanly. It was nose heavy and makes me think that the 5gm wheel balancing weight under the motor wasn’t necessary, but in three consecutive flights progressive trimming sorted it out and I’ll probably leave it as it is. I didn’t risk any turning flights in the restricted space and poor light, particularly I don’t want to alienate the neighbours! However it clearly flies and with a large rudder and 5 degrees of dihedral both sides it should turn ok.

[McG 6969]

Subscribed already, Colin.

If you can manage to get a plan 'out there', I'll be surely building one for next winter 'indoors'.

Keep the good work alive.

Cheers

Chris

[Stephen Jones]

Looks nice Colin,

What is the wing span ?

Biplanes are well suited for indoor flying what with their slower flying speed .

Steve

[Colin Leighfield]

Thanks Chris. It’s a simple and cheap “quickie” and a nice diversion from some of the brain draining complex stuff that we tend to commit ourselves to! I’ll sketch it out properly so if anybody wants to do it I can copy it for them.

Steve, upper wing 22”,lower 20”, total area 150 sq ins. You share my view on the flying speed and the braced biplane layout has created a very stiff structure, it is robust and looks ideal for the job.

[Colin Leighfield]

I’ve been at home today and late afternoon the wind dropped off, so I took the opportunity to do some more testing in the cul-de-sac! It was clear that the 5mg. weight under the motor wasn’t necessary, I was putting in a lot of up trim. I took it out and set the trim back to neutral. Perfect, it flies beautifully. Although there was limited opportunity to turn in the space available, it responded well to rudder and recovered to straight flight immediately it was put back to neutral. All in flying weight is now 65 gms, so I’m very happy with that. I’m translating my working drawings into a proper plan with working notes, coming along pretty well as you can see. I want to be able to do this one again, if anybody else fancies having a go I’d be happy to copy it for them. As usual I’m running out of time with work commitments for most of the rest of this week and I will be away from home for nine days from Friday. That means the first chance to fly it properly will be at Shawbury the day after I get home, so I just hope I don’t fly it into a girder. Having said that, it’s tough enough to survive. It will be the first test of the Orange transmitter as well, it looks promising.

[McG 6969]

Very cute project & I'm in for a plan copy, Colin.

But no urgency involved at all, I just started back on the Vicomte build.

Cheers

Chris

[Colin Leighfield]

I’m looking forward to seeing that one Chris, it has a certain charm!

[Colin Leighfield]

I’m pleased to say that BipeOne had it’s first outing at Shawbury and fulfilled my expectations! I flew it three times and experimented with rudder settings, elevator was spot on from the beginning. I had way over-estimated the rudder throw and by the third flight it was on the lowest rate, 40%. I had to call it a day then because I was getting spurious signal inputs on the ground, with the motor kicking in. My fear was that my new Orange Tx6i tx was the culprit, but the three other models programmed into it had no sign of the problem, so it’s an issue with the rx. Very frustrating. Otherwise it’s not often that a new project comes good straight away, so this is very pleasing. All I wanted was a safe, robust and manoeuvrable indoor flyer and this it, easily doing figures of eight in the centre of the hangar. I’ll replace the rx because I don’t know how to fix it.

[Colin Leighfield]

KWith much trepidation I set off with son James to RAF Shawbury this morning in the teeth of the severe weather with a fleet of indoor planes including BipeOne. Fairey LR Monoplane, Vickers Wellesley, Ares Spad and Fokker DVII, Micro Beast, Micro Corsair and Eric Strefford’s profile D/F Hawk!

We found clear roads once we got away from Sutton Coldfield, so our journey time was about normal, finding considerably less snow at the destination. Others were worse affected and about a third of usual numbers turned up. The positive outcome was less crowded air space and easier flying, although collisions with other planes and steel girders still occurred.

Changing the receiver in BipeOne to Deltang eliminated the interference problem previously experienced and it flew immaculately all afternoon, turning out to be exactly what I hoped for, a great flying and dependable indoor flyer that despite its simplicity has a definite style in the air. We both enjoyed it, punctuated by a collision with a hovering 3D obstacle that did little damage, repaired in ten minutes with superglue! The micro Beast that I had forgotten in the loft didn’t last long before it hit the deck and needed repairs that could wait until we got home. James had some brilliant flying with the Ares Spad and DVII. Both needed s little weight in the nose for pitch stability but then flew very well. He was flying the Spad on mode 1 and the DVII on mode 2! The Wellesley flew brilliantly, only needing about 1/3 power on the PZ micro P51 geared motor to maintain height, despite its 31” wing span. I eventually took it too high and hit a girder. Knocked the motor loose, a quick fix. The Corsair had been glued together following another hovering 3D incident event last time, so it was a bit hairy but James made the best of it. I flew the Fairey LR Monoplane a few times, with ailerons it is now flyable but not a great handler. It could really do with more tailplane area, but that would spoil the scale effect. Late in the afternoon I managed to fly it into James’s Spad, bringing both down but with little damage fortunately! Finally we flew the profile D/F Hawk supplied as a kit by Eric Strefford. It flies brilliantly and we were astonished to get 10 minute flights from the 1S 200mah 70C Lipo! These little fan units that Eric makes are wonderful, I’ve got two more to make a twin. Hard to believe, but despite the unpromising start, that was a memorable day’s flying. Now that I’m getting some flying practice in I’m getting the confidence I need to have a go at the indoor scale Nats in 2019, just for the experience. It will be a LePere Lusac 11, the plane that could have been very important if WW1 had continued into 1919 because the USAC had 3,500 on order, cancelled at war’s end when only thirty had been built. I’m knocking a quick build Depron test prototype together now to work out the detail. However, the focus now switches to outdoor and other unfinished business for the next few months.

Edited By Colin Leighfield on 18/03/2018 22:00:00