Xavier
2009-05-18, 01:53 PM
2 weeks ago, the president of C2VM received an email from someone at the Cirque du Soleil, looking for pilots and airplanes for an indoor demo. I contacted that person and got some more details. It was to be a supper at the Chalet du Mont-Royal and the theme was the 100th years of the Red Cross in Canada. The airplanes were to be old type airplanes to reminder the 20's & 30's flying for one minute. She send me the music and sound effect wave file that was very cool. A few dollars were to be given to the club so that was interesting too.
I was the only one interested in the C2VM and I needed another pilot so I talked to Dwight and Ronald about it and they agreed to register the event with MAAC as a Wimac demo. I designed and build the first plane looking like a Nieuport 17 and I called it the Nieufoam. It flew for the first time at the Wimac field in the morning of the field day. Dwight also had a chance to fly it there in the afternoon. It was made mainly of 5mm Depron and weighted 160g for a wingspan of 36in, with aileron on the wop wing only. The motor was an AXI 2204 with a 2S300 LiPo. It flew surprisingly well in the wind. Probably that the full span ailerons were a big plus compared to many rudder & elevator only similar airplanes. We agreed that a lighter plane with ailerons on both wings would be more agile and better for a tight space.
I started working on the second airplane when I got home. It was based on the Fokker DVII so I called it the Foamkker. It is made of 2mm Depron with a Turnigy motor and 2S300 LiPo. The total weight was now 130g. The aileron servo is linked to the bottom aileron with aluminium rods and carbon rods connect the lower to upper ailerons on each side. The elevator and rudder servos are in the nose again, connected to the surfaces by pull-pull Kevlar thread. That plane flew at MRCC on Tuesday and it was more agile as expected but very flexible in the wind. I added a small carbon rod ‘spar’ under the top wing to keep it straighter. I also added carbon rods on the wing struts. I added color on both planes and they start looking cool. They were left mainly white to be easily visible in low light conditions.
With all this experience and one day left before the show, I decided to build a third plane with the look of the first one but with 2mm Depron and 4 ailerons. It was finished right before I left and it weight also 130g. It had its first flights in the wood around the chalet to avoid the high winds that day.
I was told the flying area would be about 60 x 40 ft and 30 ft high. With the curtain rails, the flowers, the lights and etc, it was more 30 x 30 x 15. We were supposed to have some practice flights but things were late and the guess started arriving earlier than planned. It means that we had a short try above the table in an empty section and it confirmed that it will be tight. We decided we will hand launch the planes instead of taking off so it takes less space and just fly in circle. We had planned to fly both planes in formation but with no practice and a tighter space than expected, we were not sure anymore. We agreed that we will get sure it’s all done safely.
We had a small supper provided by the organizer and waited for our turn. We were told to get ready and we had to walk around the building to get in by the main door. It was the most dangerous time for the airplanes because of the wind but we managed to get them there in one piece. Everything went quickly from there. Dwight hand launched the Foamkker and I realized right away that there was no room for 2 planes. I was ready to just watch when after a circle or two the Foamkker hit a flower and fell in front of us. I hand launch the Nieufoam and did a few more circles until the music stopped. I landed right in front of the photograph so hopefully he had good shots.
We received good comment from the organizers so they seem happy even if it wasn’t done in the best conditions. For us, it was a cool experience to see the behind the scene of the evening and we had fun even if we know that we could have done a better show with more practice and a bit more room. It was funny to think that some ‘important’ people were seating at tables near the flying area. We could have get model airplane on the first page of newspaper by crashing on Jean Charest’s table maybe :-)
Unfortunatly we don't have pictures during the flying.
Xavier
You could see more pictures of the planes in this thread http://www.wimac.ca/forum/showthread.php?t=2354
I was the only one interested in the C2VM and I needed another pilot so I talked to Dwight and Ronald about it and they agreed to register the event with MAAC as a Wimac demo. I designed and build the first plane looking like a Nieuport 17 and I called it the Nieufoam. It flew for the first time at the Wimac field in the morning of the field day. Dwight also had a chance to fly it there in the afternoon. It was made mainly of 5mm Depron and weighted 160g for a wingspan of 36in, with aileron on the wop wing only. The motor was an AXI 2204 with a 2S300 LiPo. It flew surprisingly well in the wind. Probably that the full span ailerons were a big plus compared to many rudder & elevator only similar airplanes. We agreed that a lighter plane with ailerons on both wings would be more agile and better for a tight space.
I started working on the second airplane when I got home. It was based on the Fokker DVII so I called it the Foamkker. It is made of 2mm Depron with a Turnigy motor and 2S300 LiPo. The total weight was now 130g. The aileron servo is linked to the bottom aileron with aluminium rods and carbon rods connect the lower to upper ailerons on each side. The elevator and rudder servos are in the nose again, connected to the surfaces by pull-pull Kevlar thread. That plane flew at MRCC on Tuesday and it was more agile as expected but very flexible in the wind. I added a small carbon rod ‘spar’ under the top wing to keep it straighter. I also added carbon rods on the wing struts. I added color on both planes and they start looking cool. They were left mainly white to be easily visible in low light conditions.
With all this experience and one day left before the show, I decided to build a third plane with the look of the first one but with 2mm Depron and 4 ailerons. It was finished right before I left and it weight also 130g. It had its first flights in the wood around the chalet to avoid the high winds that day.
I was told the flying area would be about 60 x 40 ft and 30 ft high. With the curtain rails, the flowers, the lights and etc, it was more 30 x 30 x 15. We were supposed to have some practice flights but things were late and the guess started arriving earlier than planned. It means that we had a short try above the table in an empty section and it confirmed that it will be tight. We decided we will hand launch the planes instead of taking off so it takes less space and just fly in circle. We had planned to fly both planes in formation but with no practice and a tighter space than expected, we were not sure anymore. We agreed that we will get sure it’s all done safely.
We had a small supper provided by the organizer and waited for our turn. We were told to get ready and we had to walk around the building to get in by the main door. It was the most dangerous time for the airplanes because of the wind but we managed to get them there in one piece. Everything went quickly from there. Dwight hand launched the Foamkker and I realized right away that there was no room for 2 planes. I was ready to just watch when after a circle or two the Foamkker hit a flower and fell in front of us. I hand launch the Nieufoam and did a few more circles until the music stopped. I landed right in front of the photograph so hopefully he had good shots.
We received good comment from the organizers so they seem happy even if it wasn’t done in the best conditions. For us, it was a cool experience to see the behind the scene of the evening and we had fun even if we know that we could have done a better show with more practice and a bit more room. It was funny to think that some ‘important’ people were seating at tables near the flying area. We could have get model airplane on the first page of newspaper by crashing on Jean Charest’s table maybe :-)
Unfortunatly we don't have pictures during the flying.
Xavier
You could see more pictures of the planes in this thread http://www.wimac.ca/forum/showthread.php?t=2354