40 Farad Floater Flies Fab!

[@mahirwrobleski2797]

Hi, any way of getting a plan for this 40-farad floater, you submitted power , prop , source of the wings; but the fuselage? hope you send me some more details as I wanna make one. My regards.

[@sonex413]

I will take a few measurements and let you know in a day or so...I'll get the balance point also. Thanks for your interest!

[@sonex413]

Ok, remember that I started with a wing (GWS DH-Beaver single surface foam wing) which had some damage at the root areas, so I had to remove a few inches from each panel. As a result, the span of each individual wing panel is about 41cm, or 16". There is a dihedral break at roughly mid-wing which was added after initial testing showed spiral instability using only the dihedral angle at the wing center. There is a video of the initial testing here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/f4SYo6uDjJKdsJo which may give you some ideas, (and more videos if you go to our channel) it shows the supercap taped to the fuselage bottom as we were playing with the balance. You will see that the fuselage "pod" is simply a rectangular block of white packing foam big enough to hide the cap. After finalizing the installation and sanding the nose, the pod was covered with one layer of heavy duty clear packing tape, two layers on the bottom for durability. Tail boom is a piece of 1/8' (3mm) hollow carbon fiber tube from the junk box. The boom is epoxied into a groove let into the top surface of the foam block fuselage pod. It's parallel to the flat upper surface of the fuselage block. The tail surfaces (3mm foam sheet and each roughly 17x9cm with a little shaping as desired) are mounted to the tail boom with zero angle...incidence will be established at wing mounting. Tail boom extends about 34cm (13 1/2") rearward from the wing's trailing edge and forward into the fuselage to about the wing leading edge area. You may be able to pause some of the video footage to get an idea of how I used some scrap pieces removed from the wing's center section to make a streamlied hollow wing mount pylon as well as the angle of incidence applied to the wing. The wing trailing edge is at the level of the tail tube, while the wing leading edge is raised about 10mm above that level. At the deepest part of the wing's undercamber the wing undersurface is about 18mm above the fuselage top surface. The pylon is constructed to hold the wing secure at this angle as well as provide a place to mount the switch. The motors are mounted to the wing upper surface on balsa wood mounts. They are counter-rotating, so are aimed straight ahead. There is quite a bit of motor up-thrust however. Again, pause video to estimate it, it's a lot....We had to increase it after initial tests showed a tendency to force the nose down under power. Expect to make some fine tuning adjustments. Almost forgot, the plane balances about 50mm back from the leading edge of the wing. Build everything then play with capacitor location last to establish final balance. Glide test...over tall grass.... The main idea is that none of this was designed or drawn as plans...simply selecting parts from the crash pile and improvising something to fly is great fun. Let me know if there's anything I've failed to mention or if you have questions. I'm going to pin this post in case others want to try it too. Good Luck and let us know how she flies! -Mike

[@sonex413]

Links to motors, props, capacitors in text description beneath video...

[@cateyesaerial7703]

Your videos are great! You get more views in a hour than I do in a week! Nice drone you did a good job. Thank you so much for subscribing!

[@chrisp6072]

Absolutely superb!! I have scratch built about 25 RC Depron indoor models, so this one would fit well with what I enjoy building. Keep up the good work!!

[@sonex413]

Thanks Chris! I wish I could still buy Depron at the hobby store. I still have a small stash of 6mm sheet but otherwise, I'm all out. it's hard to find in any size. I just found a seller on Ebay this morning who is offering 3mm sheets so I ordered up 8 sheets, we'll see if they get here!

[@larzhillbot1443]

Thats a real Floater for sure. Its such a shame GWS is history now. I went from flying greasy kid stuff fuel to strictly Electric when Gws came out with all its awesome electric gear. I have heaps of Gws servos and speed controls and a had a lot of thoes great light foam wings. I would use the wings to scratch build diffrent foamies . Now you guys are taking the foamies to a new level with free flight models. I love it. Huge thumbs up as always.

[@sonex413]

Yeah, I used to fly a bunch of fuel power stuff back in the days...still have a bunch of 'em and may go outlaw sometime and put up a few flights for old times' sake! Thanks for the kind comments about our free flights! Sounds like you enjoy working from the junk box as much as we do. Amazing what comes out sometimes!

[@AlexPatrikeev]

Great flying guys!

[@sonex413]

Much appreciated, Alexandr! We hope you are having some good flights too!

[@stephencrowther524]

Beautiful sky and an excellent floater - perfect !

[@sonex413]

Yes indeed! Thanks for dropping a comment!

[@spottyjack614]

Wow!!! Thst 40 Cap ferret is simply just amazing!! U gotta perfect flight it seemed every time it went up in the air. That's definitely a zero wind plane. It flys so gracefully cause it's so light.. u got that trim dialled in perfect to Mike... great job... U should do a build along viddd with that beauty Mike👍👍.I'd luvv to have one of those.. Great job guys..great job.. Keep those vidddz coming.. take care fella's......Ray......🛩🛩🛩✈✈✈🛫🛬🛬🛩🛩🛫🛬🚁🚁🚁🚁🚁✈✈✈🚠🛩🛩🛫🚀🚀🚀🚁🚁🚁

[@sonex413]

Howdy Ray! We are blushing over here after all those glowing comments! Thanks! Hard to do a build-along when you're picking up pieces from the junk pile and holding them together different ways to see what you can come up with! I actually asked my hobby store about buying a replacement GWS wing so I could build another floater. Well, the new wing was 20 bucks plus about 12 bucks shipping! I think GWS is out of business now anyway...not sure... You're right about it being a zero wind plane especially in our small fields! I'm surprised I still have it! A tiny midday thermal and it would be gone!

[@ledomengineering]

That was outstanding! You are correct sir! What a floater!

[@sonex413]

Thank you kindly I hope it never runs into a thermal!

[@vet137]

WOW!!! 40 FF is awesome!!

[@sonex413]

I know!! Isn't it amazing? Possibly my favorite but it only comes out on those rarest-of-rare calm evenings! Talk about light wing loading! It's like an indoor job...

[@grumpyjohntxredneckrc6346]

I'm #1? LOL Really Nice Floater!!! Thanks Y'alls

[@sonex413]

You are always #1 with us, buddy! You get the first reply and a heart to go with it! Hope you're keeping your head down and stayin' safe!

[@AeroCraftAviation]

Great flying guys! Keep it up! 👍🏼

[@sonex413]

Thanks! Will do! Stay safe and keep your head down brother!

[@pedrosalomon4762]

I am very happy, recently discovered in my worshop I have a GWS beaver wing NIB thst i got 12.15 years ago ! so wil try to build a floater like yours !!! Hope i am lucky finding the motors and the capacitor somewhere on line

[@sonex413]

I have placed links to those items in the text description below this video. The 40 Farad capacitor I used is no longer available, but you may use 10 Farad caps wired together in a parallel arrangement. (all of the positives together, all the negatives together...it acts like one big capacitor....the values are added together....2x10F caps in parallel=20Farads, etc....Also, My wing was a bit damaged when I began my project, so I removed a few inches at the center of the wing. Lets us know how your project turns out!!

[@sonex413]

Banggood also has 75mm propellers which we have used with success on these motors, if you need a little more thrust at the expense of a bit of duration!

[@duncste01]

Some beautiful flights guys. Lovely sunset too. Where in the states are you flying? Looks a pretty spot.

[@sonex413]

Thanks Duncan! We live in western Massachusetts area in the Connecticut River Valley town of Monson, Mass.

[@jirihamersky6152]

What wingspan please, thanks.

[@sonex413]

Sorry I don't have this plane any longer, but as I recall it might have been about 36-38 inches.

[@buddybopper561]

Can you say B- 24 D . Lol 😉👍

[@sonex413]

I have an idea for a monster capacitor plane using a 100 farad cap and six motors on one of those big styrofoam toy gliders....wait till you see that one! -Mike

[@buddybopper561]

@@sonex413 ohh geez us Mike . Can't wait to see that one ! 😂

[@babhruvishnuyasha4031]

What the thrust angle for the motor ?

[@sonex413]

Sorry I didn't mention it in the video Babhru! There is quite a lot of up-thrust in each of the motors to prevent a nose-down tendency under power. I started with about 5 or 6 degrees at first and I had to increase it after flight trimming. I estimate that it's perhaps 7 or 8 degrees now... There is no side thrust since the counter-rotating propellers balance each other's torque. Regards, Mike and Rich

[@babhruvishnuyasha4031]

Sorry it's 7 or 8 degree up or down ?