Model Y

Model Y front

Printing the Eclipson Model Y

For my fourth printed RC plane the Model Y from Eclipson. I would like to use this plane in the future for some camera work and/or FTV testing. This plane is also printed in PETG except for the landing gears and servo holders who were printed in ASA. Information about my 3D printing equipment you find in the post; printing the Kodo. For more detailed information about my printing experience with PETG, you can read my post; printing the Stearman. Printing this plane I tried to solve some drawbacks of printing RC airplanes in PETG. First, I tried to limit the higher PETG density leading to higher wing load by enlarging the main wing surface. This was possible to scale some wing part in one direction and create the main wing of 1.2 m instead of 1 m. Second, to reduce the flexibility in the four outer wing parts I used a small 2% vertical rectilinear infill This increased the weight only by 15 grams. I experimented also airbrushing the other wings and the sides of the fuselage in the red color. To be able to paint on PETG I used a transparent primer for all plastics in a rattle can.

Electronics for this Model Y

I used a Pichler Boost 18 motor with KV 1050 with a Pichler Boost  XQ 30 ESC, 4 Savox SH-0257 MG  (Metal gear) servos, a Spektrum AR6610T 6 channel receiver,  and a Turnigy nano-tech 3S 950 mAh battery.

Modifications

MOD1: Modified STL files in the slicer Simpify3D to scale some part in one axis to get more wing surface (+ 2 dm2).
MOD2: Made some wing parts stiffer by using a 2% rectilinear infill.
MOD3: Printed a semi-transparent cockpit in PETG and airbrushed it black on the inside for the looks.
MOD4: Added A3super 3 Gyro from Hobbyeagle to improve stability and still to be able to use the ailerons as flaperons to reduce landing distance.
MOD5: After calculation with Ecalc bought an optimal Parkzone propeller instead of the standard available APC Electrical propellers.

Summery

Till now I did not maiden this RC Airplane. Al static tests were OK, the plane was certified for flying at or RC terrain in Lier and had a photoshoot. When the weather improves I will fly this plane.

Aircraft Characteristics after Configuration and modification

Wing Span: 1.2 m
Length: 0.8 m
Flight Weight: 0.9 kg
Wing Aera: 15 dm2
Wing Loading: 60 gr/dm2
Wing Cube Loading: WCL 15
Power: 3S 950 mAh
Motor: Pichler 18 KV1050 Outrunner
Propeller: 1x PARKZ 8.25x5.5 2-blade
Stall Speed: 30 km/u
Sound Pressure: <50 dB(A)/7m

Calculations:  Ecalc - reliable electric drive simulationsModel Y calc

Photos

Flight Simulation

Several years I'm using my computer to simulate flying to improve my flying skills.  All those years I have used different simulation software like Aerofly FS2, Digital Combat Simulation and finally Microsoft Flight Simulation 2020.  I'm using this last one most for General Aviation IFR training,  Warbirds,  Gliders and Helicopters.  Just beginning to study airliners now with the PMDG 737-700. More than a decade ago I have already used the first versions of the Microsoft Flight Simulator to try get a better immersion of Real Life Flying. Only a few years ago Virtual Reality succeeded more or less to bring this VR Immersion. Today with Third Generation Hardware and Software we are slowly getting there. The quality of VR flying in Warbirds, Gliders, Helicopters and other Planes is becoming acceptable on a Windows 11 2H22 platform with fast hardware (CPU Intel i9 11900 and GPU Asus ROG RTX 3080Ti TUF ) and a HP reverb G2 Headset using Microsoft Flightsimulator 2020 SU11 Beta  with there own Virtual environment and Aerofly RC 8 for RC-flight  Simulation and for training RC-helicopters my favorite is now Heli-X. Specific in RC helicopter flying it has proved to be a great help and saved me a lot of money due to avoided crashes.A fast PC is important because a VR environment need a lot of graphical power. A lot of this power will transform in heat so cooling of your CPU, main board and GPU card is really important! In my PC I have 13 controlled fans and a water cooling for the CPU. The Maximus XIII Extreme motherboard  based on the Intel Z590 chipset, and is loaded with the latest and greatest ROG features. The Intel Core i9-11900K @ 3.4 GHz processor capable of achieving stable overclocks of 5GHz. 32 Mb G. Skill DDR4-3600 SDRAM and Samsung PRO M.2 Pcie 4 SSD's are completing the main board. Important for the VR experience is the Graphics Card. End last year I have upgraded to a ASUS ROG Strix GeForce GTX 3080Ti TUF 11GB card. Compared to the founders edition from Nvidia this product has improved on performance with roughly a 3% to  5% average, it has low noise levels and nice cooling levels To control Airplanes and Helicopters in VR I was using Trustmaster T.16000M FCS HOTAS joystick and Throttle together with the TFRP T.Flight Rudder Pedals, but then I switched to the Trustmaster HOTAS Warthog Stick and Throttle and Trustmaster Pendular pedals. Now I'am using the Honeycomb Apha Yoke af Bravo Throttes and I am very satisfied with this upgrade. The controllability improved considerably. See the new Photo's on the bottom of this page. Oculus Rift S - detailI started exploring VR some two years ago with the Oculus Rift. Then I upgraded to the Oculus Rift S and now I'm using the HP Reverb G2. For me the quality improvement is worth the upgrade price. There is less Screen Door effect and also very little Halo,Glare, Flare with the new Lenses. The inside out Tracking is easy and works well when you have other Input Devices nearby. The Halo-Style Headband is very comfortable. Instead of the low quality Hidden Speakers in the Headband I'm using a Marshall Major III headphone direct connected in the mini jack output on the VR Headset and connected with a very short cable. These small but qualitative Headphones are fitting perfect. The VR sound is send to Rift output and to a soundcard output connect to subwoofer with the AuraSound AST-2B-4 Pro Bass Shaker Tactile Transducer mounted under my chair. This sound experience (with Simshaker software ) makes the VR Immersion even better.

Simulation Software

Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020: https://www.flightsimulator.com/ Youtube: https://youtu.be/l_F20n8BwME

AeroFly FS2:  www.aerofly.com/   Youtube: watch?v=FhzIGh5oRYc

Digital Combat Simulator: www.digitalcombatsimulator.com/en/ Youtube: watch?v=y0zMt1pc6Bc

Videos


Flying in MSFS2020 EBAW Antwerp Airport and surroundings


Flying in MSFS2020 EBAW Evening Tour around Antwerp


Flying in DCS with Mustang at Las Vegas


Flying in DCS with Spitfire MKIX at Normandy

Photos

T-28 Trojan

T-28 Trojan side - detail

T-28 Trojan bottom - detail

T-28 Trojan front - detail

I bought this plane secondhand and modified it but after one flying season, this plane was taken out of service to make room for 3D printed airplanes. The Trojan was a good flyer but had a lot of problems with a weak nose wheel retract. I recovered most electronics as spare parts for my other FMS planes.

The North American Aviation T-28 Trojan is a piston-engined military trainer aircraft used by the United States Air Force and the United States Navy beginning in the 1950s. Besides its use as a trainer, the T-28 was successfully employed as a counter-insurgency aircraft, primarily during the Vietnam War. It has continued in civilian use as an aerobatics and Warbird performer. The FMS 1400mm T-28 Yellow Navy Trojan V4 is a warbird with gentle flight characteristics and can be used as an RC-trainer plane. Equipped with shock-absorbing oleo struts, servo less retractable landing gear, working full-size flaps, bright LED navigation lights, scale details like chrome spinner and landing gear doors, secure ball links on pushrods, the multi-wire connector allows quick disconnect of wires for easy wing removal.

Modifications

Modified landing gear, low bounce bigger tires, soft springs, use 4mm Align feathering shaft for the vertical axle in nose wheel, added Rare-earth magnets to reinforce the closure of the cockpit. Used different types of weathering techniques to improve the look of this model, used black trim line tape. Used airbrush techniques.  Oracover ironing film on top of the foam to change the look of the model. .Added my own Decals ink-jet printed on Testors White Decal Paper. Finished with a gloss IR and water-resistant varnish. Added a Spektrum Airspeed pitot-tube, voltage, and Flight power telemetry. Put in a Spektrum 7 channel RX with AS3X technology. Used a separate UBEC from Castle Creations and an Optipower Ultraguard battery with fail-safe switch PCB.

Aircraft Characteristics after Modifications

Scale: 1/8.6
Wing Span: 1.4 m
Length: 1.2 m
Flight Weight: 3.1 kg
Wing Aera: 31 dm2
Wing Loading: 100 gr/dm2
Wing Cube Loading:  WCL 17.9
Power: 4S 3300 mAh
Motor: 1x 4258 KV650 Outrunner
Propeller 1x 13x9 3-blade
Stall Speed: 45 km/u
Sound Pressure: < 85 dB(A)/7m

Videos

Recently I have added a MRRCSound Aspire sound module with T-28 sound. See recent photos and video hereinafter.

Photos

MPX Fun Cub

Fun Cub front - detail
Fun Cub back - detail

Started flying again with RC planes (after some 20 years) with the Multiplex Fun Cub. One of the first great things about this plane is it’s 55 inch size (1.4m). The wings come off and on in about 2 or 3 minutes.  Simply plug in your servo leads, and screw in the two nylon screws and you’re ready to go.  The plane is very versatile and perfect for just about any field. It takes off in a few feet. Landings are easy with or without using the flaps.

Mods

Changed the look of this plane with Oracover ironing film on top of the foam. Cut more than a hundred separate squares of Oracover film. Add extra suspension on the Landing gear. Relocated a Flap Servo to save an RC channel. Lights to fly in the evenings or with some fog. Installed Spektrum airspeed, voltage, and flight power telemetry. Installed Spektrum 9ch with AS3X technology RX.

Test aircraft

This aircraft is in service since 2016 and flew the most flying hours of all my airplanes. I use this plane now to test new setups, flying modes, and electronics. In 2020 I have tested the new spectrum receiver AR6610T together with the HobbyEagle A3 Pro and the A3super 3, and specific flying-modes to takeoff, cruise, and landing.

Aircraft Characteristics after Modifications

Wing Span: 1.4 m
Length: 1.1 m
Flight Weight: 1.3 kg
Wing Aera: 30 dm2
Wing Loading: 43 gr/dm2
Wing Cube Loading: WCL 6,0
Power: 3S 2200 mAh
Motor: 3516 KV840 Outrunner
Propeller: 1x 13×4 2-blade
Stall Speed: 27 km/u
Sound Pressure: <50 dB(A)/7m

Links

Fun Cub – A good Center of Gravity
Fun Cub – Improve the In Air Visibility
Fun Cub – Ironing Film for a Better Look
Fun Cub – Reinforce the Landing Gear

Videos

Photos

Small 3D helicopters

3D helis - detail

Started flying 3D with Blade Nano, Blade MCPX bl, and Trex 150. Stepped up to Align Trex 450 plus DFC, an Align Trex 450 Dominator, and an Align Trex 550L Dominator.

Learning to fly

I have followed the method described on the Helifreak Forum by Archmachau:

From tail-in to all 8s and funnels in 6 months

Modifications

Modified Trex150 and MCPX bl with longer tails, other canopies, better landing gears, other blades. Modified Trex 450 and 550 with Align speed canopies, Align Gpro controllers, and Castle Creations Edge ESC with data logging. To find the small helicopters during practice in long grass I added a small homemade timer PCB (6 grams)  with a buzzer. This lost and find aid gives an alarm 6 minutes after powering the helicopter.

Video

Photos