DIY RC Airplanes From Scratch · the Brooklyn Aerodrome Bible for Hacking the Skies by Baldwin, Breck -- Read -- Imperial Library of Trantor

Index

About the Author Title Page Copyright Page Dedication Contents Introduction Acknowledgments 1 Get Your Stuff

Introducing the Flack Parts and Materials

Flight Simulator Controller Radios Motors Batteries Battery Connectors Chargers and Power Supplies Power Supplies Servos Airframe Materials Tape Cable Ties/Zip Ties

Conclusion

2 What Do All the Parts Do?

The Flight Cycle of a Flack The Pilot The Builder The Airframe

The Wing The Elevons The Stabilizers The Deck

The Transmitter

How the Transmitter Works How to Control the Sticks Mixing Throttle Rudder or Yaw Control Trim Tabs Rechargeable Batteries

The Receiver

How Servos Get Information

What the Radio Channels Do

Channel 1 Channel 2 Channel 3

Electronic Speed Control and the Battery Eliminator Circuit

Power Limitations of ESC and BEC

The Flight Battery The Motor Conclusion

3 Building the Deck

Tools and Supplies Charge Your Battery The Deck

Fabricate the Deck Attach Servos Create the Motor Mount Mount Propeller Attach the Motor Mount to the Deck Solder the Speed Control Power Up the Airplane Powering Down the Airplane Securing Parts to the Deck

Conclusion

4 The Airframe of the Flack

The Airframe

Attaching the Control Rods to the Elevons Attaching the Deck Centering Controls Establish Elevon Trim

Final Cleanup Conclusion

5 Learning to Fly One Crash at a Time: The Splinter Method

Safety

The Cone of Crashing Potential

Trim

Adjusting Trim

Flight Simulator Setup and Training Incrementally Learning to Fly

Get a Helper/Partner/Friend to Help Out Control Sensitivity Crashes Task 0: Approach the Field Ready to Fly Task 1: Launching without Power Task 2: RC on Launch to Landing, No Power Task 3: RC on Launch and Landing, Low Power, Cut Throttle Task 4: RC on Launch and Landing, Increasing Power Task 5: Turning The Wind Overall Good Strategies for Learning to Fly

Skill Building

Precision Landing Hit the Balloon Fly in Stressful Situations Aerobatics

Conclusion

6 Keeping You and Your Airplane Alive: Diagnostics and Repair

Preflight Checklists of Use

The Brief Preflight in Seconds: Servos, Up, Down, Left, Right, Power, Launch More Complete Checklist for Aircraft of Questionable Integrity

Crash Kit

Basic Crash Kit More Complete Crash Kit

Kinds of Repairs

The Big-Crash Postflight Inspection

More Specific Fixes

Completely Dead Airplane Completely Dead Airplane: Rebind the Receiver Completely Dead Airplane: ESC Not Sending Power to the Receiver Completely Dead Airplane: Receiver/Servo Completely Dead Airplane: Transmitter Water Immersion Servos Operate But Motor Does Not

Evaluating Motor Damage

Symptom: Motor Has Weak Thrust Motor Vibrates Motor Gets Very Hot Motor Doesn’t Work at All

Battery Damage

Highly Suspect Battery Check Battery Pack Battery Disposal

Servo Damage

Servo Not Moving Servo Arms Are No Longer Vertical When Trim Tabs Are Centered Busted Servo Arm

Broken Propeller

Kinds of Prop Damage

Flutter Poor Radio Connection Conclusion

7 Make Your Plane Look Good for Day Flying

General Considerations to Keep in Mind Examples

Mouse: Avery Stick-on Labels and Sharpies Purple Monster: Wrapping Paper Big Pink Angst: Fresnel-Lens Plastic Silver Shark: Plastic Film Brooklyn Aerodrome Orange Plane (BAOP) Paint on Foam Blue Angel and Others in Printed Tyvek Flying Heart: Sign Vinyl Firefly: Balloon Film

Decorating with Tape Conclusion

8 Make Your Plane Look Good at Night

Overall Considerations Major Ways to Illuminate Aircraft Color at Night Electroluminescent Wire

How El-Wire Works Powering El-Wire Soldering an Inverter for BEC Power Soldering El-Wire Stripping the El-Wire Soldering the El-Wire to Male Header Pins

Simple Decoration LED-Based Approaches

Single-Point LEDs Strip LEDs High-Power LEDs and Fiberoptics

Other Illumination Options

Weight Considerations BEC-Powered Lighting Robustness

Conclusion

9 Other Shapes

Inorganic Produce

Banana Carrot Strawberry

Flying Heart

SketchUp Is Your Friend

Travel Flack Bat Crystal Towel Semi-Circle Manta Ray

Design Evolving the Moving Fins The Radio The Build Flying

3D Banana Conclusion

10 Aerodynamics for the Hacker

Lift

Conditions for Lift: Positive Aerodynamic Angle of Attack and Airflow Lift, Part 1 Lift, Part 2

Pitch, Roll, and Yaw Center of Gravity (CG) Reflex and Flying Wings Reasoning about Lift Drag Glide Ratio Conclusion

11 Hack the Flack: Make and Fly Your Own Design

Getting the Idea Prototyping

A Plank

Designing and Building a Novel Design Building the Powered Version

Scaling Up from the Glider Proof of Concept Structural Considerations Placing Equipment Flight Testing

New Shapes by Morphing Old Ones

Incremental Refinement

Conclusion

12 Simulators, Autopilots, Video, and Buddy Boxing

Flight Simulators

Flying Model Simulator (FMS) CRRCsim

Autopilots

Copilot CPD4 Full Autopilot

Video from the Air

Passive Video First-Person Video (FPV)

Buddy Boxing a.k.a. Student Driving for Pilots

Hacking the Transmitters for Buddy Boxing

Conclusion

Index

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