Flight B/C

[ykm849]

Yup I got to see the new FreedomFlightModels Div C plane which Mr. Zeigler sent me a pic of it in an email response to me, and it looks awesome! I did flight last year but I built one out of scratch from some spare balsa sticks I found in a thrown cardboard box. I curved them by wetting them and pressing them against a hot glass and built the structure of a typical flight model wing ribs. Even though I spent a lot of time trying to build my first plane it only flew for 11 seconds because it weighed almost 14 grams since I built a propellor out of some hardened construction paper and thin cardboard without knowing how to pitch the propellor , so thats why im ordering a kit this year in hopes it can perform better results, which im sure it will C:

[ykm849]

And also thank you on the advice you gave me Bjt C:

[Astronomyguy]

Yup I got to see the new FreedomFlightModels Div C plane which Mr. Zeigler sent me a pic of it in an email response to me, and it looks awesome! I did flight last year but I built one out of scratch from some spare balsa sticks I found in a thrown cardboard box. I curved them by wetting them and pressing them against a hot glass and built the structure of a typical flight model wing ribs. Even though I spent a lot of time trying to build my first plane it only flew for 11 seconds because it weighed almost 14 grams since I built a propellor out of some hardened construction paper and thin cardboard without knowing how to pitch the propellor , so thats why im ordering a kit this year in hopes it can perform better results, which im sure it will C:

11 seconds is pretty impressive considering that many homemade planes don't fly at all. Nearly everyone in Science Olympiad will find better success with a kit than with a homemade plane. The only exception is with experienced flyers who have squeezed nearly every ounce of optimization from kit planes and could fly over around 3:15 last year, or the top few flight teams in the country. Even so, designing and building a plane requires an entirely different skillset then the one polished by Scioly flyers.

We need not worry about wing shape/size, aspect ratios, cambering, and other things that the kit makers set for us. Designing a new plane also requires CAD skills and access to a laser cutter for the balsa ribs. I'd imagine that most people with well-built homemade designs get help from others (probably coaches) and could probably fly well in F1D. The best flyer at my school besides me actually does homemade design, but even with years of experience (her brother had self-designed planes before her) the plane she built only went around 90 seconds last year (didn't take full advantage of the box diagonal, no cambering, and was too fast and climbed too high). And the planes developed by kit makers like J&H and FreedomFlight are so good that there's no chance your homemade designs are better unless you have years of experience and understand flight mechanics beyond what is required for success in Scioly. In short, use a kit, do not make the mistake of designing your own plane as the vast majority of people lack the skillset required to make one, as opposed to the kit makers, who do.

If you ever want to put your own twist on your plane, stick to basic modifications to kit planes. Optimizing small things one at a time from a well-built plane is much better than building an entire one from scratch. For example, one thing I didn't like last year about the FF plane was that you had to take off the horizontal stabilizer and reglue it every time you wanted to adjust it. Putting it on a post with adjustable height on each side would have been more convenient to set circle size.

I can tell that you have a particular knack for planes, being able to scrap a decent one by homemade standards (the way you made the ribs is impressive given the lack of a laser cutter). Translate that to a knack for adjusting/trimming your planes and you'll be competitive in no time

Coaches - please correct me if anything I said was misleading or wrong. This is my general perception on making your own plane and I want to change it if it isn't accurate.

Astro

[Astronomyguy]

Any suggestions for torque meters?

I'm going to attempt more solo flying this year as my potential partners will likely be building their own plane and following their own schedule. Additionally, I will not have a partner until after tryouts in October, and I need to get a plane flying before then to do well in tryouts.

The torque meter I used last year was from Freedom Flight, and even though it was expensive I bought it because I trusted the company. However, the meter wasn't the most accurate and would slip around a lot (could be a construction error but I'm not sure). Anyhow, I'm looking for a good torque meter to assist me this season. I've seen people in competitions with torque meters that you could step on. Those seem cool, what company are they from? Should I be buying them or is there a better alternative? My main problem is that I can't get the torque meter to stay put when I put a fully stretched rubber band on it. It was too far for any part of my body to reach it and I didn't have my partner or any tools to hold it to the gym floor. I've seen suggestions like velcroing the torque meter to a table, but I don't want to bring a table with me to school to test every day.

The one that you can step on seems like the perfect one for me this year, as a full stretch should only be 5.25 feet (75% of last year because you have 75% the mass), which is shoulder height for me. Any thoughts/recommendations?

Astro

[pumptato-cat]

ykm849,
You mentioned that you bought an FF kit--was this the 2023 one?
I bet you'll do much better than 11 seconds with a kit! Bjt4888 and Coach Chuck both give amazing advice--if you listen to what they say and put it into practice you'll improve quickly.
Astro made a lot of good points. It's very impressive that you were able to scratch-build a plane. I've only scratch-built two, and it was very difficult... I had a lot of help too! You're doing great, and I bet with some help and the forums you'll be pretty competitive

Astro,
you don't necessarily need a laser cutter to design balsa ribs. They can be made by using templates and hand-cutting--a lot more accurate than it sounds. I also despised the fixed stab(dreaded repairing it to change the stab by half a degree only to see that it was a good 1 degree off from my intended target! Awful) but apparently you can just bend the balsa and it holds position. On my pennyplane I glued the tailboom and then just bent it with my fingers whenever I wanted to change circle size. I'm also a bit confused as to what you mean with the "post with adjustable height on each side." If you mean leading and trailing edge, I don't see how that'd change radius. If you mean both sides of the tailboom... Well your adjustments would be pretty sensitive, yeah? I think I might just be misunderstanding things.

bjt4888,
What do you think flight times will max out at this year? 1.5g rubber sounds pretty tough, especially because minimum weight is still 8g. I've heard rumors of max times being 3:30.

[Astronomyguy]

Any suggestions for torque meters?

I'm going to attempt more solo flying this year as my potential partners will likely be building their own plane and following their own schedule. Additionally, I will not have a partner until after tryouts in October, and I need to get a plane flying before then to do well in tryouts.

The torque meter I used last year was from Freedom Flight, and even though it was expensive I bought it because I trusted the company. However, the meter wasn't the most accurate and would slip around a lot (could be a construction error but I'm not sure). Anyhow, I'm looking for a good torque meter to assist me this season. I've seen people in competitions with torque meters that you could step on. Those seem cool, what company are they from? Should I be buying them or is there a better alternative? My main problem is that I can't get the torque meter to stay put when I put a fully stretched rubber band on it. It was too far for any part of my body to reach it and I didn't have my partner or any tools to hold it to the gym floor. I've seen suggestions like velcroing the torque meter to a table, but I don't want to bring a table with me to school to test every day.

The one that you can step on seems like the perfect one for me this year, as a full stretch should only be 5.25 feet (75% of last year because you have 75% the mass), which is shoulder height for me. Any thoughts/recommendations?

Astro

Whoops, posted at the same time as you and didn't see this.

Solo flying is pretty fun! I know what you mean because my meter slipped as well. bjt4888 showed me how to tighten the wire at the back(where it attaches to the screw) and my "slipping" was fixed. Is your meter not starting at 0? You might have the same issue as I do. It was discussed in 2022-2023's thread--I'll find the post when I have more time if you'd like.
Standing and stepping on your meter seems so awkward. Is there nowhere you can clamp your meter to in your flying site? I've done it on chairs, railings(would NOT recommend haha), countertops, stair steps, pallets, etc. Maybe you could clamp it to your flying box? I've seen people velcro their meters to tables or flying boxes(saw a bunch of F1D fliers do this, looked pretty cool), and others just bring a weighted box to their flying site.
You could also build a digital torque meter if you don't like the FF one(but I have an FF meter and it's still running perfectly after almost a year of constant use. Had to fix the slipping but now it's all good!). There's a file on Thingiverse and a build thread in Hip Pocket Aeronautics.
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4241753

[yigoro8733]

I saw J&H updated their stinger and other flight kits to 2024, are there any updates for freedom flight? or if not does anyone know when 2023 was released last year?

[Astronomyguy]

I'm also a bit confused as to what you mean with the "post with adjustable height on each side." If you mean leading and trailing edge, I don't see how that'd change radius. If you mean both sides of the tailboom... Well your adjustments would be pretty sensitive, yeah? I think I might just be misunderstanding things.

I meant something similar to a wingpost where instead of two posts front and back you could have one or two on each side of the tailboom, with the HS glued only to those posts. Adjusting them up/down on one side but not the other could change the tilt, though You'd have to probably change the rib spacing so that the posts have something to stick to. This is just something I theorized last season that I was thinking about applying this season but I don't think it'll be necessary since this year's FF design actually features a tailboom instead of the HS just being on the motor stick.

[Astronomyguy]

Solo flying is pretty fun! I know what you mean because my meter slipped as well. bjt4888 showed me how to tighten the wire at the back(where it attaches to the screw) and my "slipping" was fixed. Is your meter not starting at 0? You might have the same issue as I do. It was discussed in 2022-2023's thread--I'll find the post when I have more time if you'd like.
Standing and stepping on your meter seems so awkward. Is there nowhere you can clamp your meter to in your flying site? I've done it on chairs, railings(would NOT recommend haha), countertops, stair steps, pallets, etc. Maybe you could clamp it to your flying box? I've seen people velcro their meters to tables or flying boxes(saw a bunch of F1D fliers do this, looked pretty cool), and others just bring a weighted box to their flying site.
You could also build a digital torque meter if you don't like the FF one(but I have an FF meter and it's still running perfectly after almost a year of constant use. Had to fix the slipping but now it's all good!). There's a file on Thingiverse and a build thread in Hip Pocket Aeronautics.
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4241753

Clamping is a good idea, I think there's places but I just need to find a clamp. I'll take a look at my torque meter and try to fix it up before buying a new one. Thanks!

[pumptato-cat]

Wait you're joking there's a tailboom AND dihedral on this year's kit???
Where is everyone finding this information? That's amazing--thank you!!! Very excited to see the new kit released.

Clamping is a good idea, I think there's places but I just need to find a clamp. I'll take a look at my torque meter and try to fix it up before buying a new one. Thanks!

No problem! Glad I could help. Clamps are really handy; I have two yellow Dewalts I use for everything. They have a permanent home in my flight box.
I think I see what you mean--I'm pretty sure your meter isn't broken and should be fixable.