General Goodness. where to begin?

[farristrey]

So Im wanting to build a drone. Or RC airplane. Not ssure the difference yet, although I would like to eventually to do autonomous flights, eventually. But baby steps. Im looking for a plane, but one I can put together myself and has the ability to be upgraded later. I understand these have to be light weight, but I keeps seeing foamboard planes and how do these stay flyable without getting blown around so much? I understand weight is imporartant especially if any payload is desired. Anyways, I want to build a drone, but I want to put it all together myself. Where can I get something like this? Im pretty mechanical, but this is a new realm for me. So what better way than to build a kit myself? I figured that would be the best learning experience. I have the time and money set aside for my project. I also want to be able to upgrade the platform in the future. So any pointers? All the info out there is overloading, so if someone could put me in the direction of a good kit I can put together Ill learn the most. Thanks!!

 

[Stambo]

I would strongly advise investing in a reasonable flight sim, one that is operated by a RC transmitter style controller.
Very good for teaching yourself to use a transmitter before you have a plane in the air.

I would suggest, depending on what you eventually want to achieve, that you start with something smaller/cheaper and ready to fly.
Something like this would be a good trainer, and they are still lots of fun. (Extra flight batteries are a must)
That way if you don't have anyone close to you that can already fly, you don't have the issue of not knowing whether your plane is set up properly while you are learning to fly it.
Then once you are able to fly to a reasonable standard there is less risk of destroying something more valuable in a crash.
Chances are very good that you will crash while learning, it's up to you to decide the value of what will crash.

 

[farristrey]

I knew that was coming, and yes, very true. I guess what I was looking for would be as cheap as possible for one I could put together myself. Surely they make a beginner level aircraft that I can assemble myself? I was hoping that whatever airframe I go with could be further upgraded later on with more expensive equipment for after my crashing phase was mostly out of my system. Does that make any sense? Would repairing one good aircraft that could be upgraded for future aspirations not be cheaper than buying one to learn on then have to purchase yet another one for my future plans? I know I for sure want to put one together, I feel like my learning curve goes way up with the hands on style. Maybe a beginner plane, that can be added onto later as my skill and familiarity improve. Thanks for the input Stanbo. That may very well be the way to go.

 

[Derek]

I have 13 scratch built planes, all from foamboard. It's amazing to me that these planes, once sheets of foamboard, fly as well as they do. If you do a search on Youtube for "Ansley Peace Drone", the guy that created this plane (his name is Ed, ExperimentalAirlines on Youtube) posted very good build technique videos and that's what I use. I built an Ansley Peace Drone and I love that plane. It has plenty of inner room for FPV and autonomous equipment, if desired....and it's cheap to make. However, if you don't want to build a plane from foam board, there's nothing wrong with that, at all. There are many plane kits that you can buy that would accept FPV gear as well as autonomous equipment. You just need to make sure that there is room on the inside to add the gear and still have the plane balance out. Many of the flight controllers, these days, are quite small and could be added to almost any plane. I have a friend that has a Bixler 2 with an APM on it with GPS and Return to Home....it's amazing!

I guess it just comes down to what kind of plane that YOU want to build and fly.

But..........before any of that...just as Stambo has suggested above, a flight sim is very highly suggested/recommended.

How much flying experience do you have? Do you have any radio equipment yet?

If you could help answer those two questions, I'm sure we can continue on with helping you out.

 

[farristrey]

When I was younger I flew on a flight simulator program on windows (dont remember who made the game). I only ever flew the cessna, which was loads of fun but very in depth. No RC flight experience. So I know it seems like a you have to start somewhere scerio, and surely it is. Id rather not build my own airframe, but put all the servos, controls, motors, and linkages and wiring on myself for the experience. Then, once I had an airframe in front of me, saw how everything qorks, got some flight experience,, maybe I could build my own down the road. I dont know how to word alot of what Im saying without sounding crazy ignorant, I want to put a complete kit together but with an upgradeable airframe for future aspirations. Is this completely ignorant afterall?

 

[Stambo]

The reason for my suggestion is that unless you have someone experienced to do the "Maiden flight" of something you have built yourself and tell you if it works properly, you might have issues that you cannot isolate.
What I mean is "why does it not fly or why is it so difficult to fly, is it me or the plane?"

Most of the smaller ready to fly planes are just that, ready to fly.
You know the plane works, now it's your turn.
While you are gaining experience with the RTF plane you could be building and setting up your main machine.
The problem with what you are suggesting is that something big enough to do what you want will also be much easier to damage if you have an unfortunate high speed connection with the planet or some other similarly solid object.

My first plane was the Hobbyzone Champ. Great little plane but only 3 channel.
In hindsight it was a little too simple but I still managed to crash it multiple times.
With it being so small and having very little mass, most times, damage was minimal.
I had been flying heli's and multirotors so already had transmitter experience.
Spent a bit of time on the sim and then went out and just did it.

 

[Derek]

I don't think you sound "ignorant" at all....just inexperienced. We've all be there! You just keep asking questions and we'll be around to help out.

So, you don't want to scratch build a plane. No worries there! There are tons of planes that can be purchased in an ARF (Almost Ready to Fly) form. Add your own electronics, possibly some mild part assembly, and you'll be ready to go. You say that you have no rc flight experience. No worries there. I will strongly suggest getting a flight simulator. This will give your ability to learn and crash without cost. The sim has definitely helped me in more way that I can explain. Many people on the forum will say the same thing, I'm sure!

You'll also need to get a transmitter and receiver. This part can be a bit confusing because of all the various brands that are available. I've been using Spektrum equipment for 3 years and I love the brand. There are people around here that use JR, Futaba, FrySky, and others. This part will depend on how far you plan to expand and how much money you want to spend. Since you are looking to expand into autonomous, eventually, you might think about a 7-9 channel transmitter/receiver. More channels means more money. That part will be entirely up to you.

In all honesty, when you are ready for your first plane, may I suggest getting an lesser expensive EPP foam plane. You can still build it but, being EPP, it will be somewhat crash resistant.....not crash proof, just crash resistant...meaning that it can take some minor hits and still survive. Get proficient with the EPP plane and then progress into something like you are describing above...perhaps an FPV wing or even a nice and gentle high wing trainer with plenty of internal room for electronics.

I can go on and on with suggestions, as can many members around here, lol. You might just try looking around at some rc plane websites and your local hobby shop for beginner planes and see what you think.

 

[SIXFOOTER]

A Flight sim is good stuff to have, preferably one oyu can run on a computer using your RC Tx, as stated above that will give you the feel of using the Tx your actually going to fly with without worrying about dammaging anything.
There is a guy on Yotube, Experemental airlines, he is the guy for scratchbuild designs using foam board. You can build a bird with nothing more than about $20 worth of stuff if you start from nothing plus whatever you want to spend on electronics, everything from a simple trainer to a photography/video platform. A huge amount of experience and knowlege in here.
You can actually build a flyable, stable and tough airplane for $4 or $5.

 

[Derek]

I, personally, love the ExperimentalAirline planes. I've build many of his designs and I still have many of them. Just awesome stuff!!!

 

[anthony o]

I agree with all that as been said about using a flight sim....... I use phoenix with my DX 8. trying to learn helicopters. .. was in the same boat want to learn more about R/C sport and more stick time . so I brought a multiplex easy star in kit form off an auction site........ built the plane ran in to problems .. got on here.. asking " daft " questions,,, or felt that way when I wrote them................. the only daft question is the one you never ask...... got lots of help from the people on here... will try my maiden flight this weekend
all I can say is do not run before you can walk... could spoil the fun and put you off trying to fly..............

 

[Derek]

I agree with all that as been said about using a flight sim....... I use phoenix with my DX 8. trying to learn helicopters. .. was in the same boat want to learn more about R/C sport and more stick time . so I brought a multiplex easy star in kit form off an auction site........ built the plane ran in to problems .. got on here.. asking " daft " questions,,, or felt that way when I wrote them................. the only daft question is the one you never ask...... got lots of help from the people on here... will try my maiden flight this weekend
all I can say is do not run before you can walk... could spoil the fun and put you off trying to fly..............

This was well said, Anthony!!! Absolute poetry!

 

[sarconastic]

I second the Flight Sim support. I picked up Clearview. Not as good as Phoenix etc, but way cheaper for me to build my skills on. I am still stubborn and insist on flying stuff I don't have the skills for, but hey what is disposable income for other that to buy repairs parts for project "Taking Over Your Skies".

The learning curve is pretty steep to do without some sort of assistance. Either human or computer, doesn't really matter. As far as plane, start small, but not too small. Micro equates to quickness. You don't need quickness. Large equates o lots of repairs, you don't need that either. Get a medium size 4 channel or above to learn on then take it from there. You don't want to drill $500 worth of FPV gear into the ground because you didn't take the time to learn how to fly the plane it is in.

Woody