RC Airplanes

So you’ve crashed your new Multiplex Easystar or Minimag. Now what? Don’t throw your model out, it’s extremely likely that it can be repaired to like-new condition. It turns out that the Elapor™ foam Multiplex planes are built out of is extremely crash resistant, and can even be re molded with heat. Elapor™ is also CA glue safe, making repairs simple and economical.

Gather Parts and Assess the Damage

After a crash occurs be sure to retrieve all the parts, no matter how small. Foam can be fitted back together like a jigsaw puzzle and glued in to place. So you want to make sure that no parts are left at the crash site. Put all the parts you retrieve in a bin and store them in a safe place until you’re ready to begin repairs. It’s generally a good idea to wait for a few hours or days before repairing damaged models. This gives you time to think about exactly what needs to be replaced, and how you would like to proceed.

Repairing Cracked and Broken Foam Parts

Repairing broken foam is very simple. Done correctly, you can hide the cracks and make your model look just like new. Here are the supplies that you will need:

1. Thick CA Glue
2. Clear Tape
3. Popsicle Sticks

Apply a generous amount of CA glue to the broken parts, then use the Popsicle sticks to smear the glue around and cover the entire broken surface. Hold the parts together under pressure and then wrap the clear tape around them so that they stick together firmly. Let the glue cure for at least one hour and then remove the tape. Repeat for all your broken foam parts.

Fixing Bent, Compressed, and Distorted Foam

Unlike Styrofoam, Elapor™ can be heated and re-molded to its original shape. There are two ways to do this, both are outlined below:

1. Hot water method – Boil a large pot of water, and then dip the distorted part for approximately 10 seconds. You will notice all of the foam cells enlarge and expand. This is what needs to occur for the remolding to take place. Using gloves or other thermal protection, bend the heated parts back to their original shape. Smooth out any bumps or surface defects using a metal spoon.
2. Blow Dryer Method – This method works well for smaller dents and bends. Simply take an electric hair dryer (not a heat gun), and gently heat the damaged area for a few seconds. After you see the foam cells start to expand, bend and smooth out the damaged area back to its original shape.

Replacing Electronic Components

Both the Multiplex Easystar and Minimag are compatible with Hitec’s radio components.

Need More Help?

Although we can’t exchange aircraft that have been damaged in a crash, we’re still here for you and can talk you through most repairs. Feel free to contact us and we’ll do our best to help you.

Have you ever wanted to mod your RC airplanes, perhaps to carry an explosive payload? Too bad – it’s illegal. Don’t worry though, here at Draganfly Innovations, we’ve found the next best thing: you can mod inexpensive RC planes to carry containers of inert powder, which will shatter and make a super nifty effect on the ground. All you need are 5 minutes and some common household materials:

What You Need

• Toothpick – We’ll use this to make a mount for the payload, and a mechanism that lets us deploy it remotely.
• Plastic Easter Egg (or similar container) – Plastic Easter eggs work best, because they split in two easily. You can find them at almost every craft store. Improvising here is fine, just make sure that your container is a reasonable size, and will open up with minimal force.
• Cellophane Tape – This mod isn’t permanent, just peel off the tape when your done with it.
• Plastic Drinking Straw
  
• Vortex Extreme RC Airplane – You can get one on our website. Similar models will also work, but if they’re of a different design, you’ll have to adapt these instructions accordingly.
• Talcum Powder, Flour, or any (safe) Powdery Substance – Basically, anything that spreads out in the air and makes a big cloud will do.

How to Mod Your RC Airplanes

1. Start by taking the wing off your RC airplane. You need it out of the way, because your going to be building the drop mechanism on the bottom of the plane. Besides, breaking foam wings is no fun – store it in a safe place until your finished these steps.
2. Cut about a 1 inch length of straw, and tape it to the tail boom, 2 inches back. You want to get the straw aligned parallel to the tail boom, and hanging right on the bottom. What we’re trying to do won’t work if the payload rubs against the tail and gets stuck. You might want to click this picture, to get a closer view.
3. 

   Tape the toothpick to the round end of the plastic egg. The aim is to give the toothpick an upward slant, so that the egg hangs on to your RC airplane under gravity.Try to leave as much of the toothpick as possible free – this gives you a more secure mount. It’s very important not to tape the Easter egg shut, because the whole point is to get it to split open on ground impact.

4. Fill the Easter egg with powder, and then snap it shut.
5. Slide the “bomb” onto your drinking straw launcher apparatus (see the picture on the right), and get the plane ready for flight.

Dropping the Bomb

The Easter egg you mounted is held on the airplane by gravity and wind resistance. To drop it, simply take off as usual, fly to a safe area (free of people, pets, and vehicles), and put your RC airplane in a nose dive. The “bomb” should slide off the mount, hit the ground, and produce a nice puff of smoke. Watch Out: many RC planes have crashed because the pilot was looking at the payload being dropped, and not paying attention to flying. Let spectators enjoy the bomb, and concentrate on landing your plane safely.

Here’s what the result of a properly detonated “bomb” looks like (the best explosion occurs at about 1:12 into the video):

Need RC airplanes for this project? Get a Vortex Extreme online. Perfect for beginners to learn how to fly, and affordable, it makes the ideal first RC airplane.

These tips and tricks will save you time and money flying your RC model airplanes.

• Clean Your Transmitter - Everyone loves the way brand new transmitters and other RC equipment looks, but after a few trips to the flying field it can accumulate dust, grass, and other debris, You can make your transmitter look like new by brushing it off with some stiff paintbrushes. Get the dirt trapped in hard to reach places using compressed air, available from most computer stores in canned form. A soft cloth and some glass cleaner solution can be used to wipe off any displays.
• Secure an Antenna – Many RC model airplanes have long wire antennas, which need to be fixed to the fuselage to prevent them from dangling in the wind. Make a secure and adjustable attachment by taking a short (~1 inch) length of fuel tubing, and passing the wire through. Then push a small pinhead into the fuel tubing so that the wire can’t fall out easily. You can then glue the fuel tubing onto your airplanes fuselage wherever it’s convenient. Tighten the antenna by gently pullign on the end.
• Safe Storage for Wings and Fuselages – Keeping RC model airplane wings and fuselages out of harms way can be a hassle. Many hardware stores sell portable shelving units, which you can use to safely store your RC model airplanes. Install the shelves on a wall, but leave off the solid wood planks that create a surface. What you will be left with is a series of protruding beams, that you can set RC model airplane wings and fuselages on. The shelves let you stack several aircraft on top of each other for efficient storage.
• Securing Screws with Silicon – Ordinary silicon gel can be used to prevent screws from vibrating loose. As an added bonus, you can peel the silicon off easily when you need to undo the screw.
• Prevent Parts from Rolling Away  – You can prevent small screws and other metal parts from rolling off your workbench by taking any large, flat container and gluing some magnetic strip material to the bottom. Metal parts will stick to the magnet and will not be able to roll away.
• Remove Thread Lock Compound – Thread locking compounds are great for preventing parts from vibrating loose in flight, but removing screws secured with thread lock compound  can be a pain. Avoid stripping screw heads by first touching a hot soldering iron to the screw for a few moments. The heat will melt the thread lock compound, allowing the screw to come loose easily.
• Cheap Wingtip Protectors – Model airplane wingtips can get scuffed on grass and pavement runways. Prevent this by adding small strips of plastic, obtained from soda bottles. The plastic can be attached using glue or small wood screws.
• Secure Servo Leads – Having a servo lead come off in flight can be disasterous. Prevent this by tying the servo cable in a loose knot after you plug in the leads. This will prevent the cable from coming loose in flight, and removing them is a snap.
• Avoid Pulling The Connectors Off Servos – Pulling the wire off a servo connector is annoying. Prevent this by bending in the ends of ordinary tweezers, to make a tool that can grab on and pull of a servo lead. The bent ends can grab right on to a stubborn connector.

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© Draganfly Innovations Inc.
Phone: 1-800-979-9794 / 306-955-9907
Email: info@rctoys.com
Web: www.rctoys.com
RSS: www.rctoys.com/pr/feed

The rolling loop is a challenging aerobatic maneuver to perform with your RC model airplanes. This article will show you how to do it safely and precisely.

Like all new aerobatic maneuvers, perform the rolling loop at a high altitude when you first learn it. This ensures that you have sufficient altitude to recover from most mistakes. Try the rolling loop in the direction that you’re most comfortable rolling. After you become more familiar with it, you can roll in any direction you want.

Follow this procedure to perform a rolling loop:

1. As with almost every aerobatic maneuver, begin by climbing to sufficient altitude and facing into the wind.
2. The objective of this maneuver is to execute a round loop and a 360 degree roll at the same time, so increase throttle to full and begin climbing.
3. As you’re RC model airplane climbs, use a small amount of rudder to hold it in a vertical position.
4. Continue to use up elevator and aileron to roll and climb. Control the roll rate so that the RC model airplane’s wings are level at the top of the loop.
5. Decrease the amount of rudder input so that the RC model airplane “falls” over the top of the loop.
6. Decrease throttle, and continue using aileron and rudder to maintain a constant roll rate.
7. Aim to have the wings level again at the cardinal point (the point at which you first started the maneuver.)

Congratulations! You now know how to successfully perform the rolling loop!

Are you interested in some cheap, fun RC model airplanes? Foamies have been built by DIY modelers for years, who have created an abundance of free plans and patterns on the internet. Most of the time all that you need to build a great foamie is a sheet of wall insulation, some radio and engine gear and a printer. This article will show you a general procedure that you can follow to construct foamies using common household and hobby supplies.

1. Download and print one of the free patterns available on the internet. The one that you choose largely depends on your personal building experience, the supplies you have, and the amount of time that you are willing to put into the project. Some plans need to be scaled up or down. If you don’t want to do this yourself most print shops will reproduce and scale images for you.
2. Transfer the paper pattern to the foam core you obtained earlier. There are several ways to do this, but if you want to preserve the plan you can lightly score over the outline with a ball point pen. This indents the foam below and creates a pattern for cutting.
3. Cut out the pattern that you made with a sharp hobby knife, being careful to follow the lines accurately. If you make a mistake round it out using medium grit sand paper and a sanding block.
4. Round out the leading edge of the wind a fuselage by first using medium, and then fine grit sandpaper.
5. Give the wind an airfoil by making three bends along it’s length. Some patterns include the desired airfoil section – so if yours does use it as a reference.
6. Sand some dihedral into the wing and glue the wing halves together using either foam safe cyanoacrylate or hot glue (available in most craft stores.)
7. Assemble the model using your adhesive of choice.
8. Unless your model’s pattern was meant to be glued to the foam – you will probably want to add some color. Spray paint is a great way to decorate your finished model, but be sure to use satan paint – not enamel. Most enamel paints react badly with foam.
9. Mount your servos by cutting rectangular holes in the wings and fuselage, and pressing them in.
10. The brushless motor is usually mounted by on a wooden dowel glued to the fuselage, and the radio and batteries can be secured to one side of the fuselage with velcro.
11. As a last step add the control surfaces and hinge them with clear packing tape.

If you want some free patterns and instructions, check out this RCGroups.com thread. Many foamie fans have contributed great models and posted them for everyone to use. Have fun with your foamie RC model airplanes!

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© Daganfly Innovations Inc.
Phone: 1-800-979-9794 / 306-955-9907
Email: info@rctoys.com
Web: www.rctoys.com
RSS: www.rctoys.com/pr/feed

Slope flying is an easy and fun way to fly your RC model airplanes. This article will show you what slope flying is all about, and how to do it with almost any RC model airplanes.

Choosing a Flying Slope

As it’s name implies, slope flying involves launching an RC model airplane from the top of a slope. Slopes are great flying locations, because wind blowing up the slope causes updrafts which RC model airplanes can use to fly.

If you’re interested in slope flying, the first thing to do is to find a suitable place to fly. An ideal slope has an elevation of at least 100 feet, a gradient of 30 degrees, and is relatively free of trees and other obstacles. Most nearby slopes are unlikely to be perfect, but any slope that is relatively high and steep should do. Almost any RC model airplane with a large wing area will glide well enough for slope flying. Both the Multiplex EasyStar and the Vortex Extreme are well suited to slope flying, and can glide for large distances with their motors turned off.

Launching and Flying the RC Model Airplane

After you’ve found a suitable flying location you can begin slope flying. Most RC model airplanes are hand launched for slope flying, so you may want to read our other article: Hand Launching An RC Model Airplane for some pointers. When hand launching your RC model airplane face into the wind and apply full throttle (if the RC model airplane has an engine). Toss the RC model airplane overhand, and use up elevator to enter flight.

Immediately after takeoff, turn the RC model airplane so that it flies parallel to the slope. This puts the RC model airplane in a position where it can catch the maximum amount of upward airflow. If sufficient wind is present, the RC model airplane should begin to climb gradually. After the RC model airplane has gained sufficient altitude, begin a gradual turn away from the slope. Continue the turn until the RC model airplane is parallel to the slope, and continue climbing. This circuit can be repeated as long as the wind remains constant, and the batteries powering the radio components are charged.

Landing the RC Model Airplane

Landing after you’ve finished flying is challenging due to the sloping ground, so follow this procedure when landing your slope flying RC model airplanes:

1. Approach the top of the hill at an altitude of about 10 feet.
2. Make one wide turn into the wind, and begin your descent so that the plane will land near the center of the hilltop.
3. Continue flying into the wind, and gently let the plane settle on to the ground. Have fun slope flying with your RC model airplanes.

——
© Draganfly Innovations Inc.
Phone: 1-800-979-9794 / 306-955-9907
Email: info@rctoys.com
Web: www.rctoys.com
RSS: www.rctoys.com/pr/feed