Homemade Plane for GoPro: foam + depron

To watch the flight, go to: 2:33

I wanted to carry my GoPro (with housing) in a plane but without expending too much, so I built it by myself, using foam, depron and barbecue sticks.

The fuselage was done with EPS foam 12g/dm3 (isopor P0, comum de papelaria). Wings, ailerons, elevator and rudder with depron 4mm. I used some barbecue sticks to strengthen wings and tail. To assemble everything i used hot glue and packing tape.

Even though it had some crashes during this video, the plane is intact! Nothing happened to it. It's very resistant!

It is not flying very well because the wing angle of attack is 0 and the wing was not attached very well. I've already done these improvements but i still have not done a new flight.

Motor: D2826-6 2200kv Outrunner Motor
ESC: Hobbyking SS Series 40-50A ESC
Servo: Turnigy TG9e 9g / 1.5kg / 0.10sec Eco Micro Servo
Propeller: APC Style Propeller 6x4R
Battery: Turnigy 3s 2200mah 25C
RX: Turnigy 9x

Wingspan: 1200mm
Lenght: 1000mm
Chord: 250mm
Wing area: 30dm2
Wing weight: 252g
Fuselage thickness: 70mm
Fuselage weight (with motor, ESC, RX and servos): 468g
Battery weight: 200g
GoPro (with housing): 200g
Total weight: 1120g
Wing loading: 37,3g/dm2 (should use a bigger wing to have a slower flight)

This is the 2nd flight I've done with my homemade plane for carrying a GoPro. I advanced the CG a little bit and now it's flying much better, very smooth!

I still need to balance motor and prop.

Beautiful dusk, filmed with the homemade plane.

Some flybys, landings, panoramics ...

Changed the 2200kv motor + 6x4 prop to a 750kv motor + triblade 9x4.5: a little bit slower but prompt response when I add throttle and much better efficiency, almost double flight time (10min).

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Comments

  • Thanks Harry ;)

  • A high wing loading can make it hard to fly, not impossible but will need speed.  Maybe try taking some weight out to get it trimmed, if possible.  The video shows it does fly and that counts for a lot.  Good work.

  • Thank you Harry, i'll do this test to check it.

    I think that the main problem is that the airplane is too heavy for the wing. The wing loading is 37,3g/dm2 which is common among fighter planes, not fpv models.

    What do you think?

  • Bernardo, one more thing to consider is how much elevator input does it need?  If youre pushing the nose down a lot to fly level, then that helps confirm it is tail heavy.  If you need to give a lot of up elevator to fly level, that is consistent with nose heavy.  You can give it a shallow dive test too.  Get it up high and push the nose down. power off, and if it abruptly pulls out of the dive on its own, the CG is forward.  If it wants to sharpen the dive angle, the CG is too far aft.  You'll probably want the CG somewhat forward just for stability, but too much is annoying too.

  • Harry, not very well. Usually if a cut all the throttle it suddenly dives

  • How well does it glide without power?  That can tell you if thrust angle needs adjustment or is it CG only.

  • Thanks Dez. Unfortunatelly we don't have this pink foam in Brazil =/

    Justas, i'm sorry but I don't have much information. The wing chord measures 25cm. The fuselage is 8cm thick. The wing is basically a depron sheet folded with some depron strips inside and some barbecue sticks to reinforce it.

    Muhammad, what's a "high alpha"?

    Ramon, thanks for the tip.

    Neill, i'll move the battery + gopro forward so the CG will change. Where the CG should be located? 1/3 of the wing chord? Does the chord include the ailerons lenght or not?

    Thanks guys!

  • Very tail heavy mate.

    Other than that looks good!

  • this is an awsome plane if you are looking to make the plane more stable try using two wing segments, one with little diheedral and the other with more.

    just a suggestion 

    P.S sorry about the spelling.

  • Does seem to be doing some high alpha. 

    Very cool, though. Currently working on a plane myself using XPS and foam-core board. 

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