hi all i just thought i would share where i am at with my build,
Her name is bitch face III she was named after many hours of frustration and failure. Also she is not the first Bitch Face, the other two died horrible deaths full of g forces and foam and lipo smoke.
She is built on a Bilxer 2,D2826 2200kv outrunner, on a 7X6E prop, 2650mah 40 c 3s lipo and turnigy metal gear servos all round.
Before gluing the wings together i added extra strength by filling the carbon tube wing spa with a 4mm soild carbon rod lathered in glue. There was also extra carbon fiber added to the interior of the wing in the form of 5mm X 1mm carbon fiber strips that were first glued to the foam insert then glued into the wing. The final piece of support was added to the wing with another 5mmX1mm carbon rod both glued and taped to the wing
Inside is JAMMED an APM 2.5, power module, 3DR Radio, OSD and turnigy 9x receiver. the nose camera sits hobby king fibreglass pan and tilt with a 520 line camera controlled by 2 180 Deg servos
In the cockpit i placed, gps, air speed, video antenna as well as telemetry antenna. I cut the top out of the plane and slotted in the video transmitter as well as the ESC for cooling
And that concludes this little intro in Bitch Face III please feel free to post thoughts and comments
Comments
Your pitot tube placement may cause inaccurate readings. But you probably know that.
looks like you need more room on the cheap, try the SSS. Easy,cheap,takes a beating, fun.
http://www.bananahobby.com/5-ch-blitzrcworks-super-sky-surfer-rc-sa...
Hey mike your are correct i did ask for feed back and i do agree a stock bixler is poor at best please don't take my response as an argument, i am only explaining why i made the particular choices i did. I was fortunate enough to see a stock bixler flying last time we were at the field testing. I have never seen a more "sloppy" plane in-flight before the amount of wing flex was crazy and the plane flew backwards in the wind...Not a good.
Bitch Face however has had major strength and power added with the extra carbon fibre and 2200kv motor ( see s2nd and 3rd pics). Carbon strips were added to each wing when the wing spa was glued in. She flies like she is on rails so solid and stable, she fle faster and showed no wing deflection in winds that made the stock bixler look like its wing spa had broken.
You are also spot on in regards to the simulator, i went into this with sensible and realistic plan of attack, 6 months before i purchased any planes i started practising on real flight and xplane for a few hours every few days by the end of it i felt confident to start on the project with a plane. as for the osd it weighs bugger all and i need it as i am sending video to screens that are not connected to the ground station and was required. The wings are glued and screwed in the camera is placed there for functional reasons the was also extra weight added to the rear of the plane with carbon tube reinforcing the spa in the fuselearge as well as carbon strips strengthening the tail. I have been very concious of the CG and it remains 4.5 cm from the front of the wing.
With the airspeed sensor your comments have prompted me to move it as we have been getting very high and erratic readings from it, would you agree through the nose as the wiki suggests? (i was afraid it would be damaged on landings)
Yes that's extra weight but she still flies and flies well which when it comes down to it its all it needs to do as she is just a cheap and easy to fly stepping stone to other airframes. the reason i asked for feedback was to force me to scrutinise my decisions which i am thank you for for your thoughts and advice, i hope there are more to come.
A few suggestions:
- descide the one and a half things you want to do with it, and stop there. Don't add more than that on a bixler.
- the carbon strips, turn then 90 degrees. Embedded them perpendicular to the wing. Using a soldering iron, slot the foam and push the strip into the wing perpendicular to the surface, then fix with glue and tape. Try to get the slot just right, such that you use very little glue. It is heavy. Use wide, light tape, if possible.
- practice your flights in a simulator, and avoid steep climbs and dives
- takeoff in fly by wire mode to avoid excessive porpoising, if that is difficult
- when you can do the two above, you'll have fewer issues with the wings
- Velcro straps do a nice job with the wings. I slot over and below, about 2" on each, they hold great.
- drop the airspeed sensor, given its placement, you are more likely to have issues with it.
- remove the OSD. If you want it, wire it up on the receive side. Less weight, less power, easier build. So long as you have telemetry, you get IFR even if you lose video
- fix the video, if you must have it, with this frame. The servos push the weight up, and so does the drag with mounting it so high.
Of course you can still fly without any of these suggestions, but you did ask for feedback.
i wouldn't say that at all yes the bixler is crappy and cramped but more importantly was a cheap. Most of the reaper horror stories i have come across involve low speed and tip stalling, my frame is going through carbon fibre re enforcing and fly it like it was designed, high and fast not treat it like a 3d sportster. Time will tell, it may be ok, or i may end up regretting it but for $130 it was worth the risk. I have also bee offered a decent sum of money to buy the reaper from me on its completion which i may take also.
Oh no from bad to worse predator airframes as models are famous for being very marginal UA and very marginal RC flyers come to that.
Do yourself a favour buy a 60 sized trainer and electrify it. Plenty of room for everything
Oooo those are nice but too advanced for me (post some build and setup pics of it). The X5 is cheap and stable and loads of space for both APM and FPV equipment wich makes it perfect for me.
i too have lusted after the x8 and the Dark wing, would need to build a catapult for one of those. You can see in the back ground my next airframe an 2.5m predator drone looking thing, i just need to find some good retracts to ad, a better camera :) and have a bitch face live longer than 4 weeks ......fun fun fun
I realy dislike the skysurfers, I have a bixler and the space to do everything is just horible. I have now got myself the X5 and the X8 from hobby king and it is much much nicer and space is just plentyfull.