Posted by Gary Mortimer on February 16, 2009 at 5:46am
Quite by chance I had a Superstar.When DIYdrones first flighted I was amused to see one being used and I think I have seen in somewhere in the East a military one.
That one having an off and landing on a house which made the local papersAnyhow, after many many fun hours teaching three or four people to fly with the Superstar, whilstI was overseas my young aviator decided to use the Superstar as a chuck glider from the top of their climbing frame.This went well for several flights so I am told, the garden being on a slight slope allowed the Superstar to fly all the way to the bottom.It was not perhaps designed for such things.I was slightly miffed bcause I had recently stripped the covering as it was tatty and the aircraft was now a spirited red.Well the wings were, the fuse had only been started.To cut a long story short, more out of boredom but also out of a desire to prove Dean wrong.For it is he that said he had failed to find an aircraft that the Attopilot could not fly.I determined to make a set of wings, with my boys,from some roofing foam that we had. The fuselage we simply nicked some correx signboards and glued them onto the gaps.Later having flown it, I thought that if I got to 5 hours flying time I would put the dimensions out there so that somebody could do a better job!All we did was tape some dowels in it for strength, cutting it first to what looked the right size in proportion to the airframe. Its a polyhedral 5% crank at the centre 15 at the tips. Again that just looked right.The aerofoil was a soldering iron cut steeper at the front shallower at the back.Then everything was taped together with reinforced tape.Just yesterday I measured it for the first time, the tips are 30 cm and main 90 cm each side making a total of 2.4m Cord 30cm. Quite a neat number for something that was just done by eye!To make things look right on the airframe, the weight and drag of wheels was forgotten.Looked like the thing was going to be short coupled so I increased the length of the rudder and elevator to bring things back a bit.For the first flight it was plain that we needed to strengthen the middle a little as the wings virtually tried to clap. But it flew.On the third flight I added my co pilot, because I also wanted to explore rudder elevator only with the co pilot. I forgot to mention no ailerons in this bird.In the three aircraft I have tried with rudder elevator and co pilot I have found that as long as the gain is reduced the co pilot handles it pretty well. This particular wing has quite a dihedral and the aircraft is inherantly stable.Test flying commenced on the 31st of January and 16 days later after 33 flights 5 hours have been achived, it would have been quicker, but the weather has not played ball.Now done properly, perhaps a built up wing or even a better foam one, properly cut, I am certain the performance will improve.A wing upgrade for your Ardupilot equiped Superstar will increase useful load, and time in the air.I'm using a Dualsky 50 equivalent motor, RAM 12 x 6 prop, 40 amp esc and 3S 2100 lipo.I'm sure somebody here will come up with a neater solution, but I know these measurements work for me so they should for you!With a better matched power set up with electric prop lighter wing and no bodged tail I'm sure an hour would be possible.
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