Escape from Castle Covid.
(A thread from a #Maker in lockdown.)
For reasons too long to explain, I entered lockdown with no materials and no tools save for some foam board, a hot glue gun.. and a desire to escape. Slowly, a plan began to form.
(A thread from a #Maker in lockdown.)
For reasons too long to explain, I entered lockdown with no materials and no tools save for some foam board, a hot glue gun.. and a desire to escape. Slowly, a plan began to form.
2/ I watched the BBC documentary on the re-creation of the Colditz glider recently on YT so, with no engineering / aerodynamic knowledge at all.. I began.
Things then stepped up a notch when I found the radio gear from a long dead heli and a loony fast brushless motor. Gotta be done realIy so 3D printed a motor mount and added servos for the control surfaces.. 🛫
4/ Started experimenting with some different types of landing gear to see what worked best. Was genuinely amazed by this point at how plane-y it actually looks!
5/ Chocks (almost!) away.. powering up and firing into life for the first time. It’s alive!!.. alive I tell you!
6/ .... which was *rapidly* followed by big fat smokey oops!... 😳🔥(The crashing is me trying to find back door keys before LiPo went up!) Back to the drawing board.. 😔
7/ A new ESC, new landing gear and a significant rebuild.. let’s try that again shall we? Outside this time. 🤦♂️
8/ Taxi! All under control. Standing on the runway, waiting for take off.
At this point, I had *zero* idea of how far from actually flying this thing was..
At this point, I had *zero* idea of how far from actually flying this thing was..
9/ Hooked up Phoenix flight sim for some practice before heading to the field close to my house.. believe me, chasing this thing around a field counts as exercise!
10/ Launch time.. and again. And again. Planes do not fly by sheer will power. They fly by science. I clearly. do not know enough of this science. Time to learn...
Torque roll. Flap trimming. Thrust angle. How quickly these arcane terms became familiar to me once research began.. 🤔 Discovered the frankly awesome plans for a polyhedral wing to add stability.. but alas, to no avail. Even the freakin col paint job couldn’t save it. 😔
12/ Looked amazing.. but not after innumerate plunges to Earth. 😬 So found some plans for a ‘real’ body (free from flightest.com - totally awesome) and the next rebuild began..
13/ And from the literally smokey wreckage (you can still smell it!) rises a new chance to soar...
14/ With impatience bordering on insanity, I waited for the weather to break and the wind to still. And then, with breath genuinely held.. I let it go.
15/ And finally, after trials and failures and trying again.. this felt like escape. 🛫
Fin.
Fin.
PS.. *major* kudos to @Jase_MK for putting up with all the questions 😊 And if you’re interested in this kind of thing, check out the amazing stuff over at @FliteTest - free build plans and loads of other 😍 kit too.
