23" Blucore Foam Biplane
![[blucore foam bipe]](pict2420T.jpg)
My new
homebuilt biplane, cut from "blucore" blue
foam.
It's a 23" "Ultimate Bipe", made from plans downloaded from
Foamy Factory. It's pretty cool -- you download a PDF, print
it as multiple pages, then tape the pages together to get a blueprint
for a plane. Someone told me that if you print it on a laser
printer you can iron it right onto the foam, but that didn't work for
me (I ironed forever and only got a tiny bit of ink transferred) so I
just pinned the plans on top of the foam and cut through both foam and
plans with an x-acto knife.
Then epoxy the pieces together, epoxy a piece of carbon fiber tubing
down the fuselage so it doesn't fishtail back and forth (the plans say
to reinforce the wings too, but they seem pretty stiff just from the
struts) with a stick on the front to mount a GWS IPS motor, add servos
(they're taped in place; I've seen some people glue them -- do they buy
new servos for each plane?) and the other radio gear, and you have a
plane!
![[blucore foam bipe]](pict2423T.jpg)
It
actually flies, amazingly enough! (I don't have pictures to prove
it -- Dave was too busy flying his own planes.) Though the first
few times it smacked into the ground when I threw it -- turns out it
had a little down-trim, which I needed to take out. I'm throwing
it because all the sites where I fly have grass, and wheels don't work
very well except for teeny planes with huge wheels like the Pico Stick
(and even then, they fall over on landing half the time).
It doesn't fly very well, though. Despite its 23"
wingspan and 6oz weight with an 830mAh LiPo battery, the IPS motor
(borrowed from my Pico Stick) is just barely enough to keep it in the
air, and it can't really struggle higher than 10-20' off the ground.
Perhaps giving it a real airfoil would help, or at least smoothing down
the leading edges of the wings and other surfaces. I have a dual
IPS motor, which I can bolt on if need be, but I'm hoping this will be
a slow flier for very small spaces and indoor use, so lots of power
isn't really needed (until I get to the point where I can fly 3-d
maneuvers, anyway).
More Planes
Shallow Sky Home
![[blucore foam bipe]](pict2420.jpg)
![[blucore foam bipe]](pict2423.jpg)
It
actually flies, amazingly enough! (I don't have pictures to prove
it -- Dave was too busy flying his own planes.) Though the first
few times it smacked into the ground when I threw it -- turns out it
had a little down-trim, which I needed to take out. I'm throwing
it because all the sites where I fly have grass, and wheels don't work
very well except for teeny planes with huge wheels like the Pico Stick
(and even then, they fall over on landing half the time).