My own design Indoor flier.

[Panther]

I fly anything (except helicopters) and more recently took an interest in indoor flying. It is difficult to find a plane capable of tight turns as needed in indoors. It needs to be light and a half decent size. I bought the odd one and was disappointed with the performance. The only one that came anywhere near a decent fun indoor flier was the Nutball. It too has its'; limits and after considerable mods I got it going very well.

The main points are
1. Light weight.
2. low wing loading.
3. It must be very maneauverable and docile.

So I designed the Firefly.
It flew perfectly right from the maiden.
I have since built 2 more and sold the first one. I have had requests for plans but my plans are probably indecipherable to a lot of modellers nowadays. There just aren';t the builders around like there used to be. No 1 was my first ever Depron build and I quickly grew to like the stuff.
Hope you like my Firefly.

Main features are, 580mm span, 1811 2000 kV motor, 10 amp Turnigy Plush ESC, FrSky gear, Battery Flightmax 350 mAh which gives up to 8 minutes flying time.
Weight is 126 grams  +  11 grams for the battery.
The main wings are 3mm Depron and all the rest including tail etc is 6mm Depron.
The vertical fin pivots as a rudder. 

Here is No 1.



No 2. 

[URL=http://s1093.photobucket.com/user/vinniereno/media/2%203_zpseswzhah9.jpg.html]

And No 3. completed today.

[Paul01]

Hi Panther,

I really like your design, have you got any footage of it flying? I recently built my first plane (FT Mini Scout) and looking to build a mini slow flying plane as soon parts arrive.

You sure you don';t want to share the plans 

[Panther]

I do have some video but as there was nobody to help me I had to sit the phone on a pile of dirt and hope it worked. It sort of did. LOL
You need to cut off the first 40 seconds as the computer I have has no processing power and can';t handle HD vids. ( or even normal ones) Video is the first one I built and I didn';t even have the wheels on it yet.

My plan is OK if you are a builder and can work things out yourself and I will share it with you if you wish. Just pm me your email addy.

Video.

https://vimeo.com/144240582

[Yellow]

That';s a very cool looking plane, I imagine it takes a lot of knowhow to design one yourself.

I loved the first 40 seconds of the video, looked like you were feeding the camera a few stones.
I also wish my dogs were that chilled around the buzzing of rc stuff

[Panther]

My dogs love the planes. I also have a Pug who is in most videos and he loves to chase them as they take off.  If I go to the paddock, the dogs are first there. lol
I have designed my own planes/gliders since day dot so I guess you have to have a winner now and then. This one is just a particularly good flier. I have to do some more video when my mate is free to do so.

[Friskle]

I do have some video but as there was nobody to help me I had to sit the phone on a pile of dirt and hope it worked. It sort of did. LOL
You need to cut off the first 40 seconds as the computer I have has no processing power and can';t handle HD vids. ( or even normal ones) Video is the first one I built and I didn';t even have the wheels on it yet.

My plan is OK if you are a builder and can work things out yourself and I will share it with you if you wish. Just pm me your email addy.

Video.

https://vimeo.com/144240582

Love making planes from Depron, I`ll PM you my e-mail if you dont mind :)

[Paul01]

My plan is OK if you are a builder and can work things out yourself and I will share it with you if you wish. Just pm me your email addy.

PM sent 

[Friskle]

My dogs love the planes. I also have a Pug who is in most videos and he loves to chase them as they take off.  If I go to the paddock, the dogs are first there. lol
I have designed my own planes/gliders since day dot so I guess you have to have a winner now and then. This one is just a particularly good flier. I have to do some more video when my mate is free to do so.

Dont know when ill get to build it , but ill be sure to post the results when its done :)

Thanks again, this will be superb on the green out front :)

[Panther]

I will begin a basic assembly instructional thread.

[DarkButterfly]

Looks good, nice and simple

[Panther]

Thank you Oh Dark One.  ::)

[Revs]

I love the look of it and it seems to fly great, nice one buddy I need to pull my finger out and start doing some scratch builds!

[Panther]

Thanks Revs
I just had a wind free evening and I have been out having a ball with the red striped one and the yellow star one.  Because they are so light you can';t fly them in any wind. I have found you need to keep a little power on when landing also because they slow down so much.
That video is the first maiden and I hope to get some better closer footage before too long to really show how agile this thing can be.

[Panther]

Next stage of the build.

Glue the rear of the fuse together making sure it is in alignment.

I then glued a couple of spacer blocks inside the fuse to hold it at the correct spacing while I fitted the top wing. Blocks can be temporary or permanent. I left them in my last one.
Sit the wing in position using the tip struts. 
This next bit you have to be careful and quick.

Run a bead of hot glue along the wing seat on both sides of the fuselage and press the wing onto the wing seat making sure it is aligned straight with the bottom wing.
It helps to put some biro dots on the wing to align the wing with the fuselage sides.

When it is seated correctly you can spot glue the tip struts in their positions about 8 - 10 mm in from the end of the wing.  This gives you a chance to make sure your alignments are all correct.  It is easy to slice the hot glue from the wing (with care) if you need to reposition anything.
When all is aligned and I am satisfied I run a bead of glue right alng the struts.

[Panther]

I then fitted the tailplane aligning it with the main wings.



I then covered the bottom part of the fuselage with 3mm Depron sheet from the rear forward to the front of the wing.

Next I cut the hole for the rudder using the alloy tube that is used to make the pivot hinge.

This is the Tubing I used

You can drip hot glue in through the top of the fuselage to secure the alloy tubing in place.  Leave about 3mm proud on top of the tailplane and about 2mm underneath.
Then you can cover in the top rear part of the fuselage.

Measure your rudder dowel and drill a small hole in the bottom to fit your washer and securing screw.



Note that at this point I have not cut/seperated my elevator from the horizontal stabilizer. However, that is the builders option.  I cut it later and chamfered the leading edge just before I hinge it with 1/2" blenderm tape.

[Panther]

After all this time It is still flying.

https://vimeo.com/404531003