This is a new airplane that I have designed and built during the winter. It is a pusher with large wheels and flaps designed for rough flying fields. This plane is large compared to my other designs. It runs on the same large 8000 mAh 3 cell batteries as my APM quadcopter. The original “Sky Cruizer” was an airplane I build many years ago when I wanted something fun to cruise around with, this new plane shares both the color scheme and purpose of the first Sky Cruizer.
A new video of some flying with my APM quadcopter. The newly installed LEDs impoves visibility a lot. The video was shot on new years day. The weather was cold and the wind speed was high, about 10 m/s, but the Ardupilot in GPS assisted mode makes it easy to fly even in those conditions.
This is a LED installation I made on the APM quadcopter. The purpose is to make it easier to see the quad while flying in the evening. And of course it also looks cool. I have used self adhesive flexible LED strips if different colors. The LEDs are powered from the main battery and can be switched on and off with a switch inside the quad.
When I built the “Stik Pusher” indoor plane, I installed some LEDs that I did not connect. My intention was to add an Arduino but I wanted to test and make sure the plane worked as expected before I did it.
The main purpose of the Arduino is to monitor the battery voltage, but all control signals from the receiver to the servos and ESC (speed controller) now goes though the Arduino. The Arduino flashes the LEDs located on the fin, motor mount and nose depending on the battery status. If the voltage drops to low, the motor is stopped to protect the battery, but the the control surfaces still works. This is similar to how a normal “cutoff” function in an ESC works. My ESC in this plane in very small and simple and does not have this function built in.
I have also connected a serial bluetooth module the the Arduino for wireless communication. I also plan on connecting an ultrasonic range finder pointing downwards to experiment with an automatic altitude holding feature. This requires tuning some parameters, and this is where the bluetooth connectivity comes in handy. Maybe later. I will also try to control the plane with a smartphone app or laptop using this bluetooth connectivity.
With indoor season coming I wanted to try one of those micro ReadyToFly quadcopters. I got the Hubsan x4. It is quite little quad is very sable an fun to fly. More info on this little quad here. Here is a video:
My new small airplane I have designed for indoor flying. Go to the Stik pusher page to see more images.
This is a small indoor airplane designed to be very durable, easy to fly and fast to build. It is based on an old model called “Tichy Stick” by J.A Benson. The original model is designed for a Cox .010 engine and meant to be built out of balsa. My version is built out of 3 mm depron (foam). I have moved the motor back and turned it around to create a pusher. This makes it very durable. I have also created a open battery tray on the top front of the fuselage for easy access. The plane is designed for a 5-7 gram outrunner with a 5 inch propeller and a 2 cell 300-500 mAh battery. The wingspan is 620 mm and the flying weight should be around 60-80 grams. I have not yet tested this design but I am pretty sure it will fly great. I have tested a depron version of the original “Tichy Stick” which flies good.
Plans: stikPusher.pdf (1.8kB)
3D model make with “SketchUp Make”: stikPusher3Dmodel.skp (1.4MB)
A short video of my FT Spitfire. This airplane is a kit form Flitetest. Usually I do not like warbirds very much, mainly because they usually do not fly very well, and have bad stall characteristics. But this one is designed to fly well, and I think that is a lot more important than having the correct scale look. I use a very lightweight setup in mine, and this makes it possible to fly really slowly. The controls feels very precise for being a foamie.
A new compilation video made with the quadcopter. During this summer I have flown this quadcopter for a total of about 6-8 hours. This is the best of those flights. I have also stabilized almost the entire video in post production to get rid of the small vibrations. The entire video is shot at my local flying club Gamen.
Read about my APM quadcopter here.
I made a new video of the autogyro since all the other videos of it where old and low quality. The autogyro is almost 4 years old now, and I do not fly it very often, but it still works great. It is probably one of the most unique designs I have made.