Category: Scratch Builds
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Warbler UAV – Scratch-built FPV Platform
They say imitation is the sincerest for of flattery, and in this case, the creators of the Talon UAV should be extremely flattered. Introducing my latest FPV platform, the Warbler UAV. Needless to say, it was heavily inspired by the Talon UAV. After some sketching and planning, I decided my try building a similar plane, […]
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B is for Burbank – FPV Flight
One of my FPV goals was to fly around and take video of the big letter B in the foothills of Burbank and today I’ve met that goal! My flight times are about 12-15 minutes on 2 x 2,200 3S lipos, on my scratch-built J-Twin airplane (for more information about it click here). I’m using […]
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J-Twin: Scratch-built FPV Platform
Introducing the J-Twin, a twin-motor airplane I designed and built specifically for FPV. I took it for its maiden flight today and I behaved amazingly well, just a click or two of aileron trim and it was all set. The center of gravity is approximately at 1/3 of the wing chord and it didn’t present […]
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Scratchbuild: The CautionWing
I just finished building my version of the FliteTest FT Versa, I call it the CautionWing. It comes together very easily, just a bunch of straight lines and its made out of my favorite material: dollar foam board. I’m using a FrSky 4 channel receiver, 2 9-g servos and its powered by a 3,300 mah […]
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Quad-Glider Hybrid?
I’ve had an idea for quite some time now and right about now seems like the right time to execute. I’m pretty sure others have thought and built something similar to this, but I think I can do it quite well. The idea is to build a quad and airplane hybrid, like the picture above. […]
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WEC Mark 2 – Test Flight
This is the second version of the WEC (Wooden Ecilop Clone). I improved the landing gear and streamlined the wiring by using a Quattro 20AMP ESC. The flight controller is an APM 2.5. I am using a 4-channel Frsky receiver in PPM mode soldered directly onto the APM to eliminate a lot of wiring. I […]
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SR-71 Blackbird – Scratch-built Maiden Flight
This is my latest scratch-built project, an all-foamboard SR-71 Blackbird, in its NASA livery. The plans were downloaded from RCGroups [click here for the link to build your own]. Construction was straight-foward and took about 3 hours. I used 2 sheets of black foamboard bought from Office Depot. Here are some additional specs: – 2 […]
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Gyro Stabilized Camera Gimbal – Ecilop Wooden Clone
This is my attempt at a building an Ecilop, a gyro stabilized camera gimbal quadcopter. Construction is all poplar, CA and epoxy. This is the frame without any a flight controller, motors or ESC. I’ll be using the trusted ArduCopter 2.5. The original inspiration came from Aleksey Zaitsevsky’s design, the Ecilop Easy, pictured below. Also, […]
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Build Challenge: $7 toy glider to RC plane
I was browsing my local hobby store when I encountered a $7 EPO toy glider that was begging me to turn it into a full-featured RC plane. So, a challenge began. I started by reinforcing the horizontal stabilizer with a carbon fiber rod, then the wings and fuselage with a wooden dowel. I mounted a Turnigy 2826 2200 kv […]
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On-board video – Kondor FPV
Check out the on-board video I took on the Kondor FPV. It is really stable, but I have to adjust the thrust angle of the engine to avoid down-pitching when throttling.