FT Gremlin Nutball

The FT Gremlin Nutball

See below for flight footage - just added 2013/10/19.

So, Marek (aka "MEGAjig" on RCGroups.com) pumped out a large plane out of parts laying around he called the "FT Logo Plane".  The thread includes flight video, a request for suggestions, and a challenge to others to have at it.  So... here's what I came up with.  I simply shrunk it, included the rings of the logo as part of the airframe and stuck on the FT Gremlin on the nose.  Seems simple, I know, but then I had the dumb idea to get the Gremlin to do some of the flying!

Hold on... before I go any further, here is the RCgroups thread that got me going on this.. do check it out and give cudos to Marek.  His plane looked really cool.

http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2009538

Also, while I'm at it, here's Frank's (aka Goldguy) original Nutball thread - hommage to the one and only Frank!  :)

http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=836389

Okay, now, back to the Gremlin doing the flying.  Originally, I wanted each arm to work a surface, but that seemed too difficult with two moving arms, etc.  So, I decided (odd I know) to rig up a pull-pull rudder.  If you look closely at this photo you'll see the wires running from the rudder to each of the Gremlin's hands.  No joke!

It's a bit iffy functionally speaking.  My first pull-pull rigging and I didn't put too much thought into control arm or gremlin arm lengths, etc.  So, right now it works, but it isn't perfect.  We'll see after flight night tomorrow and I'll update with how it went... and with what I'm going to do to make it perfect :).

Here's another shot from the other side showing more of the servo mounting/setup.  Rudder is under his arms and elevator is on the rings/nose.

All up weight (including battery!) for this little guy came in at 50.1 grams!!  (1.76 oz).  With a wing span of 10.75 inches that's a wing area of 0.6302 sqft.  That's a wing loading of 2.79 oz/sqft.  Well within the floater nutball range ;-).

I'll add more verbage and maiden flight video after tomorrow night's indoor session (check out the antics at: http://www.youtube.com/uberjay2 and search for "Cobble Indoor" on my channel).  For now though, here's a quick list of components and I'll attach a PDF of the plans - though, it's just a nutball... easy to build :).

Specs:

• Wingspan: 10.75"  (was shooting for 10, but the string stretched when I was drawing the circle ;-) )
• Flying Weight:  50.1 g (1.76 oz)
• Wing Loading:  2.79 oz/sqft

Parts:

• Motor: Turnigy 1811-3800kv
• Prop:  GWS 5030 (5x3") from Hobbyking
• ESC:  Turnigy 5A 1S Brushless ESC
• Servos: HK-5320 Ultra-Micro Digital Servo 1.7g / 0.05sec / 0.075kg
• Receiver:  OrangeRx R415 Spektrum DSM2 Compatible 4Ch Micro 2.4Ghz Receiver
• Battery:  ThunderPower 1S 160 mAh 25C (as well as some Nano-tech's I have laying around)

PDF Plans:  FT Gremlin Nutball Plans v1
    (Notes: I manually added tabs and slots for the rudder and his feet.  I also only used two 3/4" strips for the keel.)

More details and build photos later as well.  If you have any questions please feel free to ask here or on Twitter (@Uberjay2) /Youtube (youtube.com/uberjay2).

Okay... with no further ado here's the maiden flight.  Hope you enjoy as much as I did - it was a blast to fly and see it fly so well!  I surprised myself with this one - was half expecting it to crash and burn, but no, it flew very well.  Take a look...

Here's a revised video with the sound corrected and I've added in two additional flights... enjoy!

Cheers,
J