The FT Flyer: More than a starter plane

A growing group of us in the Phoenix, AZ area began learning RC flight with the Swappables Series – the FT Flyer, the Nutball, and the Delta.  A year later, we’re still flying variations on these three designs.  We enjoy wringing every bit of learning from each design before moving to the next.  Here’s our approach that keeps us busy with imagine, build, fly, learn, repeat.

The seminal design change happened when Rick Aldom moved the rudder and elevator servos from the wing back to the tail section. 

With that one change, the three big pieces of the plane – the wing, tail, and power pod – became independent pieces, “Lego®” blocks of plane parts.  When the tail broke, we didn’t have to replace the wing, too.  But more importantly, it made the FT Flyer an interchangeable testbed to mix and match parts from other planes.

Of course, we evolved the dihedral FT Flyer wing to a flat wing, a KF step airfoil wing, and added ailerons.  All while preserving its ability to mate with the power pod and tail.

THE OLD FOGEY

Then, Mike fell in love with the Old Fogey design and wanted to try it.  Instead of building the whole Old Fogey plane, he just built the wing and an adapter “saddle” to mate the under-cambered wing to the top of the Flyer body.  Voila!  He could explore a big, slow wing with amazing lift and learn how to fly it without having to build a new tail, power pod, landing gear, or battery mounts.  It’s so stable that first-time fliers and even children putter it around the sky successfully. 

Heck, during Christmastime, even Santa Pilot flies it around!

ADAPTING THE ALPHA WING

Rick noticed the student-designed Alpha wing, how it folded over to an airfoil at the wing center, but resembled a flat Flyer wing toward the wingtips.  So he built an Alpha-like wing, strapped it on, and is still discovering what to do with such a high-lift, durable, responsive wing.  He’s damaged the tail assembly and power pod a couple times, built new ones, and hasn’t had to rebuild the wing.

On designs that insisted on being tail heavy, we extended the nose of the power pod by an inch or so to balance it.  We could do that because we no longer use the BBQ skewers on the wing poking into the firewall to hold the wing on.  Instead, we cut holes in the wing and rubber band it down to the front landing gear skewer.  The power pod is standard in every other respect, just longer in front.

We’ve reinforced weak spots, secured the wing to the fuselage with Velcro® straps through the wing slots, and have explored variations on landing gear.

The FT Flyer involves cutting only five (5) parts from foam board.  Simple!  Other beginner planes and trainers are much more involved.  For instance, the FT Tiny Trainer with its beginner, polyhedral wing is almost two dozen parts to cut out, requiring more time and build complexity.   So, starting with the FT Flyer platform reduces the cost of learning through mistakes when your plane smacks the ground a little too hard.

WHAT'S NEXT? 

Flaps, an Armin wing from Ed at Experimental Airlines, maybe canards, dive brakes, retractable gear, winglets... anything that inspires our interest.

Do we limit ourselves to this platform?  No.  We're expanding into other planes like the Flite Test Bushwhacker and Storch, but we're learning on -- and sometimes breaking -- the FT Flyer so those new, more complex planes won't lead such rough lives.

The point is that we start with what we know and what's quick and easy to build, but don’t even try to resist the urge to tinker.  So, maybe we’re staying with the “starter” designs longer than Josh Bixler might have intended, but by playing plane “Legos”, we aren’t flying your granddaddy's BluDart.  We have aerobatic versions, slow-flying versions that can carry a camera or drop Nerf bombs, and any other combination that we want to try.

The FT Flyer truly is a starter airplane.  Look what it started!