Swappable - Bloody Wonder MkIII (Free Plans)

January 9, 2015|SP0NZ

Introduction

The FT Bloody Wonder was the first plane I really learned to fly RC on. It was not my first plane, but it was the first plane I had success with. For that reason it will always have a special place in my hangar. I can't think of a better way to honor that than by trying to make an already great design even better.

Some of the things that I thought needed a little tweaking were the vertical stabilizers, the fuselage, and the build process (particularly attaching the wing and horizontal stabilizer to the fuselage).

Objectives

I set out to improve on the original FT Bloody Wonder V1/V2 designed by Josh Bixler. The goals I set for this were as follows:

Maintain as much of the look and flight characteristics of the original FT Bloody Wonder as possible
Design a new and stronger fuselage taking some styling queues from its namesake, the Bloody Micks FunBat
Make the build process easier by using tabbed construction for easier alignment and positioning of wing and tail to the fuselage
Make a new (optional) tail configuration to prevent the vertical stabilizers from being damaged during landings

The development process started well over a year-and-a-half ago when I put a pair of FT Delta tails on the Bloody Wonder horizontal stabilizer. If flew great and I didn't have to worry about the tails taking damage anyore, even when I managed to pull of a "good" landing.

Since then I have built several other FT designs. I decided to incorporate some of the newer FT features into my new version of the Bloody Wonder, and the MkIII is the result.

Here is the MkIII with one of my favorite tail configurations.

Basic Specifications:

Wing Span: 28 inches
Length: 24 inches
Wing Area: 221.2 sq. inches
CG: 1.75 inches from leading edge
Channels: 3
Controls: Throttle, Aileron, Elevator
Model Type: Combat / Stunt
Build Level: Intermediate
Pilot Level: Beginner (Basic Setup) / Intermediate (Advanced Setup)

Power Options:

Basic Setup

Prop: 9 X 4.7 Slow FLy
Motor: 1300 kv 24 gram hexTronik
ESC: 10-12 amp
Battery: 1000 mah 3S 11.1V 20C
Weight (AUW): 13 oz.
Wing Loading: 8.46 oz./sq. ft.
WCL: 6.8

Advanced Setup

Prop: APC 8 X 6
Motor: 1200 kv NTM PropDrive 2826
ESC: 25-30 amp
Battery: 2200 mah 3S 11.1V 30C
Weight (AUW): 19.2 oz
Wing Loading: 12.5 oz/ft^2
WCL: 10.1

Here is the MkIII with the original vertical stabilzers. This one I call the Bloody Warhawk (I only wish that colored packing tape came in olive drab.)

Included in the free plans, are several tail configuration options. In fact, there are 8 different variations to choose from.

Free Plans

Full-Size
Tiled

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Maiden Flight (Vertical Tail Configuration)

Build Thread

The latest and most up-to-date Instructions for building the BW MkIII are available in my build thread on the Flite Test forums: Bloody Wonder MkIII - Build

If you build one, please post a picture or video in the build thread. I'd love to see it. And, if you have suggestions for improvements, let me know. Who knows, maybe they'll show up on the Bloody Wonder MkIV.

Special thanks to Josh Bixler for the original design of the FT Bloody Wonder.