Flight

[ronnronn]

Anyone here into ultralight designing, or amature rocketry?

[Vostok]

I am trying to build a homemade rocket, along with a few other people round here .see the \'model rocketry\' thread in the off topic forum.

[SteevyT]

I have an RC plane. It\'s currently back home since I don\'t have anywhere to fly it here on my internship.

[Vostok]

I have an RC plane. It\'s currently back home since I don\'t have anywhere to fly it here on my internship.

I also built an RC plane, a Nieuport 11. Yet to be tested due to weather.

[SteevyT]

Mine is a foam profile thing. The Ultimate 3D, I have built, and rebuilt it a couple times due to crashes (the latest one wasn\'t really my fault, the top wing snapped in half during a loop).

[ronnronn]

Im currently finishing up the wings for an ultralight, primaraly im using 6061 AL due to its strength and ease of weldability.

Im planing on fitting it out with a 2 cycle dirt bike engine.

I also build med sized rockets, the highest altitude ive acheived is around 12,000 ft. However this was launched with permission from the FAA. the real issue with higher alt launches is getting auth and weather to sync up.

[Rs2k]

I had a Clipped wing Challenger 2 with a 55 HP Hirth engine that I completely recovered and modified by extending the nose (I have long legs) and adding a spring suspension landing gear. I also completely redid the instrument panel, added a heater and vortex generators to the doors and wind screen. I also added That about as much ultralite designing I\'ve done.

Adding the vortex generators was the best (and cheapest) mods I ever made... next to taping a piece of yarn to the windscreen. The challenger had a TON of rudder authority. Not only does it have a large rudder, but it was a bit unstable on the yaw access. You could literally steer the aircraft by sticking your hands out the doors. The rudder authority on this aircraft made its crosswind handling capabilities amazing if you knew how to control it. My personal best is a 25 MPH crosswind.... not bad when you consider the touch down speed is only 45 mph. This thing slipped like mad! In a hard slip you had to look out the side window to fly. It made getting into tight fields a peace of cake.

This aircraft also has removable doors (GREAT feature!). You took the doors off for summer flying and put them on for winter. The problem with this is the doors make the aircraft fly differently. Adding the doors made the already rudder sensitive plane even more sensitive. It also sort of added a dead-zone to the rudder. It made the airplane feel very slippery. Basically, what the vortex generators did was remove the dead-zone to the rudder. They were simply cut out of thin aluminum sheet metal, bent into shape by hand and applied to the plexiglass with double sided tape.

I really miss flying this plane. Buzzing wheat fields with the doors off and 'slipping it in' was sooo much fun. The airfield I flew out of was 6 miles south of a large Airforce Tanker base. I regularly flew above the altitude the KC-135s flew. It\'s quite surreal to stick your head out the window and watch that much metal zooming along below you.

Nice video (not mine):

I won\'t get into all the RC and rocketry things I\'ve done, but I\'ve made some very odd things fly. I once turned a 1 liter coke bottle into a rocket, and have flown anything from a 1/4 scale Cap to a piece of corrugated plastic with a .46 CI engine on it. I also played around with both electric and nitro powered helis.

[ronnronn]

/\ Thats what im hoping to accomplish in the near future with the AL frame design. Seriously the math in creating your own foils is insane.

Fortunatly ive been able to creat scale models of my wings and test them in a home made wind tunnel.

[Phoenix Aerospace]

I\'m into high altitude ballooning. Does that count?

[szpw]

I\'ve built a few of those Estes kits, and experimented with a few of my own designs.

I haven\'t made anything beyond that though.

[Rs2k]

I\'m into high altitude ballooning. Does that count?

I\'d say so.

I\'ve built a few of those Estes kits, and experimented with a few of my own designs.

I haven\'t made anything beyond that though.

That\'s where I started. I went from cheap plastic cox control line to estes rockets to RC airplanes to RC helis to powered parachutes to ultralites to light sport aircraft to cessnas to sundowners to bonanzas.

My eventual goal is a turbo prop or a jet.... Maybe there\'ll even be private space craft available before I get too old.