Introducing the TwinThing

[dp106]

Ever since I first tried fixed wing FPV I';ve longed to have a Twinstar.  The videos from others as they pan the camera to look across the wing at their motors has always filled me with envy :)  The trouble is I don';t really need another FPV plane and I already have too many LOS planes in the hanger already, (at least as far as my better half is concerned).  The solution was to build a Twinstar inspired scratch build, heavily inspired by the Experimental Airlines Photon glider.

I';ve done a small overview video including the maiden:  ! No longer available

I';ve started doing a more detailed overview here:  http://davesrc.blogspot.co.uk  Not sure if people are interested in more detail or not.  If people want I can add detail here as well.

[crash pilot]

I found that good Ive been toying with the idea of building a wing. After experimenting trying to make a wing for a mustang and broke it I gave up. Now after reading this I might just get on with making my wing, thanks for the inspiration.

[dp106]

Do it, it';s great when you manage to get it into the air. If you';re new to scratch building the free plans from flitetest are a good place to start, takes the guess work out of it.

[Gav]

Nice vid with nice plinky plonk music for the successful maiden[emoji14].  It seems nice and stable and very rapid.  Have you flown it fpv yet? 

[dp106]

I did attempt it but when I was adding the weight on the front to balance it out I neglected to notice I';d half blocked my video camera. I did try out 2D hold and RTH on the Vector though and both are working very well. From what I could tell it was cruising on about 6amps but I only had the goggles on briefly so will need more testing to confirm

[guest325]

I like the simplicity of how you';ve mounted the motors, nacelles look nice but are added weight!!!
Looks a nice camera/fpv platform to me, the Experimental airlines wing design is pretty efficient for how simple its construction is.
Following with interest ::)
I';m looking at this sort of idea atm

[dp106]

I';ve completed my first set of improvements following the maiden.

I have shifted the motors so they are mounted above the wing this will hopefully give enough clearance to stop the mounts being bent on landing.

I';ve also made room to shift the battery further forward and it now balances perfectly without having to add more weight on the nose.

Still need to work out what to do about the nose add I don';t like the green tape and think this makes it look a bit ugly..

[nub]

ach it don';t look that bad, it';s how it flies is the main thing ::)

get some white tape and wrap that around it.

[dp106]

Yeah I did notice Screwfix had some white packing tape so I might wander down there and get a roll.  I';ve not got much imagination when it comes to putting a colour scheme on planes unfortunately!

[Friskle]

damn this has reminded me, i need to maiden my twin cargo plane...

[dp106]

Made an attempt at a slightly better looking nose. Think it';s a bit better than the green

[Hozza]

What about designing something and having it 3D printed?

[dp106]

For the nose? My logic around using polystyrene on the front is if I have a rough landing it will take the brunt of the impact and leave the plane intact. Not sure something 3D printed would serve the same purpose?

[Hozza]

For the nose? My logic around using polystyrene on the front is if I have a rough landing it will take the brunt of the impact and leave the plane intact. Not sure something 3D printed would serve the same purpose?

You';re probably right, what about a thin wall 3D printed cap to go over the top?

[nub]

looks a bitty better hehe ::)

[Friskle]

dont forget to make sure both props are spinning inwards, eg, one CW one CCW, to cacel each others Torque.

[dp106]

I saw a lot of comments where people haven';t bothered so I didn';t worry about that. Can';t say I noticed any issues on the maiden.

[Friskle]

fair enough,, but both inwards like mentioned does usually make quite a difference.

[nub]

suppose would be easy enough to give it a try to see what difference there is if any

[dp106]

I braved the windy weather on Friday to test the new motor mount position and bigger 3000mah battery.

http://youtu.be/pAYk5NNFvtg

Coped in the wind well and managed a couple of fpv flights as well. Sadly I neglected to switch my dvr on for those 

[dp106]

The wind finally dropped for a bit so I managed to get out and see if the Twin would take a 5000 4s. Only thing of note was it is slightly harder to launch. Although I say that it just dropped a bit rather than immediately climbing out of my hands. http://youtu.be/uwIlndeMWOw

[dp106]

Tried covering completely in green, think this is the best look yet. I';ll just be putting some black stripes on the underside of the wings for contrast