Just a quick update on the printed suspension landing gear I'm working on. After getting a shipment of PLA plastic, I'm finally able to print some precision parts. The ABS warping prevented any real mechanical parts from being printed.
The principle is fairly simple; one piston using a ballpoint pen spring and rubber bands attached to a joint that is connected to the plane and the wheels.
This is one side of the assembly
I still need to improve some of the parts, for instance I have to add a rubber band crossing between the two legs to absorb some landing energy. Otherwise, I'm pretty satisfied with the design so far, and hopefully I will have time for a real flight test before the snow sets in.
I took my most recent plane, the RC Powers SU-34 and the F18, both from the V4 package, out for a spin this Sunday. The weather was calm, and the planes performed admirably.
Unfortunately, the wind increased throughout the day, and gave the F18 an unintended landing in some shrubbery. Luckily, it survived without any major damage. And I could probably have salvaged the situation had I remembered switching to 4x4 when the plane started stalling. Ah well, at least there were no dead toddlers with very recognizable aircraft sticking out of their skulls this time.
My previous concerns about the SU-34 stability seems to have been related to a faulty flap-to-elevator mix, causing it to wobble during the launch and transition to normal flight mode. Even with my less-than-perfect duct tape emergency fixes from the maiden trip, I at no point felt the plane doing anything I did not want it to do.
Additionally, I lost no canards today, which is good. Nobody likes losing canards. Especially not at the checkout counter of the grocery store. That sucks. Big time. Really.
All in all, I am very happy with both planes, although I still favour the F-18 purely on an aesthetics preference basis!
Part of me was hoping for a catastrophic crash today, so that I could take on the MIG-29 from the V4 package, but alas, it will have to be postponed yet another week.
F18 V4
Our favourite game: Find the plane and pray it's not deformed into grey goo!
