FliteTest Mini Arrow

Overview video

First flight with the larger of the two recommended motors. I misjudged the banking ability and crashed it at the end splitting the wing in two - as Homer Simpson so eloquently put it...DOH! :)

The great thing about building your own planes is that crashes like this won't faze you at all as you know exactly how to repair it.

Introduction:

Watching the flite test videos of this wing was how I first discovered flying wings. I wanted to build this early on, but went ahead with the DW Mini rainbow first because I didn't have any experience building anything from scratch and felt that putting together a kit would be a better first step.

Components ($35):

  • 2 sheets of Dollar tree foam board
  • 2x 5gram servos
  • 2x push rods
  • 1x popsicle stick (stiffen up the frame)
  • 12 amp generic esc
  • Emax MT2204 II 2300KV or Emax MT1806 2280kv
  • 4 channel micro receiver
  • 6x5 propeller

Conclusion:

This was my first flite test build and it went easier than I had envisioned. The only issue was balancing the CG since this craft was designed with FPV gear in mind. Without the FPV gear, the only way I was able to achieve the recommended CG was by using a 2s 1700mah battery in the front. With all that weight and the smaller of the recommended motors (MT1806), it felt a bit sluggish. It was a lot better with the 2204 and I would recommend advanced flyers go with that one instead (still not a speed demon tho).

As far as durability is concerned, it is not made of EPP and will break after a few significant crashes. There are things you can do to slow it down such as adding spars at strategic locations, but if you are going to learn to fly a wing and do not want to rebuild it multiple times, going with EPP may be a better choice.