TY Model

Introduction:

When I picked this up, I did it with the intent of building something lightweight that could be flown in a small area. In fact, I built another model (mini nutball) right before this with the hopes of the same thing. The nutball flew, but it only did so with speed. I was hoping this would fly slower.

Components ($35):

• TY Model (kit includes motor & prop)
• F949 brick (servo/esc/receiver)

Conclusion:

This plane didn't work out as I wanted it to. It is quite delicate and one of the carbon fiber rods for the upper wing snapped during assembly. I ended up building another wing with a slightly thicker CF rod since I didn't have spare rods of the same size as the kit. I strengthened the joints by first wrapping them in cotton thread and then applying CA. It was a bit more work, but the joints ended up being solid/lightweight and I never worried about them again.

After completion, it ended up weighing 19grams (without battery), but I never got it to fly well. In flight, it wasn't as delicate as it looked, but eventually after a dozen or so crashes, the CF rod holding the motor snapped. I ended up not fixing it as I became more interested in building other planes since this also didn't fly as slowly as I had wanted. I figure I would go back to this one day though. One of the major issues was that I didn't pay enough attention to the location of the push rods for the elevator. I built it according to the instructions, but later realized that in order to use the F949 brick (non programmable), the elevator push rod had to be positioned below (instead of over) the elevators. I hacked it by extending the elevator control rod to the bottom, but it never moved well with the servo. I think this model would also greatly benefit from incorporating a lighter brick (perhaps a spektrum one).