Drone build progress.... Will it fly?

Well it's been a few months since my last blog post, so here is an update and some photos.

The ground control trailer is going well. I have finished putting on the steel cladding, and insulated with 10mm foamboard. In my last blog post, I referred to a generator which I was thinking of including.....I have decided to leave it out of the build, as I have decided to use two car batteries, 100W solar panel, and the tow car's alternator as a last resort to run the 2KW inverter. Should be plenty of power. The generator would be very loud if I incorporated it into the build, though it would allow me to have air conditioning, which would be nice!

And a vid never goes astray, subscribe for more :-)

Now the plane is taking shape too. See previous blog for the solidworks drawing. Basically it's an aluminium skeleton made from box section, and hot wire cut foam wings. The wings are 3m tip to tip. and there are two 16mm tubes joining the tail plane to the wings. The fuselage is a work in progress, but it will probably be made from water jet cut 3mm aluminium, then bent into a box.

The wings are cut from "medium density" insulation foam. The local insulation shop had offcuts of a suitable size, which they parted with for $30. Nice!

This is my first build of this size, so I really am not sure if it will be strong enough. Time will tell!

That's a two car garage, so the build is getting bigger and bigger!

That's a CRRCPro 50cc two stroke gas engine. It's a low cost Chinese engine. Reliability? Yet to be proven, but I can only find great reviews online, and only one unhappy review from someone that didn't like the BOX it came in?!?!?!

Landing gear, and motor mount fitted. Servo compartments cut...

Now for the fun part (NOT) ... fiberglassing!

I purchased some fiberglass cloth from ebay. It was the remains of some stock used for building wind turbines. So I thought it would be perfect...... Well, this stuff is strong, but it is VERRRRY heavy... The tail plane alone, after the fiberglass treatment, is 4KG! So the entire aeroplane will weigh around 20Kg before I add a payload, electronics and fuel. Too heavy? Again time will tell!

@ Jesse, I will be in a position to monitor the current drawn from the monitors and PC in about a week or so. I'm hoping it will be about 35W per monitor and about 200 to 300 watts for each PC, so 650W total. It only has to work for say two 30 minute flights, and remember I can just plug it in to the car's alternator. The monitors don't have to be all on if not required. I'd say it's enough, but will definitely go for deep cycle batts if its not.

@Morli, thanks for the link. I finished the second wing today, and yes, it feels very heavy. I won't paint anything and ill try to get this thing flying within 2 weeks or so... If it's too heavy, I'll remove the FG and get the thin stuff. Not looking forward to saying bye bye to all the hard work and $$ I put into the thicker FG and epoxy...

@Mikel-Ange Good to see I have inspired someone to do the same. I live in a small apartment, so the GCS trailer doubles as storage for the aeroplane. We have a baby, so the car is always filled up with baby seats and prams, so while it looks like it is over-the-top in many respects, it actually is quite practical and allows me to leave to an air field at a moments notice. No need to remember to pack the tools, or the PC or plane parts, as they are all in there already!

You need to be a member of diydrones to add comments!

Join diydrones

Comments

Tyrell John August 18, 2013 at 8:24am

Interesting...I'm also building a drone 3.2meter wing span. I'm trying to keep mine as light as possible. 1hp nitro engine wanting to get 8 hours flight.
Phil P June 19, 2013 at 12:31am

@jesse, nah should be ok. I measured the current draw of the PC and it is only 110w when working hard, drops to 80w when idling. Running APM planner isnt very intensive. I haven't measured the actual current draw of the monitors but they are going to be quite low. Also alternators in new cars have come a long way in the last few years. They regulate much better at low rpms. At this rate, a sunny day with the 100w solar panel will give me many hours of flight time without running the car.
Phil P June 10, 2013 at 6:18pm

Thanks Morli. I might take your advice! The 16mm tubes looked ok till I started adding weight to the tail plane
Phil P June 10, 2013 at 2:36am

@ Jesse, I will be in a position to monitor the current drawn from the monitors and PC in about a week or so. I'm hoping it will be about 35W per monitor and about 200 to 300 watts for each PC, so 650W total. It only has to work for say two 30 minute flights, and remember I can just plug it in to the car's alternator. The monitors don't have to be all on if not required. I'd say it's enough, but will definitely go for deep cycle batts if its not.

@Morli, thanks for the link. I finished the second wing today, and yes, it feels very heavy. I won't paint anything and ill try to get this thing flying within 2 weeks or so... If it's too heavy, I'll remove the FG and get the thin stuff. Not looking forward to saying bye bye to all the hard work and $$ I put into the thicker FG and epoxy...

@Mikel-Ange Good to see I have inspired someone to do the same. I live in a small apartment, so the GCS trailer doubles as storage for the aeroplane. We have a baby, so the car is always filled up with baby seats and prams, so while it looks like it is over-the-top in many respects, it actually is quite practical and allows me to leave to an air field at a moments notice. No need to remember to pack the tools, or the PC or plane parts, as they are all in there already!

This reply was deleted.