Unintentional_Loop

I considered gluing my WD4 Wings together but decided that I may need to dismantle them at some point in the future, so I fixed them together with Glass Reinforced Tape. It's very strong stuff and you can't tear it, but it can be cut if you find you need to disassemble your wings.

Being across the pond, so to speak, I can't recommend any places where to buy the tape, but I'm sure if you google "glass reinforced tape" you'll easily find a supplier

Sir Raleigh

Glass reinforced tape = Scotch Extreme Tape.

Bill

galaxiex

I used 30 min. epoxy on mine, added a CF spar, and covered the wing with Sig Aerokote Lite.

Makes for a VERY stiff wing!

floridawen

WOW ..... You really strengthened up your wing !!

galaxiex

Yep, I'll put some pics up later if you like...

floridawen

That'll be GREAT ........... THANKS !!

galaxiex

Sorry took so long to get pics up, I was at work when I posted that...

Anyway, here ya go.

The Sig Aerokote Lite orange is a very close match for the WD4 original color.
I covered the wing halfs and then epoxied them together, also epoxied the black rubber band protector on.

Carbon pins fit into holes in the plastic body of the plane, wing mount area.
I was having issues with the wing shifting in flight.

Also made balsa ailerons and used pin type hinges and of course covered the ail's too.
Fitted HS-55's for the ail's.

Oh, my mistake, this wing does not have a carbon spar, I put that in a different plane and was thinking of that one when I said that.

Sir Raleigh

Added a new parts supplier to post #1.

http://www.nitrotek.co.uk/products.php?cat=43 ( Appears to be a supplier for Great Britain, Spain, and Europe)
http://www.thegoodiesmartrc.co.uk/wi...arts-200-c.asp (UK Dealer)

Bill

colvid

Mounted an engine on the front of a Dragon and moved the servos to just under the rear of the wing for proper CG. Flys great and the twin engines flys great just so long if you give it too much trottle and it goes crazy.
IMG]http://i63.photobucket.com/albums/h156/colvid/Wing-Dragon-Eng-on-Front.gif[/IMG]

road_rascal

I posted this on RCGroups but I thought I'd post it here too: I borrowed a friend's GPS logger and put it on my Wing Dragon to see how fast I could get it. I managed 86mph in the first dive and 82mph on the second and third. This is using a TowerPro 2409-12T, Master Airscrew 7x4x3 prop and a Rhino 3S1750mAh lipo. Once the wind dies down I'll get a few straight line passes to see what speed I'm getting.

colvid

Those speeds are great, especially with that size motor. Have replaced motors with much larger but do not think that they are that fast, however when I give them full throttle, they go out of control all over the sky. I still consider myself to be a novice, which may be the problem!??

road_rascal

I know that on the second Wing Dragon/ Begin Air plane I built it is slightly tail heavy. This is due to the fact that I have the ESC and receiver mounted under the wing (in the open pod area) instead of the nose like my other one. I think I may try cutting 1/2" off of the tail boom and see how it flies. I think I also saw a post somewhere stating the the pusher motor should not have any downthrust or angled left/right.

colvid

Have had the problem of being tail heavy but never thought about shortening the rear boom. Let me know the results if you do. Angle and down thrust of the motor is easy to try.

Have enclosed photo of the motor mounted on the front. Moved the servos just under where the pusher motor would be. The motor has since been replaced with a larger motor to compensate for the the extra weight of the servo platform and the larger landing gear. Rudder also controls nose wheel.
Have only flown twice and it flys okay.

colvid

Have only flown this one twice. It is nine ounces over the stock one I have. Have to take off fast and maintain a good speed, but it is still fun.

quorneng

colvid
An interesting looking WD but Wow! 9 ounces over stock.

I must say I prefer to go the other way and see how much below stock I can get. Currently at 16 ounces with a 1500mAh 3s and a performance to match.

colvid

Hi quorneng:

Flew the more normal WD today (brushless) with about 5mph wind. Keep forgetting how long an approach in order to land it. Have attached a photo of a twin motor Dragon. I learned from this one and another with a large motor that the plane can not handle it w/o going all over the sky.

Larry

quorneng

That's one advantage of going lighter. A reasonable thrust, say 18 ounces, gives near vertical performance but at a torque that the WD can easily handle.
It also helps to use a relatively fine pitch prop. It gives good climb thrust but it falls off quite quickly as the speed builds up so helping to keep things under control.

This is my lightweight, hand launch, 17 ounce version with differential ailerons, no rudder, the elevator servo in the fin and flaps.

A simpler wing without flaps and the weight falls below 16 ounces.

colvid

Really a clean look, but you lost me on the differential alierons etc.

quorneng

Differential ailerons - more "up" than "down". This means more drag on the up (inside) aileron than on the down (outside) so it helps the plane into a turn.
Equal up and down ailerons cause the plane yaw the wrong way as with the same movement the down aileron creates more drag than the up one so some rudder is required as well to make the plane turn correctly.
So with differential ailerons you only need a fixed fin and can do away with the rudder servo.
The flaps (using the rudder channel) were an experiment to see how slowly it could be made to fly and it is indeed pretty slow.

Ianh

I have been reading this forum with keen interest as I am learning to fly with one of these planes. I too had the same problem with the control rods being too short. However, after I had an inevitable crash, I hit upon this solution. The two screws securing the boom seemed to me way too flimsy, and after the crash one was toast, so I removed the screws and replaced with a 9.5-12mm clamp from our local harware store. Not only does it hold the boom better, thus avoiding twisting, it also means you can move the boom further in, to fix the control rod length problem. Have tested it and it flys fine.

velojet

Very nice solution, Ianh (and superb photos). I applied a much more primitive solution and simply Gorilla Glued the boom in.

John V

quorneng

Ianh
You must have a half decent camera to take pics like that - very nice!
My only concern is the weight (I am fanatical about it) and the rather crude look but I am sure it does the job very well.
Is your Wing Dragon "standard" or "improved"? How about a pic?
I have just got in from flying mine with the 70% area flapped wing and the latest lightweight "mid set" tailplane.
As it has no control rods I don't mind if the boom moves a bit, in fact I twist it to make sure the tailplane and wing are lined up correctly.
At 16oz all up its performance, both power on and power off, is spectacular.

Ianh

Well ok its a standard Wing Dragon 3 but it has a 2.4GHz radio and a BM2408-21 Brushless outrunner. Its the one from Banana Hobby, yes I know I've seen all the threads about them, but tbh I had little to no problem with them, it also came with the floats for landing on water (not tried this yet), the only difference to what was in the ad was they shipped a 7 cell 8.4v 1000mAh NIMH battery and not the stated 7.4V 1300mAh Li-Po. Anyway weight wise the clamp was 10g and the pilot they include is 14g which i dont use, so it sorta wins, and i dont really think it looks crude but hey, it works

Airhead

Wow,
you guys have some impressive stuff....

Airhead

[QUOTE=Ianh;702500]I have been reading this forum with keen interest as I am learning to fly with one of these planes. I too had the same problem with the control rods being too short. However, after I had an inevitable crash, I hit upon this solution. The two screws securing the boom seemed to me way too flimsy, and after the crash one was toast, so I removed the screws and replaced with a 9.5-12mm clamp from our local harware store. Not only does it hold the boom better, thus avoiding twisting, it also means you can move the boom further in, to fix the control rod length problem. Have tested it and it flys fine.


Terrific idea.... I also had the same situation with control rod lengths...