We will be doing day and night flying at Escape to New York music festival in the Hamptons. In preparation for this I have been busy building new airplanes to fit the vaguely Alice in Wonderland energy of the event.
We decided on doing a pointy heart which the first flight is shown below:
Second flight, took an ounce of lead off the nose, better footage of plane:
Very relieved builder/pilot interview:
Way better flying footage with higher kv motor and other issues sorted out.
Breck
Below is the current parts list as of April, 2012. Often parts are on back order so I have attempted to provide substitutes–currently almost everything is on back order from Hobby King. I fear that the days of a $100 Towel are gone due to chronic back order issues but I am still working on it. There are plans afoot for a kit but not yet available.
Home page for the project that is a good starting place.
Folks have started their own build blogs. They are doing a good job of reporting on where to get gear etc. Email me (breck@brooklynaerodrome.com) if you want your blog listed here.
We are starting build sessions for folks that want some help with the build and flying.
I have provided a bunch of links to Amazon sources. I have not confirmed the vendors integrity or tried to see how much shipping is etc. Someone noted that a $3 part had $8 shipping and handling. It would be nice to have a single good vendor for the parts–I am working on that.
You will need two servos per towel. But they can break/strip so ordering a few spares is not a bad idea.
I prefer combo packs because you know that the motor/speed control are appropriate for each other. But you can buy them separately as well.
Get at least 3. Be mindful that the prop fits the motor. The grey APC props have a bigger hole than the
GWS style props.
Enough for one motor/speed controller which uses 3 pair. Lots of other options on Amazon.
You will want at least two batteries. 6-10 minutes flight time per battery.
. Will need E-Flite EC3 Device & Battery Connector, Male/Female
Any of the LiPo packs with 2 cells in parallel (2S1P), a 10c or greater rating (max discharge is 10 times the capacity of the pack) in the 1500 to 2200 mAh range.
There are tons of alternatives for charging. I have identified the easiest/cheapest solutions. Ping me if you need to know more.
You will also need
A few tools are required for a reasonably easy build. They include:
Kit and Breck had a wonderful time at the Figment NYC Festival that is in New York City’s Governors Island June 10-12. This year we were entirely mobile by operating from the Towel Cart. I flew the fruit planes, banana and strawberry as well as the pink monster and a regulation Towel. Kit flew his Tron plane.
Some aerial video of the mini-golf and Harry Spitz’s chalk parking lot drawings
Kit flies the moat with a nervous admirer.
Breck and Kit fly the moat together
Flying over the harbor.
When I saw the post that Malcolm wanted to build a Towel and he lived 1 town away from my inlaws, I couldn’t resist. I brought all the materials for a plane and last Sunday, showed up, met Malcolm, went into his workshop and in 3 hours, he and I had finished a Towel. By then it was too dark to even try to fly, but it was fun.
Check out our work:
Will meet around 7 pm for repair, fly around 9. Studio is at 181 N 11th St, Suite 401, Brooklyn NY 11211. L train to Bedford stop is closes stop.
Breck
cell: 917 229-8845
We had an excellent class at 3rd ward where we met some very fine folk and got them all flying. The goals of our class are to introduce three skills:
Good progress was made on all three fronts. The build times were a bit more than 3 hrs, and all flew. I wish we had more time for theory. The innovation for the next class – yes, 3rd Ward wants us to do another one – will be to have the decks pre-made and the students simply attach them to the airframe. The deck takes too much time and is not that hard to make so the students will get the raw materials to create their own deck but will build/fly with a loaner. Makes materials fees much less as well.
Our students were Jim, Tony and Launa. Jim and Tony were there for the airplane flying/building dimension with horror stories of expensive airplanes destroyed on first crashes. Launa was an artist wanting to get some interesting shapes into the air. Also in attendance was Mark from Air and Space magazine doing a story on us with Breck and Karen holding down the Brooklyn Aerodrome side of things. Thanks to Karen for all the pics/video.
Tony Launches while Breck Looks On
Here is Launa doing the Splinter method at night and doing very well.
Some pictures of building.
Intense plane building.
Breck, Mark and Jim Getting Ready to Fly
Two towels on the ground about to be flown. Launa's flying session
Well, we hit our numbers for the Iridescent ribbon cutting. Three very nice planes presented to the powers of it all, Secretary of the Navy, founder of Iridescent and head of the office of naval research (ONR) all got planes. Thanks to Skink Ink who threw down some amazing custom plane graphics and printing.
Props to the pilots, Spinter, Kit and Breck. Thanks to Karen for producing the whole thing.
Pictures below:
Blue Angle #8 (they fly 7 so sort of a joke) for the Seceratary of the Navy
The ONR and Iridescent planes
The Blue Angel 8 for the SECNAV
Splinter with Adorable Moppets. The kids were great and really liked what we were doing.--but it could get overwhelming.
Awesome Iridescent Plane, Thanks All....
We were asked to be a part of a ribbon cutting ceremony for the opening of the Iridescent Learning center in the Bronx. Below is a test flight in 20 mph gusts with lots of turbulence.
Big parking lot, Bronx, lots of wind and rotor
The violence in the air is much like a wave collapsing on the beach. Very random forces push the airplane left, right and down with very little up. The towel has a 1-1 thrust to weight ratio and it is struggling with gusts that are more than its maximum flight speed. Video of it flying below, and all I wanted was the smoothest
of circles as it gets knocked around.
The radio on our parts list on the build overview is a real
hassle to program. The radio is an amazing value which is why we use it but it took a while for us to master it. Programming is necessary to get elevon mixing working.
Here are some links to resources for working with the radio.
Please keep me up to date on the accuracy of the above information.
Breck
The video instructions including clear steps for cutting, attaching and
connecting control horns are here.
Part 2 is here:
