Here is my experimental canard, I say experimental as it is based on a plan, but I have changed it so much that it didnt fly to start with, my main wing has a lot of undercamber, and depron is pretty springy, so getting it to stay undercambered, even with ribs, is impossible unless you mould in the curve, some people use heated sheets of metal to reshape depron, but I use my fingers to gently form it into curves, I hadnt done this enough it turns out, as the wings pulled into a weird shape. The tip were angled up over 10 degrees so that wasnt helping it fly at all. I have worked some more on the wing, trying to get it totally flat on the bottom, its getting close but I will keep at it till I am happy with it. My main wing is made to fold in half, the bit of masking tape holds the top of the wing halves together with strength to spare. The lower part of the fin fits in between the wing halves aft of the masking tape. Rubber bands hold the main wing and canard on. The fuselage splits in two just in front of the cockpit, it is held together with a strip of sellotape down one side, underneath and up the other side to just short of the red painted area. This has proved to be more than plenty, surviving many crashes so far during testing. The little Wltoys F949 receiver board is 25mm x 28mm and has speed control and 2 tiny servos with a socket for another servo. It works with my flysky fs-i6x transmitter, giving full mixing capabilities. I am definately going to get at least one more of these boards as soon as finances are better. My canard is powered by a single syma x7 quad motor, the same as I have in my syma powered kyosho minium plane. The canard's wing is shorter span than the minium but the whole plane is considerably bigger, I was worried it was going to be underpowered but it seems ok, it flies, just not that well yet, once (if?) I get the rest of the plane dialled in, I think it will be perfect.
When I started making this plane, about 2 years ago, I was going to use 2 motors, I even cut motor pod ribs out and mounted the motors on them. I had drawn a small sketch of how I wanted my fuselage to look, and had a card cutout of the planform, just to see the proportions. The project stalled due to my racetrack, race cars, racing and loads of other stuff. It was only when I got the tiny board that I dug it out of storage and got it started again. It has turned out pretty much like I sketched it originally, a little bit narrower and slightly shallower fuselage to try and give the tiny motor a chance. Seems to cope, got about 25g of thrust max. Plane weighs in around 100g so its doing well to fly that much.
The original plane uses 3 motors, each with their own plug, geared to a single prop, the board only has one socket so myself and my friend wondered if only one was plugged in at a time? Seems obvious but I found a 3 into one motor wire in the spare parts listing, but the 3 motors driving one prop will be running lower amps than 3 motors driving a prop each, I would imagine? Anyway, I made up a 2 into one lead, and worked up the courage to try 2 motors at once. Hesitated a bit in case this was going to be my board getting fried, then went for it, it worked! Yeehah. Basically, I can double the power now for a few grams extra motor pod weight. It was a relief to not fry the board, obviously. My friend has 4 of the boards but he wasnt up for sacrificing one to find out if 2 motors would work ok. Ah well, somebody has to just go for it sometimes. Lol.
The plane, once broken down and wing folded, fits in an 18 x 7 x 3 and a half inch box, to fit in my rucksack. It takes a few minutes to assemble it at the flying area.
