Ep 83: Profile Foamies

[00:00:01] Hello, everyone, and welcome to the RC Plane Lab podcast. I'm Ron. And I'm Tom. Episode 82. 83. 83. Okay. Episode 83. You want to start? No, we're not starting over. Episode 83. Here we go. Profile foamies.

[00:00:21] Yeah.

[00:00:21] We're finally getting around to talking about profile foamies and the sandpiper plans that are available. We'll get to that in a little bit. Yep. First thing, did you hear or see or read or feel, I guess, I don't know, that the spirit of innovation, remember the Rolls-Royce electric airplane we talked about a couple months, weeks, whatever ago, finally flew again to break its speed record for an electric aircraft, and it did. 387.4 miles an hour is what they say it achieved.

[00:00:55] That's surprising.

[00:00:56] I don't think it's been certified yet.

[00:00:58] 300 and, what was it?

[00:01:03] 387.4 miles an hour. I think I said that wrong the first time.

[00:01:07] Almost 400 miles an hour. That's impressive. Mile an hour. 400 mile an hour. Miles per hour. That's impressive. It actually is pretty cool. For an electric, so like how long, like how long was it able to maintain that speed?

[00:01:20] So I think that was the top speed they clocked it at. I think over a, oh, I don't remember exactly. I don't have it in front of me. I think over a three mile course, it was a few miles an hour slower, like still over 380 if I remember right. And then there was another, like 15 mile course that I think they flew across and it was a little bit slower still, but it wasn't like a big difference. So that's impressive. That's what they ended up with.

[00:01:49] By the way, the previous record was a few years ago, which surprises me. It's been like that long. Like I thought it was like 2014. But anyway, a extra 330, extra 330. LE. No, extra 330 LE, 213 miles an hour. Slow.

[00:02:09] That's a significant improvement.

[00:02:10] Compared to what they came up with. Yeah. So.

[00:02:13] That's interesting. So they're making progress daily, you could say.

[00:02:17] It seems like it. They're going to try again. I don't know what they're actually going to get to, but I thought that was interesting because I like electric airplanes.

[00:02:23] So I wonder what sort of range these things are capable of right now. Probably not much. I mean. I mean, the airplanes themselves aren't very heavy. So, I mean, I know it takes a lot of power to.

[00:02:35] But the batteries are very heavy.

[00:02:37] Right.

[00:02:37] That's what, that's the, that's the kicker.

[00:02:40] Yeah.

[00:02:40] I mean, you add a lot of weight, which takes a lot more power to move. It does. Like, I don't know what the actual batteries weigh, but electric cars are heavier than normal cars.

[00:02:50] Oh, yeah.

[00:02:51] So electric airplanes are going to be the same way.

[00:02:54] I would think so. Yeah. But still, it's kind of cool.

[00:02:58] They're making progress.

[00:02:58] I'm assuming they're using LiPo's or some sort of lithium battery. Yeah.

[00:03:02] Whatever they use, I think, in probably like regular electric cars.

[00:03:07] What does the airplane look like? I don't think I've actually looked it up.

[00:03:10] I thought I showed you before. It's the, oh, is that Nemesis? Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Okay, that's right. I don't remember what it was called, but it's a nice looking airplane. It is. Like, it really is kind of cool.

[00:03:18] It's very slick looking.

[00:03:18] But anyway, so yeah, they're still working on that almost 400 miles an hour.

[00:03:22] That's impressive. I was. That's, yeah. That's very, if you ask me, like, because.

[00:03:28] And I guess I am. So tell me what you think.

[00:03:31] Well, yeah. You didn't ask me, but I'm going to tell you anyway. I find that impressive because, well, number one, generally speaking, to maintain that sort of speed, you have to overcome a significant amount of drag over a given period. And that takes a lot of power, to propel something almost 400 mile an hour, even if it's just a few miles, to me is impressive.

[00:03:53] Yeah, but see, electric motors are so torquey. I mean, like, they are, like, you can get a lot more power out of, well, I shouldn't say a lot more easily, you can get more power.

[00:04:03] Yeah, but at speed, I mean, RPM is what gives you speed, from a propeller.

[00:04:08] Well, it depends on the pitch, but yeah.

[00:04:09] What I'm saying, though?

[00:04:10] Yeah.

[00:04:10] I mean, like, I don't know, it's just really impressive to me. Because I think in terms of horsepower, not like watts, I guess.

[00:04:17] Maybe that's why. It's the same, 760 watts per horsepower, I think, something in there. So, if you're thinking that way.

[00:04:25] So, you're thinking, I mean, so that's probably, 350 to 400 horsepower, probably? I mean, because that's what I think the output on, like, an Edge is that, that would

[00:04:36] Fly that speed. I would think it could be a little bit more, actually. I thought we talked about that. I don't have stuff in front of me. Yeah, we may have. Anyway, that's very cool. That's very cool.

[00:04:43] But yeah. And apropos, because we're going to talk about electric airplanes. We are.

[00:04:49] Profile.

[00:04:49] But before we do that, I just want to let our listeners know that we got a new video out there on YouTube.

[00:04:55] Finally. One more after how many months of stagnancy?

[00:04:59] Well, it's been a quiet few months there. But we did, I thought we did a pretty good job on that particular video.

[00:05:08] So, if you're interested. It was fixing landing gear.

[00:05:11] And if you are in the hobby long enough, you're probably going to come across this type of repair. So, hopefully, we made that easy for folks to take on themselves.

[00:05:18] It's fairly common. I think the biggest takeaway on that, though, is just don't be scared to try. Yeah. I mean, if you don't know what you're doing, if you're not used to repairing balsa planes, if you're not used to repairing anything, it can be very daunting to kind of look at, oh my gosh, look at all these pieces. Look what happened. Look at all this.

[00:05:37] Daunting. That's a good word.

[00:05:39] It's easily overcomable if you take it step at a time.

[00:05:42] Overcomable.

[00:05:43] That's also a cool word. That's made up. But anyway, it's overcomable if you take it a step at a time and just kind of look at what you're doing and move on.

[00:05:51] Well, I mean, what's the worst that can happen?

[00:05:53] These are toy airplanes. Let's just, let's everybody keep an eye on what we're actually doing here. It's not building the Taj Mahal or anything. This is a hobby. And if, if you try and fix something, you mess it up, throw it away, don't tell anybody, and move on.

[00:06:08] Yeah. The don't tell anybody, that's the key part right there.

[00:06:11] Oh, I've messed up several things and I have not told anybody. So, it happens. I think we've all done the same thing. Yeah.

[00:06:17] But I mean, the bottom line is, I mean, the airplane is broken anyway. You're not going to cause it any more damage by trying to repair it. So, I mean, take a stab at it.

[00:06:25] And the worst thing that happens is you take all your electronics out, whatever motor you had in it, and put it in another airplane.

[00:06:31] Airplane. Airplane. That's right. So, there you go. Okay.

[00:06:34] New video. Go watch it. We do have two new videos, too, that are coming out that I have not edited yet, but they're recorded.

[00:06:39] But quit being lazy.

[00:06:41] I will honestly say I have not been lazy this time. Like any other time up until now, I would say I've been lazy. I haven't had, well, I've had a chance, but I haven't had the gumption to do it. But this one is not gumption related. That's true. I've been working a lot of other things on airplanes and all that stuff, which is great.

[00:07:00] That is awesome. You've been actually working on airplanes.

[00:07:02] I've enjoyed it. Yeah.

[00:07:04] Profile Foamies.

[00:07:05] Are we ready yet?

[00:07:06] Profile Foamies. Yes.

[00:07:06] I'm ready. Anything else you want to talk about before we get into it?

[00:07:08] I can't think of anything.

[00:07:10] Okay. Why, Tommy, would we fly and build a Profile Foamie? We're Balsa guys.

[00:07:16] Yeah. As everybody knows, yeah, we like Balsa. And I like nitro engines, engines that make noise and stuff like that. No, you're into electrics. But, yeah, why would you design something like that? Well, I can tell you why. I have flown Profile Foamies in the past is because they're cheap.

[00:07:35] Very cheap.

[00:07:37] They're not very expensive compared to a Balsa airplane. They're easy to put together. You can usually have one ready to fly and, gosh, I mean, what do these little guys take?

[00:07:50] Honestly, if I didn't have to cut the stuff out, which I can't stand cutting the foam. That is not fun. It's not. If I didn't have to do that, it would be less than an hour to have all the electronics put on and glued together. That's true. And there's nothing to it.

[00:08:06] Yeah. So sometimes, you just, like, I'm a huge fan of loading up the car and going out to the field and flying my, my Balsa airplanes and cutting it up with the fellas. But sometimes, just sometimes.

[00:08:19] Cutting it up again.

[00:08:20] Yeah.

[00:08:21] We went back to the 20s. We did. Sorry. 1920s. Oh, my God. This is the 20s. Yeah. This is the 20s.

[00:08:26] Anyway. I forgot what I was going to say.

[00:08:29] Cutting it up with the guys.

[00:08:30] Cutting it up with the fellas.

[00:08:31] Yeah.

[00:08:33] But sometimes, just sometimes, I just want to throw something in the car and go fly. I don't want to drive 20 minutes to the field, unload, fly, load it back up to unload it when I get home. Sometimes I just want to get, satisfy that itch to fly something. And these little profile foamies are perfect for that.

[00:08:50] They are. They're not, it's not an airplane you care about.

[00:08:56] No. Well, and I will further that point by saying when the first profile foamie that I flew was, a few years ago, they were like a kind of an F-22 looking. And we flew them with the intent. We had a bunch of guys that all had the same type of airplane. And we flew them with the intent of actually trying to run into each other in the air.

[00:09:21] Now, let me preface that by saying, this is not something you want to do like on a Saturday afternoon at your club field when it's the busiest, right? You want to do this like on a Tuesday morning or something. It's just you out there with your other crazy buddies. But that's what, that's the first profile foamie that I flew. And, man, it was a blast. And let me tell you, it's really hard to try to intentionally run into another airplane in the air.

[00:09:46] Sure, I can imagine, but actually semi-easy to accidentally run into other airplanes in the air.

[00:09:53] It's inversely proportional to the amount of intent you have, I think.

[00:09:57] There you go, dictionary.com. Look at you go. But, no, I mean, you're right. Like, we've seen mid-airs before and all that kind of stuff. But when you're trying to actually hit each other with your cheap disposable profile foamies, less carnage than you would expect.

[00:10:12] But it sure is a lot of fun trying.

[00:10:14] Yeah.

[00:10:14] It really is. No, I agree. And they're super, I mean, they're super maneuverable, these things. They will turn on a dime.

[00:10:22] Yeah. Now, the F-22 you had, did that have a rudder? Was that just the? Yeah.

[00:10:27] Just the exact same setup.

[00:10:29] Elevons. Yep. Yeah. Yep. That's the easiest way to do it.

[00:10:32] Yeah. And it was a pusher, just like the way you designed this one.? Mm-hmm.

[00:10:36] So, it's, so we, how do I say this without, we are balsa guys.

[00:10:45] Mm-hmm.

[00:10:45] When we talk about foam airplanes, we're not going to talk about foamy airplanes that you spend, three weeks building only to take out. And foam has its limits. It does. Like, to me, foam is a great tool to learn with, but not the end goal. Does that?

[00:11:06] Yeah, that makes sense.

[00:11:07] So, I don't want to spend a bunch of time. Right. And a bunch of effort in building a foam airplane that is supposed to look like a real airplane. Right.

[00:11:16] You're not, you're not going to build a keepsake.

[00:11:19] That's a good way to put it. Yeah. Yeah. This is not, in, in 50 years, you're not going to have our grandkids or great grandkids throwing, or going through our attic and stuff and going, oh, look at that piece of foam airplane that, that's amazing. My grandpa did that. No, it's still going to be the balsa ones that are looking at doing that. Right. Do you think? Absolutely. I think so, too. Yeah, absolutely.

[00:11:40] I mean, that's what gets my attention when we, when we go to swap meets or go to hobby shops or whatever.

[00:11:45] Yeah.

[00:11:45] It's the, it's the big, presentation of the, the balsa, the big balsa planes give you, not the foamies.

[00:11:52] But for us, the foam has its purpose in simple, fun, quick, throwaway.

[00:12:00] And cheap. Simple, fun, quick, throwaway.

[00:12:03] Yeah. And cheap. I think I got everything covered there.

[00:12:06] Yeah.

[00:12:06] So, really, what does it take to build, like, we'll talk about the sandpiper because that's really the only profile foaming I've done. Like, you've had the Raptor and stuff before, but I've not.

[00:12:18] It flies very similar to your sandpiper.

[00:12:20] I can imagine. So, like. They're all, I mean, they're all going to fly about the same anyway. It's a flat sheet of foam. It's a flat sheet of foam. With a little bit of a wing to it. Like, I don't, I don't think you're.

[00:12:29] I wouldn't even say it has a wing. It's just a flat piece of foam.

[00:12:32] Well, true. It's two-dimensional, really. It is. There's no airfoil.

[00:12:35] I mean, yeah, there's, there's, like, every angle on it is 90 degrees. There's no, like, curves or anything like that.

[00:12:43] And that's the profile part.

[00:12:44] Yeah.

[00:12:44] Like, from the side, it looks cool. From the top, it looks cool. From everywhere else.

[00:12:48] Before we get into, like, the, the actual nuts and bolts of what you need and how to do it, like, how did you end up at this particular design? Like, what I'm saying?

[00:12:58] Like, it's, I don't know why, but I like curves. Okay. Like, I don't like complete angular airplanes. I like to have a little bit of a curve to it. But, and that, that's just the, kind of the design I came up with. I like, like, I like the F-18 Hornets, like the older ones, because they have the little curve in front of the wings, whatever you call those things. Strikes.

[00:13:22] That is, like, for me, and that obviously is growing up, that's what they used the Blue Angels for when I was a kid. But that little bit of wing on there just made that plane look so cool to me. So, that's kind of the same shape of this full wing, if you really pay attention to it. Not fully, but it has that same little look to it. Yeah.

[00:13:44] And I just wanted something kind of simple to make sure we had room for the battery up front, because we have to put the battery up front to balance it well.

[00:13:53] Yeah.

[00:13:54] And that's, I mean, that was just a quick kind of sketch out that I came up with, and it kind of grew on me the more I looked at it before I…

[00:14:01] Super, super convenient that it fits on one sheet of foam.

[00:14:05] Well, that's the sizing. I mean, I would like it to be bigger.

[00:14:08] Yeah.

[00:14:09] But we're constrained not necessarily by making it on one sheet of foam, because if we doubled up how much foam was on it, you're doubling your price of another dollar. it's not breaking the bank. But with foam, like, there's no strength, no added strength to this. I know a lot of people use Popsicle sticks or these bamboo skewers or stuff that are cheaper. If you want to know more about building, like, that side of the hobby, go listen to other podcasts.

[00:14:40] Our friends over at the Aviation RC Noob Guys, they deal with foam. We're not the foam guys.

[00:14:45] Yeah, they do foam a lot.

[00:14:47] I think that's all they do for now, at least. I keep trying to convince them to go balsa, but they keep trying to convince me to go foam. So now I can say I've gone foam. It's time for them to up their game. Time for them to make the leap.

[00:14:58] That's right.

[00:14:59] Yeah. So, Joe, Matthew, if you're listening, go buy a balsa kit. Yeah.

[00:15:04] Pictures or it didn't happen.

[00:15:08] But it's funny that you said that, you don't want to make it bigger, but, we always say bigger flies better.

[00:15:14] Bigger does fly better. But like I said, I don't want to have to use any of the extra stuff because I want it to be a quick build.

[00:15:19] Yeah.

[00:15:20] Like that's my goal for any of this is quick throwaway airplane.

[00:15:23] Yeah.

[00:15:24] I don't want to spend all night trying to figure out gluing skewers on, gluing all this kind of stuff to strengthen it. And if we went much bigger than what it is, I would have to start worrying about that.

[00:15:34] And that just adds complexity and time. Yeah.

[00:15:37] Yeah. And that's also, that's also the reason it's not shaped for me, why I didn't build one shape like an actual normal airplane with wings off the side and then the tail, because when your wings are, the cord is not as big, you have less foam there to support it. So then there has to be other things you have to do in order to make it a stronger wing.

[00:15:57] Whereas this, we've pretty much flown that full throttle and gone straight up with the elevators and it'll stop quick, but it doesn't fold.

[00:16:08] Yeah, that's true.

[00:16:09] So it's, it's a fairly strong design for what we're doing with it.

[00:16:13] Yes. It's been thoroughly tested.

[00:16:16] It's, it's been crashed several times. And that's, I, my original plan was I wanted to have like a regular airplane with a propeller on the front. I don't know why I like those. but honestly, by putting the propeller farther back, it's a lot easier to not mess up your, your whole front. And like, I've crashed one before a couple of times to where the nose was literally about two inches shorter. Crunched.

[00:16:46] Yeah.

[00:16:46] I just kind of pulled it farther back, kind of straightened it out a little bit, threw it back up in the air and you were golden again.

[00:16:52] Yeah, you were flying again. Yep.

[00:16:53] It's not.

[00:16:54] I've done the same thing.

[00:16:55] It's not like a, once again, it's a throwaway airplane. Yeah. So I flew it the rest of the day that way. And then I went and tore all the electronics off, which is just a couple pieces of glue, cut another one out and had another one ready to go.

[00:17:10] Yeah.

[00:17:11] That's, that's the goal behind for me, profile foamies. I mean, like I know other people get into them a lot more and I don't want to dismiss what everybody else does on stuff. Cause if that's what you're into, good for you. Yeah, you like what you like. But it's, it's not me. Yeah. And you're flying.

[00:17:25] So good for you. Yeah. but yeah, no, I hear what you're saying.

[00:17:29] That's awesome. If you're, if you're afraid to start building something, this is the easiest way to get into doing it. Yeah. I mean, this is, this is not really a beginner airplane. Like it's fast and kind of more difficult to fly. It can be fast.

[00:17:41] Yeah. and it's not, it's not what I would call a self-correcting. No. I mean, it goes where you point it.

[00:17:47] Yeah.

[00:17:48] And sometimes it goes where you don't point it.

[00:17:50] But it's disposable. So who cares? That's the fun of it. Like it is. It is fun. I mean, I, I enjoy that part of it. Yeah. And not spending, like I said, a whole bunch of time on it.

[00:18:02] Yeah.

[00:18:03] If I'm going to spend a bunch of time on an airplane, it's going to be a balsa with, you

[00:18:06] Know, a real airplane. I believe, I believe I feel the same way.

[00:18:10] I believe I feel the same way. I guess.

[00:18:12] Believe me. I guess so.

[00:18:13] There, that's what I meant to say. But the fun thing. So like the other thing I've done with them before too, is when I was kind of going over the start on trying to figure out center of gravity and all that stuff, which is difficult when you don't actually have calculators and stuff that I didn't, I didn't use that. Excuse me. I didn't, I didn't use that.

[00:18:33] It was more of a, let's chuck it and kind of see how it, how it flies and figure out where the center of gravity needs to be. But having those extra airplanes and stuff around, it's fun when you have kids to say, here's some markers, color it for me and let's go fly it. we've done that before. We've, we've been through many of these airplanes. And it's, like I said, you're not out anything.

[00:18:57] I've probably built 15 of them and I'm out less than I am with any kit I've ever bought or built for Balsa.

[00:19:05] Yeah. And the electronics are usually, well, not usually, they're pretty much always salvageable because you're never really going that fast when they crash.

[00:19:13] Well, even if you are, everything is so far back. If you nose dive into the ground, like with this one, especially, you, it's, it's got a built-in airbag. It's that whole front foam is just, it's a crumple zone built into it.

[00:19:24] It crumples well. And uncrumples, well, it doesn't uncrumple as well as it crumples.

[00:19:29] Not as well, but it gets you back in the air if you need to. Yeah, it does.

[00:19:33] I like the idea of the kids coloring it. I had not, had not thought of that, but.

[00:19:36] Yeah. Sometimes before, sometimes after, sometimes before it's put together. Here, do whatever you want with this before I, before I assemble it. But yeah, sometimes it's, well, I'm done with this one, do whatever you want with it and go throw it around. Piper still remembers being downstairs. I don't remember this, but she brought it up to me the other day, like several months ago. I'm trying to think it was actually last fall.

[00:20:01] So it was when I was still working on the do list. She remembers having one of these sitting down here that I was done with and her and Cody were throwing it back and forth. I don't remember that, but she asked me again, well, can I have another one to do that with? Sure. here you go. There you go. Whatever. It's a buck. I don't care.

[00:20:16] Pull it out of the stash of crashed ones.

[00:20:18] Yeah. And that, yeah, when you're done, you just throw them away too. So that's the beauty of it.

[00:20:24] Okay. So what do you need? Well, I mean, you need the plans, right?

[00:20:31] Plan, yeah. That's right. I guess I didn't say that. Plans are available at rcplanelab.com for this one. There's a bunch of other ones you can get to if you want to do your own design. You can design your own thing. Just Google profile foamies and see what kind of kits you like or what kind of designs you want and go that way.

[00:20:50] What I like though, like I said, especially having this airplane that you make over and over again, electronics, once you get it set up is an easy, easy fix to do another airplane. Like if you mess this one up, by actually having servo cutouts in the plans, like I put on this one, if you crash it and you do have to make another one, you don't have to redo any of that, the, like push rods and stuff.

[00:21:17] You can just peel the whole thing off of the old one and glue it to the new one. That's handy. I mean, yeah, it's kind of fun. Yeah.

[00:21:25] So you need the plans dude, dude, like for somebody to print them, cause these are bigger than an eight and a half, by 11 sheet of paper.

[00:21:33] Yeah.

[00:21:33] So we have instructions on how to print it so that you can tile it. Right. Is that what it's called?

[00:21:39] Yeah. There's no, I forgot. We have a website or a page on the website that has that it's resizing plans. And it talks about printing.

[00:21:46] Yeah.

[00:21:46] Okay. I'm so glad we did that a long time ago. I forgot all about that. See? Yeah.

[00:21:50] So yeah, you can use that. You can use the information on that, on that page, to print these plans. so you don't have to go to Kinko's and have it printed or anything like that.

[00:22:00] Or you can, if you want.

[00:22:01] You can, if you want to. Yeah. But you can print these on eight and a half sheet, eight and a half by 11 sheets of paper. Thank you. and tape them together and lay them on the foam and, and cut it out.

[00:22:11] Yeah. And the foam we're talking about, I'm assuming it's available like nationwide at Dollar Tree stores. I don't know. but Dollar Tree foam board is, it's, I mean, I think it's probably the hobbyist that's keeping that whole foam board thing going. Probably.

[00:22:27] Yeah.

[00:22:28] Cause we buy a lot of it. Yeah. I mean, I've not done much with it other than this, but for a buck for a piece of foam, which by the way, I read everything is going up at Dollar Tree now. I don't know if you saw that. Oh, really? It's supposed to be $1.25 for everything in the store starting next year.

[00:22:44] Well, and.

[00:22:45] So still $1.25, I guess if we're talking new prices for an airplane, it's still not

[00:22:50] So bad.

[00:22:51] No, but yeah. So Dollar Tree foam board is what we use. It comes with paper on both sides. If you get deep into it, there's people that tell you, you peel the film off. You don't peel the film off. If I'm not going through the extra steps, I like the film or I like the paper on it because it gives it more strength. And to me, that's just what makes it fly. Yeah.

[00:23:14] It is harder to cut out. I get it. you have to cut through the two layers of paper and it's hard on X-Acto knife blades. I mean, let's be honest, but it's a dollar and a quarter. Yeah. I mean.

[00:23:24] Yeah. Beggars can't be choosers. And for that price, you're fine.

[00:23:27] And when you're done with it,. Yeah. So anyway, you cut it off.

[00:23:31] We've talked about disposability so many times already, but that's the great thing. You throw it away when you're done. It doesn't matter.

[00:23:36] Okay. So you need the plans, right? And then you basically just transfer the plans to the foam board. You cut out the parts.

[00:23:43] Yeah. I always staple my plan. Like when I cut, and I don't know how anybody else does it, but I have, I think Lowe's, Menards, whatever's around you, has the like inch and a half foam, that you talked about before the, what's it, expanded foam? No, not expanded foam. Extruded foam.

[00:24:03] Extruded, yeah.

[00:24:04] And I have like two foot by four foot sheets of that. And that is what I use pretty much to cut everything on just to kind of save everything. I'm, so I don't, so I don't mess up my countertop or anything like that and cut through it.

[00:24:17] Yeah. Don't, don't go cutting these things out on your mom's, coffee table or your dining room table or my dining room table. Yeah. Put yourself a sheet of this foam down and then cut everything on top of that.

[00:24:27] But then what I do is I will staple, like actually use an open stapler and staple the plans to the foam. And the staples are a little bit longer than the actual Dollar Tree foam board, but that's okay because you're going into the foam underneath. The foam underneath, yeah. And then you're not worried about it moving. You're not worried about it getting glued on. It's just so much easier to staple it.

[00:24:47] Yeah. Do yourselves a favor and staple it outside the line.

[00:24:49] That's what I was going to say. Staple it not on a part that you need because there's plenty of waste still, even in this, even though it's cut out of one sheet. But yeah, I mean, pretty much that's it. You cut it out.

[00:25:00] Yeah. So once you've got it together, you got the, you got the plan, you've got your parts cut out. What, what do you need next?

[00:25:06] You glue it together. So, so you need a hot glue gun and some hot glue.

[00:25:10] Yeah. So the, the glue gun I use, I think I bought it at, I want to say I got it at Walmart and I think, and I think it was, I don't know exactly, but I think it was $8.

[00:25:25] Yeah.

[00:25:26] I think mine was $8.

[00:25:27] I think mine was a little bit more expensive. Like what size glue do you use? It has. Cause they have like the.

[00:25:31] Yeah. Mine uses the small sticks, like the quarter inch. I think they're a quarter inch diameter. I think.

[00:25:36] Yeah. Mine uses the bigger one. What are they like? Three eighths? Three eighths.

[00:25:39] I think yours is. Yeah. So yours is a little more heavy duty than mine. I think yours, you can make, so there's one joint on the airframe that's pretty long and it requires a lot of glue. Like I think I have to reload my gun halfway through laying that bead of glue. Ouch. That's pointless. It's kind of a pain, but it, it's fine.

[00:25:57] Yeah.

[00:25:57] I paid $8 for the glue gun.

[00:25:59] That's true. It's not expensive.

[00:26:02] And the glue stays hot long enough for me to do that and not have to worry about the glue setting up or cooling off, I guess it is. Not really setting up.

[00:26:11] Well, I guess it's setting. It's solidifying.

[00:26:13] Solidifying.

[00:26:14] It's not drying.

[00:26:15] Right.

[00:26:15] That's true. Yeah.

[00:26:16] Anyway. Yeah. So you're going to need a hot glue gun.

[00:26:19] One thing before the glue dries though, is it's sitting, you're going to have to hold it and it doesn't take long. No. always seconds.

[00:26:27] Yeah. Yeah.

[00:26:28] Maybe 20, 30 seconds. But anyway, always use a square to make sure that your, your angles are square.

[00:26:33] Well, yeah. Like, like I said earlier that I don't think there's any angle on this thing other than 90 degrees.

[00:26:38] Yeah. I mean, you're right. That's, it's simple.

[00:26:41] Yeah.

[00:26:41] And you don't have to use a square.

[00:26:43] You can just use the corner of, of anything that is square. So like, you don't have to go out and buy a square or anything like that.

[00:26:48] If you've got a, well, if you're, I mean, if you're in the hobby, you probably want to get a hobby square. That's not a bad idea.

[00:26:54] Yeah. But I mean, a business card would work too. If you happen to have, or a credit card or your YMCA membership card or your library

[00:27:02] Card or whatever. Sure. what I'm saying? Debit card. I mean, we're going with the name of all this stuff.

[00:27:07] We're going with the theme of cheap, right?

[00:27:09] That's true.

[00:27:09] We're not sending people out to buy tools. I mean, you already have to buy a glue gun for $8.

[00:27:13] I mean, I'm trying to look around here and I don't see anything else that'd be square like that. But yeah.

[00:27:16] You don't have a wallet full of credit cards?

[00:27:18] Well, I'm trying to think if there's anything else. Oh, oh, I gotcha.

[00:27:21] So something square. Something square. Yeah. To line up your parts when you glue them together.

[00:27:26] And then, okay. So I like the full electronic kits you can buy. And if I remember, I'm going to put a link on the website when I do that to the one on Amazon, because I bought several of these kits on Amazon. Yeah, I bought a couple of them too. I think it's up to $28 now, though, if I remember. I didn't look at it. Of course. I should have paid attention to what it was. But anyway, it's a small electric motor, speed controller, two servos. That ice tastes good?

[00:27:55] Yeah.

[00:27:56] So electric motor, speed controller.

[00:27:58] It tastes freezer burnt, by the way.

[00:28:00] Well, it's been in there for quite a while. How can I? Anyway. Speed controller, motor, two servos, propeller. I think that's it. No, two propellers.

[00:28:12] Yeah. It comes with two propellers.

[00:28:14] Two propellers.

[00:28:14] And I haven't broken one yet. Of course, not granted either.

[00:28:16] Well, I don't use those. I actually use a regular pusher prop, like an APC pusher prop. Oh, okay. You don't just mount it on that backwards and turn it backwards or whatever it is?

[00:28:25] No, you can do that. I think that's what I did.

[00:28:27] Is it? Yeah. So do you use the, what is that, the orangey?

[00:28:32] Mm-hmm.

[00:28:33] Yes. I think that's what's on mine. I actually, I'm sure it would work perfect, but I use the APCs just because I like the way they look better. Okay. I don't know. It's weird of me, I know, especially on a disposable airplane. But anywho.

[00:28:47] But you don't have to buy the propeller because it comes with that set.

[00:28:49] No, it comes with two of them. With that set. And then the only thing you'd need after that is the receiver, which is obviously up to whatever you're using for your radio. Right. And then a battery. And those are fairly inexpensive too.

[00:29:01] Yeah.

[00:29:02] So it's a cheap way, really, if you want to get into the hobby too, try and find somebody that's designed a set of plans that would be more beginner friendly. But man, that's just so nice because there's not a lot into it.

[00:29:16] It's super, super convenient because it's like the perfect size. It'll fit in like the passenger seat of my car.

[00:29:22] Yeah.

[00:29:23] And you can, I mean, really, you can fly these things almost anywhere.

[00:29:28] Yeah.

[00:29:28] And they're under the 55 gram or whatever it is, I think, limit.

[00:29:32] That I'm not telling you. I have no clue. I've never weighed it. I'm pretty sure. No, I don't think it is. You don't think so? 250 gram.

[00:29:39] Or no. Yeah, it's 250 gram. I thought it was. I don't have anything small to know. Like, I never worried about the small end of that.

[00:29:46] Well, anyway, what I was driving at is, like, I would have no qualms taking this over to the school that's by my house and flying it over there when, my kids, when the school's out, what I'm saying? No problem at all because you can fly it in a really small area.

[00:30:01] Yep. Yeah, it slows down well, but it's just easy to fly and easy to repair.

[00:30:08] Yep.

[00:30:09] And easy to throw away if it doesn't get repaired.

[00:30:10] Now, I would, just me personally, I would make one upgrade to the airplane.

[00:30:17] Thanks for telling me that now as opposed to beforehand, but okay.

[00:30:20] I would make the motor mount out of wood. The actual plate itself, what I'm saying?

[00:30:24] No, that's true. So, the plans have a motor mount, like, drawn into them. You can't, you're right, you can cut it out of the foam if you want. I don't like to do that just because it doesn't have the strength that you do. So, quarter-inch balsa, basswood.

[00:30:42] I think I'm using eighth-inch light ply for mine.

[00:30:46] Or, yeah, or something like that. And the beauty is. But that's a ply, so that's not just a balsa.

[00:30:49] Right. And the beauty of that is it usually survives a crash, too, so it comes off with the motor and gets glued right onto the next one. Yeah. So, once you make it, you're probably not going to have to make it again.

[00:30:58] That's what I mean. For the electronics and all that kind of stuff, it literally is just five minutes to go from an airplane to another airplane and be ready.

[00:31:05] Or if you're handy with a 3D printer, you could 3D print your own motor mount. Yeah, that'd be cool. Sure can. So, there's lots of ways. That's a lot of work. But that's the only thing, really. That's the only complaint I have is that I had to make a motor mount.

[00:31:17] You poor thing.

[00:31:18] It was pretty easy to do.

[00:31:19] But you did it once.

[00:31:20] Easy to do. And I only had to do it once, exactly.

[00:31:22] Yeah. I mean, like, for this one, my original plan that didn't come to fruition because I forgot I was going to design it that way. Like, do you remember the pizza box one I had a long time ago that you crashed?

[00:31:34] That I crashed, yes.

[00:31:35] The thing I really liked about that is I could set it on the ground and take off vertically. It had enough power to do that, and it was able to sit perfectly straight up.

[00:31:46] That's a cool factor.

[00:31:47] This one's not quite like that. Like, you can cut it a little bit different if you want to be able to make it sit on the tail and on the wings. But I just, I didn't quite get that designed in right, and then I forgot about it until right now, as a matter of fact. That would be cool, though. Yeah.

[00:32:01] If you could just set it down. That way, you wouldn't have to hand launch it, which…

[00:32:05] If you're not sure what you're doing, hand launching can be…

[00:32:09] Here's the technique I use that I like. I launch it with no power.

[00:32:13] You have to launch it with no power. So I throw it kind of like a paper… It's scary if you don't.

[00:32:16] Yeah, I throw it kind of like it's a paper airplane, and then once it's out of my hand and I've got my hand back on the transmitter, I slowly advance the throttle. And I say slowly, because if you just take it wide open… These little motors, yeah, they produce quite a bit of torque, and at low air speeds like that, it does tend to want to roll it a little bit.

[00:32:32] Yeah. If there's no authority over the elevons and stuff, you're going to have an issue with that too fast. So what do you throw it? Like maybe a 30% or a 30-degree angle or something?

[00:32:44] Yeah, 30 degrees or so. Just kind of an upward… Give it an upward tilt.

[00:32:48] And a nice, quick toss. Just like if you're throwing a paper airplane. Yeah.

[00:32:52] And that works pretty well.

[00:32:54] Yeah, that's all there is to it, really. I don't want to drag this out too much longer, because there's really not much else to talk about.

[00:33:01] Well, really, the goal is we would like our listeners to try it.

[00:33:05] Yeah.

[00:33:05] Download the plans or any plans and give it a shot, because they are a lot of fun, and they are super cheap.

[00:33:13] Yeah. Quick and all that stuff. What was I going to say? So I was going to say… I don't remember what I was going to say, so I guess we're about finished.

[00:33:21] Well, you were talking about the vertical takeoff.

[00:33:23] Oh, no. One of the… We were talking about the control surfaces. So the control horns that… Like, I use Dubrow ones just because I had a bunch of them sitting there.

[00:33:35] Yeah, I think that's what I use too.

[00:33:36] And that's easy, because you just glue it right to the paper again. But anyway, so I was talking to Joe from the Aviation RC New Podcast, which, like I said, they do a bunch of foam. And the tip he gave me on those, if you do have a dollar store around, and that's where you get your Dollar Tree foam board, look for dental flossers. They have a bag of 100 dental flossers for a dollar that have holes in the handle on them.

[00:34:03] And he said those make really, really good, quick, cheap, and easy control horns.

[00:34:09] There you go.

[00:34:10] I haven't tried it yet. I bought some, but I haven't tried it yet because I haven't had to actually make another set of electronics because, the control horns don't break. But yeah, there's not much to it.

[00:34:20] Cool.

[00:34:20] And that's an easy way to do it. And so the other thing too, so for the hinges, I forgot to bring it up, packing tape.

[00:34:26] Yep, that's what I use too.

[00:34:28] And I double it.

[00:34:29] Do you double yours?

[00:34:30] No. You do top and bottom?

[00:34:31] Yeah, so I take a small strip, put it on the top, and then I fold the control surface over and I put another strip on the bottom.

[00:34:36] I don't know why. Oh, that's a good idea.

[00:34:37] I don't know why I do that, but it does make them a little bit stiffer.

[00:34:40] Yeah.

[00:34:41] So they don't, they're not as easy to move.

[00:34:44] But they don't, yeah.

[00:34:45] Like if the paper separates on the top, at least you still have some on the bottom.

[00:34:48] No, that's a good idea, actually. I should start doing it that way.

[00:34:51] Yeah, cut a bevel on the leading edge of the control surfaces when you cut out the planes.

[00:34:57] Not, you don't have to do it on the actual airplane itself. Right. But just on the control surfaces that way gives it room to move. Exactly. A little 45. That can be problematic, though. I mean, like, I will admit I've done it to where I've not done it very well at times. Oh, cut the angle? Cut the angle? Yeah.

[00:35:14] It doesn't have to be perfect.

[00:35:15] And that is true because the tape makes up for a lot of mistakes.

[00:35:19] Yes.

[00:35:20] But yeah, so.

[00:35:22] Yeah. So there you go. Cheap, easy, and boy, are these things fun.

[00:35:26] I wish I had more to talk about, but, I think we've said it all.

[00:35:31] Yeah. Well, I mean, we just.

[00:35:33] It's a profile for me.

[00:35:34] Yeah, we want you guys to try them, and, it's just another option in our toolbox of fun.

[00:35:40] Toolbox of fun. Oh, boy. Okay. Anything else you want to talk about? That's all I got. All right. Me too. Go download the plans. Yeah. RCPlanelab.com.

[00:35:49] Oh, and hey, and check out our repair video that we just posted.

[00:35:50] Check out our repair video that we just posted last week. What else? That's it.

[00:35:56] That's it.

[00:35:56] Thanks for listening. Send us pictures if you do it, by the way. Yeah. If you build any of these, I want to see them.

[00:36:01] Yeah, and if your kids do a cool coloring job on it, put that on the website. I'd love to see it.

[00:36:05] There we go. Well, send it to me.

[00:36:06] Send it to Ron, and he'll put it on the website.

[00:36:08] He was talking to me. Okay. So now I'm finished. You? Yep.

[00:36:11] I'm done.

[00:36:12] That's it. Thanks for listening. Until next time, I'm Ron. I'm Tom.

[00:36:18] For topic suggestions, to ask questions, or to give any feedback, connect with us at rcplanelab.com or email us direct at either ron at rcplanelab.com or tom at rcplanelab.com. You can also text us or leave us a voicemail at 818-351-9846. Please subscribe, rate, and review us on your favorite podcast app. Until next time, may your landings be gentle.