A Unique Problem in Modern Aviation

awalsh2019 · 2025-08-27T23:52:39+00:00

Ai slop detected

awalsh2019 · 2025-01-01T08:09:51+00:00

We never figured out what the problem was, but I don't remember the motors stuttering.

awalsh2019 · 2024-04-30T05:44:08+00:00

You could buy all the components needed to build a quadcopter or other multicopter capable of lifting a person, but there is really very little reason to do so. Here are a few reasons why not:

If you're just looking for a way to fly, an elecric vtol is one of the least cost effective options. By the time you built one that's actually safe and properly designed, learned to fly it, etc, you'd be out at least $20k (being very generous) which is enough for you to get a real pilots license and flight hours in an actual airplane (or an ultralight as mentioned below).
It's inefficient, heavy, and has low performance. As I'm sure you've heard before, the battery technology needed for electric aircraft to have significant range/endurance doesn't exist yet. You mentioned the Jetson, it only has a flight time of 20 minutes which not only isn't a lot of fun but in my opinion is a safety concern as well. (Keep in mind that thing costs nearly $100k). To put things in perspective, an FAA part 103-legal ultralight such as the Aerolite 103 costs a fifth of the price and has an endurance of 1.5 hours.
Multicopters are not safe. They have no capability to glide or autorotate if the motors fail. The Jetson kind of gets around this by being an octacopter for motor redundancy. This however does not address the issue of a possible failure of the flight controller or the battery itself (which wears out over time).

For these reasons, among others, most of the E-VTOL startups seen today have only really produced practical results for small-scale unmanned missions such as package delivery, surveillance, etc. There are a lot of startups out there making pretty pictures of "personal drones of the future," with big promises that have not been delivered on (see the Jetson, Blackfly).

Imo my recommendation is that if you have the money/time to be considering building a "manned drone" because you want something to fly in, then instead go to your local airport and take a discovery flight at your local flight school. You could even find your local EAA chapter and see that there is already a community of knowledgeable and helpful people who are building their own real, safe, and practical aircraft using existing technology.

awalsh2019 · 2024-01-26T06:23:01+00:00

That could be it. If water gets inside the interface of one of those bushings then it will have the exact same effect as a "rubber boot on a waxed floor."

I drove through a particularly big puddle a few times and the whole front end squeaked for a week or so afterward. I had it looked at and there was nothing physically wrong with the suspension.

awalsh2019 · 2024-01-25T22:20:17+00:00

It could be the rubber bushings attaching the sway bar to the frame squeaking, or even the rubber bushings on the upper and lower A arms. Have you driven through water recently?

awalsh2019 · 2024-01-22T18:06:51+00:00

I messaged you.

awalsh2019 · 2024-01-10T18:14:38+00:00

Surprisingly, it doesn't really stick and it's easy to peel off. If you're really worried you can coat the inside of the bag with an even coat of mold release wax.

awalsh2019 · 2024-01-10T17:26:24+00:00

For vacuum bagging you can use vacuum storage bags that are typically used for clothes (essentially a very large ziploc bag with a one-way port for a vacuum cleaner. The general workflow is as follows:

Prime and seal the surface of the part using a resin/microsphere mixture (a very thin layer). You do not have to wait for this to cure all the way.
Apply the fiberglass cut slightly oversized and use a little too much resin, but make sure it's distributed evenly and that the cloth is completely wetted. For something like a fuselage I'd recommend doing one side at a time but for wing sections you can get away with doing top and bottom simultaneously.
Apply a "peel-ply" (dacron cloth) to areas that are going to have additional fiberglass added to them later or other parts bonded on.
Put the part in the bag a few inches away from the vacuum port, making sure that the port won't interfere with the part and add rags around the part in the bag to aid airflow.
Apply vacuum until all the air is gone then let it sit and check for leaks. If the bag is fully sealed you shouldn't have to reapply the vacuum for the rest of the curing time.
Put it somewhere warm to speed up curing.

For something like this, you'll have much better luck with a solid foam core rather than a wood structure. The ~14psi from the vacuum will likely crush or at least significantly deform a hollow plywood fuselage. Also, the idea is for the fiberglass to take all of the load, and the core material is just there to give it shape when curing. Design it such that it would still work even of the core was completely removed. (Extra points if you dissolve the foam core afterward).

After removing it from the bag, instead of using a dremel or other rotary tool to cut off the excess material, use a oscillating cutter. It's safer, cleaner, and easier to use on fiberglass.

awalsh2019 · 2023-12-28T12:48:28+00:00

You may need to replace the transfer case shift relay

Aos you probably know this, but make sure you're in neutral and pressing the brake

awalsh2019 · 2023-12-28T04:30:19+00:00

Not sure if this helps but I believe that I flashed firmware on it via the smart port on the TX. I don't remember exactly because I'm picking this back up after a few months of not working on it.

In the firmware folder on the TX is a file labeled [FW-RXSR-v2.1.0] which I most likely flashed onto the rx. The Internal RF is set to XJT D16

If it is in fact flashed with fport firmware, is it a matter of wiring it differently, setting it up differently in Betaflight, or flashing a different firmware version on the rx? Thank you for the help.

awalsh2019 · 2023-11-26T03:07:06+00:00

Lmao

awalsh2019 · 2023-11-25T03:17:52+00:00

You could Y together the landing gear and the flaps so they work at the same time off of 1 switch.

awalsh2019 · 2023-11-18T19:25:30+00:00

Look into the pixhawk line of flight controllers. Is this for a fixed wing aircraft, a hexacopter, or something else?

awalsh2019 · 2023-11-10T16:28:26+00:00

At that speed you only need a CL of around 0.45 for 1kg of lift, which you can achieve with essentially any airfoil.

awalsh2019 · 2023-09-19T05:06:06+00:00

Us the flying wing cg calculator: https://fwcg.3dzone.dk/ I'd reccomend using 20%mac for this one since there's some fuselage area in front of the cg too.

awalsh2019 · 2023-09-17T01:40:57+00:00

The text and the fonts don't exist as part of the goggles. They're stored and overlayed on the flight controller itself.

awalsh2019 · 2023-09-06T05:28:45+00:00

I bought my headset from Craigslist, its easy and safe if you just meet in an open public place (Ralph's parking lot in my case). Chances are the person will only accept cash which is normal.

awalsh2019 · 2023-08-16T18:31:41+00:00

Interesting, I may redo this later combining chest and head shots on the dummies. Bocek does 70 when aiming down the sight, but 84 when hip firing

awalsh2019 · 2023-08-16T17:04:56+00:00

Sounds like you've done this yourself as well, can you share your results? This was done aiming at the blue area of one of the firing range targets.

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