I have been flying a Bixler airframe over the last year to much success. I’ve really enjoyed it, until the elevator and aileron detached slightly and I loss control last week. I can confirm that after a very vertical hit into the ground it didn’t look very good afterwards.
Anyway, I was looking for suggestions of peoples favourite APM:Plane airframes. Personally, I’m looking for something a bit slower flying and high wing for good stable slow flight, but all suggestions (+pictures) and why appreciated.
Thanks, and don’t forget to state the whys for your paticular choice.
Ok, big and slow, good wind handling. There was a model plane designed by a free-flight master, Omar Grassetti, who designed this to be a small rc diesel-powered intended for flying on high winds. And his design actually performs well, although it is small and light. The name is Quebra-vento, that means literally wind-breaker, in portuguese. I never made that model, but made a big version of it to test fly APM with a camera. The wing is slightly different, mainly the wing section is a MH-32 instead of the original one, and I changed the rudder a little to help se servo handle a big surface. The idea was to handle wind (where I live almost everyday is windy), carry some weight, be easy and forgiving to fly and be visible even when flying far. After many flights I can say it is all the above. Even flying 200m AGL it is easy to see it. 2m (78") wings. As it was to be a plane to test APM, I made it out of foam, not wood, so a crash wouldn’t be expensive neither hard to repair.
For calm weather autopilot flying I can`t fault my X8. Stable, huge range potential, bags of space to mount equipment far away from each other so they do not conflict
