T E A M
After watching the James May's Toy stories, I was inspired to build my own scale Slingsby T45 Swallow. However, due to the time constraints and work commitments, I decided to go for a sub 1 metre version. I thought that it would be a nice little floater to be flown off from Sedili's resort slope in the mild morning breeze, like the old Tiny semi-scale TG-3 I designed and built many years ago.
West Wing offers a balsa Free-flight Swallow kit, which can be converted to R/C. However, finding a vendor is a problem and shipping from UK can take the entire slope season for it to arrive. So, I looked from some 3 view drawings from the internet and started designing one for myself.
From past experience, scaling down the wing in proportion is not a good idea, in terms of aerodynamics. So, I broadened the wing tip chord and enlarged the stabilizer to compensate for the increase in wing area. A flat-bottomed airfoil with moderate thickness is chosen to avoid complicated numbers and construction. The controls are only limited to rudder and elevator to save effort, which in turn requires a distinct amount of dihedral to make the rudder effective for rolling.
The entire airframe is made up of balsa, with a little plywood here and there. I use 2 ~3gram servos for indoor model and a nano Orange RX and a pack of 2 photo-lithium cells battery. I used Oracover lite transparent white covering throughout to keep the weight down and All-up-weight is about 105 grams.
The model was maidened at Sedili last Sunday in moderately strong winds with a solid blue foam canopy, which the model handles pretty well. Only last night, I have replaced the canopy with a clear moulded PVC one.
West Wing offers a balsa Free-flight Swallow kit, which can be converted to R/C. However, finding a vendor is a problem and shipping from UK can take the entire slope season for it to arrive. So, I looked from some 3 view drawings from the internet and started designing one for myself.
From past experience, scaling down the wing in proportion is not a good idea, in terms of aerodynamics. So, I broadened the wing tip chord and enlarged the stabilizer to compensate for the increase in wing area. A flat-bottomed airfoil with moderate thickness is chosen to avoid complicated numbers and construction. The controls are only limited to rudder and elevator to save effort, which in turn requires a distinct amount of dihedral to make the rudder effective for rolling.
The entire airframe is made up of balsa, with a little plywood here and there. I use 2 ~3gram servos for indoor model and a nano Orange RX and a pack of 2 photo-lithium cells battery. I used Oracover lite transparent white covering throughout to keep the weight down and All-up-weight is about 105 grams.
The model was maidened at Sedili last Sunday in moderately strong winds with a solid blue foam canopy, which the model handles pretty well. Only last night, I have replaced the canopy with a clear moulded PVC one.
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