New project - scale heli fuselage with quad

[quadflyer]

After my two previous attempts at building a scale fuselage quad ended in disaster I have come up with another plan

I intend to use a 500 size scale fuselage and build into it a H configuration quad.

It will have 930kv motors with 10" props and Naza with GPS controller.

Here is the start, preparing the fuselage to take the two cross supports for the H quad.

I will update again as things progress

[wengwah]

This is cool. Why DJI Naza ?

Why not the cheaper multiwii?

[quadflyer]

I am very comfortable with the performance of the naza, I've used on all my various multi-rotor builds (quad, hex, Y6, T6) since early last year and find it easy to "dial-in" the gains for a very stable flight.

[quadflyer]

Things are starting to take shape now that I've got the two cross supports glued & bolted in and installed the landing skids.

I've placed the motor arms on the cross supports ready for drilling & bolting.

[quadflyer]

motor arms are now glued & bolted.

930kv E-Max motors are also mounted.

That's all the basic hardware installed.

The next task will be to fit all the electronics and do up the wiring

[quadflyer]

All the electronics are installed and wired up.

All ready for preliminary flight testing.

[quadflyer]

1st test flight

[nb8686]

Really nice. Well done.

May I ask if you are going to add a dummy tail to it?

[ah_liang]

Will look better if the rotors are above the fuselage.

[quadflyer]

From my two previous attempts at this type of build, having the rotor frame on the top of the fuselage (so it looks more like normal heli) makes the CoG very high and created a lot of pendulum effect which was a problem in flight. Having the CoG relatively central in all three axis really helps to make the model more stable.
This also allowed me to use the original internal platform to fit the cross beams & electronics, thereby helping to minimise any additional structural support & weight.
Total take-off weight with a 1800mah, 3S batt is 1,100g which gives approx 5 to 6 mins flight time.
Making a strong and stable platform for the rotor frame on the top of the thin fuselage would have involved building extra internal supports to ensure lateral & vertical strength as that become the focus point of both lift and torque. I tried this design on my two previous builds and learnt the hard way, on one flight the quad frame broke away from the top of the fuselage in mid-flight, not an experience I want to repeat.
I learnt a lot from my previous attempts at this type of model and am happy with the way this one has come together.

[quadflyer]

Thank you for your encouragement, I don't think I will add a "tail" as there is no tail rotor assembly to fit it onto, I'm also not sure how much a tail will impact the yaw.

With my very limited understanding of flight dynamics, a tail and tail rotor is there to provide lateral stability in forward flight. As a quad rely's solely on the opposing spin of the motors for yaw control I'm reluctant to add one.

I'm sure there are more experienced bro's who could help me improve my knowledge of this aspect of flying.

[quadflyer]

2nd test flight, still fine tuning the Naza gains

[cruiser73]

Nice builds as always quadflyer.

[quadflyer]

thank you for your kind encouragement.

I'm very happy that the build idea came together without any major re-working, although the overall size is bigger (550 size between the motors) than I had first envisioned, but I wanted to make sure there was enough clearance between the 10" props and the fuselage for good air-flow.

One more "test flight" to ensure I have the gains set nice and then its ready for regular day to day flying

I've fitted LED lights already so its cleared for night flying

[quadflyer]

nice flying this morning at 0730