Quadcopters and RC planes

I’ve build RC planes since 2013, with a strong emphasis on experimentation around configurations, learning aerodynamics, testing control mechanisms and much more.

My own designs:

  • Pitcheron made from pink-foam

  • Ring-wing based plane - Look Ma, no tip vortices! Here’s the plan if you want to build your own

  • Push-me-pull-you made from free-flight glider and 2x Astro 010 brushless motors

  • Built up balsa discus launched glider (DLG) - RIP, it suffered a wing failure in-flight during a loop

  • Some monstrosity which I built up to put a 540 brushed motor and a giant nicad pack I had lying arond

  • Fosawica - Forward Swept Aft Wing Canard - watch it on youtube

  • Jart-STE - watch the video of it at Hermanus 2006 (while terribly nose-heavy on its maiden flight)

  • Tricopter with foldable front arms (novel back in 2015) with KK2 PID controller

  • And many more which don’t deserve honourable mention, as they were more ‘learning experiences’ than successes.

Kits I built (and invariably modified heavily):

  • The Zagi - my first ‘real’ RC plane, which I learned to fly on

  • A number of planes from Edgerc.com - Bird Of Prey, Devestator, Tropical Storm

  • Windrider Bee and Bat

  • The Toucan from Anton Benning, with a custom wing profile for better energy retention

  • GWS Tinystick, loaded up with LEDs to fly at night

  • The Dreamflight Ahi - with a 2206 motor added is now the Ahi-E. By far the best acrobatic plane I’ve ever flown.

  • ReadyMadeRC Nano-Goblin. Effortless 1.5h flights!

  • Too many more to remember

Quadcopters, focusing on the smaller side, a number of small quadcopters in the 2.5” - 4” range, keeping under 250g

  • Picklefork4 with 1404 motors and 3.5” props. Got a 20 minute flight! Download my pod mashup for holding the Insta360 Go camera on it from Thingiverse

  • The trusty old Leader 120 from FullSpeedRC. This was my first high performance quadcopter.

  • Lots of experiments with prop and motor selection on a number of frames from the 2.5” - 3” size.