Flying "The Thing" ! A.M.A. Plan # 773...$14.00

Yeah...am working to get them on here. I have built three "Things". This yellow one is my third and the best-natured.

My first one, which is going through a rebuild, was a Suicidal Rocket, powered by .051, when a Babe Bee would have been plenty exciting enough. To complicate matters, I covered it in Charcoal-colored monokote, giving it a black silhouette against the sky as it blasted around, so I was never really sure which way it was banked. It's gonna get a Babe Bee for sure !

The second was powered by a Tee Dee .010, and put in quite a bit of time. It was crushed in a move (the .010 survived), I had to junk it out.

I did all this by enlarging the plans on a copy machine.

Have it here in a moment!

cool!!! i would love to see a picture of the .010 version, cant wait for the uploads kim

Sorry for the poor-quality photo. On this "Thing", I had split the elevator, and used a sliding servo set-up to give it "Elevon" control.

It flew REALLY squirrelly at first, but I got the throws calmed down after a few flights, and pretty soon, people stopped running away whenever I got it out of the van ! I run around with a bunch of chickens !



Here are the plans. I'll get the dimensions of the two surviving "Things" and post them here.

Kim wrote:Sorry for the poor-quality photo. On this "Thing", I had split the elevator, and used a sliding servo set-up to give it "Elevon" control.

It flew REALLY squirrelly at first, but I got the throws calmed down after a few flights, and pretty soon, people stopped running away whenever I got it out of the van ! I run around with a bunch of chickens !



Here are the plans. I'll get the dimensions of the two surviving "Things" and post them here.










thats really something else Kim, thanks for the plans, ill have to build one and maybe start a build thread, how much bigger will these plans need to be for a cox peewee?

oops sorry, i didnt read the plans, they say "for cox .020"

Yeah, I'll measure the width of the Thing 1. It was just a bit larger than that intended for the .020. I'll also try to track down the magazine too.

Later !

later kim! thanks again for the plans, i already printed them out and will have to scale them up a little bit to actually be full size

We're Lovin that roll rate Kim.

And the fact that great sky's are the same the world over.

John Goddard wrote:We're Lovin that roll rate Kim.

And the fact that great sky's are the same the world over.

Hey John,

Yeah, The Thing is a rather abrupt departure from the sedate, almost sleepy flying habits of my faithful workhorse Bird of Time ! I'm just thankful that it tends to right it's self after such hi-jinks !

I think I've got fuel foaming or some such going on, so I'm gonna re-balance it's prop and maybe do some surgery to check on it's tank. One of it's most startling characteristics is it's ability to fly incredibly slow for an "aircraft" that has no wings, but I've got to have the OS behaving it's self to make that happen.

Yep, love and appreciate a beautiful blue sky...even more-so when the winds aren't bouncing cats off the barn !

Later !

I've just noticed that servo 'mixer' as well.
Takes me back to summer 78 an Enya 19
Powered combat wing I'd built from an
RCM+E plan.
Getting all wistful, no women , no taxes , no problems
Other than school and a sore index finger.

Hi,

Noticed your using a Cox contoller, that "Thing" runs on two or 3 channel electric RC, you have elevator, throttle, and rudder? you mentioned sliding servo for elevator?
How does that work, should work on any plane?
I wanted to use one of those control for RC 1/2A .049 in 3way but told will not control the throttle plus 2 other channels? Most .049's all you need is 3 channel, 2 really but nice to have throttle.

Jobe_Pro wrote:Hi,

Noticed your using a Cox contoller, that "Thing" runs on two or 3 channel electric RC, you have elevator, throttle, and rudder? you mentioned sliding servo for elevator?
How does that work, should work on any plane?
I wanted to use one of those control for RC 1/2A .049 in 3way but told will not control the throttle plus 2 other channels? Most .049's all you need is 3 channel, 2 really but nice to have throttle.

Hey,

All of my "Things" were nitro powered, though I'm sure that they'd adapt easily to electric. I matched up a Hitec receiver to my Icon transmitter for elevator, rudder, and throttle on the "Thing" in the video. My other two "Things" were un-throttled and flew with just two channels.

The "sliding servo" is an Old School method of mixing two controls, many times used in V-tailed sailplanes. It involves an anchored elevator servo, hooked by pushrod to a rudder servo, mounted on sliding rails.

I use Sullivan or similar pushrods and their sleeves to build up a "sled" for the rudder servo to slide on. The pushrods are bonded to the frame of the airplane, while the servos and it's mount are attached to their sleeves. This also allows you to run a flex cable to steer a nose or tail wheel without adding another servo.

Hope this helps:

Very neat Kim.

Us young pups get to set up elevons with radio programming now and don't have to rely on the thinking part so much.. Done a couple wings and had to set those up. It's not a real easy task either way it would seem.

PV Pilot wrote:Very neat Kim.

Us young pups get to set up elevons with radio programming now and don't have to rely on the thinking part so much.. Done a couple wings and had to set those up. It's not a real easy task either way it would seem.

Yeah, then you got crazy old guys like me that do this just because they think it's "Fun" !!!!

This also works for the flying wings(delta) if you only want 2 elevons to deal with in the same manner as the v-tail planes.
I have a delta sitting hre and thats how I am going to do it.
Thanks for the tip on the hitec rx / cox tx combo,sounds like just the ticket for me

Kim wrote:

Jobe_Pro wrote:Hi,

Noticed your using a Cox contoller, that "Thing" runs on two or 3 channel electric RC, you have elevator, throttle, and rudder? you mentioned sliding servo for elevator?
How does that work, should work on any plane?
I wanted to use one of those control for RC 1/2A .049 in 3way but told will not control the throttle plus 2 other channels? Most .049's all you need is 3 channel, 2 really but nice to have throttle.

Hey,

All of my "Things" were nitro powered, though I'm sure that they'd adapt easily to electric. I matched up a Hitec receiver to my Icon transmitter for elevator, rudder, and throttle on the "Thing" in the video. My other two "Things" were un-throttled and flew with just two channels.

The "sliding servo" is an Old School method of mixing two controls, many times used in V-tailed sailplanes. It involves an anchored elevator servo, hooked by pushrod to a rudder servo, mounted on sliding rails.

I use Sullivan or similar pushrods and their sleeves to build up a "sled" for the rudder servo to slide on. The pushrods are bonded to the frame of the airplane, while the servos and it's mount are attached to their sleeves. This also allows you to run a flex cable to steer a nose or tail wheel without adding another servo.

Hope this helps:

Good deal! Also...meant to note this earlier: the "Thing" in the video measures 16" across it's top deck, and goes like a rocket on a fairly tired O.S. FP.10.

I guess that trumps my 14" farcebug with a COX bw049 on it right?

So now I want 1 of these "things" for 020,if I can find time to build it

Jaspur_x wrote:I guess that trumps my 14" farcebug with a COX bw049 on it right?

So now I want 1 of these "things" for 020,if I can find time to build it

Hard to say...I've found that these things don't go by the regular rules for flying machines. I enjoy flying fast, but this particular design will also fly VERY slowly (rocking like a boat while it does so). I revamped the fuel system yesterday to insulate the tank a bit from engine vibrations, along with balancing the prop (duh!), and hopefully, the OS will now idle down for me.

Three notes for building (which are ridiculously elementary, but they got me).

1. DO NOT forget the Reflex !!!! On Thing 1, I unconsciously aligned the elevator flat with the top aft deck, and yard-darted it two feet in front of my on it's first launch! Set the elevator to the angle on the plans !

2. Mind the C.G. !!! To me, the Thing appears to be nose-heavy when properly balanced (note it's position in it's holder in the profile photo). But this is where it needs to be unless you want to spend your first flight holding the stick full-forward as the Thing wanders around the yard, hanging from it's prop!

3. You might consider making the forward part of the sub-fin a bit taller. It's what you'll be holding on to to launch the Thing, right where all the engine slime gathers, and a little more gripping area might be a good idea.

Out of all the planes I've built, this one is the most likely to try and turn on it's owner. There's no really good place to hold it other than the sub-fin. I hold the Thing by the sub-fin, balanced vertically for launch, let it tip forward, and add power at the same time, then throw it as it reaches about the right angle.

Jaspur_x wrote:I guess that trumps my 14" farcebug with a COX bw049 on it right?

So now I want 1 of these "things" for 020,if I can find time to build it

Jared, remember that .020 delta from FMK?
I could to that instead of the buzzbipe if you want something like that.

Tough call there nitro,but I love both types of aircraft evenly so thats your call/decision there my friend,one way or the other I will end up with both models sooner or later lol

So this should work on a coventional plane, you know, two main wings, two rear wings with elevator, and a rudder, just kidding Kim, but it should work in this thing ... no pun intended as well, this set up should make alerons work together with the rudder but that stil tales up two servos, how do you control throttle, you said you used Hi tech control, 3 channel, oh I could of swore I saw a Cox controller in that video, my mistake

Jobe_Pro wrote:So this should work on a conventional plane, you know, two main wings, two rear wings with elevator, and a rudder, just kidding Kim, but it should work in this thing ... no pun intended as well, this set up should make alerons work together with the rudder but that still tales up two servos, how do you control throttle, you said you used Hi tech control, 3 channel, oh I could of swore I saw a Cox controller in that video, my mistake

Yeah, I may have confused things a bit with my additional photos of the other two "Things". The Thing in the video is a simple three channel with a throttled OS F.P. .10, and steered by it's elevator and "Sub-Rudder". It's receiver is a Hitec Micro 05S 5 channel. There is no mixer involved with it.

The one with the mixer was much smaller and powered by a Cox .010 with a mixer that gave it "Elevons".

Depending on the set-up of the plane, it is possible to run a pushrod from the rudder to the aileron servo to link them together with a single servo.

Jobe_Pro wrote:So this should work on a coventional plane, you know, two main wings, two rear wings with elevator, and a rudder, just kidding Kim, but it should work in this thing ... no pun intended as well, this set up should make alerons work together with the rudder but that stil tales up two servos, how do you control throttle, you said you used Hi tech control, 3 channel, oh I could of swore I saw a Cox controller in that video, my mistake

It was a cox controller,but its not the new age style radio tx,its the more old school style,they don`t know that they are being matched up with a tx/rx from a diferent company as long as the chrystals match she will fly(in a nutshell)