Micro SportCam just finished

[davidk]

Finished printing and building this 3DAeroventures Sport MicroCam:

27" wing span
FliteTest Radial 1806 2280kV motor
20A ESC
4.75 x 4.75 prop
3S 850mAh battery
38g nose weight
CG 33mm from wing leading edge
Total flying weight around 375g

No idea if it will fly... nicely... and more than once.  This is printed in PLA which they say is ok, but they do recommend LW-PLA which would just about cut the weight in half.
The canopy is printed with transparent PLA and so the glow from the RX is excellent.

The design of this plane, as far as printing and building goes, leaves a bit too much wiggle room for fitting at times.  The spars on one side are 2-3mm longer than the other side.  The Horizontal Stab on the left is turned up just a tiny bit more that the right.

One interesting point of this plane is that the prop is angled down a bit pointed at the horizontal stabilizer.  The horizontal stab is essentially an upside down wing which applies a bit of downward force from the prop.  This design is because the motor is behind and a bit above the CG.  With the motor pointed straight back, when the throttle is increased the plane will pivot a bit and force the nose down.  The horizontal stab design and downward angle of the motor will apply a downward force on the tail down and push the nose up... thus counterbalancing the plane when throttle is applied.

[Michael]

Impressive!

[GuyOReilly]

There will be a lot of newly built and interesting aircrafts when the field opens up again with all these COVID projects!!
Great looking plane, love the light.

[Andy Hoffer]

Nice piece of work @davidk !

I am curious about the asymmetry you discussed.  What would have caused that?

Andy

[davidk]

This is a version of the same plane printed with LW-PLA (Light Weight).  Finished, it should be over 100g lighter - somewhere around sub-250.
LW-PLA is about twice the price of PLA... but... it's printed at a rate of 40% of PLA and at 35c hotter.  This causes the filament to foam as it's coming out of the nozzle and so it expands.  At 40% extrusion and hot, it cools to the same size as PLA, but it much lighter.
LW-PLA printed at a "normal" PLA temp acts pretty much like PLA.  This is all pretty cool.  Some parts... landing gear, hubs, servo trays, connecting pins, are still printed with PLA for strength.  Sometimes a plane is printed with some wings parts in PLA other parts... flaps, ailerons, tips, printed with LW-PLA.  LW-PLA was only available in a neutral shade - kinda white - and in black.  It's only been this month that it's available in Grey, Red, Green and Yellow.

[Frank v B]

Neat project.  Love the fact that it is small (27" span).

About your first post "No idea if it will fly."  They all fly.  It has all the requirements i) a wing ii) a fuse iii) a prop that spins iv) tail feathers.  Even 38 grams of lead to get the balance point right.  It will definitely fly.


Frank

[davidk]

Like I said... nicely... and more than once. 

[davidk]

All done with the LW-PLA version.  With a 2S 650mAh and 10g of nose weight it came in at 250g.

[Andy Hoffer]

Great looking plane @davidk!  I really like the colour scheme.  Looking forward to your flight report.

Andy