Predator’s latest toy.

[Predator]

After finally finishing the rebuild on “Badger II” the Mt Gay 30 RC yacht the next project was supposed to be finishing the offshore RC fishing boat “Double Trouble”.

Unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately) after last Monday’s Fly In I got waylaid.

Hoppy donated an old flying wing carcass which was surplus to his needs (he already had one) so that put an end to “Double Trouble” again for a short while.

(after installing the servos & motor)

The foamy flying wing was a little worse for wear and minus all the hardware but as fortune would have it my various spare parts bins had all that was needed.

A bit of online research suggested the wing was most likely a not too old HK Reptile Sky Shadow so starting there allowed me to track down what electronics would be required to resurrect it.

I have a rule of late (well my dear Wife does !!) that when obtaining a new plane I must dispose of an old one to keep the count around the same. To that end it was decided to finally scrap the old Mugi Delta wing, that was build many years ago, as it still had a pair of good 9gm servos that were needed for the wing.

(being flown by Murzwern – it was too quick for me at the time)

The servos were promptly fitted and new connecting rods made (from some old Bix 2 parts cut down). I had several X8R receivers and although a bit of an overkill and awfully large, one fitted OK.

Also tried installing a simple Hobby Eagle A3 V2 flight stabiliser but even though it programmed fine & seemed to work as it should it wouldn’t fit where required due to the necessary orientation.

Luckily I still had the Matek F411-WSE iNav flight controller (the one with faulty telemetry output) so that was upgraded to the latest V3 firmware & reprogrammed for a flying wing.

This allowed the use of the SBus connection to the X8R and as the telemetry feed to the Txr wasn’t working I opted to program it to the Taranis X9D rather than the Jumper T16.

As luck would have it the motor specified was a 2204 2200kv with a 5mm shaft which is what the E-Sky Eyas uses and having 2 spares (due to various upgrades) and an ESC that was easy.  Only have a 3 bladed 6 x 3 prop which will no doubt break on first landing but have some 2 blade props on order. Hoppy has offered to bring some spare props for the first flight.

 

(Underside tarted up a bit for better visibility)

(Topside appropriately branded – just because I can)

As the wing is designed to carry a GoPro and an FPV camera up front I have installed a substantial lump of lead to get the COG correct for the first few flights.

Also installed a removable block of foam in place of the cameras to

1) hold the lead counterweight in and

2) improve the aerodynamics a bit.

Guess if it’s a nice day Sunday it will get its maiden.

[Gadget]

Yay! another wing flyer 🙂

[Predator]

Well hopefully, but you never know.

[Hoppy]

It’s a S800 wing not a sky shadow. Rian gave it to me for spares as I have a S800 that flies nicely. We think it’s a V1 S800 as is mine but I made my own motor mount which I think is what changed between V1 and V2.

[Predator]

Thanks Chris, however if you dig a little deeper you will find that the full name of the S800 is in fact a Reptile S800 Sky Shadow (sold by BG & HK).  The V1 is generally Black and the V2 is generally Grey.  The V2 also has a vented canopy and supposedly the build foam is denser & more solid.

[Predator]

Video from the first day of flying the S800 Sky Shadow wing.

All in all it went much better than I expected as the only other wing I had flown to date was my X-Vert VTOL wing.

 

I have now changed from a 6×4 – 2 blade prop to a 6×5.5 – 2 blade.

Motor current has only gone up from around 14.4A to 16.5A so still well under the ESC limit of 30A

I will also activate the Auto Launch function in the iNav FC and try and dial back the stabilisation slightly to stop the wing rocking @ low speed.

[Predator]

The recently acquired Sonic Modell AR Wing is now all set up and ready for her maiden flight (Tuesday or Wednesday hopefully). I’ve removed the GoPro 9 and installed the Runcam 2 & a bit of ballast lead for the first few flights. Once I’m happy that it is flying as it should the GoPro 9 will be reinstalled.

At the moment it has a Hobby Eagle A3-V2 stabiliser fitted (no RTH) but I have a ZOHD Kopilot on its way from the USA that will most likely end up in the wing if it flies OK.

Also have a F411-WSE iNav on order so there are a couple of choices. This is what’s installed in the S800 Sky Shadow.

[Author]

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