Hey Flight Test! You guys have some amazing going on here, thank you! I'm new to planes (been flying quads a while) and the FT Mini Arrow was is my first successful foam board flying wing (or any scratch build plane for that matter). I don't want anyone to go through the frustration I did trying to get this thing flying. Followed the video and the instructions on your website as precisely as possible only to have a wing that wouldn't fly without adding 250+ grams to the nose. After searching and searching forums I discovered that it was possible I was using a much heavier foam board. I just finished building my second Mini Arrow tonight using Adams (Readi-Board) brand foam board, weighed it... It's half the weight of the first Mini Arrow I made, weighing in at 270 grams with all electronics. Also, I installed all receiver and ESC in the front of the wings instead of right in front of the motor. Not is it now half the weight of my last attempt but I didn't have to add any dead weight to the nose so it would be balanced! I'm posting this for one reason: I don't want anyone to go through what I did because they had no idea how much the weight of the foam board could have on the plane. If anything can be added to your instructional video or site that will alert people of this I think many people diving into the hobby will have a much less painful entrance than I did. Again, you guys are awesome, I just feel like this would be more helpful to people than it may seem.
Happened the same thing with me!! The first time i did it it didn't fly because the foam board that i used was heavier as you say. Anyway, i solved the problem putting a more powerfull motor and a 1100 4s battery.
I just maidens my build. I used 2mm Depron for the wings and 6mm Depron for the fins and pod (because that's what I had). The power train was salvaged from an old HK Rare bear which had long since gone past the help of hot glue ;). Maiden was awesome and effortless. Great build video and easy to build and fly design. Thanks.
Wow! Just wow! Just took mine out. The thing flew like it was on rails. No trim needed. Absolutely amazing maiden flight. I even met some competitive FPV quad guys. Thank you Flite Test. I will be purchasing other kits from you in the future. Most likely an FPV quad next.
I built one myself a few days ago....but I went crazy and overpowered it. Basically I didn't do the centre pod, I wanted to install a 3s 2200mah! To counter the nose heaviness I installed an 80g 2836 3000kv motor with 60a ESC, it balanced perfectly and flew AMAZING!! This and the bloody wonder are my favourite FT designs :) Thanks FT
What you heard right at the end of the flight was the ESC overheating. Happened to me, not much airflow inside the fuselage. Mount the ESC on top in front of the motor and it will stop being a problem as well as freeing up some space inside.
love this air frame! already scratch built both versions, its fast and fun! and just 2 dollars of foam... Just crashed(totaled) a little 250 quad might just build 4 more wings from the carnage lol ! even built clean wing version ready to go slope soaring as soon as weather permits. Thank you Flite Test you Keep the hobby alive and well! God Bless.
I really enjoy my FT Arrow scratch build! Shipping to Europe is so expensive it doesn't make sense to order the quick build kit. Thank you so much for sharing the plans :-)
your builds are great. Good personalities and great instructions. Truly enjoy watching. Really would like to see a series of races with various aircraft and courses, FPV and LOS.
I must say thanks for the free plans. I took the same dimensions and made a few changes and with only one sheet of foam board and the plane flys amazing. Thanks again for the plans, great stuff keep up the good work.
+karter koob I am interested to see what the weight comes in at on this. Hopefully some people that start building at home will weigh theirs. Needs to be a battery installed weight.
Exactly what me and many others were waiting on - Excellent video! Your going to get many people into it for the first time, including myself at some point.
+Just for fun if you're like me and got the power pack from FT you should have gotten some linkage stoppers, if not then you should get some! With a linkage stopper, If you dont have extra pushrods just carefully try to straighten out the zbend and that straightened out bit should be enough to fix the problem. Good luck!
that is what I thought but I haven't gotten a reply from ft. also can't find any dots to indicate the cg. do you happen to know a good mesurement to find the cg? what elivon angle did you find works for level flight? the lowest angle on his gauge is about 20 %
love the arrow, I'm currently building my third one. I'm going to try coroplast for the fuselage this time, since that is where the foam board usually fails
Great tutorial!! I have extra electronics laying around, along with some foam board. I may give this a try this weekend!! It'll be a nice break from my quad building.
So hard to find decent flying wings, so finding this with a full kit for 130 bucks shipped to the UK (with power pack and battery) was perfect for me. I look forward to building/flying it.
Thanks for an awesome design! Just built this with the hobbycraft foam available in the UK and it looks great, I was hoping to fly it as a slope soarer with the pod too but it seems the foam I used makes the plane about 40-50 grams heavier than the 170 grams described on the site. The higher density made it difficult to fold the wing over and I had to cut a steeper bevel to get it to fold over. I'm hoping to build the versa too out of this same foam which should be less of a problem I hope. But yeah this high density foam from hobbycraft could be an issue when building some of the smaller planes and if it flies well it should be quite robust. I'll post on this again when I get a chance to test fly it.
A sincere thank you to Flite test for providing such an amazing plane! I made one last night and flew it today....amazing piece of work!! Only problem was I installed a servo that was faulty (lucky I didn't crash) and now I need to replace it. Does anyone have any tips as to how I can safely replace those servos that have been hot glued down? Can I use a hairdryer to melt it without melting the foam??? Thanks again
Nice vid Im new to this hobby but not totally.In my day we had rubber escapements and such heavy bulky stukk nothing like now a days. Im going to make one of these as soon as my servos arrive.Thanks so much.
Josh, as a retired aircraft systems test engineer with Northrop Grumman Aircraft and fairly new to this hobby was wondering if you are familiar with the Northrop B2 Stealth Bomber? Its a flying wing. If not, check it out. This would be a great design to incorporate into a Rc flying model due to its design in the flight control surfaces. Two speed brakes/rudders at each wing tip a a eleven dead center of the trailing edge (like bird feathers). Maybe you know of a kit? Great job guys, great video . plan to order your Arrow wing kit.thx
Hope the larger wing you mentioned will carry a 4s 1300mah pack since its such a common pack for quad guys to have. Would be great to throw an old motor/esc into one of these and be able to run packs i already have.
+Say Ya +FliteTest that's my ONLY 'want' with this build, I wish it would fit a 1300mah 3s pack people (myself included) tend to have those lying around (especially after moving up to 4s)
picked up an adtec 200 hot glue gun, best glue gun I have ever owned.... fast and very consistent beads of glue due to long trigger throw. Thanks for telling us about it
first time flyer, ive built two arrows and flown them. its tough to learn but i havent crashed them but this build done with your speedbuild kit and 4pack with recommended battery, it doesnt stay powered for long.. it does fine for a couple minutes and then just slowly dies out. its frustrating and its turning me off to even wanting it. i dont even get the speed seen in all the videos ive watched. i assure you i followed step by step and made sure everything was done correctly.
First build! Within 5 min, I'd cut through the paper and cut my finger (paper cut!). I was going to build with the center section, but missed trimming off the wings and made it without the center section. Are there directions for adding the motor w/o the center section.
FT challenge idea...get some kind of vehicle (a lawnmower, golf cart , 4 wheeler, a go cart ,whatever) set up a course to drive through , get a drone with the 'follow me' feature , get it in the air ,put it on follow ,put on your goggles , hop in the drivers seat and try to run the course by only being able to see what you are doing via the 3rd person view from the drones camera
Haha.. I was watching the onter video you posted just before this.. and i was like "God damn it.. i want to build this and then they dont have a Build video and plans!" Haha Amazing.. Im going to download the plans Tomorrow and start a build :D
I want to say thanks for all you guys do for the hobby. I built one yesterday during the snow storm. I have most of the parts laying around except the servos. What brand did you use? Thanks again.
went with the cg 1 3/4 inch from the motor cut out. ( 2 oz led in the noes). set the reflex at about 6 degrees. guess that was right cause it flew real good on the first toss. did 3 more flights and am now mounting my fps stuff in the noes.
Hi there. Thanks for sharing. Will it fly with a A1504-KV2700 micromotor with 5" prop? Another problem, those laminated 5mm foamboard is very expensive here. So, let's get the non-laminated and tape one side first then cut. Will this work? Thanks!
What cheap Tx/Rx combo would work with this plane? How many channels and what features are required? I was looking at combos below $40 if possible. Also, what is the difference between power packs A and F?
What motor would be good for this wing but for slower flight? my woman wants this plane but she don't need the speed. nice and easy flight be great. Thanks.
What do you do if One channel is the servo for the right wing and one channel is the servo for the left wing .. so I guess my question is how do you get them to cooperate so get them to act as both elevator and aileron .. if I pull back it goes up .. and turn right it turns right .. ? right now one stick makes the left servo right and the other stick makes the right servo work ..does that make sense?
can you guys make another video, or more videos, and how to begin FPV, cuz all I remember you making is a video or videos on how to start flying drones in RC planes. I was just wondering if you guys can make a good tutorial about how to start a TV because all the other ones aren't that great.
Something not mentioned is the roll balance. Using hot glue is heavy. Too much used on one wing vs the other will throw the balance off. The only remedy I've found for this is add counter weight inside the wing as close to CG as possible. You can access that area from the back. If the counter weight is too far off from CG it will throw the natural CG off. This problem could destroy a maiden flight. Details.
Hey flite test guys. I just scratch built the arrow and saw you had no power pack F's in stock so I went with the A. Is there much of a difference in Power? I just wanna go fast. Lol.
Is there an in-depth servo explanation / config movie somewhere? I understand I need the initial setup angle, but does the flap need to go any lower than this initial setup point? It's all somewhat unclear to me. Coming from multi rotors :-P.
+EP Playen Minecraft The plans can scale up really well. I was just reading a thread on it in the FT forum, thinking about the same plane. The corsair would look amazing at 200%.
Is it possible to use a 2204/2300 with 6045 props on a 2s battery to make this more of a trainer, and upgrade to 3s when I am comfortable enough for the speed?
Hi flitetest, i just watched the video about the drones delivering drones, delivering drones, that delivers a drone. Then i had an idea, you could take the helicarrier, build a hangar inside it, put a quadcopter inside it and try to fly into and out of it during flight. Greetings
I had a real hard time getting the CG close, even with the battery all the way up in the nose, it was still tail heavy. are you sure those CG points are correct. How can you calculate the CG point?
So, I built my first scratch- built Mighty Mini Arrow. Came out very well (look), BUT I am having such a hard time getting the CG balanced. It is so much tail heavy for some reason. I have pushed the battery all the way to the nose and still very tail heavy. I am using powerpack A. Is this something other users have experienced?
When will the xt-30 3 cell battery that operates this plane be in stock on the flitetest store? I am having trouble finding it. any suggestions for an alternative?
Hi I am kumar . I made Mini arrow with mm foam board as per your specifications . But the CG is very critical for me as you given in the plan. please slove my problem
Hi @FliteTest , Thanks for sharing the plans I love the Mighty wing. I have a naze FC which I would love to add. I already config everything [With Patrik Emilsson Flying Wing FW] My question is where should I place the FC? Should it be placed at CG point or can place more forward under the battery ?
I remeber one someone actually made one and sent it for a full throttle grand slam into a nearby hill There were still some salvageable parts of the fueslage and most parts were ok The pushrods were fubar though
flite test you in my opinion the best reviewers of planes quads ext... on the internet you give fair honest reviews of anything you can get your hands on you cover all aspects of the hobby i haven't gotten to building yet but I do have free plans for your delta al rc channels in my opinion should do what you do peter especially with his crazy creations you guys have a special way with foam all of you are awesome designers with unique designing and building techniques "use the table as your friend" i truly idol you all in my opinion the best on RU-vid i could watch you 24/7 hopefully coming to flite test 2016 please read :-)
can i anyway add hobby king links to the parts list , i tried myself to look there but there is so many option and i am sure which one to choose . and i am having a problem finding foam for building in germany
