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[Andy M]

Another Wltoys F949 board project is under way, I handed over my friend's elmira glider last night for him to fit his radio gear, so a new project was required.
 One of my favourite slope soarers is the Ridge Runt, I spent many hours flying on Conic hill, above Balmaha. I always watched the hill walkers heading up the hill, without a plane?! Lol. I liked the walk up, and got to fly when I got up there, added bonus.
  The Ridge Runt featured a T tail, with the elevator operated by a snake, sadly I have never found snakes suitable for this size of radio gear, so I had a challenge right from the start. I have managed it, using pushrods and a small bellcrank at the rear of the fuselage. It works nice moving it by hand, I am waiting on a pair of F949 boards arriving from China, this will let me finish off my radio installation. Progress has been fairly quick so far, a lot of time has been spent working out how the radio gear is going to operate. I have ailerons to work out now, this is proving to be the hardest bit of the whole build. I would like to have the wing fold in the middle like the elmira but havent worked out how yet. Also, the tiny servos only have a single arm output, just to complicate things even more. There isnt much space for the arm on the other side anyway as the elevator servo is very close, its possible, but tight, my friend managed it with one of his planes, but it was all external, I want all my stuff inside, out of the draught.
 Also shown is a dummy F949 board and servos that I made up for easier size checking and control planning. Definately helps and doesnt have any wires to get in the way. I just need to remember and allow space for the wires of the real one.
Elevator is sewn on, my favourite method for these little planes. This is another plane that I made a tiny version of to be carried around on a quadcopter, its not exactly 'flying', but it is in the air, and looks better than a bare quadcopter.

[Andy M]

My 10g quadcopter carried version.

[Andy M]

Here are the Ridge Runt and Elmira rc versions pictured with their smaller quadcopter carried versions to show size differences.

[Andy M]

Cockpit painted and looking a bit better. Still haven't worked out how I am going to do the ailerons.

[Andy M]

I used an old tx ariel tube to cut a perfect core out of the nose to take one of my new quad motors, pretty neat installation and no need to fiddle about making and fitting a spinner. I also made and fitted torque rods for the ailerons, I now have my linkages inside the fuselage, nice and neat. Just the next bit to work out now, a bellcrank to get both ailerons to operate off one servo arm. Will get there eventually.

[Andy M]

I spent a while last night trying to sort out a bellcrank system for the ailerons, it never worked out well, so I decided to scrap that idea. I am now going to fit individual 1.7g servos in each wing. I have still to order these (once I get some funds) but they will be much easier to set up, I will be joining their leads, like a 'y' lead so they both operate off one channel. The F949 board has a socket for a rudder servo but I can mix this channel with ailerons to get the 2 servos working the ailerons. This should get my Ridge Runt ready to fly, just need to order my servos now, or more accurately, persuade my wife that I really need them. Lol.

[Andy M]

Started painting, looking better already. Tail end pic shows my elevator linkage. Works nice. Cant wait to get the board and aileron  servos for it.

[Andy M]

I finished off the paint scheme, I hadnt intended to have the black stripes as wide but the orange had seeped on one tailplane tip, so had to do wider stripes. Elmira is 36 inch wingspan compared to 24 for Ridge Runt.

[Andy M]

Some progress on the ridge runt, I have made a y lead, using sockets from two quads and a plug from the camera of one of them. This means I dont have to solder my servo wires together into one plug. Once the board is in place, it would be hard to access the socket anyway, this way I can plug the aileron servos in easily. They have been ordered and should have been here by now. Ah well, I have been doing other stuff instead.

[Andy M]

After waiting a week for my 1-2day delivery servos coming, I noticed there was a phone number, so I called the seller to see if they had actually posted them, he said they were posted and should have been here, so he said he would send 2 more, as long as I send the other ones back if they eventually turn up. No problem.
So, hopefully I should have them soon. I am looking forward to getting the Ridge Runt finished. Its a nice looking model and has one of my 'whizzy' motors so should be capable of flying. The reason I say this is that its a fairly thick wing, compared to my recent 3mm depron wings.

[Andy M]

Still no servos. 🙁 And I lost tiny delta in a very large field of 3ft high barley. So bit disappointed today. Will have another look in field anytime I pass, but not much hope.

[Andy M]

My tiny servos came, I tested them then cut holes in my wing for them. I had to cut 2 extra sections of wing skin out to cross the wires over the ribs. I glued these back in lightly with uhu once the wires were in. All works nice. The servos are uhu glued to ply plates then taped on with masking tape. I may use tiny spots of hotglue instead after testing. Control rods are paperclips. I did think about using 1mm carbon rods and paperclip ends bound on and superglued, but it turns out thats heavier than the full thing from paperclip.
 I have had to use a 350mah battery from syma x7 quadcopter to balance it in the right place. Bit heavier than an e-cig cell. Whole plane still feels light tho, so thats a good sign. Hopefully. It also 'nearly' fits in my elmira transport box. 😁

[Andy M]

I had 3 flights with the Ridge Runt, first was a test glide into tall weeds, which confirmed it was balanced ok. Next was a power on test flight over a football pitch, a bit too much elevator up trim and far too much movement resulting in a stall and fairly heavy looking ground contact. No damage, the wing had moved and pinged a couple of loom bands off. Reset the wing in place and turn down the movements on the elevator and ailerons. 3rd try lucky? Launched again, the elevator is dialed in now, flies nice, about 5 or 6 feet up, I try a gentle turn to the left, it flicks to the left and piles into the ground, bent prop, straightens out ok. The motor has been pushed back into the nose. I pull it out a bit and give it a try, nothing. Oops, done something. Other controls are fine.
 Turns out the back of the motor has been punched out, ah well, another one of my whizzy motors gone. One left. I put in a less revvy motor as I dont want to risk my last whizzy motor. Its getting a turn in my experimental canard, I am confident that will give me the little bit of extra power I think it needs. And its rear mounted so no crashy mashy risk. Or less.
 I am going to try Ridge Runt with the less powerful motor mainly because I want to try another go with the motor in the nose and if that doesnt work out, its getting a syma x7 motor under each wing. It was flying very nicely before I over controlled it. The ailerons have been turned down to 30% of what they were for its first 2 flights. I had turned it down to 70% for the last flight but it was still too much. I have still to try it on 30%, it may still be fierce. Football pitch is bit hard for testing over, into the barley is nice and soft but the chance of losing it is always present.....
 Anyway, ridge runt flies nice, it has lovely lines and I hope to manage a flight without any impacts in it. No structural damage though, apart from motor, that was 2 crashes, one pretty heavy. My T tail stayed attached, better than my full size ridge runt, I remember it snapping off many times on landing.

[Andy M]

I forgot to mention that these little motors are 7mm, not 8mm as I stated in the tiny deta post. I do have 8.5 mm versions, which look considerably bigger, given its only 1.5mm bigger. I dont know if these will melt my F949 board though.