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Mini-HowTo Learn to Fly with a DIY Plane under $100! (Flight Pics too!...and now Flight Videos!) INTRO: Learn to fly building a plane for less than $100!

The purpose of this mini How-To is mainly to encourage beginners who are on the fence trying to decide if they should join the RC plane world like I was. I want to show you how you can do it for less than $100 for all parts starting from zero supplies and experience to a full airplane ready to fly. Building your own plane will not only prove enjoyable; it will give you more knowledge about what you're flying, teach you about aviation a little, and best of all remove the worry that comes with flying something for the first time.



You will have a lot more fun and much less stress if you know that the whole frame of the plane is only $1 as opposed to having $300 flying through the air



With that said, let's get to building! First off though, I need to credit Flite Test for the design here. It is their FT Mini Scout. They are one of the best if not the best RC tutorial groups on the net. They have tons of free plans and tutorials that walk you through building each plane. My first plane was actually the FT Nutball but I changed over to the Scout and have built it at least 8 times as I have learned to fly!



PARTS LIST: FT Mini Scout Build 1x 20x30 Adams Foam Board ($1.00)

1x Flysky FS-CT6B 6 Channel Transmitter and Reciever ($40.00)

1x Emax MT1806 2280kv CCW Motor ($13.00)

1x Sky Power 12A ESC with Switch Mode BEC ($10.00)

1x 2S 500mah 35C EZ Flite Lipo Battery ($7.00)

2x Power Up 5g SG-50 Analog Ultra-Micro Servo ($6.00)

16x 5040 Props ($7.00)

Hot Glue Gun and Glue Sticks ($10.00)

Zip ties ($1.00)

Piano Wire($5.00) Grand Total: $99.00



If you already have a hot glue gun and zip ties you can lower that total even more! There are a lot of substitutions that could be done; the above items are just the parts I used and know will work. If you are looking for a good place where you can get most of the items I listed above check out headsuphobby.com. They have very low shipping...like $2.50!



BUILD PART 1: Things I Learned

In this section I give tips, recommendations and substitutions for the parts. As I said above it is not mandatory that you buy the things I listed but I know those will all work together. There is a lot of math that goes into the electronic system of planes to make sure everything is compatible and your plane doesn't turn into a flying ball of fire right when you are just getting the hang of it Also over the years many different physical connections have emerged making it hard to tell if all your parts will work together correctly.



So first off, the foam. Don't use Elmers. I know its so nice and sturdy but it is also 2x the weight of Adams and it will fly very poorly with this model. I know from experience.



If you know you are going to be using your radio for many different RC models then you might want to invest in one of the quality radios out there like the Futaba radio series. The radio I listed however is perfect for any beginner. The key feature of the radio you get is that it has at least 4 channels and I prefer 6. On your plane, the up and down motion, left and right and throttle will use up 3 channels already. It is nice to have more channels for fun later on(like retractable landing gear, lights, bomb bay, etc )



Okay, for the motor make sure you get CCW or you will be wondering why your plane will never fly in the direction you think it should be going in . I suggest you go with the motor I suggested because it has become very familiar with the concrete over time and still works like new! The kv rating is sort of complicated and there are many awesome tutorials you can read to understand them but I won't delve into that here...suffice to say that you want a high kv motor because we will be using small props.



The ESC converts messages from the receiver into commands for the motor to follow. You need an ESC that can withstand the amp draw you motor will use which depends on the motor and the prop used with that motor. Since my motor with the prop I use only draws around 7amps max I know the 12amp ESC will be fine. For this level of RC, you don't need to worry about what switch mode means except that it is cooler than linear



Three things with that battery....the mah rating, the C rating and the connection type. The ESC and battery I recommended above both use JST connectors. The mah is enough for at least 7 minutes of flying. The C rating times the mah is how many amps can be drawn from the battery. 20C is a little overkill but is certainly safe!



Servos, servos, servos. Get two of these...one for the elevator, one for the rudder. 5g is better than 9g for this design because they are lodged in a very tight space.



Get as many of these as you can afford. IMHO Gemfan props are the best. Make sure they are 5in and I recommend getting a pitch of 3 or 4 since I know that will work with the electronic combination. Just search for Gemfan 5040 prop pack on amazon.



Everything else I think goes without explaining. For the piano wire, 16AWG copper wire or wire from lawn pesticide flags will also work just fine.



BUILD PART 2: From Plan to Pieces

Download the plans here and print them out. Make sure the printer does not shrink to page. These are tiled plans so they will print perfectly on standard 8x11" paper. No need to go to Staples or something. Any printer will do.



Now we need to cut out the pieces. The black lines are for cutting. The red lines are for partial cuts....cutting through only the top paper and some of the foam. There are only around 7 pieces for this design. Once we have all our pieces we place them on top of the foam board and use pins to keep them from moving as we trace them on to the board.



Since the wings are identical you can only cut out one wing from the plans and just flip it over when you trace the second wing.



Now we that we have all our pieces we need to cut them all out. Use a sharp X-acto knife for this job. For the red lines again, lightly score the top paper and through the foam a little, making sure not to touch the bottom paper.



Unlike a lot of foam plane builds we are actually going to leave the paper on the plane for this one.





BUILD PART 3: From Pieces to Plane

To be honest it would be very hard to describe accurately and clearly the whole build process. Also, there is already a superb video that is better and more complete than anything I could do by Flitetest which I will post below. I have posted build pictures from two times when I was building it that will hopefully be helpful while you create it yourself.



A couple of tips though. For the firewall the best material I have found is an old Credit/Gift/Hotel Card. Because they bend fairly easily they are great for their purpose and easy to replace. They can also be used for the control horns as can be seen in the pictures below.



For the control rods I have used 16AWG copper wire because that was what I had on hand. The good thing about that wire is that it will not bend from the servo but if you crash on one of your control surfaces it will merely bend the wire which can be re-bent into shape easily. You might need some needle nose pliers to get the bends in the end nicely.



For the wings, I suggest using tape as a re-inforcer in the middle where they are glued together. Also, BBQ skewers are very helpful for making the crease for the underside of the wing.



You might notice that there is black and white foam used is the pictures below. I was trying out which foam would show everything better in the pictures but they are both Adams foam board.



To make the bevel on the control surfaces, bend the surface 180 degrees back and cut a 45 degree angle using and X-acto or razor blade.



For the electronics setup, you can see how everything is connected in the picture below. Make sure when ever you are testing the motor the prop is off!



Flite Test Build Video:



Flite Test | FT Mini Scout - BUILD (Mighty Minis) (44 min 19 sec)



CONCLUSION: From Plane to Pleasure!

I hope some of the tips in this guide are useful for someone! I can say that I love this design! I have used it to learn how to fly starting with zero experience. I am still learning but now I am pretty much able to keep it in the air as long as I intend Like I said, I have built this many times so if anyone needs help please feel free to ask! Good luck and happy flying!



PS: If I have a chance I will get a short video of one of my flights if anyone is interested....its pretty short though

PPS: Sorry for the long string of pictures, I couldn't find a better way to format it.

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