Micro-Glider
- powered micro-glider with small or removable prop for gliding/soaring
- smallest possible whilst still using standard servos, ESC and receiver
- very low wing loading to allow very slow flight
- be able to fly slowly in local park without hurting anyone
Specifications
- 0.6m wingspan, 0.1m chord
- 62g AUW with 180mA 2S battery
- aileron and elevator 2.5g servos
- 5.4g 3000Kv motor (120g thrust claimed at 7V)
Photos
Micro-Glider
Motor mount (3 gussets, glued only)
Servos glued against junction of CF fuse and CF spare to lock them together
Tail glued to CF fuselage, fin extends below for a skid
Front showing LE spar and wing-tips curved up
Wing front showing wiring and battery platform
Bottom of wing showing battery platform and rubber-band mount points
Bottom left showing receiver, servo and wing mounting balsa sheet
Bottom right shows ESC and second servo
Tail bottom showing skid and hinge
Plan for micro-glider
The plan in Inkscape format can be found here
Construction Steps
- cut out wing, tailplane and fin
- prepare wing
- cut ailerons out (this may have been better done after bending)
- curve the main wing (wrap on a tube and heat)
- glue in main wing spar
- hinge ailerons
- curve wing-tips
- glue in CF rod into LE and TE and tape LE
- test servos and receiver (direct solder servos to receiver)
- attach wing mount, servos, pushrods and horns (note: red,black,grey wires of SO251 servo correspond to red,black,white of normal size servo - red and black plug positions are swapped)
- tail
- hinge elevator (double-sided tape hinge)
- glue fin and tail-plane together
- fuselage
- glue skid and engine mounts on
- glue motor on (consider binding motor to mounts if insecure)
- glue tail on
- attach wing
- determine wing position for correct CG (40%?)
- glue wing on (by wing mount, servo sides
- glue on battery mount plate, ESC and receiver (to servos, battery plate)
Notes
- at balance time: wing+servos+RX+ESC+battery=40g, fuse+motor+mount+tail+pushrod=14g
- after wing glued to fuselage (incl. servos, motor tail, but no pushrods) = 35g
- final flying weight = 57g