Get Set Fly – Part 1

Here’s to my passion about knowing all about planes, how to build and fly one. This series is going to be helpful for any beginners out there looking to start with building an RC plane, know what to do, and what not to.

My first RC plane

After a lot of research on RC planes, I went with the model with a lot of customization possible even though being a beginner plane, with lots of people getting their hands dirty on it, the TinyTrainer. The interesting thing is that it allows you to go upto 4 channels, but you can start using it as a glider or a 2/3 channel plane if you want to as a beginner.

Q. What does Glider / 2 channel / 3 channel / 4 channel mean?

Channels refer to the number of degrees of Control you have over your plane. Higher the number of controls, means flying can get trickier, but also that you can do complex maneuvers.

• A glider does not have a powered throttle, so you launch it from a height and use RC to just steer the plane. Usually you can add only 1 degree of control ie the rudder.
• The 2 channels are the 2 controls, the Rudder and the Throttle
• A 3 channel plane has an additional control for the Elevator.
• A 4 channel plane has an added control for the Ailerons.

I purchased a variant which is different from TinyTrainer in terms of the cutouts are ready for me to use. You can get it here:

What do you need?

• A plane 🙂 I purchased the RedTrainer from RCBazaar. It includes the entire cutouts for the body including the Motor mount, Control horns and the Push rods. Basically a jumpstart for everything you need to get started.
• A Brushless DC motor with a compatible propeller.
• An Electronic Speed control. This has 2 purposes: Control the Brushless DC motor(our throttle). Being able to convert our 11.1V Lithium polymer battery input to a 5V input which is required by all our electronics.
• Lithium Polymer Battery 11.1V + Charger. I also recommend a battery voltage monitor and use it whenever you are dealing with the battery.
  NOTE: Before you get started with LiPo batteries, note that they are notoriously dangerous. Start watching Lipo explosions (clickbait) and then proceed to read the DOs and DONTs of working with these.
• Transmitter-Receiver pair:  I purchased a 6 channel transmitter-receiver from Flysky (FSi6). You might want to invest in higher channels based on what you are planning to do next.
• 9 gm Servos(1.2kg-cm torque is good enough for our purpose) based on how many channels or degrees of control your plane has. Although there are only 3 control planes for us (Rudder, Aileron and Elevator), we need 4 servos as each Aileron has 1 servo.

Some small misses in the kit / motor which would have been nice to be included but they were missing:

• M3 Screws for motor. I purchased 8mm length screws but they were a little long, so you might even get a little smaller ones.
• Bullet connectors for BLDC motor. I had to solder my motor directly to EC because these were missing.

I would also advise having a toolbox with all essentials: Soldering kit, Glue gun, Nose-pliars, Pliars, Screwdrivers, Digital multimeter, Jumper wires

Where to get all this stuff? If you are located in Bangalore, then SP road is the place to get almost all of the above stuff. (except RCBazaar parts, you need to head to their Koramangala office to get those)

Learn to fly?

This is one of the biggest questions anyone learning to fly would have in mind. I bring to you a couple of nice ways to learn how to fly.

Method 1: Buy a converter cable

This sounds easier, but in practice is a little more expensive and takes longer(shipping) than the DIY method. But here’s a link for the cable if you want to take this route.

Method 2: DIY Make your own connector cable

Making your own cable simply requires 1 Auxiliary cable and 1 S-Video cable.

Here’s the pin-out diagram on how to connect the two depending on whether you use a 3 or 4 pole cable. (Please read troubleshooting instructions below regarding which one should you use depending on your Aux input configuration)

4 pole Aux to SVideo connector pinout

3 pole Aux to SVideo connector pinout

Software

You require to install some software to create virtual devices for your Operating system. Here is the software to use:

• Windows: You need to install SmartPropPlus software
  Tested simulator: Microsoft Flight Simulator
• Linux: I used TXPPM on linux.
  Tested Simulator: FlightGear
• OSX(Untested): MacPPM

Troubleshooting

• Is your AUX cable a 3-pole cable?
  It won’t work in modern computers which don’t have 2 jacks, one for Mic Input and other for Sound Output but a single jack. You would need a 4-conductor cable.
• Windows troubleshooting
  Windows does a lot of microphone enhancement techniques. Find them in your Control panel -> Sound and Recording devices and turn them all off.
• SmartPropPlus troubleshooting
  The UI for SmartPropPlus can become very laggy, it is best to minimize when in background.
• TXPPM Linux build troubleshooting
  Compile issues with Linux 4.11+, here are some solutions for this issue.

Coming up next: How to set up the electronics, how to build your plane.