VTOLT Build Instructions

VTOL Trainer Build Instructions
The VTOLT (Vertical Take Off and Landing Trainer) is a combination of a basic RC trainer aircraft with a quad-copter. It was designed to be easy and fun to fly in all flight modes from hover to full forward flight (FFF). It is implemented as a kit bash based on the popular Bixler EPO Trainer, making It relatively cheap and easy to build using standard off the shelf parts. There is no programming involved and no code to download or install. A computer is not required, except to print the instructions. The motor mounts are the only parts that require any significant custom fabrication and hopefully one of the major hobby distributors will soon be offering them based on this design. As an airplane, the VTOLT is very normal. It does all the typical maneuvers you would expect of a trainer including inside loops, rolls, and inverted flight. It is a bit heavier and more complex than a typical trainer, and is not very fast due to the low pitch propellers. The flight times also tend to be fairly short, as little as 5 minutes with a 2,200mAh battery. As a quad-copter the VTOLT is very easy to fly. It is mostly auto stabilized by the onboard electronics. I would not recommend it as your first quad-copter only because there are excellent, cheap, and extremely durable quad-copters that you can learn to fly in your living room. If you can comfortably hover tail in, meaning the aircraft is facing away from you, then you will have no difficulty hovering the VTOLT. Transitions from hover, to SFF (Slow Forward Flight), to FFF (Fast Forward Flight), and back again, are as easy as flipping a switch and flying the plane. SFF is the easiest flight mode, ranging from gentle cruising in airplane mode to a nose high hover.
Designed by: Ran D. St. Clair
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Unlike a lot of VTOL aircraft, including most tail sitter types, the VTOLT handles a modest amount of wind with ease. It flies at any speed from slowly backwards to full forward flight, so you can simply point the nose into the wind, match your airspeed to the wind speed, and hover for a takeoff or a landing. The purpose of these instructions is to share the recipe. There is no profit motive and no commercial affiliation. The information is free and any hobby supplier is free to take the design and run with it. All of the enabling technologies are now available and relatively cheap. Its just that not very many people have figured out how to put them all together in this way. A short video of the VTOLT in flight is available here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UyVF0xCNMos&feature=youtu.be These build instructions are based heavily on the original build thread, including video and lots of detailed information that can be found here: http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1814667
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Specifications
Weight: 3 pounds, 4 oz. Wingspan: 48.5 Wing Area: 346 sq. in. Maximum Power: 555W Measured Battery Current: 0.43A - All motors at full idle 18.4A Hover Power 49A to 51A Full Throttle Each motor is drawing about 4.5A at hover power and 12.4A at Full Throttle (FT). The FT battery current peaks at about 51A when FT is first applied, but within second it drops to under 50A, and in a second or so it is down to 49A. Presumably this is due to a drop off in battery voltage at this current. The FT thrust peaks at 5 pounds 12 oz., and quickly drops off to 5 pounds 8 oz. Considering that the plane weighs 3 pounds 4 oz., it has a FT thrust to weight ratio of between 1.69 and 1.77. The battery I am using is rated at 35-70C discharge, but now has at least 30 discharge cycles, some of them to pretty near flat, and is slightly puffed. The actual FT discharge rate is about 22.7C, so well under the 35C specification. In flight I expect it only ever goes slightly above the hover current or about 20A. I do fly the plane at FT briefly, but usually in forward flight mode where the motors are not so heavily loaded. At 4.5A per motor, the hover current is actually less than I would have expected. Even so, I am only getting about 5 minute flights using 2/3 of the battery capacity. At 20A average, which is probably on the high side, 5 minutes is about 1.7Ah, which is about 75% of the batteries 2.2Ah rating, so the numbers are close to reality.
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Radio Requirements
The VTOL-Trainer requires a 7 channel Transmitter (TX) and Receiver (RX) as a minimum. The prototype was based on the Spectrum DX7s, which has a 3 position flap switch that can be used to tilt the motors slowly from hover mode, to Slow Forward Flight (SFF) mode, to Fast Forward Flight (FFF) mode. This function can also be provided with an analogue input like a pot or a slider so long as it is accessible without removing your hands or thumbs from the sticks, or if necessary only your left hand briefly, assuming you are flying mode 2 with your right hand controlling pitch and roll. If you decide to control the motor tilt angle directly, you may wish to use a servo slower to smooth the transition between hover and forward flight. Here are 2 such products, though I have not tested them so I cannot recommend them. http://www.rcdude.com/servlet/the-17/Dionysus-Servo-Rate-Reducer/Detail http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbycity/store/uh_viewItem.asp?idproduct=8863 It is possible to use a 6 channel TX and RX if you use some sort of a Matchbox like this one to adjust the endpoints and travel direction of the two motor tilt servos. I have not personally tested this solution. http://www.espritmodel.com/jr-servo-matchbox.aspx It is not possible to drive both of the two motor tilt servos with a Y harness. They need to travel in opposite directions, and even if they did not, it would be difficult or impossible to adjust the linkages to get them both to work together properly. If you have a TX and RX with more than 7 channels you may choose to eliminate some or all of the Y harnesses that are required for this design. If you choose to use a Flight Controller other than the recommended KK2, you will need to determine your own stability parameters, and a way to vary those parameters between hover and FFF mode.
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Control System Block Diagram
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Consolidated Parts List

I have attempted to provide a detailed listing of every part required, as well as a current valid URL where you can buy them. I am not suggesting that you must buy them from these suppliers. I am mostly providing the URL information in case there is any confusion about the nature of the parts or materials. You probably already have much of what is required, or it can be found at your local stores. Obviously, you will need to make substitutions to match your radio. 1. 1 each, Bixler V1.1 kit, for $36.40 each Hobbyking_Bixler_v1_1_EPO_1400mm_KIT_.html 2. 1 each Hobbyking KK2.0 Flight Controller board - $29.99 each. Hobbyking_KK2_0_Multi_rotor_LCD_Flight_Control_Board.html 3. 1 each, HobbyKing OrangeRS R710 Spectrum DSM2 Compatible 7 channel RX for use with Spectrum DX7s TX. $19.95 each. Any 7 channel RX will do. OrangeRx_R710_Spektrum_DSM2_Compatible_7Ch_Receiver.html 4. 1 each, HobbyKing Orange R100 satellite RX to add RF path diversity. $11.83 each OrangeRx_R100_Satellite_Receiver.html 5. 4 each, Turnigy Plush 18A brushless motor speed controllers - $11.90 each. TURNIGY_Plush_18amp_Speed_Controller.html 6. 1 each, HobbyKing, Li-Po Low Voltage Alarm $1.99 each. (Optional) On_Board_Lipoly_Low_Voltage_Alarm_2s_3s.html 7. 2 each, Turnigy nano-tech 2200mah 3S 35~70C Lipo pack, $21.55 each. (The 2nd battery is optional) Turnigy_nano_tech_2200mah_4S_35_70C_Lipo_Pack.html 8. 4 each HEXTRONIK, HXT900, 9 gram servos or similar, $2.69 HXT900_9g_1_6kg_12sec_Micro_Servo_USA_Warehouse_.html 9. As needed, Wire, 18AWG, Silicon Insulation, Flexible, $0.51/meter http://www.hobbyking.com Turnigy_Pure_Silicone_Wire_18AWG 10. 12 each, 2mm bullet connectors, Motor Wires, $1.98/10 male-female pair http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/__66__2mm_Gold_Connectors_10_pairs_20pc_.html 11. 1 each, Castle Creations CC BEC 10A (peak), $24.95 each http://www.rcplanet.com/CC BEC 10A 12. 4 each, CarbonBird 1175kv, 175W, Reversed shaft for 3S motors, $23.50 each http://www.multiwiicopter.com/products/carbonbird-motor-nmb-1175kv-reversed-shaft 13. 2 each, CW and 2 each CCW, GWS, 9 diameter, 5 pitch, 3 blade, 5mm hub, Props, $19.85 per 4 each CW and 4 each CCW http://www.multiwiicopter.com/products/sku-27 Designed by: Ran D. St. Clair rd_s_c@pacbell.net Page 6
14. 16 each, M3 x 5 Bolt, 3mm Stainless Steel Hex Head 5mm Shaft, $2.75/10. http://www.multiwiicopter.com/products/m3-bolt-3mm-stainless-steel-hex-head-5mm-shaft-setof-10 15. 5 pair each, JST Gold Plated Connectors w. 20 AWG flying leads, Male and FemaIe, $6.50/6 pair http://www.multiwiicopter.com/products/jst-gold-plated-6-pairs 16. 1 each, Power Distribution Harness, XT60, JST 5 way, $9.95 each. http://www.multiwiicopter.com/products/power-distribution-harness-xt60-jst-5-way 17. 1 each,XT60 Male connector, $1.99/male-female pair, Not needed if you buy the XT60 Power Distribution Harness http://www.multiwiicopter.com/products/xt60-pair 18. 3 each, 50mm Y harness, $3.75 each http://www.multiwiicopter.com/products/y-lead-50mm-rc-servo-connector-1-male-jr-2-femalesfutaba 19. 5 each, 5 female to female cables for connection from the RX to the KK2 board, $1.50 each. http://www.aeroquadstore.com/Receiver_Cable_5_inch_length_p/rcvr-002.htm 20. 36, McMaster Carr, 8975K823, 1 x 1/16 6061 Aluminum strip stock, $3.79/6ft. 21. 8 each, McMaster Carr, 91125A339, 1/8" long by 1/4" dia. stainless steel standoff with 440 internal thread,,For use on motor mounts, $1.14 each. 22. 8 each McMaster Carr 90062A015 nylon short barrel shoulder washers that will act as bushings on motor mounts, $5.82/100. 23. 8 each, McMaster Carr, 91735A101, 4-40, Pan Head, Phillips, 3/16 long, for use on motor mounts, $5.65/50 24. 4 each, McMaster Carr, 8876T15, 3/16 Nylon Cable Clamp, $5.40/100 25. 4 each, McMaster Carr, 90272A108, 4-40 screw, Pan Head, Phillips, 3/8 long, holds cable clamp on side of motor mount, $1.49/100 26. 4 each, McMaster Carr, 90631A005, Nylon Insert Hex Locknut, 4-40, holds cable clamp on side of motor mount. $2.55/100 27. 4 each McMaster Carr, 90126A505, #4 Flat Washer, 5/16 O.D., Zinc Plated, Holds cable clamp on side of motor mount. $1.09/100 28. 4 each, McMaster Carr, 90272A079, 2-56 screw, Pan Head, Phillips, 3/8 long, holds cable clamp on side of motor mount, $3.28/100
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29. 4 each, McMaster Carr, 90480A003, 2-56 Hex Nut, holds over rotation stop on side of motor mount, $1.21/100 30. 5 each, McMaster Carr, 90184A115, #4 self tapping screws, 1 long, Phillips Pan Head, for use on landing gear mount, $11.99/100 31. 20 each, McMaster Carr, 90184A108, #4 Self Tapping Screws, long, Phillips Pan Head, For use on motor mounts and strut mount, $6.01/100 32. As needed, McMaster Carr, 7610A11, 3M Super 77 spray adhesive, $20.81/24 fluid oz 33. As needed, McMaster Carr, 91458A111, Loctite, 242 blue removable, $1.95/.02oz. 34. 2 each, McMaster, Carr 90975A002, 4-40 blind nuts, For use on wing mount plate, $10.29/100 35. 2 each, McMaster Carr, 90272A121, 4-40 stainless steel pan head Phillips screws, 2 long, For mounting the wing. $6.30/50 36. 2 each, McMaster Carr, 91735A029, 2-56 Pan Head Phillips Screw, long, Rear Landing Gear Mount, $7.10/50 37. 2 each, McMaster Carr, 91735A021, 2-56 Pan Head Phillips Screw,1/2 long, Front Landing Gear Mount, $6.18/50 38. 2 each, McMaster Carr, 90126A509, #6 Flat washers, For wing mount, $1.31/100 39. As Needed, McMaster Carr, 7130K12, Small Cable Ties, $2.27/100 40. As needed, Elmers white glue, McMaster Carr, 7516A1, $3.12 each. http://www.mcmaster.com/# 41. 2 each, 6mm x 1mm carbon fiber (CF) strips, $3.50 each http://www.rcfoam.com/6mmx1mm CF 42. 1 each, CF rod, 2.5mm, .098, 1000mm (39) long, Wing Struts, $2.50 each http://www.rcfoam.com/2.5mm CF Rod 43. Misc, 6mm Depron, $4.49/ 13 x 39 sheet http://www.rcfoam.com/6mm Depron Sheet 44. 1 each, BluCor Foam, 2 x 12 x 24, Used for Motor Pods, $5.00 each. http://www.rcfoam.com/BluCor Foam 2" 45. 1 each, Foam-Tac glue, $9.99/2oz. http://www.rcfoam.com/product_info.php?products_id=1243 46. Misc., 30 minute Epoxy, $8.99/9 oz. http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...&I=LXPT46&P=ML
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47. 4 each, Dubro catalogue number 181, 2-56 threaded ball link, for use on motor mounts, $1.94 each. http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...P?I=LXD897&P=8 48. 2 each, Hitec HS-85MG Metal Gear Servo, $29.99 each http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin/wti0001p?&I=LXN685 49. 4 each, 2-56 blind nuts, $0.99/4 http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin/wti0001p?&I=LXD966 50. Misc., Foam Safe thin CA Glue, $11.69/1oz. http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...P?I=LXM365&P=8 51. 2 each, Dionysus in line servo reversers, $11.95 each. http://www.rcdude.com/servlet/the-19/Dionysus-Servo-Reverser-V2/Detail 52. 1 each, Y Extension 12" Futaba Plugs 26 AWG - WY-FP-15, for aileron servos, $3.75 each. http://www.slickzero.com/page/SRHP/PROD/Extensions/WY-FP-15 53. 2 each, Hyperion Servo Extension Cable - Standard 12", to drive tilt motors, $2.95 each http://www.rcdude.com/servlet/the-680/Hyperion-Extension-Cable--dsh-/Detail 54. 1 each, Sullivan, SUL505, Gold-n-Rod Semi-flexible, blue outer housing, yellow inner rod, $7.95 each. http://www.horizonhobby.com/products/pushrods-semi-flex-36-w-clevis-2--SUL505 55. 1 each, White Ultracote, $15.99/roll http://www.horizonhobby.com/products/ultracote--white-HANU870 56. 1 each, Trex 500 helicopter Landing gear set, $9.99 each http://www.ronlund.com/rcheli-prod/ALIGN500_LANDING/H50047.html 57. 8 each, Great Planes, 4-40 Clevis, GPMQ3795, For use on wing struts, $8.49/12 http://www3.towerhobbies.com/4-40 Clevis 58. As needed, Formula 560 Canopy Glue, $3.99/2oz. http://www.horizonhobby.com/products/zap-formula-560-canopy-glue-PAAPT56 59. As needed, Sticky Back, Velcro. 1 wide, Component mounting, $1.88 http://www.cableorganizer.com/velcro-adhesive 60. As needed, Plumbers Goop, Household Goop, Automotive Goop, etc. but they are all the same thing, $4.59 http://www.kmart.com/amazing-goop 61. As needed., thick Foamsafe CA glue, $16.99/2oz. http://www.hobbylinc.com/htm/hot/hotufo4t.htm 62. As needed, Non-Shrink Spackle, $6.00/qt. Designed by: Ran D. St. Clair rd_s_c@pacbell.net Page 9
http://www.globalindustrial.com/Non-Shrink Spackle 63. 1 each, Cellfoam1/8, for use on hatch, $5.49 http://www.midwestproducts.com/18_3mm_x_11-12_x_11-12_Cellfoam_88.aspx 64. As needed, Aircraft Plywood, Midwest Products 65. 6 x 12 x 1/64, $7.99 each 66. 6 x 12 x 1/32, $8.98 each 67. 6 x 12 x 1/16, $35.99/6 sheets 68. 6 x 12 x 3/32, $39.99/6 sheets 69. 6 x 12 x 1/8, $37.99/6 sheets 70. 6 x 12 x , $20.99/6 sheets http://www.midwestproducts.com/Plywood http://www.utrechtart.com/midwest-thin-aircraft-grade-birch-plywood-12-x-24-in-sheets---4--3mm-thick http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin/WTI0001P?I=LXAS66&P=8 71. As needed, Scotch tape, , Available Everywhere
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Motor Mounts
The motor mounts are the most difficult part of this project, which is why I am hoping that someone will pick up the design and offer it commercially. They are not difficult to build if you have some basic tools, but it would still be much easier to buy them. Lets begin with some of the basic design philosophy and specifications. They need to be simple, strong and reliable of course, and they should be as easy to make as possible. I wanted them to be as narrow as reasonably possible because the motor boom will be as wide as the motor mount, and it blocks a portion of the rotor disk and reduces the resulting lift when in hover mode. The motor pivot point is roughly at the C.G. for the combination of the motor and the propeller. This reduces the gravity loads on the tilt servo, and also reduces the shock loads in case of a rough landing. This design cant protect the servo if the motor or prop hit something though. The motor pivot point is also in line with the prop shaft, so motor thrust will not be translated to servo torque. The mount has a mechanical over rotation stop in the vertical direction. This is a safety feature to try and avoid a prop-boom strike. Depending on the accuracy of the build, the stop may engage 1 or 2 degrees before the motor reaches vertical. This is by design as it provides more clearance between the Designed by: Ran D. St. Clair rd_s_c@pacbell.net Page 11
prop and the boom. It is also convenient to have the motors tilted slightly forward even when in full hover mode. It just means that the aircraft hovers 1 or 2 degrees nose high which is convenient for a number of reasons. If you should use this design where you need the motor to rotate farther you can simply remove the over-rotation stop, or you can file a small depression in the side of the outer yoke to have the stop engage wherever you want. The tilt bearings are stainless steel in a nylon bushing. They require no lubrication which might attract dust. They are not perfectly without slop, but the math says that the slop due to the bearing alone is just slightly over 1 degree. This has not been a problem in previous designs. The tilt input is via a standard 2-56 threaded ball link, Du-Bro catalogue number 181, with a lever arm of 0.5. This works well with a typical servo output arm of about the same radius or slightly less. It is best if the linkage uses close to the maximum available servo travel for maximum torque and minimum slop. The motor wires are well managed throughout the tilt range with no kinks or stress points. There are provisions for a nylon cable clamp on both sides of the outer yoke. The design is intended to be left/right symmetrical with one exception. The standard motor mount bolt pattern is not symmetrical with respect to the direction that the wires exit the motor. A universal mount would require slotted holes, which is not convenient or necessary for hand made prototypes, so the motor mount holes are simply located as required. The motor mount is suitable for both tractor and pusher applications, however, the possibility of a propeller-boom strike is greater for a pusher due to flexibility of the propeller blades. The mount is intended for use with a simple plywood firewall and will typically be attached with 4 each #4 self tapping screws. It weighs about 18g including bearings, over-rotation stop, ball link and wire management hardware. For reference, it is typically used with motors weighing 50g to 68g on VTOL aircraft weighing about 48 oz (3 lb). The mount works with the Carbonbird motors which are 28mm in diameter. It should also work well for similar Scorpion, E-flite and AXi motors of essentially the same diameter. I did run into an unexpected snag during the build of the 4 prototypes. Of the 4 motors I received from Multiwiicopter.com, one has a reverse image mounting bolt pattern. This is not a huge problem for me. I simply filed the mounting holes into slots with a needle file. It means, however, that I cant give you a universal motor mount design. You can use this design as a basis, but you will need to check your specific motors to determine if they will fit. Its much easier to drill them to fit in the first place rather than filing them to fit later.
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Inconsistent Bolt Patterns I also note that the Multiwiicopter.com web site calls for the mounting holes to be 16.5mm by 19mm spacing. They are not. They are 16mm by 19mm. Personally I would rather they were square, like 19mm by 19mm, but this offset spacing seems to be some kind of an industry standard. The E-Flite and AXi motors I own have a similar spacing.
Motor Mount Build Instructions

Print the page with the motor mount drawing at 100% scale and verify that both pieces are 1 from top to bottom. Also verify the motor mount holes as needed for your specific motors. You can often use the X mount that comes with the motors as a template. Make sure the motor wires exit straight down as viewed on the drawing. You will need 4 more copies to use as templates. The templates dont need to be cut exactly on the line, but if you are using 1 wide base stock then the one long edge should be cut precisely to aid in positioning the templates. You can use 1 strip stock from your local hardware store or you can buy 1/16 thick strip or sheet stock from McMaster Carr or most any other source. The alloy is not critical but 6061, 1001, or 3003 is most common. You dont want any prior heat treatment because you need it to be soft for bending.
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Spray a light coat of 3M Super 77 spray adhesive on your aluminum stock and place the paper templates for efficient material use. Let the glue dry so your templates dont shift when you begin work.
Place Templates I recommend you drill the holes first and then cut the pieces apart. Carefully center punch each of the holes to be drilled. This is the most critical step for the accuracy of the final product. Using sharp drills at low speed, drill each of the holes to the size specified on the drawing. Holes larger than 1/8 should be drilled to 1/8 first and then drilled to their final size. A drill press makes this much easier and more accurate.
Drill Holes Soft aluminum is gummy and will leave large burrs on the exit side of the drill holes. I like to use a piece of soft wood under the aluminum to avoid smashing the burrs which makes them more difficult to remove. I also use a sharp wood chisel to slice the burrs off the backside of the aluminum. You may need to do this after every hole, or every few holes, otherwise the burrs will accumulate and you wont be able to lay the aluminum flat for further drilling.
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Removing burrs The 5/8 hole in the center of the outer yoke is not absolutely necessary. It is only there to remove excess material and make the mounts lighter. I used a bi-metal hole saw, but you can also drill it out with the largest drill you have, or not drill it at all. Cut the pieces out using whatever tools you have. A hack saw and a file will work if necessary. A good jig saw with the proper blade is better. A sheet metal sheer is best, or since these pieces are all fairly small I used a manually operated corner cutter. I also used a belt sander to clean up the edges and remove the burrs, but you can do the job with a file or even a sanding block. You can make the bends in a bench vice, but a sheet metal brake is best. You will note that the drawings show 3 lines at the bends. The one in the middle is the center of the bend, and the ones on either side show where the bend begins and ends. They also show precisely where to position the brake shoe. The tip of the shoe is placed on top of the line nearest the end of the part. See the included picture for reference. Also note that a plastic square was used to insure that the parts were exactly perpendicular to the brake. Bend the inner motor mount piece slightly past 90 degrees. It will be easier to bend it back out a little if necessary later. Also, it will tend to bend out a little when the motor screws are tightened.
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Bending Brake
Overbend
Use a small tray with a little acetone to loosen the paper templates, and then use an acid brush to scrub off the glue. You can use a 3M paint stripper wheel to clean up the surface of the metal and remove any remaining burrs if you are so inclined. I use mine in the drill press at high speed, but work gently as it will remove material quickly if you let it. Once the parts are clean, wash with soap and water to remove any residue. You can paint the parts with rattle can paint if you want, but it isnt necessary.
Bent
Cleaning In Acetone
Final assembly requires some adjustment to get everything to fit just right. Insert the McMaster Carr, 90062A015, nylon bushings from the outside in, into the two 3/8 diameter holes of the inner motor mount. They should fit snug. If they are too tight you may have to file them out a touch. If they are too loose you may need a drop of CA to lock them in place. You dont want them to be sloppy as it will contribute to motor tilt angle slop. Dont allow the CA to get into the bearing surface.
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Stub Shaft and Bushings http://www.mcmaster.com/#catalog/119/3235/=lm08z4
Bushing Placement
Mount the motor in the inner motor mount using 4 each of the 3MM button head screws. You can also use the flat head screws that came with the motor but you should really countersink the holes in that case. http://www.multiwiicopter.com/products/m3-bolt-3mm-stainless-steel-hex-head-5mm-shaft-set-of-10 Test fit the inner motor mount into the outer yoke. You want the outer yoke to pinch inward on the nylon bushings slightly, but not so much that it creates excessive drag on the nylon bushings. Make any necessary adjustments to the bend angles of the outer yoke. If you see that you also need to make adjustments to the inner motor mount bend angles then remove the motor first. You dont want to bend the motor shaft or damage the motor. When everything looks good and the pinch pressure is about right remove the motor from the inner motor mount. You will need it out of the way to install the stainless steel shaft stubs, McMaster Carr, 91125A339, using a 3/16 long 4-40 screw. A standard mild steel screw with a Phillips pan head will work fine. http://www.mcmaster.com/#catalog/119/3239/=lm0ewe Now remount the motor and check the pinch fit. You can pry the outer yoke open slightly if it is too tight, and you can pinch the outer yoke together slightly in a vice if necessary. Eventually, you will want to lock down all of the various screws with 242 blue removable Loctite. For now, only put Loctite on the 2 screws that hold the stainless steel standoffs. You will need to remove the motor to access the standoffs. Use a minimum of Loctite and keep it out of the bearing surface area because once these are installed there is no easy way to remove them. Now you can mount the over rotation stop, the ball joint, and the cable clamp. The 3/16 cable clamp, McMaster Carr, 8876T15, is mounted with a 3/8 long, 4-40 screw, with a Phillips pan head, from the inside out. Use a washer and a 4-40 nylock nut on the outside. Small cable clamps like this should be available at your local hardware store, or similar. You may have to slightly file the upper rear corner of the inner motor mount to make it clear the head of the cable clamp screw.
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http://www.mcmaster.com/#nylon-cable-clamps/=lm0me3 The over-rotation stop is assembled from a nylon spacer, McMaster Carr, 94639A193, and a 3/8 long, 2-56 Pan head Phillips screw, and a 2-56 nut. Mount the 2-56 threaded ball link, Du-Bro catalogue number 181, with the included washer under the ball link, not the nut. Otherwise the threaded shaft of the ball link might extend too far inward and touch the motor bell housing. Speaking of which, make sure that the motor turns freely and nothing is touching the bell housing.
Critical Clearance Areas Thread the motor wires though the cable clamp and make sure they have an adequate service loop when the motor is vertical. When the motor is rotated to horizontal there should be no stress on the wires. You will need to remove the motor from the motor mount one more time when you install the assembly to the firewall.
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Motor Pods
Motor Pod The two wing mounted motor pods are made from 2 thick blue foam, available at your local building supply store, or if you dont want to buy so much of it you can get a 2 x 12 x 24 piece for $5.00 plus shipping here: http://www.rcfoam.com/product_info.php?cPath=72&products_id=349&osCsid=6bc29e881afe435910e a27dc8e9b815f Print 2 copies of the pages with the motor pod templates. Be sure to print it at 100% scale. Both pieces should be 9 1/8 from end to end. It is drawn in two pieces so it will fit on a standard 8 x 11 piece of paper. Cut the pieces out and tape them together at the join line making sure that the datum line that runs through both pieces is straight. You will need a right and a left. As printed the template is for the inside surface of the left motor pod. You can use PDF software to flip the image, or do it old school with a straight pin and a pencil. Just poke holes at the various corners of the servo and then flip the paper over and connect the dots.
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Motor Pod Template Spray a light cote of 3M Super 77 spray adhesive on the templates and lay them on the foam. Cut out the pieces with a jig saw, or whatever you have, but take care to cut them square. You will note an arrow on the template that says Cut to here. We are going to intentionally cut the wing opening slightly short. Later, we will test fit the pods onto the wing and use the wing itself as a template to mark and cut the trailing edge of the slot for a perfect fit. Use your finger to smear a coat of Elmers glue in the wing saddle area and let it dry. This will toughen it up a bit. Use the attached firewall template to make all 4 firewalls out of 3/32 aircraft plywood. The templates should measure 2 wide, use 3M Super 77,or you can use rubber cement which is easier to remove, and you know the rest.
Firewalls Double check the foam for square before attaching the firewall pieces with epoxy. The flat side of the firewall goes to the top on the front of the pod, and to the bottom in the rear. The little round notch goes to the inside, which is the side where the paper is attached. Tape the firewalls in place with some scotch tape and let them cure. Use a sharp X-acto knife to cut the openings for the tilt servos. I am using Hitec HS-85MG servos but any similar metal gear servo should work. You dont have to cut the servo pockets to full depth right now, but you need to cut them deep enough so you can tell where the servos will go after you remove the paper template. When you do cut the pocket to full depth later, leave a shelf on the front side for the servo mount boss. There is no shelf on the back side since the extra material is removed to allow room for the servo wires.
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Servo Opening with Shelf Remove the paper templates and carve and sand the motor pods to shape. Round all the corners as much as possible except in the area of the wing saddle, and even there a little rounding at the leading edge and trailing edge of the wing wont hurt. We want to allow the air to flow around the motor pods as easily as possible, especially in the area of the prop disk when in a hover. Dont be afraid to sand down the edges of the firewalls a bit, they are a little larger than necessary.
Shaped Motor Pods Finish digging out the servo pockets until the servos fit so the top of the servo arm mounting screw is flush with the outer surface of the pod. A small blade screwdriver seems to be the best tool for this. You will also need to carve out room for the lower part of the servo arm to swing through its range of motion. Poke a hole through the bottom of the motor pod into the servo pocket for the servo wire. There will be a 6mm strip of carbon fiber running down the center bottom of the pod so locate the hole to the inside of the carbon fiber strip.
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Servo Pocket and Wire Carve out the slots for the motor wires and the servo wire per the pictures below.
Front Motor Wire and Servo Wire slot
Rear Motor Wire Slot Carve out the slot for the Sullivan Gold-n-Rod outer housing. I used the semi-flexible type with the blue outer sheathing and the yellow nylon inner rods. The slot is aligned with the tip of the lower servo output arm, across the top surface of the wing and is clear of the motor pod for the last 2 or so. I carved the slot with a 3/16 diameter round file. Designed by: Ran D. St. Clair rd_s_c@pacbell.net Page 22
Gold-n-Rod Slot The Gold-n-Rod outer housing is 12 5/8 long and the rear end aligns with the surface of the rear fire wall. It is intended to support the yellow nylon inner rod throughout its entire length to prevent unwanted bowing. Dry fit the servo, servo arm, clevis, push rod, etc. and make sure it all lines up nicely with plenty of clearance for the full range of servo travel. Also, check that the rear end of the pushrod housing is pointed directly at the ball joint with the motor mount test fitted in place. The top of the motor mount will be located flush with the flat edge of the firewall and is centered left to right. Permanently glue the Gold-n-Rod outer housing in place. I used a bead of Foam-Tac and some scotch tape to temporarily hold it in its slot.
Gluing Gold-n-Rod Outer Housing You will need 2 each 6mm x 1mm carbon fiber (CF) strips at $3.50 each available here: http://www.rcfoam.com/product_info.php?products_id=797&osCsid=f8b889d2908e9589b190e4f08036 4d71 Rough up one side of both CF strips with some fine sandpaper. I do this in the sink with a little water running so any loose fibers go down the drain. You may also want to wear gloves as the fibers can be very itchy. Cut one strip in half for use along the top of the two motor pods. Groove the foam on a shallow angle about 1 away from the firewall on the top and bottom at both ends of the motor pods. Dry fit the CF strips in the slots in the top of the firewall. It is not necessary to groove the foam along the entire length of the motor pod. Cut a triangular hole in the foam where it meets the firewall under the groove. The idea is that we will fill this hole with epoxy when we glue the CF strip in place. It will form an epoxy filet and strengthen the joint between the CF strip and the firewall.
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Grooves and fillet holes Glue the CF strips to the top of the motor pods using epoxy and tape the strips in place while the epoxy cures. Trim the CF strips to length after the epoxy is hard. If you want, you can apply some non-shrink spackle to fill in the area around the CF strips. The bottom carbon fiber strip will be applied after the motor pods are glued to the wing.
Carbon Fiber Glued
Carbon Fiber Spackled Now is the time to finish the motor pods by whatever method you prefer, however, no finish is actually necessary. I applied white Ultracote with a low temperature iron. Do not cover the wing saddle area or the bottom where the CF strip will be glued. Cover over the grooves for the motor wires and then slit the covering and press the edges down into the grove. Later, when you put the motor wires in place, you can cover them with another strip of Ultracote, or just use some scotch tape.
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Motor Pod Covering Smear some Foam-tac on the inside surface of the servo pocket to toughen it up and then let it dry, then glue the servos in place. I used a bead of Foam-tac along the top surfaces only, that way I can peel the glue out to remove the servos if necessary. Remove the motors from the motor mounts and then attach the motor mounts to the firewalls. Mark the holes and drill to 1/16. Attach the mounts with 12 each #4 by Phillips pan head self tapping screws.
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Motor Mount Mounted Complete the linkages by whatever method you prefer. I used steel clevises instead of nylon just because I dont like fighting with the screw threads in order to make length adjustments.
Front Linkage
Rear Linkage This completes the motor pods as much as they can be for now. Designed by: Ran D. St. Clair rd_s_c@pacbell.net Page 26
Preliminary TX Programming and Servo Centering

Oddly enough, the first step for building the Bixler is to program the Transmitter. It doesnt need to be completely programmed, but we want to identify the channels and center the servos so we can mount the servo arms. The screws that mount the servo arms arent easily accessible so we need to do all this before we glue the servos in place. Further complicating matters, The KK2 Flight controller has a specific input range and polarity it wants to see so we need to set up the TX accordingly. I am doing this with a DX7s, but any 7 channel TX will do. Set all the trims to neutral. Start with a new model in airplane or acro mode and name the model as you like. Select the wing type with 1 aileron servo and 2 flap servos. Use the standard tail type, meaning one elevator and one rudder servo. Set the flaps up on the flap switch with +100% travel with the switch up, -100% travel with the switch down, and 0% travel in the middle. These are just initial values to get the servos moving.
Wing Type
Initial Flap Setup
Power the RX by whatever means is handy and bind the TX to the RX. Use a spare servo to map out the RX outputs. In my case they are as follows. You might find it convenient to label your RX accordingly, if it isnt already labeled. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. Throttle Aileron Elevator Rudder Gear Right Flap Left Flap
Now, on the bench, connect the RX outputs to the inputs of the KK2 board. You will need the user manual for the KK2 Board located here: http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/uploads/181270330X7478X47.pdf You will also need double ended female servo cables like these. http://www.aeroquadstore.com/Receiver_Cable_5_inch_length_p/rcvr-002.htm
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Connect the Throttle, Aileron, Elevator, Rudder, and Gear output from the RX into the corresponding inputs of the KK2 board per the diagram on the front page of the KK2 User manual. The gear output from the RX will connect to the AUX input of the KK2. The ground pins on the KK2 are along the outside edge of the board. When you power up the KK2 board the initial screen should look like this.
KK2 Initial Power Up Screen Press the MENU button (lower right) and then press the DOWN button, to highlight Receiver Test, and then press ENTER. You should see a screen that looks like this.
KK2 Receiver Monitor Screen As you move the TX sticks you should see the numbers changing for the various inputs, and you will also see helpful words like Idle or Full for throttle to indicate the direction of stick movement. In my case the aileron and elevator were reversed so I reversed them using the TX programming. Dont worry about the polarity of the Auxiliary input for now, just make sure it moves when you flip the appropriate switch. If you have already set up dual rates or multiple rates, make sure you are on high rates for the next step. Use your Sub Trim and Travel adjustment (also known as endpoint adjustment) so that neutral stick reads a count of zero and full stick deflection reads 100 or -100 as the case may be. For the throttle, low Designed by: Ran D. St. Clair rd_s_c@pacbell.net Page 28
stick should read zero and high stick should read 100%. You want to make sure that throttle linearity is maintained by setting the two travel limits to the same value and adjusting the sub trim as necessary. You will also note that for throttle only, readings below zero or above 100 are not possible. You want to make sure that full stick travel just barely gets you to zero or 100 as the case may be. You dont want a lot of travel at either extreme of stick movement where the numbers arent changing, but you do want to make sure you get to 100 and zero with a small amount of margin to spare. That is all the TX programming you need to do for now. Disconnect the KK2 from the RX and set the KK2 aside. You will not want to touch the Throttle, Aileron, Elevator or Rudder trim, sub trim or travel adjustments again. Do not use them to adjust the centering or travel of your servos. All such adjustments will need to be made via the linkages. You can and will need to adjust the sub trim and travel for the two flap servos but they do not affect the KK2. You will also eventually need to adjust the RX Gear output, which is also the KK2 Aux input, but that is only used as an on off switch when the signal crosses the zero threshold. Now plug in your rudder, elevator, and two aileron servos into the RX and set the servo output arm in the best possible position as limited by the splines on the output shaft. You can do this one servo at a time if you want. This is not a permanent installation, we are just checking things out. While you are at it, check the direction of travel for all servos. You cannot change it in the TX as you normally would. You will need to identify which servos will need to be reversed. In my case, I needed to reverse the rudder and both ailerons. In the old days we would have opened up the servos and reversed the wires to the motor and the feedback pot, but that is no longer a reasonable thing to do. I bought two of these Dionysus in line servo reversers for $11.95 each. http://www.rcdude.com/servlet/the-19/Dionysus-Servo-Reverser-V2/Detail I only need one reverser for both ailerons since I can reverse the aileron signal and then use a Y harness to drive both servos. Speaking of Y harnesses, I need 3 more to split the Aileron, Elevator and Rudder output from the RX. One side will go to the KK2, and the other side will go to the servos. In the case of the rudder, it will go to the servo through the servo reverser. In the case of the ailerons, it will go through the servo reverser, then through a 4th Y harness to drive both aileron servos in parallel. The bottom line is that we need 3 short Y harnesses to split the rudder, elevator, and aileron signals from the RX, something like these for $3.75 each. http://www.multiwiicopter.com/products/y-lead-50mm-rc-servo-connector-1-male-jr-2-females-futaba I have been warned not to use the GWS Y harness with reverse that includes a trim pot. I am told it is very noisy when used with 2.4Ghz radio systems. I am not bashing GWS and I have not personally experienced this problem, so I am just passing on the warning. It is unfortunate and almost unnecessary that we need all these Y harnesses and servo reversers. The KK2 has 8 outputs and could easily drive all 4 motors plus these 4 servos, but it has a feature (bug) that Designed by: Ran D. St. Clair rd_s_c@pacbell.net Page 29
prevents its use. If you take the throttle to full idle, all of the motors will go dead, which is fine, but all of the servos will also go dead, which is unacceptable for an aircraft that can glide. I am using HEXTRONIK, HXT900, 9 gram servos just because I had them. They are cheap little analogue servos but adequate for this application. They also didnt fit perfectly in the foam pockets, but a few minor cuts with a sharp knife will fix that. Do not permanently mount the servo arms or glue the servos into their pockets until you install the in line servo reversers. They might change the optimum servo arm position and it is difficult to remove and reinstall the arms once the servos are glued In place. Once you are sure of the best servo arm placement, install them with their mounting screws. At this point the fuselage is still in two halves. Toughen up the servo pockets in the wing and the fuselage with a coat of Foam-tac and let it dry. Then install the servos and place a bead of Foam-tac along the exposed surfaces where the servo meets the pocket. The servos are held firmly, but if you ever need to remove them you can slice through the glue bead. Foam-tac can be peeled off of the smooth plastic of the servo without too much trouble so nothing is damaged.
Glued in Servo http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbycity/store/uh_viewitem.asp?idproduct=662&gclid=CKfU6NHn_7UCFa dFMgodRSAACQ You will need a somewhat longer Y harness to reach the two aileron servos. Your installation may vary, but this is what I used. http://www.slickzero.com/page/SRHP/PROD/Extensions/WY-FP-15
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Wing Assembly and Mounting to Fuselage

Trim the fiberglass rod wing joiner down to 6 to save a little weight, and round the ends to reduce any point loading on the inside of the wing tubes. It doesnt really matter much though, because we will be using external struts to strengthen and stiffen the wing, which is why we dont need the full length joiner.
Wing Joiner Use a sharp knife to remove a portion of the overlapping wing bosses as shown in the photograph. This is necessary to clear a path for wires through the wing and into the fuselage. Glue in the plywood washers that came with the Bixler kit and then glue the wing together at the center section with the fiberglass joiner rod, making sure that the wing halves are aligned front to back. I used Foam-Tac which takes a long time to dry in areas where it cant breath. You could also use EPOXY, but if you do, remove the shine from the EPO foam first.
Wing Opening I do not recommend CA (Super Glue) for use with EPO, at least not the foam safe variety. It doesnt seem to stick very well, at least not on smooth surfaces. The non-foam Safe CA might work OK, as might Polyurethane glue (Gorilla glue) but I prefer not to use it as it often foams up and makes a mess. Foamtac is very tough and sticks to most everything, but it doesnt sand well. It is fine on Styrofoam like the blue foam, and on EPO foam, but will eat up Depron if the solvent cant immediately escape. I always test it first by placing a dab of glue on the material and covering it with some scotch tape to hold the solvents in. Others may have their preferred glues and assembly techniques. Sand the top of the wing flat in the area of the two wing mounting holes, and about beyond on both ends. Try to avoid scuffing up the top of the wing and the decals in the area beyond the raised wing root. It might be wise to cover this area with some blue painters tape to protect it from the sanding Designed by: Ran D. St. Clair rd_s_c@pacbell.net Page 31
block. EPO doesnt sand very easily but it can be sanded. You will need a course grit and some fresh sharp sandpaper. Make the wing top plate out of /16 plywood per the provided drawing. I covered mine with Ultracote on top just to make it look nice. Do not drill the wing mounting holes in the plywood. Glue the wing top plate in place with the wide part in front, and make sure that it extends evenly beyond the screw mount holes on both sides. When the glue is dry, you can drill the 1/8wing mount holes through the wing using the holes in the wing as a template.
Wing Top Plate Temporarily fit the fuselage halves together and mark the cut locations to remove the area above the wing per the provided pictures. Carefully cut the top of the fuselage away using a long straight thin kitchen knife. If the knife is very sharp, the EPO foam will cut like butter. If the knife is dull, you might as well be throwing baseballs at it. A clean cut will also leave a nicer surface than sanding, so if possible, get it right on the first cut.
Fuselage Modification
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The wing mount nut plate that comes with the Bixler doesnt have a large enough opening from the wing into the fuselage, so make a new wing mount nut plate from plywood per the provided drawing. I installed 4-40 blind nuts and used 2 each 4-40 stainless steel pan head Phillips screws, 2 long, which I ground to a dull point to make them easier to start. I also opened up the foam in the top of the fuselage to match the large hole in the nut plate.
Temporarily install the nut plate, and test fit the wing on the fuselage. Install the screws with #6 flat washers, but only tighten them gently. Glue the flat washers down to the top of the mounting plate so they dont get lost all the time.
Wing Mounted Measure and mark the wing for motor pod installation. The centers of the motor pods are 10 3/4 from the center line of the wing. Also mark 1 on either side of center. The outside mark should be just slightly inside of the aileron opening. Make the first marks at the slit for the aileron servo wire. Project Designed by: Ran D. St. Clair rd_s_c@pacbell.net Page 33
the marks to the leading and trailing edge using the servo wire slit and a 90 degree triangle. It is not necessary to make full length lines, just small tick marks. Glue the motor pods in place on top of the wing making sure that everything is straight as it can possibly be. I used Foam-tac which takes a long time to fully dry. When gluing major assemblies like this it is best to dry fit everything and figure out how you are going to clamp, tape, or weight everything in place. I did it with the wing upside down on the corner of the bed with the wingtips hanging off the side/end of the bed. I put clear plastic wrap over the wing and weighted it down on top of the motor pods with some books. Make sure you leave access to view the motor pod position relative to the tick marks you made on the wing, and triple check for alignment before you walk away to let it dry. Also, make sure that the motor pods are mounted with the servos facing inward, not outward.
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Fuselage Assembly and Landing Gear

The VTOLT uses Trex 500 helicopter skids, available here for $9.99. http://www.ronlund.com/rcheli-prod/ALIGN500_LANDING/H50047.html The Bixler isnt designed for landing gear, so it is necessary to distribute the point load where the gear is bolted on over a wide area on the underside of the fuselage. I used a 1/16 thick plywood plate along the bottom of the fuselage and a smaller 1/32 plywood plate on the inside of the fuselage. Together with some glue and screws they create a foam sandwich.
Foam Sandwich There are also 2 each 1/8 plywood mount pieces that include 2 each 2-56 blind nuts. Finally, there is a thick plywood spacer under the rear gear mount to make the aircraft sit closer to level. Make all of the pieces per the attached drawing. This time I decided to use a different technique for transferring the paper templates to the plywood. This very old technique works well for soft materials up to and including plywood. Do not cut out the template, but instead place the paper over the raw material in the desired location. Use a sharp point, like a T-pin to poke holes through the paper at strategic locations like corners, the center of drill holes, or in increments around curves. Lift the paper template and connect the dots on the raw material with a pencil. This technique does not destroy the template or plans and can be done very accurately. After you cut out and sand to shape the various pieces, The two 1/8 ply cross pieces are glued onto the outer plate in the location shown. I used CA, but you could also use epoxy. The ply spacer is glued on top of the 1/8 ply cross piece in the rear. The 2-56 blind nuts go on the top relative to the final mounting position on the aircraft.
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Landing Gear Plate It is possible to install the landing gear mount after the fuselage halves are glued together, but not preferred. It is easier to test fit everything before the fuselage halves are joined, and then install the landing gear mount at the same time as when the fuselage halves are glued together. The outer plate and the inner plate are held together by 5 each, 1 long, #4 self-tapping screws with pan head Phillips heads. The screws pass through the seam between the two sides of the fuselage. I opened up the holes through the foam with a small needle file. When these screws are installed they are only very gently tightened because they would otherwise crush the foam or strip out the 1/32 plywood. The strength of the mount does not come from these screws, but from the glue that interfaces a large area of plywood with the foam. The screws are mostly just to hold it all together while the glue dries. After the mount was made and the blind nuts installed, I coated it with some thin CA to protect it from moisture and make it stronger. You could also paint it if you like, but I did not. Dry fit everything before you attempt to glue the fuselage sides together. You want to make sure every screw fits every hole and every nut plate can be threaded, etc. Once you apply glue, you wont have time to mess around. I used a fresh bottle of Foam-tac to glue the fuselage sides together. This is somewhat challenging as there are a lot of pieces to get together all at once. The wing mount nut plate has to be glued and installed, and also the 1/32 plywood inner plate for the landing gear mount. I glued both with a generous coat of Foam-tac. Once the two fuselage halves are together, tape them with scotch tape in multiple locations to hold them tight. I always fold one end of the tape under so I have an easy handle to remove the tape later. Working quickly, before the glue dries too much, glue the landing gear mount outer plate in place with Foam-tac, and install the #4 self tapping screws through the foam into the inner plate. Tighten the screws just enough to ensure a good fit between the plywood and the foam, but no more. Use some scotch tape across the gear mount to hold the fuselage sides tightly together in that area as well. Now install the T-rex landing gear and the wing, using the mounting screws for both. Set the entire assembly on its landing gear on a flat surface and check to make sure the wings are level. If necessary, put a small weight on top of the high wing to push it down past level. Check it again in ten minutes and as the glue begins to set, move the weight around so that when it is dry the wings are perfectly level.
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Landing Gear installed Double and triple check everything for fit before the glue sets. Check to make sure all the seams are tight. Make sure you havent pulled a warp into the fuselage. This is your last chance to get it right. Dont worry if the wings sag a tiny bit at this point. We will be adding the wing struts shortly. I suggest you let everything stabilize overnight before proceeding.
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Wing Struts and finishing the Bixler

You need to decide if you are going to run the servo wires under the CF stringers on the bottom of the motor pods or on top. Under is neater, on top is better if you ever have to remove the servo. If you decide to run the wires under the CF stringer then press the wires into the slot on the underside of the wing as far as they reach. Place a small piece of scotch tape over the wires in the area where the CF stringer will cross to prevent gluing the CF stringer to the wires later. Make the 4 wing strut mounts out of the same 1/16 aluminum that you used to make the motor mounts per the provided templates. The bend angle is 16 degrees. Carve out a shallow pocket in the wing for each of the four wing mounts. The forward mounts are located 1 1/8 ahead of the slit for the servo wire. The rear mounts are located flush with the trailing edge of the wing. The wide part of the mount is located directly under the 6mm x 1mm carbon fiber stringer on the bottom of the motor pods. The pockets should be only 1/16 deep so that when the mounts are glued in place, the surface of the mount is flush with the surface of the wing. Glue the mounts in place with Foam-tac taking care to make sure that the exposed surface of the mount is clean and free of glue. The critical glue joint will be between the strut mount and the carbon fiber stringer. Cut the carbon fiber stringers to length and plan how you are going to tape and weight them in place. I used the same technique as when mounting the motor pods to the wing. I set the wing upside down on the corner of the bed with the wingtips hanging off the side/end of the bed. Smear a heavy cote of 20 minute epoxy on one side of the CF stringer. Use extra Epoxy in the fillet holes you previously made at both motor mounts, and also on top of the aluminum strut mounts. Place the CF stringer in place and hold it down with scotch tape. Wipe up any excess epoxy, and then cover the wing with plastic wrap. Use weights to press the CF stringer down onto the wing taking care not to smash down the wing strut mounts. Do the same on the 2nd motor pod and let the epoxy cure. The central strut mount is secured to the landing gear plate using 4 each pan head Phillips, #4 self tapping screws, long, as shown in the picture.
Lower Wing Strut Mount
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The wing struts are made from 2.5mm, .098, diameter CF rod available for $2.50 each here. http://www.rcfoam.com/product_info.php?cPath=95&products_id=739&osCsid=f8b889d2908e9589b1 90e4f080364d71 One 1000mm (39) rod is sufficient for all 4 struts. I used Great Planes 4-40 Clevis, GPMQ3795 from my LHS (Local Hobby Shop). They are available here for $8.49 for a pack of 12, but we only need 8. http://www.gravesrc.com/GPMQ3795_GP_4_40_THREADED_STEEL_CLEV_12_p/gpmq3795.htm Screw the wing to the fuselage and turn the aircraft upside down so the fuselage is supported and the wings hang down slightly due to gravity. Attach all 8 clevises to the mount points and make sure that the pins are facing towards the wing. This will make them easier to install and remove later. Cut the CF rod to fit for the wing struts. The rods should extend through the threaded portion of the clevis slightly on both ends. Scuff up the outside surface of the CF rods for the last 1/2 with some sandpaper and screw them into the clevises. The 4-40 threads in the clevises will cut slightly into the rods which is perfect for our needs. Adjust all 4 struts to length and place them in their final location. Sight down the wing and make sure you are not pulling any warps into the wing with the struts. They should be slightly loose at both ends, otherwise they are under tension or compression and need to be further adjusted. You may need to use a 1/16 drill bit and wobble it around in the holes of the aluminum mounts so they dont catch on the clevis pins due to any slight angular misalignment.
Glued Clevis at Wing Mount
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Wing Struts Mounted When everything is perfect, carefully remove the struts one at a time and place a drop or two of thin CA into the joint between the CF rods and the clevises. The thin CA should wick down the threads and also through the tiny gap where the threaded barrel comes together to lock the assembly in place. Put each strut back before removing the next so you dont mix up where they go. You can label the struts if you like, but it should not be necessary. They are designed to remain attached to the fuselage and fold back along the fuselage for transport. No tools should be necessary for assembly or disassembly of the struts. You can use the little fuel tubing keepers that come with the struts if you want, but I dont think that they are really necessary. You can also add balsa fairings to streamline the struts and cover them with white Ultracote if you want, but I did not.
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Wing Struts Folded Back Just a few notes on miscellaneous Bixler stuff. This is all unrelated to making a VTOL-Trainer and only has to do with making the Bixler a Bixler. I installed all the control linkages using the hardware provided. It all worked fine. They have improved the fit from the previous Bixler I bought about a year ago. I dont normally like to add unnecessary weight to my aircraft, but the rubber pilot head they provided looked pretty nice, so I installed in in the cockpit and mounted the canopy with Formula 560 Canopy Glue, available here for $3.99. http://www.horizonhobby.com/products/zap-formula-560-canopy-glue-PAAPT56 I also glued the tail on with Foam-tac. It fit well and went on nice and straight. I installed the magnets for the cockpit hatch and the bottom servo hatch. Overall, I have to say the quality of the Bixler kit is pretty good. I also think it doesnt look half bad, especially with the motor pods on the wing and the helicopter skids, it looks vaguely like a dragonfly. Except for a little Ultracote on the bottom of the motor pods, this completes the basic airframe build. The next step will be to finish installing the electronics.
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Power Wiring
Before the power wiring could be completed on the bottom of the wing, the servo leads and any necessary extensions were pressed into the groves/slits in the bottom of the wing.
Aileron Servo Wires I connected the 2 aileron servos using a Y harness from GWS, WY/FP/15, available in many places as well as here for $3.75. http://www.slickzero.com/page/SRHP/PROD/Extensions/WY-FP-15 I also connected servo extensions from the two tilt servos and ran them up through the wing. http://www.rcdude.com/servlet/the-680/Hyperion-Extension-Cable--dsh-/Detail It is possible to leave a little slack in the servo wires from the tilt servos by pressing the excess wire into the openings in the bottom of the motor pods. I made pockets in the wing for the Futaba/JR connectors. The wires were taped over with clear packing tape in the area of the wing root, both to hold the servo extension connectors in place, and also to protect the wing when mounting the speed controllers. The servo wires go up through the wing where they will eventually be connected to the RX (Receiver). Note that I am using up and down relative to the upright position of the final aircraft, not the position that you might be viewing as you work with the wing upside down on your lap. Theres a fair amount of power wiring required for a quad-copter and the VTOLT is no different. There is also some soldering involved but nothing terribly difficult. I follow several guidelines with power wiring: 1. Keep it as short as reasonable in general. 2. Keep the link between the battery and the speed controllers as short as possible, which means it is better to have the longer link be between the speed controller and the motor. 3. Use the recommended wire gage, or heavier, and use a heavier gage for longer wires. 4. Use a minimum of connectors. It is better to solder joints and use connectors only where needed for component interchangeability. 5. Use a star configuration providing individual power paths to heavy loads. This design is based on the Turnigy 18A speed controllers. Designed by: Ran D. St. Clair rd_s_c@pacbell.net Page 42
http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/s...ontroller.html I made a small mounting plate out of 1/32 plywood, 1 by 1 , and a small plywood spacer on one end, 1/8 by by 1. I coated them with CA to protect the wood, and then glued them to the speed controllers with Foam-tac on the top of the round capacitor, and on top of the spacer. See the pictures for details. You will note that this results in an air gap between the mounting plate and the speed controller, and it also leaves the side with the heat sink plate completely open for maximum airflow.
Speed Controller Mount Plate There is an issue with the main battery connector. I find them all difficult to pull apart at times. This is not so bad when you have an open configuration like a quad-copter, where you can get both hands on it and work it apart. It becomes much more difficult with an enclosed aircraft if you cant get your hands down inside the aircraft. It means you need to have the battery connector on the aircraft side stick out far enough to where you can get to it easily, and this conflicts somewhat with keeping the link between the battery and the speed controller as short as possible. For the VTOL-Trainer, the speed controllers are mounted under the wing right next to the fuselage. The wires go over the wing saddle, down into the fuselage, and forward to come out of the removable cockpit opening with enough free length to grab onto. The resulting battery to speed controller link length is about 14, which includes almost 5 of wire that came with the battery. The reason for minimizing the wire length from the battery to the speed controllers is to avoid damage to the speed controllers during use. The speed controllers draw pulses of high current from the batteries, which results in the electrical equivalent of water hammer pounding on the input capacitor of the speed controller. The longer the wires, the bigger the hammer swing and the bigger the pounding.
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The point of the star configuration is to minimize the interaction between the various loads. The VTOL-Trainer has 5 such loads, each of the 4 motors, plus the SBEC which drives all of the radio gear including the RX, Flight Controller, and servos. The motors draw about 4.5A when hovering, and briefly up to about 12.5A at full throttle when accelerating out of a hover. Full throttle in forward flight should draw less, though I have no good way to measure it. As the propellers unload the motors will draw less current simply because they are delivering less power to the air. The SBEC will probably never draw more than 2A peak, and most of the time will be much less. There will always be some interaction between the loads because they all draw from the same battery, but by providing a separate wire path for each we minimize the interaction due to voltage drops along the wire. Each speed controller has a 2 wire power input connector. I am using the Female JST gold plated connector which comes with 20AWG wire and is rated for 18A burst for 10 seconds max, and 12 amps continuous. http://www.multiwiicopter.com/products/jst-gold-plated-6-pairs The wire on these connectors looks to be slightly lighter than the input wire to the Turnigy speed controllers, so I cut them down to only 1 5/8 and then soldered them to the speed controller wires. The total wire length from the edge of the speed controller to the end of the connector is 5 1/2.
Preliminary Wiring Designed by: Ran D. St. Clair rd_s_c@pacbell.net Page 44
Battery Star Connection Warning, one of my JST connectors had the wire colors reversed. If I had not noticed, this would have resulted in reverse polarity to the speed controller and likely destroyed it. Double check your pre-wired JST connectors for polarity, and dont just assume that the wire colors are correct. The technique for making wire to wire connections is as follows Prepare both wires by stripping the insulation back 1/8 and then twist the exposed wire into a tight round bundle. Tin the wire ends with a generous amount of solder, but do not heat them any longer than necessary as the solder will wick up the wire and make it stiff. Slip a length of shrink tubing over the longer wire and slide it well back from the joint so it doesnt start to shrink from the heat of soldering. Place a tiny amount of paste flux on the tinned ends of the wires. Use a weight, or something to hold one wire stationary slightly above the work surface. You can bend the wire a little to get it into a comfortable position. Hold the other wire in one hand well back from the joint so you dont burn your fingers. Touch the two wires together, side to side, overlapping by 1/8. Use your other hand to clean the soldering iron tip and then touch it to the exposed end of your flux core solder to freshly tin the tip just an instant before making the joint. When making the joint, steady both hands on the work surface to prevent shaking. Lay the soldering iron on top of both wire ends for immediate heat transfer to the entire joint. The joint will flow almost instantly, so you can remove the iron in 1 second or less. Hold the wires steady until the joint solidifies. After the Designed by: Ran D. St. Clair rd_s_c@pacbell.net Page 45
joint cools, slip the shrink tubing over the joint and shrink it. When done properly, the whole process is amazingly easy. The star connection between the battery connector and the 5 JST male connectors is a bit more challenging mainly because you are connecting 6 things together all at one time. Alternatively you can buy this wire harness for $9.95 http://www.multiwiicopter.com/products/power-distribution-harness-xt60-jst-5-way I made my own by jamming the pre-tinned wire ends of the JST connectors into the solder cups of the XT60 Male connector. They were a tight fit, which actually helped to hold it all together for soldering. It takes a lot of heat to fully flow the solder through all 5 wires, and it is possible to overheat and melt the XT60 connector, so be careful. I used the full length of wire that came with the JST connectors, and the resulting cable is 5 1/8 from end to end. Instead of using shrink tubing I used Goop to insulate and strain relieve the wires. Goop is basically the same as Foam-tac but thicker, and is available at any local hardware store. It comes in many forms, like Plumbers Goop, Household Goop, Automotive Goop, etc. but they are all the same thing. http://www.kmart.com/Goop
Gooped Connector The final remaining power connection is between the speed controllers and the motors. Despite the long wires that come with the carbon bird motors I still needed to add a few inches to the output wires of the speed controllers. The CaronBird motors come with the necessary female 2mm bullet connectors that mate with the male connectors already attached to the motors. They are also rated at 0.0007 ohms and a maximum current of 30A. If you need to buy more connectors they are available here for $1.98 for a mating set of 10 each. http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/__66__2mm_Gold_Connectors_10_pairs_20pc_.html I did find it necessary to add shrink tubing to the male bullet connectors that came attached to the motors to properly insulate them. This was in addition to the shrink tubing that I placed on the female connectors after I soldered them to the wire.
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I mounted the speed controllers on the bottom of the wing with a few dabs of Goop. It was then possible to layout the exact path for the wires to the motors and cut the necessary V groves into the underside of the wing. The idea is to lay the wires in, with one wire on the bottom and two wires on top. Its probably not critical, but I am trying to minimize the disruption to the airfoil. I also cut slits in the wing root and pressed the individual wires in place on the battery end of the speed controllers. The power wires all come together and go down into the fuselage opening, while the 3 pin Futaba/JR type connectors go up through the wing and will eventually plug into the flight controller or RX.
Wing Center Section Wiring The wires to the motors have to be almost exactly the correct length since there is no place to hide any extra slack. They also need to be at least extra long as we will likely need to reverse at least some of the connections to get the motors to run in the correct direction. Make sure that there is enough service loop in the wires to allow the motor mounts to rotate without stressing them. Bear all this in mind as you lay the wires down in the wing groves and cut them to length. The final lap joint is made above the wing using a piece of cardboard or something to protect the wing in case hot solder should drip or you should accidentally touch the wing with the soldering iron. Press the wires into the groves and temporarily tape them in place with scotch tape. We will do a better job of securing them later, after we get all the motors turning in the correct direction.
Motor Wire Routing Designed by: Ran D. St. Clair rd_s_c@pacbell.net Page 47
Motor Wire Routing
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Control Wiring
I purchased the Castle Creations (Switching) CC BEC 10A (peak) at my LHS (Local Hobby Shop). http://www.rcplanet.com/CC BEC 10A These SBECs (Switching Battery Elimination Circuit) work by chopping up the battery input DC voltage into AC, and then use inductors to efficiently translate to the desired DC output voltage. For comparison, a linear BEC, as is found on most low cost speed controllers, simply dissipates the extra voltage as heat, which is why they cannot provide very much current to the servos without overheating. A properly designed SBEC will work over a broad input voltage range and provide a stable output voltage to the RX so long as the servos dont exceed the rated load. The VTOL-Trainer will never even come close to the 10A peak rating on the CC (Switching) BEC. Mount the KK2 board using sticky back Velcro on the plywood platform between the two wing mount screws. Make sure there is a Velcro pad under the button area of the board. You dont want to be mechanically stressing the board when you push the buttons. It must be mounted with the push buttons towards the tail of the aircraft. Normally I would be concerned about ESD (Electro Static Discharge) with electronics of this type, but there doesnt seem to be any other good mounting options. The RX (Receiver) and the SBEC (Switching Battery Eliminator) circuit are mounted with Velcro on the wing center section behind the rear mounting screw. Some marketing fool thought it would be clever to mold the RX enclosure with a wavy surface on one side, so the sticky back Velcro wont stick very well. I put the Velcro on the flat side, which covers up the output label, and used a fine point Sharpie (permanent marker pen) to label the RX outputs on the wavy side, which is convenient anyway because I can use labels like Throttle, Aileron, Elevator, Rudder, Gear, FLP1, FLP2, rather than Ch1,,Ch7. Make sure you mount the RX where the connectors are easily accessible.
Component Placement Designed by: Ran D. St. Clair rd_s_c@pacbell.net Page 49
The primary antenna from the RX was run down through a small hole in the wing and then pressed into a small slit on the bottom of the wing. The cable for the satellite RX was run through a slit in the back edge of the wing saddle and then out along the underside of the left wing. Note that the stub antenna wire on the satellite antenna is mounted 90 degrees to the wire at the end of the primary antenna. This provides polarization diversity for more reliable radio reception.
Antenna Routing The SBEC can be mounted wherever is convenient. Connect the output of the SBEC to the bind input of the RX. I am assuming that you have already bound the RX to the TX. If not, do so now, because it is a minor pain to do it later. Use a double ended female cable to connect Ch1 (Throttle) from the RX directly to the KK2 board. Use the KK2 manual from HK (Hobby King) to determine where to plug into the KK2 board. By the way, when I speak of male and female, I am always referring to the electrical contacts inside. Connectors often have female contacts inside a male housing, or the other way round, so there is lots of confusion about what is what. http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/uploads/181270330X7478X47.pdf http://www.aeroquadstore.com/Receiver_Cable_5_inch_length_p/rcvr-002.htm RX Ch2 (Aileron) goes to a short Y harness, and then one side of that Y goes through a servo inverter to the Y harness that drives the two aileron servos. The other side of the Y goes to the roll input on the KK2 board via a female to female cable. http://www.multiwiicopter.com/products/y-lead-50mm-rc-servo-connector-1-male-jr-2-females-futaba RX Ch3 (Elevator) goes to a short Y harness and then one side of the Y goes to the elevator servo. The other side of the Y goes through a female to female cable to the pitch input of the KK2. There is a small hole in the fuselage at the back of the wing, that was originally used for the power wires to the Bixler motor, that can be used to run the wires for the elevator and rudder servos. These two Designed by: Ran D. St. Clair rd_s_c@pacbell.net Page 50
connections must be made after the wing is installed on the fuselage. It is a good idea to label the rudder and elevator connectors since you will be making and breaking them whenever the wing is removed. RX Ch4, (Rudder) goes to a short Y harness and then one side goes through a servo inverter before going to the rudder servo. The other side of the Y goes through a female to female cable to the yaw input on the KK2. http://www.rcdude.com/servlet/the-19/Dionysus-Servo-Reverser-V2/Detail RX Ch5, (Gear) goes through a female to female cable to the Aux input of the KK2. RX Ch6, (RFlap) goes through a servo extension to the right motor tilt servo. RX CH7, (LFlap) goes through a servo extension to the left motor tilt servo. http://www.rcdude.com/servlet/the-680/Hyperion-Extension-Cable--dsh-/Detail At this point you have a choice to make. Most speed controllers have a built in BEC (Battery Eliminator Circuit), and it is usually a simple high pass analogue voltage regulator. In theory, you can have multiple BECs of this type driving the same power bus and they wont fight. Its like having 4 people trying to fill a bathtub to slightly different levels. At some point 3 of them will stop filling because their desired level has been achieved. The last person with the highest level will win and no one gets upset. So the question is, will your speed controllers work that way, and are you willing to take the chance on blowing them up if they dont? If you dont want to take the chance then you have a few options. One option is to pull the red wire (middle wire) out of the speed controller connector and fold it back and tape it. If you are careful, you can pull the contact out of the connector housing without damaging it, so this is a reversible option. Another option is to remove the power pins from the KK2 board. I did this for motors 2, 3, and 4 by grabbing the pin with needle nose pliers and then wiggling it back and forth until it broke off at the base. The power from speed controller #1 is still connected to the KK2 board but It has nothing to fight with. The KK2 manual says that you dont need to do this, but the instructions that come with your speed controllers may say otherwise. Its your choice. You should never connect multiple SBECs in parallel as they will fight and probably damage something. I would also never connect a BEC to an SBEC though I dont know if it would hurt anything. Despite what it says in the KK2 manual, the KK2 board receives its power from the Throttle, Roll, Pitch, and Yaw inputs, which come from the RX, which gets its power from the SBEC. The manual claims that the KK2 board receives its power from the M1 connector, which is connected to the BEC inside speed controller #1. I have checked with an ohm meter, and the power from M1 is not connected to the power from the Throttle, Roll, Pitch, and Yaw inputs so the SBEC and the BEC wont fight. Bottom line, connect the 4 speed controllers to the KK2 board outputs for M1 through M4. Make sure that you connect the correct motor to the correct KK2 output. The left front motor is #1, right front is #2, right rear is #3, and left rear is #4. The KK2 board will remind you of this once we power it on. It is a good idea to label the speed controller connectors M1 through M4 for future reference. After everything is connected you can bundle the wires and tie them down with cable ties. I found this a bit challenging just because there is a lot of wire and not much room. Designed by: Ran D. St. Clair rd_s_c@pacbell.net Page 51
Wires Bundled Now you can assemble the wing onto the fuselage and make the final connections to the rudder and elevator servo. I recommend you tape the rudder servo reverser to the mating connector so it doesnt pull out in flight. Pull the extra length of wires to the rudder and elevator servo down inside the fuselage and arrange them so they cant get tangled up in the servo output arms. I once crashed because of that When putting the wing on the fuselage, feed the main power cable towards the nose so it is accessible via the cockpit opening.
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Battery Mounting and Wing Tips

We want to place a 1 wide Velcro strip along the inside bottom of the fuselage from under the wing up well into the nose. You may be using various different size batteries and you want to be able to adjust the CG (Center of Gravity) as needed. The problem is, the screws sticking up from the landing gear mount are in the way, so make a filler plate out of 6mm Depron. This Velcro strip gets a lot of abuse when installing and removing batteries, so I suggest you reinforce the top of the Depron plate with 1/64 plywood. The prototype was reinforced with packing tape, which was not the best choice Remember, do not use Foam-tac on Depron anywhere where it cant immediately dry, or it will melt the Depron. I made the filler plate in 2 pieces to make it easier to install. I also reinforced it and added the Velcro before installation. The Depron plate should help strengthen the bottom of the fuselage a little, but mostly it is just filler.
Front Velcro
Back Velcro
When placing Velcro on the battery, leave the rear 1 of the battery, opposite the power connector bare. This allows the battery to be lifted from the front while it pivots on the back corner to break the Velcro connection. Otherwise it is difficult to install and remove the battery. If you already have Velcro on the battery, just tape over the last 1.
Battery Velcro Taped
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Double check the CG (Center of Gravity) of the aircraft and move the battery as necessary to make it correct. The Bixler instructions say that it should be located 71mm (2 13/16) behind the leading edge of the wing, which is roughly where the aileron servo wires are buried. For the prototype this required that the front of the battery be roughly in the middle of the cockpit opening. Use a sharp knife and trim the wing tips to 3 from the outside edge of the aileron opening.
Wing Tip Trim This is not just for aesthetic reasons. Trimming the wing tips reduces the dihedral which in turn reduces the yaw roll coupling. It is important to avoid a visible yaw wobble in FFF. The yaw wobble has the same look as the P feedback loop gain being set too high because that is what it is. But it is the total loop gain for roll, not yaw, that is too high. In forward flight yaw inputs to the motors have some effect but it is fairly slight. For a left yaw command the left front, and right rear motors speed up, and the right front and left rear slow down. It seems the rear motors dominate, probably because the prop wash from the front motors is effectively blocked by the rear motors. Therefore a left rudder input does produce a small amount of left yaw due to the motors. The effect is fairly weak though, and is not the source of the wobble. In forward flight, the roll inputs are much more powerful. Left aileron input causes both right motors to speed up and both left motors to slow down. The result is a powerful left yaw, which the dihedral turns into left roll. So, somewhat by accident, left aileron produces a left roll, which is all fine, except when the roll P loop gain is set too high, then you get a classic oscillation. I suspect that the oscillation is both in roll and in yaw, but I cant see the roll oscillation from the ground very well.
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I have reduced the P gain in roll as much as possible without compromising the hover stability, and that alone eliminated the oscillation, but removing the wing tips improves the stability margin by reducing the aerodynamic component of the loop gain. Use a sharp knife and trim the horizontal stabilizer tips to 1 beyond the end of the elevator opening.
Stab Tip Trim Once again, this is not being done just for aesthetic reasons. In SFF the downwash from the rear propellers partially overlaps the horizontal stabilizer and pushes down on the tail, causing the nose to rise. As a result, for small angles of motor tilt, the plane will tend to hover nose high rather than moving slowly forward in a level attitude as desired. Trimming the stabilizer tips reduces the longitudinal overlap between the stabilizer and the rear rotors which solves this problem. The published design also moves the motor pods farther towards the wing tips as compared to the prototype. This further reduces the overlap and improves the SFF handling.
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Battery Cooling and Top Hatch

The Bixler has no provisions to provide cooling air to the battery and it can get pretty warm, especially at these current levels. I cut a strip of 1/64 ply, cross grain, wide, soaked it in water, formed it into an oval, and glued with CA. I then sharpened one edge and pressed it onto the nose of the plane, making a mark that I cut out with a sharp X-acto knife. I then glued it in place with a little CA.
Nose Opening I used a similar technique to make an air exit hole in the rear hatch, and as an added bonus I no longer have to mangle the hatch with my fingernails to get it open.
Rear Hatch Opening Designed by: Ran D. St. Clair rd_s_c@pacbell.net Page 56
The top hatch cover is not necessary for flight but it does make the plane look nicer.
Top Hatch cover There are no plans. It is made directly on the aircraft as necessary to fit over the radio gear. I made a bulkhead in the front out of 6mm Depron, and layered several pieces of Depron in the rear, and taped them in place on the wing. The planks are made of 1/8 Cellfoam, (similar to Depron). The two wide planks on the sides were trimmed to match the curve of the wing. A 3/8 wide plank was placed over the top center, and two more 3/8 wide planks at the upper corners. All of these planks were prebent in a gentle curve as needed to clear the radio gear. Some small cross strips were tacked in to help hold it together. At this point it was all very delicate. I then took it off the plane and completed it on the bench. It is not nearly as tedious as planking with balsa. The foam is so soft that you can just squish it into place. It doesnt have to fit perfectly either. The gaps just have to be small enough that thick CA can bridge them. The main thing that holds it together and gives it any strength is a coat of thick CA smeared over the inside.
Inside Top Hatch Cover
Rough Planked Top Hatch Cover Designed by: Ran D. St. Clair rd_s_c@pacbell.net Page 57
The result was quite crude, but a few minutes with a course sanding block and it started to look much better. I then smeared a coat of non-shrink spackle over the outside to fill in the dents and cracks. If you get the foam wet first, before smearing on the spackle, it sticks much better and is easy work with your hands. After letting it dry overnight I was able to sand it smooth and it started to look pretty good. I added a 1/16 plywood tongue in the front, and a magnet and striker plate in the back to hold it down. The tongue is angled upward slightly and fits into a slot in the foam behind the cockpit. I then covered the hatch with white Ultracote, which was probably a mistake since it is nothing but compound curves and was hard to cover. The result doesnt look great, but its not so bad either.
Tongue, Striker Plate and Fake Exhaust Just for fun, I added a couple pieces of short black shrink tubing in the back to simulate the exhaust from twin turbines. They sort of give a reason for the somewhat ugly shape.
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Radio Programming and Tuning

I will be speaking mostly of the Spectrum DX7s, but you can apply these concepts to any capable radio, though some of the terms will be different and in some cases you may need to use a different approach. We will begin the setup and radio programming process with the motor tilt servos. Set the plane on a level surface, and manually turn the motor tilt servos until the output arms are vertical. Adjust the mechanical linkages until the motors are all tilted 45 degrees. Manually rotate the servo to bring all the motors to vertical, and beyond, until you hit the mechanical stops. If necessary, fine tune the linkages. Make sure that all motors can reach vertical. If not adjust the over rotation stops by removing a little material from the motor mount outer yoke. I have found that you can shave away small amounts of the aluminum with a sharp X-acto knife. Now manually rotate the servos until the motors are horizontal (FFF mode), and tweak the linkages if necessary. The front and rear motors should track their tilt angle very closely throughout their range but if there is any slight difference in tilt angle in FFF mode vs hover mode, then adjust the linkages for the best compromise. I am using the 3 position flap switch functionality of the radio to control the motor tilt. This allows me to set 3 tilt positions and to automatically transition slowly, over 3 seconds, from one position to another. It is possible to directly control the tilt angle using an analogue input, like a pot or a slider, if your TX has one. It needs to be accessible without removing your hands (thumbs) from the sticks, or if necessary only your left hand briefly (assuming you are flying mode 2 with your right hand controlling pitch and roll). Previously we set the wing type in the TX to have 1 aileron servo and two flap servos. We also set the flap switch to output 100%, 0%, and -100%.
Wing Type
Initial Flap Setup
Now go into the servo programming menu and set the travel to 50% for both end points. Do this for both Ch6 (RFlap) and Ch7 (LFlap). The idea here is to make sure we dont drive the servos into the mechanical over rotation stops and damage them. It wont hurt to drive them into the stops for a second or less, but we dont want them driven like that for very long, and preferably not at all.
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Initial Flap Travel Set the flap switch to the middle setting, and power up the TX. Power up the plane and be ready to remove power immediately if any of the servos do anything unexpected, like driving to the stops. Set the servo arms on the motor rotation servos as close as possible to vertical. This will be limited by the spline locations on the servo output arm. Now enter the sub trim menu and adjust both motor rotation servos until the servo output arms are vertical.
Flap Sub Trim Focus on the right motor pod only, and flip the flap switch to the up, or FFF position. The servo should only move about 25 degrees and should not hit any stops. If the servo moves in the wrong direction then reverse it in the TX. One of the two motor tilt servos will need to be reversed. If you reverse the servo, then recheck that the output arm is vertical when the switch is in the middle position. Now, with the switch in the up/FFF position, adjust the servo travel or endpoint until the motors are horizontal. This will typically be at about 120%. Now flip the switch to the down position and set the travel or endpoint until the motors are vertical. Be careful not to drive the servos against the motor over rotation stops. Manually wiggle the motors in their mounts to make sure that they are not jammed against the stops. It is normal for the servo to chatter a little as it pushes against the slight drag in the linkages. Manually push the servo arm slightly past the travel limit and make sure that the chatter stops. This is another simple test to make sure that the servo is not jammed. The travel limits will probably not be the same in both directions. For example, it might be 106% in hover mode and 137% in FFF mode. This implies that we have a 3 point tilt curve that is not straight. We need to tweak the sub trim until the travel limits are the same or nearly the same in both directions. In this case, we need more travel in the FFF direction, so tweak the sub trim by a few counts in the FFF direction. If we had needed to move in the hover mode direction then we would also want to remove a few counts of servo travel to prevent jamming the servo. Now readjust the travel for both hover mode
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and FFF mode and hopefully they are now closer to the same value. Repeat this process until they are within a count of two of the same value.
Final Flap Setup Repeat this entire process for the left motor pod. Once all 4 motors are tilting together you can verify that the thrust angles are the same for all motors in all flight modes. If you have to make any compromises it is best that they all be vertical for hover mode and if necessary a little down thrust in FFF mode, but they should still be the same left to right. Now go to the flap menu and set the flap center position to -80%, instead of 0%, which is about 9 degrees tilted from vertical. This will be your initial SFF (Slow Forward Flight) setting, which will allow you to hover but still make efficient headway into a modest wind. Set the speed value to 3 seconds if you havent already, and test all motor positions and transitions to make sure everything is working as expect with no jamming. Mechanically adjust your elevator rudder, and aileron linkages. Do not adjust the trim or sub trim in the TX as they are set to the proper value for the FC (Flight Controller, KK2 board). All surface trims will be adjusted mechanically from now on, so this is a lot like the old days before computer radios. If you like, you can setup expo on rudder ailerons and elevator. I like 40% expo on all flight controls. Dual rates are not necessary on this model, but you can set them up for ailerons and elevator if you want. If you do so, have the high rates be the unmodified rate and then low rates would presumably be some lower value. Do not set dual rates on rudder. If you do you will be setting yourself up for trouble with arming and disarming. The KK2 has a safety feature where it powers up with the motors disabled. They remain disabled until you arm the controller. This is done by holding full idle input and full right rudder for about 1 second. The disarm function is accomplished by holding full idle and full left rudder. If you set a lower dual rate for rudder it may not swing far enough to arm and you will be scratching your head not knowing why. There is also a feature in the KK2 that will auto disarm after about 30 seconds at idle. This is usually a nice safety feature but it could cause the FC to disarm during a long glide. It can be disabled in the KK2 if you like, but I have not found it to be a practical problem. Now is a good time to mention a problem with arming relating to full low throttle. I previously had you set up your TX so that the Receiver test mode in the KK2 would just barely read 0 for a full low throttle stick input. It turns out that is not quite low enough to trigger the arm threshold. I had to bump up my Designed by: Ran D. St. Clair rd_s_c@pacbell.net Page 61
travel from about 99% to about 102% to get the board to arm correctly. This results in a tiny gap at low throttle where the motors dont turn, but it is not even noticeable. The final TX programming step is to set the Gear output for proper Auto-Level activation. First create a mix for Gear to Gear, and set it to -100% in both directions. This will cancel out the gear switch input so the servo monitor screen will show no movement when you flip the gear switch. This is actually quite important because if you dont do it, you will eventually flip the gear switch by accident and then you will wonder why your auto level function isnt working as expected.
Gear to Gear Mix Now mix the Flap into the Gear at -100% in both directions. The servo monitor should show the Gear output moving the same direction as the as the right flap. This is set so the KK2 is in auto level mode when in hover or SFF mode, and not in auto level mode when in FFF mode. This is important because it allows different values for the P feedback in r different flight modes.
Flap to Gear Mix
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KK2 Programming
The following is based heavily on the KK2 manual which is an excellent quick start guide. http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/uploads/181270330X7478X47.pdf Enter the "Load Motor Layout" sub-menu and choose the quad-copter X configuration. Enter the "Show Motor Layout" sub-menu and confirm the quad-copter X configuration.
Select Motor Layout
Confirm Motor Layout
Enter the Sensor Calibration sub-menu and Follow the instructions on the LCD. The calibration is only necessary to do once per initial setup.
Sensor Calibration Go ahead and load all the menu values from the attached list, VTOL Trainer - KK2 Menu Setup. The following relates to the Turnigy Plush speed controllers. It turns out that no special programming card or programming cable is required, at least not for the Turnigy speed controllers. I gather that most other speed controllers work in generally the same way, but the Castle Phoenix 25 speed controllers are set up in an entirely different manner. The factory original parameters are just fine for the speed controllers. You only need the programming card if you want to modify the parameters or reset them to factory original specifications. You can also do this via stick programming though I would hate to try.
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Default Values The only thing you need to set is the full idle and full throttle range setting. The KK2 board provides a mode for this that makes it easy. The only thing difficult about it is that you need 3 hands. Per the instructions in the KK2 manual: 1: Important: TAKE OFF THE PROPELLERS OR DISCONNECT ONE WIRE FROM THE MOTOR!! 2: Turn off the FC power. 3: Turn on the transmitter and set the throttle to max. 4: Press down button 1 and 4, keep pressing until last step. Releasing the buttons aborts the calibration. 5: Turn on power to the FC 6: Wait for the ESC to beep its full throttle calibrated signal. Takes a few seconds, depends on the ESC. 7: Lower the throttle to idle. 8: Wait for the idle throttle calibrated signal. 9: Release the buttons. Now power down the plane, reconnect the motors as necessary, and power everything back up, but still with no propellers. Test your ability to arm and disarm the flight controller. Full low throttle and full right rudder should arm the board. Full low throttle and full left rudder should disarm the board.
Armed Designed by: Ran D. St. Clair rd_s_c@pacbell.net
Disarmed Page 64
Run the throttle up and down to confirm the motor response. All 4 motors should respond evenly. The motors should begin to turn with the throttle stick just slightly above full low throttle, and they should reach full throttle just as the throttle stick is all the way up/forward. Now check for motor rotation direction and reverse any motors as necessary. This can be done by reversing any two of the 3 wires from the speed controller to the motor. I strongly recommend that you number the motor pods near the motors and also include an arrow symbol to indicate the direction of rotation. I did this with a small piece of scotch tape to protect the Ultracote and a small Sharpie (permanent marker pen). This will help later when it comes time to tune things.
Motor Pod Labeling Now that the motors are all turning in the correct direction you can finish taping the motor wires into their slots in the bottom of the wing, or if you want you can use Ultracote for a cleaner looking job. Set the flap switch so the motors are in hover mode, pointing straight up. Raise the throttle to a middle setting and then move the sticks slowly, one control input at a time. Verify that for left aileron, both right motors speed up and both left motors slow down. Verify the opposite for right aileron. For up elevator both front motors should speed up and both rear motors should slow down. Verify the opposite for down elevator. For left rudder, the left front motor (M1), and the right rear motor (M3) should speed up, while M2, and M4 should slow down. Verify the opposite for right rudder. Now pick up the aircraft and tilt it forward. The front motors should speed up and the rear motors should slow down. Tilt the aircraft to the rear and verify that the rear motors speed up and the front motors slow down. Likewise check for left and right tilt. When you are in the act of yawing the plane to the left motors 2 and 4 should speed up while 1and 3 slow down. It may be difficult to tell which motors are doing what, but at least you should be able to hear the motor speed changing. You are now ready to install the propellers. The GWS 9-5 triple bladed propellers I recommended are consistently out of balance as they come from the mold and need to be balanced before you use them. Take care to insure that the propellers are installed in both the correct rotation direction, and in the Designed by: Ran D. St. Clair rd_s_c@pacbell.net Page 65
correct orientation. The curved side of the blades should face up for hover mode, or forward for FFF mode. The normal rotation propellers rotate CCW (Counter Clock Wise) when viewed from above, and go in positions 2 and 4. The reverse rotation propellers have an R in the part number, as in HD-9050Rx3. They rotate CW as viewed from above, and go in motor positions 1 and 3. Set the flap switch so the motors are in the vertical or hover position. Arm the aircraft and power up to a low throttle setting and re-verify proper rotation direction and proper propeller thrust direction. Throttle down the aircraft and carefully but firmly hold it at the CG (Center of Gravity) by grabbing the fuselage under the wing. Take extra special care to stay clear of the soon to be spinning propellers. Throttle up to a medium low setting and apply aileron, elevator, and rudder movements slowly, one at a time, and verify that the aircraft tries to roll, pitch, and yaw in the correct direction. Do not apply full throttle at this point because if you do the aircraft will pull very hard. Whatever you do, maintain control of the aircraft and stay clear of the propellers. Now tilt the aircraft in pitch, roll, and yaw, and feel the aircraft fight to remain level. The push back in yaw will be harder to feel, but you should be able to hear the motor speed changing as you are in the act of yawing the aircraft. The motors will not try to return the aircraft to the original position in yaw. You may need to increase the throttle to a mid level or near hover setting to get a good strong feel for the stability feedback. If you feel the aircraft constantly trying to tilt in one direction, or trying to yaw, then something is wrong and needs to be fixed before you proceed. Now set the flap switch to the FFF position, which is all the way up. Tilt the aircraft in pitch, roll, and yaw. You will not feel the aircraft fight to maintain level or even hold position in yaw, but you should hear the motor speed changing as you are in the act of pitching, rolling, or yawing the aircraft. If you hold the aircraft steady at any angle in pitch roll and yaw the motor speed should not change. This is because in FFF mode, self-level is turned off, so you only have the P feedback loop which is minimal and temporary. Although I have done it myself many times, I do not recommend you apply full throttle while holding the aircraft. A loose propeller could easily fly off, or if a motor should stop for some reason the plane could twist out of your hand. The forces involved are amazingly large, and a propeller spinning at full throttle can do a lot of damage. Be careful! You are now ready for flight testing and tuning.
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Hover Testing and Tuning

If you are an experienced multi-copter or helicopter pilot then you will find the VTOL-Trainer easy to fly. If you are an experienced airplane pilot, but not a copter pilot, then I strongly recommend you buy a Blade MQX or similar small quad-copter. These little quad-copters are lots of fun to fly indoors or out and they are pretty much indestructible if flown over grass. If you get out of sorts, just cut the throttle and let it fall, and it will almost never be hurt by the impact. http://www.horizonhobby.com/products/blade-mqx-bnf-BLH7580 You need to be able to confidently hover tail in as a minimum, but the Blade MQX can teach you much more, and most of it you can learn in your living room. Before flying the VTOL-Trainer, Add Loctite 242 (removable) to your motor grub screws (set screws) and any other nuts and bolts that might vibrate loose, especially the ball joints attached to the motor mounts. I prefer to do initial test flights indoors in an open area on a smooth floor. You can do it in your living room on carpet, but it is more challenging to avoid the furniture. The carpet can also hang the skids making it more difficult to see what is happening when you are scrubbing around on the floor. You should be able to take off and hover immediately. Keep the altitude to 6 or less until you know that you can control it, and then jump it up to 3 feet to get out of ground effect. This will make the control smoother and it even requires a little less power. You can use the TX trims to temporarily trim pitch, roll, or yaw, but only so you can get everything in balance long enough to focus on one axis at a time. When you are done, the trims should all be set to zero. We will trim for pitch and roll fist, then yaw later. If the plane is constantly rolling to the right then it indicates an imbalance of power between the left and right motors. If this imbalance is very large then you might have a problem with the motors, speed controller, wiring, or C.G location, etc. Assuming that the drift is small and easily manageable, then you need to tune it out. The KK2 has a menu for Self Level settings that allows you to trim pitch and roll, but I havent found it useful. I think it is easier to just block the plane up at the desired angle and recalibrate. If, for example, the plane is drifting slowly forward and to the right, then set the plane up on a level surface and block up the landing gear so the plane is angled slightly nose high and to the left, and then recalibrate.
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Sensor Calibration It should only be necessary to tilt the plane a few degrees. If it takes more than a small tilt, or you are unable to overcome the drift, then you have an imbalance in the motor thrust that must be corrected. I should note that the VTOLT does not hold position in yaw nearly as solidly as it holds position in pitch and roll. This is partly due to the nature of how yaw is controlled by a quad copter, partly due to the rotational inertia of the wings and fuselage, and partly because we dont want yaw to be held tightly. In normal outdoor flying, we want the vertical stabilizer to be able to overpower the yaw stability of the flight controller and point the aircraft into the wind. The only time you will even notice drift in yaw is when hovering in zero wind, such as indoors. Drift in yaw could be related to an imbalance in motor power, but is more likely due to slight errors in the motor tilt angle. You should start by double checking the motor tilt angles by sighting the plane from the side while the propellers are slowly spinning. If the linkages and TX programming are as close as you can reasonably get them, then it is time to tune the angles based on the observed drift. If, for example, the plane is consistently slowly yawing to the left, then you either need to tilt the left motors forward, or the right motors back. You cant tilt the right motors back because they would hit the over rotation stops, so tilting the left motors forward is the only option. For the DX7s, this is done in the servo setup menu. Select the Travel option for the Left Flap. Assuming the flap switch is set in hover mode, full down, then the correct travel value will automatically be selected. If, for example, it was previously set to 122%, then we want to tune it down to 121% and make another test hover.
Yaw Tuning
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The smaller travel value will drive the servo slightly closer to the neutral position, which is 45 degrees motor tilt, which is slightly forward, which is what we want. If the thrust from all 4 of your motors is reasonably well matched, then this is all the hover tuning you need to do. If, for some reason, the thrust is not well matched, you might not notice because the flight controller will compensate and the aircraft will still hover normally. If, for example, you had a smaller propeller on one motor, the flight controller would simply apply more power to that motor to compensate. This might seem like an acceptable solution, except if you ever apply full power, the flight controller will no longer be able to compensate, and the plane will not hold level. There is a way to use the flight controller to measure how well matched the motors are. This technique is optional but helpful for troubleshooting. Dont worry about any slight drift or wandering in Yaw during this test. Temporally change the Self-Level Mode in the Mode menu from Aux to Stick control. This will allow you to manually turn the Self Level ON/OFF by applying full RIGHT/LEFT aileron, respectively, when arming the flight controller.
Self-Level: AUX Now attempt to hover with the Self-Level turned off.
Self-Level: Stick
Self-Level OFF
Self-level ON
This will be more difficult than usual because the P values in pitch and roll are set to a lower value than is optimal. The plane will still hover but it will tend to wander more than usual. In some ways this will make it easier to see if there is any difference in motor thrust.
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If the plane drifts to the right, for example, then you will need to increase the power to motors 2 and 3. You can do this in the KK2 Mixer Editor by increasing the Throttle setting from 100 to 101 for both CH: (Motor) 2 and 3.
Changing the throttle Mix on Motor #1 (CH: 1) Increase the throttle to the motors as necessary to balance the drift in pitch and roll. Make one small change at a time and then do a short test hover, then make another small change, and so on. When you get done, the lowest value should be 100, and the highest value should be 110 or less. If you are forced to go beyond 110 to get the plane to balance then you should probably figure out why. You can swap propellers, motors, speed controllers, etc. to try and figure it out. An off center CG can also cause an imbalance of this sort. If everything checks out OK then switch the Self-level mode back to Aux control, and set the throttle values back to 100. Make sure you keep an eye on your batteries, because it is easy to flatten a battery with lots of little test hops. I recommend you use an on board audio alarm and dont push it. Your speed controllers will not all decide that the battery is low at the same time, so you will lose power to just one motor and things can get ugly fast. There is really nothing to tune as far as the P, I, D, in the PI Editor screen. The KK2 does not support D, and we always want I to be set to zero, so that just leaves P. I have given you the recommended P values to start. You can always play with them but you need to be careful and know what you are doing. You can raise the P values quite a lot and possibly improve the hovering characteristics a bit, but you increase the chance of oscillations in forward flight mode. You should be very careful about using even small amounts of I. I recommend you keep it at zero. During hover testing you should check your motors, speed controllers, and battery for excess heat. They will all get warm to the touch, especially the battery. Nothing should get hot or anywhere near a temperature that feels like it would burn you, no matter how long you touch it. I often do hover testing with the cockpit removed in order to provide more cooling airflow to the battery. You are now ready for FFF out under the big blue.
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Flight Characteristics and Recommendations

As with any first flight I recommend little or no wind. The VTOL-Trainer can handle a fair amount of wind, but only if you are set up for it. With a regular quad-copter you can just tilt into the wind and translate forward as needed. With the VTOL-Trainer in hover mode, as soon as you tilt forward, and start to fly forward, you are flying with the wing at a negative angle of attack, which means it is generating negative lift. You cant fly very fast that way, so you cant handle much wind. The VTOL-Trainer can fly sideways or backwards, but only slowly. When flying sideways the vertical stabilizer will try to turn the nose into the relative wind. When flying backwards, the wings will be generating negative lift and the vertical stabilizer will try to spin the plane around. If you tilt the motors forward in SFF (Slow Forward Flight) mode, then you can make headway into the wind while the wing is at a positive angle of attack, generating lift. The farther you tilt the motors the faster you can go. By the time the motors get to 45 degrees you are pretty much in FFF (Fast Forward Flight). The recommended initial value for SFF is -80%, which calculates to a tilt angle of 9 degrees from vertical. At that angle you can still hover, but with the nose 9 degrees high. As you begin to translate forward the nose angle will be reduced but the wing will still be in a position to make lift. In any wind over about 5 MPH you can take off directly in SFF at this angle. If you set the mid flap position to -60%, which calculates to a tilt angle of 18 degrees from vertical, you can take off and land in even stronger winds. At this point you can still hover, but the nose angle is pretty high. SFF at this angle is very airplane like, but slow, like flying a very light plane. This is probably the easiest mode to fly. Any experienced airplane pilot will find it very natural. If you find yourself fighting the wind with one wing low, you are at least partly sideways to the wind, or in airplane terms, you are in a slip. Point the nose into the wind and level the wings. There is no good reason to cross control (opposite aileron and rudder) when you can hover. If the wind is gusty and you are hovering nose high, then the gusts will cause the plane to move up and down as wells forwards and backwards. Sudden increases in airspeed mean increased lift, and likewise to the contrary. At some point you have to decide if it is a better day for bowling. Once you flip the switch to FFF (Fast Forward Flight) it becomes an airplane like any other. The 3 second transition allows plenty of time for the aircraft to accelerate into forward flight. A normal transition to forward flight is as simple as flipping the switch and flying the plane. You can expect the nose to drop slightly as it accelerates, but you can easily compensate for this with a little up elevator. The reverse transition from FFF to a hover is equally uneventful. I usually make it in stages going first to SFF. This is mainly because it is most convenient to set up a landing approach in SFF. You can point the nose down in SFF and reduce throttle and it will descend like any other airplane, except that you can throttle up and hover whenever you like.
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I would caution against going into a full hover mode with excess forward airspeed. When the motors are vertical there is only about 1 of clearance between the tips of the propellers and the rear motor pods. The propeller blades are flexible enough to bend up and hit the pods, which can happen if they are suddenly making a lot of lift. The front propellers are not a problem as any lift tends to bend them away from the motor pods. If you try any hover aerobatics, then keep the motors in SFF mode. Even a few degrees of tilt moves the propeller tips farther away from the motor pods and lessens the opportunity for a propeller strike. I would not suggest making an airplane like landing unless you have to. Even with the reinforcement between the foam fuselage and the landing gear skids, it is not meant for that kind of abuse. If you intend to land like that I would recommend using wheels. Be careful about long glides at zero throttle. The KK2 will eventually go into safe mode and you will have to re-arm with full right rudder, not something you want to do in a panic close to the ground. You can turn off this safety feature in the KK2 if you like, but I recommend you keep it. It is very easy to get to talking after landing and forget to safe the aircraft, and then you are one bump of the throttle stick from something bad happening. Also be careful about zero throttle spins to the left for the same reason. If you want to do things like that, a few clicks of up throttle trim should prevent the KK2 from going into safe mode for the duration of the flight. Be careful of your battery capacity. Hovering sucks power at a rapid pace. A 2,200mAH pack is the smallest I would recommend and it only lasts about 5 minutes in hover mode. Forward flight at reduced throttle settings will extend that time somewhat. Since you need power to land in hover mode it is best to keep your flights short and then measure the remaining capacity in your battery packs after every flight. This is good practice for any electric aircraft, but is especially important for aircraft that hover to land.
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Design Philosophy
It starts with the Center of Gravity (CG) of the underlying airplane. The Bixler, like most conventional airplanes, has the CG located under the wing spar, at about 33% of the average wing cord. This is a very docile CG location with good stability and pitch damping characteristics. Now imagine that you are looking at the aircraft from above, with all four rotors centered over this CG location. At this point the rotor disks fully overlap one another. Now evenly push the rotors out on the diagonals and at some point the rotors no longer overlap each other, but they still overlap the wing. Push them out farther and the front rotors clear the wing first, since there is less of the wing in front of the CG than behind. Now push them out further until the back rotors clear the wing with a somewhat arbitrary to spare. For the Bixler, this requires that the rotors are 20 apart from center to center. At this point we need to check the longitudinal overlap between the rotors and the horizontal stabilizer. A little overlap is OK, as it will result in a slight nose up pitch when the downwash from the rear rotors pushes down on the horizontal stabilizer in SFF. Too much overlap and the aircraft will simply nose up and continue to hover when the motors are tilted slightly forward. The prototype suffered from this problem and as a result the tips of the horizontal stabilizer had to be trimmed. The published design moves the motor pods out an additional until they are at the edge of the ailerons, in order to further reduce this problem. The resulting quadcopter is not perfectly square but the additional width provides additional roll authority which is helpful in overcoming the rotational inertia of the wing. Another way to solve this problem involves moving the horizontal stabilizer up or the rear rotors down. Once we know where the rotors need to go, everything else is just the practical matter of making the structure work. Another consideration is the vertical placement of the rotors. For the VTOL Trainer, the vertical rotor placement is a practical matter. I just wanted to get the rear rotors up as high as possible to get them up out of the grass when in hover mode. It would also be nice to be able to take off or land like an airplane without the propeller tips dragging through the grass. There is no reason that this basic design cannot be applied to any number of different aircraft. The most important factor for success is to keep it as light as possible.
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Understanding the Flight Controller

Lets start with some basic definitions: P is the Primary feedback loop. It is based on the output of the 3 axes gyro not the accelerometer. The gyros measure the rate of angular rotation, for example, degrees per second, or RPM. The gyros have no direct sense of whether the aircraft is tilted, only if the tilt is changing. For example, if the aircraft is slowly tilting to the left, the gyro can measure that. If the plane is tilted to the left 20 degrees and holding there, the gyro will output nothing because the tilt angle is steady. There is a separate gyro output on roll, pitch, and yaw, but they all work in the same way. The P feedback loop attempts to make the aircraft angular rate of change match your stick input. For example, if the aircraft is level and steady, and the stick input neutral, then all motors on a quadcopter should run about the same speed. If you move the aileron stick 5 degrees to the left, then the code will take that number, multiply it by the P value, and increase the speed of the right motors by 5% and decrease the speed of the left motors by 5%. In this purely hypothetical example the P value is 1, or 1% motor change per 1 degree of stick angle. The actual P value in the KK2 is scaled for convenience, so it may be more like 20, but the same concept applies. If you set the P values on the KK2 to 20, and the I values to zero, and then power up the motors to a modest level, and then force the aircraft to tilt slowly to the left, the left motors will run faster, and the right motors will run slower, but only while you are actively tilting the aircraft. If you tilt the aircraft to 20 degrees and then hold it there, the motors will equalize, and the aircraft will make no attempt to return to level. Technically this is not stability, it is just damping. For true stability the aircraft would have to bring itself back to level when you return the stick to neutral. The purpose of P is not to make the aircraft stable. It is to make the aircraft control response slow enough and predictable enough so that you, the human pilot, can make it stable via your control inputs. All of these concepts apply equally well to roll, pitch, and yaw. Most quadcopters react similarly in roll and pitch because they are approximately the same physical configuration from front to back as side to side. They are, however, significantly different in yaw. The yaw response is inherently more sluggish due to the physics of the situation. This often results in a higher value of P for yaw in order to get a similar control feel. Yaw is also different in terms of how it interacts with gravity. You can hover with the nose pointed most any direction so long as the aircraft is level, but if the aircraft starts to tilt even a little bit, you are soon not hovering any more. I is the Integral of the primary feedback loop. Integral is a fancy math concept that just means to keep adding things up, like a running total. I is the feedback loop that provides heading hold for yaw, whereas P is sometimes called a rate gyro. I provides true stability, sort of, whereas P only provides damping. I use the words sort of because the reality is complicated and will take some explaining. For the KK2, with the P turned off, and only the I set to 20, if you hold the aircraft level, and then increase the throttle to a modest level, all of the motors will start to run at approximately the same speed, but gradually over the next 30 seconds or so, some of the motors will slowly speed up, and some will slowly slow down. If you bring the throttle back to idle, and then throttle up again, the motors will Designed by: Ran D. St. Clair rd_s_c@pacbell.net Page 74
come up evenly, but then start to drift again. This is the basic problem with I. It doesnt really know where level is. It only assumes you were level the last time the throttle was off. It also slowly loses track of level over time, which is called drift. I works by reading the output of the gyros many times per second. For example, if the aircraft is held steady at any angle, and you throttle up to a modest value, the code will read the output of the roll gyro, which should read zero because the aircraft is not rolling at that point. On the KK2 the actual value will be something like 550, but the code also knows to subtract 550 based on the sensor calibration, so the net value is zero. The code then adds this zero value in a running total hundreds of times per second. If the value really is zero then zero plus zero plus zero, etc. adds up to zero, but if the calibration is off by even one tiny little count, then 1 plus 1 plus 1 plus 1, etc. eventually becomes a really big number. Meanwhile the code is also integrating the stick input. If the stick is at neutral then the code is adding zero plus zero plus zero again, but just like the gyro output, the stick input can be off ever so slightly and the count eventually adds up. The I control loop is constantly comparing the integral from the gyro to the integral from the stick input and using the difference between the two to drive the motors. For example, if the gyro integral is 27, and the stick input integral is 37, then the difference is 10. That value of 10 is multiplied by the constant I and is applied to the motors. For example, the left motors might throttle up by 10% and the right motors might throttle down by 10%. That would imply that the I feedback loop thinks that the aircraft is tilted 10 counts too far to the left and is trying to correct the error. In this example the gyro integral is 27, not zero, so it wont return the aircraft to level, only some angle corresponding to a count of 27. That could be because of drift, or it could be because you have given stick inputs such that you dont want the aircraft to be level, or most likely, it is some of both. So all this drift sounds like a really horrible problem, but its not so bad. So long as it takes many seconds for the drift to become a problem you wont even notice it. You will constantly be flying the aircraft, making it do what you want, and in the process compensating for the drift. Once again, you the pilot are the real stability. For the KK2, set the I to 20 and the P to 0 in pitch and roll, and set both the I and P to zero for yaw. Hold the aircraft level and throttle up to a modest value. Now tilt the aircraft to the left about 20 degrees and hold it there. Note that left motors throttle up and the right motors throttle down, and that they will continue to fight to bring the aircraft back to level. If you hold the aircraft tilted long enough you will note that eventually the drift gets so bad that the motors are no longer doing the right thing. Just bring the throttle back to zero and the KK2 is smart enough to zero out the drift. Try the same exercise as above but tilt the aircraft in pitch. You should see the same basic effect. Now set the I to 20 for yaw and set both P and I on everything else to zero. Try the same exercise as above but this time yaw the aircraft. Once again, you should see the same basic effect. The aircraft will fight to hold heading, but slowly drift. D is the differential of P. Differential is another fancy math concept that is the inverse of Integral. For our purposes it is based on the rate of angular acceleration. As near as I can tell, D isnt part of the KK2 programming, or if it is, it is buried in the code and we cant adjust it. There is also no easy way for me to characterize it without a lot of fancy instrumentation and then there would be no easy way to tell you Designed by: Ran D. St. Clair rd_s_c@pacbell.net Page 75
how to demonstrate it to yourself, so lets not spend much time on it. D can be useful for improving control response when used in the proper proportion with P. P is by far the most necessary feedback to make a flyable quadcopter. A little bit of I is nice, but not really necessary, and D can be nice for a really crisp control response, but is even less necessary. As any experienced quadcopter pilot knows, too much P will make the aircraft do a fast wobble, or oscillation. Too much I will result in a slower wobble or oscillation. Too little P will make the aircraft drifty and you will be constantly fighting to stay level. For this project I dont use I at all. A little I would be fine in hover or even slow flight mode, but not in forward flight mode. Just to test the theory I did very carefully try a little I in forward flight mode. I started with a very small amount, like 3 just in case it turned out to be a problem. It was, but at first I didnt recognize it. To explain I first need to demonstrate the integration effect on your control inputs. Set I to 30 and P to zero in all 3 axis. Hold the plane level and throttle up a modest amount. (We have done all this before.) Now apply a tiny amount of left aileron. You should see the right motors slowly ramp up to full throttle and the left motors slowly ramp down until they are stopped. Now apply a tiny amount of right aileron and the left motors will slowly ramp up while the right motors ramp down. Depending on how far you move the stick this can take several seconds. This demonstrates how a very small stick input is integrated over time and within a few seconds becomes full throttle, or zero throttle, as the case may be. Now imagine you are in FFF (Fast Forward Flight) mode and setting up for a landing. You reduce the throttle to near idle and are essentially gliding down with the motors running slowly. In order to flatten the glide you instinctively apply a touch of up elevator. If the I feedback loop is enabled then it is integrating this small input as you glide but nothing much is happening because the throttle is nearly off. When you get down to a comfortable altitude and want to level off you bring up the throttle and get a nasty surprise. The front motors come on full tilt, and the rear motors not at all. This pitches the nose up hard, and you are immediately jamming the stick forward out of instinct. Almost instantly the control loop is closed and you are back in command, but all your airspeed is gone. You are mostly hovering safely at that point, but your nice clean approach has been ruined. With airplanes we often give control inputs knowing that the aircraft cant literally follow them. For example, on landing we pull back on the stick to slow the plane to nearly a stall, but we dont expect the plane to do a loop, it just doesnt have enough energy. The I control loop expects the plane to do what you told it to do, and it will integrate and remember all of your past inputs. As soon as the power is available it will try to make up for lost time, even if that isnt really what you had in mind. The bottom line is that you dont need or want I, so just set it to zero. All of this P, I, and D stuff is based on the output from the gyros and has nothing to do with the accelerometer. The KK2 board does have a 3 axis accelerometer chip, that is used in Self Level mode. The Self level mode is controlled via the Aux input, which is driven from the TX Gear output. Self Level mode is on for hover and SFF, and off for FFF. The KK2 board also has Height Dampening which uses the accelerometer to try and make it easier to hold a constant altitude in a hover. This might be a nice
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feature for a standard quadcopter but I suspect it would be a problem in forward flight mode so I have it set to zero. The 3 axes accelerometer allows the KK2 board to measure the local gravity vector. I like to imagine this as a weight hanging from the plane by a rubber band. If the plane is accelerating upward the rubber band will stretch. If the plane is accelerating forward the local gravity vector will tilt backwards. You might wonder why the KK2, or copter controllers in general, dont just use the 3 axes accelerometers to provide true flight stabilization. Why bother with P and I and all the long term drift issues when you have accelerometers that dont drift (much)? The answer is because an aircraft in flight is not as simple as an aircraft held in your hands. If you have a quadcopter in a perfect hover, and then something comes along, like a pushy finger, and causes it to tilt 5 degrees to the left, the accelerometer will not immediately be able to tell. The aircraft will immediately begin translating sideways to the left and the net result will be that the local gravity vector will remain in line with the aircraft. It wont be straight down relative to the earth any more, but it will be tilted by the same amount as the aircraft. As the aircraft accelerates sideways it will begin to develop drag and at some point, if the tilt angle remains the same, it will reach some terminal horizontal velocity. At that point the local gravity vector will be straight down relative to the earth and the accelerometer will easily see that the aircraft must be tilted. Long before terminal velocity is reached the local gravity vector will begin tilting and some stabilizing feedback is possible. So, going back to a perfect hover At the point of upset the P will be fighting strongly to prevent the upset from ever happening. Once the upsetting force is gone, so is the pushback from P. At this point, if P didnt entirely win the battle then I can remember that the aircraft is tilted and will try to push it back to level and pretty much never give up, but I has long term drift issues. If I doesnt bring things back to level, It may be a few seconds later before the local gravity vector gets tilted enough for the accelerometer to notice and help straighten things out, and by then the aircraft will have translated horizontally a considerable distance. You can see all this play out when flying indoors with no wind, if you have enough room to let the aircraft do what it wants, and everything is perfectly trimmed. None of this helps you with wind. The aircraft has no way to know where it is relative to a spot on the ground, except via feedback from you, the pilot. Left to its own devices it will go with the flow like a hot air balloon. To solve that problem we need something like GPS. Likewise the aircraft has no way to know which way it is pointed in terms of a compass heading. To solve that problem we need a magnetometer. The KK2 does not have a GPS or a magnetometer, but some other flight controllers do.
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DX7s TX Setup for VTOL-Trainer

Model Name: VTOL-Trnr Model Type: Airplane (Acro) Wing Type: One Aileron servo, two Flap Servo's Tail: Normal Switch Select: Trainer: Inh F Mode: Inh Gear: Gear Flap: Inh Mix: Inh Knob: Inh Warnings: Throttle over: 10% Gear: Inhibit Flaps: Inhibit Alarm: Tone Telemetry: NA Frame Rate: 22ms Mode: DSMX Trainer: Inhibit System Settings: User Name: R.St.Clair Contrast: 10 Mode: 2 Region: US-247 Language: English Batt Alarm: 4.3V Battery Type: NiMH Serial Number: XXXXXX XXXX-XXXX-XXXX XXXX-XXXX-XXXX Export: 1.00
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Servo Setup: Travel: Throttle: 102%, 99% Travel: Aileron: 102%, 104% Travel: Elevator: 104%, 101% Travel: Rudder: 103%, 103% Travel: Gear: 100%, 100% Travel: R Flap: 117%, 117% Travel: L Flap: 121%, 122: Sub Trim: Throttle: 27H Subtrim: Aileron: 1L Subtrim: Elevator: 3D Subtrim: Rudder: 1L Subtrim: Gear: 0 Subtrim: R Flap: 32+ Subtrim: L Flap: 43Reverse: Throttle: Normal Reverse: Aileron: Reverse Reverse: Elevator: Reverse Reverse: Rudder: Normal Reverse: Gear: Normal Reverse: R Flap: Reverse Reverse: L Flap: Normal D/R-Expo Aileron: Pos: 1, D/R: 100, Expo: 40, Sw: On Elevator: Pos: 1, D/R: 100, Expo: 40, Sw: On Rudder: Pos: 1, D/R: 100, Expo: 40, Sw: On Differential: Inhibit Throttle Cut: Inhibit Flap System: Flap Elev Normal 100% Mid -60% Land: -100% Speed: 3.0s Sw: Flap Mixing ELE > FLP Up: 0% Down: 0% Sw: Inh AIL > RUD Up: 0% Down: 0% Sw: Inh
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(Typical) (Typical) (Typical) (Typical) (Typical) (Typical) (Typical) (Typical) (Typical) (Typical) (Typical) (Typical) (Typical) (Typical) (Typical) (Typical) (Typical) (Typical) (Typical) (Typical)
0% 0% 0%
(Typical)

Mix 1: GER > GER Rate: -100%, -100% Offset: 0% Trim: Inh Sw: On Mix 2: FLP > GER Rate: -100%, -100% Offset: 0% Trim: Inh Sw: On Mix 3: Rate: 0%, 0% Offset: 0% Trim: Inh Sw: Inh Mix 4: Rate: 0%, 0% Offset: 0% Trim: Inh Sw: Inh Mix 5: Rate: 0%, 0% Offset: 0% Trim: Inh Sw: Inh Mix 6: Rate: 0%, 0% Offset: 0% Trim: Inh Sw: Inh Timer: Mode: Count Down Time: 05:00, Tone Start, Trainer
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VTOL Trainer - KK2 Menu Setup
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Startup screen SAFE Self Level is ON/OFF OK (TX Input status) Battery 0.0V PI Editor Axis: Roll (Aileron) P Gain: 80 P Limit: 100 I Gain: 0 I Limit: 0 Axis: Pitch (Elevator) P Gain: 80 P Limit: 100 I Gain: 0 I Limit: 0 Axis: Yaw (Rudder) P Gain: 35 P Limit: 35 I Gain: 0 I Limit: 0 Receiver Test Aileron: 0 (Set Range to 0, Right to +100, Left to -100, Will indicate Left or Right on screen) Elevator: 0 (Set Range to 0, Back (Up) to +100, Forward (Down) to -100, Will indicate Back or Forward on screen) Throttle: 0 (Set Idle to 0, Full to 100, Will indicate Idle or Full on screen) Rudder: 0 (Set Range to 0, Left to +100, Right to -100, Will indicate Left or Right on screen) Auxillary: +100 = On, -100 = Off, Threshold at 0 Mode Settings Self Level: Aux Arming: Stick Link Roll Pitch: Yes Auto Disarm: Yes CPPM Enabled: No Stick Scaling Roll (Ail): 50 Pitch (Ele): 50 Yaw (Rud): 90 Throttle: 90 Misc. Settings Minimum Throttle: 10 Height Dampening: 0 Height D. Limit 30 Alarm 1/10 Volts: 0 Servo Filter: 0 Self-Level Settings P Gain: 40 P Limit: 20 ACC Trim Roll: 0 ACC Trim Pitch: 0
VTOL Trainer - KK2 Menu Setup Sensor Test Gyro X: 550 OK (Typical Values) Gyro Y: 548 OK (Typical Values) Gyro Z: 569 OK (Typical Values) Acc X: 741 OK (Typical Values) Acc Y: 612 OK (Typical Values) Acc Z: 654 OK (Typical Values) Sensor Calibration Place the Aircraft on a level surface and press CONTINUE. The FC will then wait 5 seconds to let the aircraft settle down. Gyro X: 550 OK (Typical Values) Gyro Y: 548 OK (Typical Values) Gyro Z: 569 OK (Typical Values) Acc X: 741 OK (Typical Values) Acc Y: 612 OK (Typical Values) Acc Z: 654 OK (Typical Values) Calibration Succeeded CPPM Settings Roll (Ail): 1 Pitch (Ele): 2 Yaw (Rud): 3 Throttle: 4 AUX: 5 Mixer Editor CH:1 Throttle: 100 (Initial Value) Aileron: -71 Elevator: 71 Rudder: 100 Offset: 0 Type: ESC Rate: High CH:2 Throttle: 100 (Initial Value) Aileron: 71 Elevator: 71 Rudder: -100 Offset: 0 Type: ESC Rate: High CH:3 Throttle: 100 (Initial Value) Aileron: 71 Elevator: -71 Rudder: 100 Offset: 0 Type: ESC Rate: High
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VTOL Trainer - KK2 Menu Setup CH:4 Throttle: 100 (Initial Value) Aileron: -71 Elevator: -71 Rudder: -100 Offset: 0 Type: ESC Rate: High CH:5 Throttle: 0 Aileron: 0 Elevator: 0 Rudder: 0 Offset: 0 Type: Servo Rate: Low CH:6 Throttle: 0 Aileron: 0 Elevator: 0 Rudder: 0 Offset: 0 Type: Servo Rate: Low CH:7 Throttle: 0 Aileron: 0 Elevator: 0 Rudder: 0 Offset: 0 Type: Servo Rate: Low CH:8 Throttle: 0 Aileron: 0 Elevator: 0 Rudder: 0 Offset: 0 Type: Servo Rate: Low Show Motor Layout Motor: All (Image of motor layout including direction of prop rotation)
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VTOL Trainer - KK2 Menu Setup Load Motor Layout SingleCopter 2M 2S SingleCopter 1M 4S DualCopter TriCopter Y6 Quadcopter + Mode Quadcopter X Mode (Used for VTOL-Trainer) X8 + Mode X8 X Mode HexCopter + Mode HexCopter X Mode OctoCopter + Mode OctoCopter X Mode H6 H8 V6 V8 Airplane 1S Aileron Airplane 2S Aileron Flying Wing Y4 V-Tail Debug GyroRollZero: 548 (Typical Values) GyroPitchZero: 549 (Typical Values) GyroYawZero: 568 (Typical Values) AccXZero: 740 (Typical Values) AccYZero: 612 (Typical Values) AccZZero: 653 (Typical Values) ESCLowLimit: 88 (Typical Values) BattAlarmVoltage: 0 (Typical Values) ServoFilter: 78 (Typical Values) Unused: 78 (Typical Values) Unused: 78 (Typical Values) Unused: 78 (Typical Values) AngleRoll: 0 (Typical Values) AnglePitch: 0 (Typical Values) BatteryVoltage: 0 (Typical Values) unused78 (Typical Values) Factory Reset Are you sure? Yes/Cancel
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KK2 Factory Reset Settings
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Startup screen SAFE Self Level is ON/OFF OK (TX Input status) Battery 0.0V PI Editor Axis: Roll (Aileron) P Gain: 50 P Limit: 100 I Gain: 25 I Limit: 20 Axis: Pitch (Elevator) P Gain: 50 P Limit: 100 I Gain: 25 I Limit: 20 Axis: Yaw (Rudder) P Gain: 50 P Limit: 20 I Gain: 50 I Limit: 10 Receiver Test Aileron: 0 (Set Range to 0, Right to +100, Left to -100, Will indicate Left or Right on screen) Elevator: 0 (Set Range to 0, Back (Up) to +100, Forward (Down) to -100, Will indicate Back or Forward on screen) Throttle: 0 (Set Idle to 0, Full to 100, Will indicate Idle or Full on screen) Rudder: 0 (Set Range to 0, Left to +100, Right to -100, Will indicate Left or Right on screen) Auxillary: No Signal (In this application only) Mode Settings Self Level: Stick Arming: Stick Link Roll Pitch: Yes Auto Disarm: Yes CPPM Enabled: No Stick Scaling Roll (Ail): 30 Pitch (Ele): 30 Yaw (Rud): 50 Throttle: 90 Misc. Settings Minimum Throttle: 10 Height Dampening: 0 Height D. Limit 30 Alarm 1/10 Volts: 0 Servo Filter: 0 Self-Level Settings P Gain: 40 P Limit: 20 ACC Trim Roll: 0 ACC Trim Pitch: 0

Sensor Test Gyro X: 550 OK Gyro Y: 548 OK Gyro Z: 569 OK Acc X: 741 OK Acc Y: 612 OK Acc Z: 654 OK Sensor Calibration Place the Aircraft on a level surface and press CONTINUE. The FC will then wait 5 seconds to let the aircraft settle down. Gyro X: 550 OK Gyro Y: 548 OK Gyro Z: 569 OK Acc X: 741 OK Acc Y: 612 OK Acc Z: 654 OK Calibration Succeeded CPPM Settings Roll (Ail): 1 Pitch (Ele): 2 Yaw (Rud): 3 Throttle: 4 AUX: 5 Mixer Editor CH:1 Throttle: 100 Aileron: 0 Elevator: 100 Rudder: 100 Offset: 0 Type: ESC Rate: High CH:2 Throttle: 100 Aileron: 100 Elevator: 0 Rudder: -100 Offset: 0 Type: ESC Rate: High CH:3 Throttle: 100 Aileron: 0 Elevator: -100 Rudder: 100 Offset: 0 Type: ESC Rate: High
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CH:4 Throttle: 100 Aileron: -100 Elevator: 0 Rudder: -100 Offset: 0 Type: ESC Rate: High CH:5 Throttle: 0 Aileron: 0 Elevator: 0 Rudder: 0 Offset: 0 Type: Servo Rate: Low CH:6 Throttle: 0 Aileron: 0 Elevator: 0 Rudder: 0 Offset: 0 Type: Servo Rate: Low CH:7 Throttle: 0 Aileron: 0 Elevator: 0 Rudder: 0 Offset: 0 Type: Servo Rate: Low CH:8 Throttle: 0 Aileron: 0 Elevator: 0 Rudder: 0 Offset: 0 Type: Servo Rate: Low Show Motor Layout Motor: All (Image of motor layout including direction of prop rotation, Default: Quadcopter + Mode)
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Load Motor Layout SingleCopter 2M 2S SingleCopter 1M 4S DualCopter TriCopter Y6 Quadcopter + Mode Quadcopter X Mode X8 + Mode X8 X Mode HexCopter + Mode HexCopter X Mode OctoCopter + Mode OctoCopter X Mode H6 H8 V6 V8 Airplane 1S Aileron Airplane 2S Aileron Flying Wing Y4 V-Tail Debug GyroRollZero: 548 GyroPitchZero: 549 GyroYawZero: 568 AccXZero: 740 AccYZero: 612 AccZZero: 653 ESCLowLimit: 88 BattAlarmVoltage: 0 ServoFilter: 78 Unused: 78 Unused: 78 Unused: 78 AngleRoll: 0 AnglePitch: 0 BatteryVoltage: 0 unused78 Factory Reset Are you sure? Yes/Cancel
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VTOLT Build Instructions

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VTOLT Build Instructions

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VTOL Trainer Build Instructions

Designed by: Ran D. St. Clair

Designed by: Ran D. St. Clair

Designed by: Ran D. St. Clair

Designed by: Ran D. St. Clair

Control System Block Diagram

Designed by: Ran D. St. Clair

Consolidated Parts List

Designed by: Ran D. St. Clair

Designed by: Ran D. St. Clair

Designed by: Ran D. St. Clair

Designed by: Ran D. St. Clair

Motor Mount Build Instructions

Designed by: Ran D. St. Clair

Designed by: Ran D. St. Clair

Designed by: Ran D. St. Clair

Designed by: Ran D. St. Clair

Stub Shaft and Bushings http://www.mcmaster.com/#catalog/119/3235/=lm08z4

Designed by: Ran D. St. Clair

Designed by: Ran D. St. Clair

Designed by: Ran D. St. Clair

Designed by: Ran D. St. Clair

Designed by: Ran D. St. Clair

Front Motor Wire and Servo Wire slot

Designed by: Ran D. St. Clair

Carbon Fiber Glued

Designed by: Ran D. St. Clair

Designed by: Ran D. St. Clair

Preliminary TX Programming and Servo Centering

Initial Flap Setup

Designed by: Ran D. St. Clair

Designed by: Ran D. St. Clair

Wing Assembly and Mounting to Fuselage

Designed by: Ran D. St. Clair

Designed by: Ran D. St. Clair

Fuselage Assembly and Landing Gear

Designed by: Ran D. St. Clair

Designed by: Ran D. St. Clair

Designed by: Ran D. St. Clair

Wing Struts and finishing the Bixler

Lower Wing Strut Mount

Designed by: Ran D. St. Clair

Glued Clevis at Wing Mount

Designed by: Ran D. St. Clair

Designed by: Ran D. St. Clair

Designed by: Ran D. St. Clair

Designed by: Ran D. St. Clair

Preliminary Wiring Designed by: Ran D. St. Clair rd_s_c@pacbell.net Page 44

Designed by: Ran D. St. Clair

Motor Wire Routing

Designed by: Ran D. St. Clair

Component Placement Designed by: Ran D. St. Clair rd_s_c@pacbell.net Page 49

Designed by: Ran D. St. Clair

Battery Mounting and Wing Tips

Battery Velcro Taped

Designed by: Ran D. St. Clair

Designed by: Ran D. St. Clair

Designed by: Ran D. St. Clair

Battery Cooling and Top Hatch

Inside Top Hatch Cover

Designed by: Ran D. St. Clair

Radio Programming and Tuning

Initial Flap Setup