well the move is getting closer and I have started cleaning out the garage, with all the extra stuff I can either rent a storage unit to put all the stuff in or hock it on craigslist. I chose the latter due to having to fix so much stuff in the house because of the dogs that we have been petsitting have never been house trained, but I guess this is one of those “you live and learn” scenarios. Never pet sit for strangers, don’t even petsit for someone you kind-of-sort-of know. You will probably get screwed, we did, but we learned from it. Does anybody want a 400 lb chest freezer?
as far as the plane goes, if weight allows, I’m probably going to go with the trailer axle and coupler so that I can just hook up and tow away when I land. I will probably carry a 2″ hitch and a 3/4 ” hitch adapter so that my tow vehicle doesn’t have to come prepared. I was thinking about a design using a bike rack so that I wouldn’t need a vehicle with a hitch but ill figure that out later.
So I got a new motor today, I bartered it from the guy for a gun that I never used anymore, but to my surprise, the bike isn’t a ninja 250 or 500, its a Z6R, with a 113hp engine. there is NO WAY that I am going to put a 113 hp engine on an ultralight, the engine itself weighs in at 120lbs which takes up about half of my required weight. so unless i can build the plane out of air, or just strap the engine to my back and go like this guy…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TlbQ0xbbpOQ
hes so enthusiastic, I love it!
but anyways, Im not looking to powered paraglide, I looked into it and it looks fun as hell, but I can’t build it myself so It takes the fun out of it.
so now I have a z6r in shambles [the bike really is a project, the stator case is cracked, the fairings are all broken or missing, the gas tank has an inch of rust in it, it has no instrumentation, no headlights, or signals, the front brakes are probably locked up [idk, but they have been bled dry so they need to be refilled and ajusted before driving. The oil is drained, the radiator fluid is drained, the air box looks dirty but I havent opened it up yet.the carbs are gummed up, and The electrical is all sorts of messed up [cut wires and lots of loose ends, this beast is gonna take a long time to get sorted out. ]
but the good news is: the engine works, the transmission shifts positively, neutral isn’t a bitch to find, and the tires still have tread on them, oh and the frame isn’t bent. so this is a project bike, I will get it running, and I will ride the hell out of it before I sell it to fund the plane, or maybe I will hold on to it…we will see how much money I can get for it/how attached I grow to it before I do anything…
I have been saying that I wanted to keep a bike down in Austin at my parents house so I wouldn’t have to trailer one down there every time I went so that I would have a bike to ride in Austin…I may do that…we will see.
so, to make the story short, I didn’t get a motor for the plane, which is a bummer, but I did get a bike to do whatever with, so it wasn’t a loss by any means.
Total:
Cash: $100
+1 Kawisaki Z6R project bike.
Its easier to build a plane around an engine than it is to find an engine to fit the specs of the plane [why put a 40hp screamer on if your Vne is 63mph?] anyways Im looking on craigslist and trying to find a decent motorcycle motor to use on it, I found a salvage bike on CL that has a decent sized motor on it. I may use the motor or I may just fix the bike up and sell it, then use the cash to buy an air motor…but nothing is set in stone.
as far as design and planning, I’ve got almost everything worked out, I am going to use the foam webbing idea from the sky pup designs but I wanted a more rounded shape to cut down on drag So I decided to go with a fiberglass shell to carry the stress around a foam frame. Increasing strength and decreasing drag while making it look better, the wings are still going to be stretched dacron because the stuff is super light so I would save alot on weight, allowing me to add extras like electric ignition or maybe floats? Idk about the floats i have to check my local regulations on the matter.
I decided to go with an airfoil shaped body to add a little bit more lift to the design while not adding on much more weight [the body already looks kind of like an airfoil, I just tweaked it a bit more]
I also found a set of lawnmower wheels at walmart that I think would work perfect for lightweight landing gear, they are lightweight, strong [well…as strong as something from walmart can be!] and low profile, If I am going to make the plane trailerable I will have to change the tires, but for now these will work.
no xboxes fixed this week but I did do some work for a guy out in know city [around 2 hours away from here] and got paid $100, so im putting that as cash towards the materials]
Total cash: $100
Xplane planemaker
I came across a link talking about planemaker and what a wonderful tool it is when designing and testing an experimental aircraft. Now granted, this is no substitute for structural engineering but it is great for finding out if your empennage is too small or your tail is too close to your wing. It is also a great tool to use to get a general idea about how your plane will handle, it has a GREAT physics engine using blade theory instead of programmed physics so that you can build a plane and test it and actually see generally how the craft will perform.
Want to know the best part? Its free!
Just go to the xplane website [ http://www.x-plane.com/pg_downloads.html ]and download the xplane demo for your operating system [even linux is supported!] The plane maker comes in the installer package, so does an airfoil maker so that you can replicate your proposed airfoil too, along with the actual simulator, in the demo version you can fly for 10 minutes at a time which is plenty of time to get your plane off the ground and realize that you have zero stability at speeds below 30mph [in an ultralight, you are coming in to land at less than 30mph, and stability is everything. Especially when a gust of wind can literally lift your plane off the ground from a dead stop!]
see the link for a foot launched takeoff in high wind, its pretty cool.
I have been looking everywhere for designs for an ultralight, construction methods and materials, and I came across this:
http://machnone.com/default.aspx
looking at it it seems like a brilliant idea, its light weight and high strength. Not as high as an aluminum shell but I am not looking for an acrobatic airplane, I just want to fly.
The site also has some great information on making a prop for my ultralight. at first I wanted to just buy one and be safe, but this website outlined it pretty well and made it seem like something to consider. I may actually build a few props to see if I would feel confident enough to put my life in my own hands [although I am building the craft…sooo…..] the worst thing that can happen is that I will have made a few pieces of wall art.
So I originally thought about using round tubing for my aircraft design because it would be easy to work with, cut, and bend. I saw an article somewhere in my LOADS of pages in my history [I’m not going back to find the link, sorry but there is just WAY too many.] that said that square tubing is almost twice as strong as round tubing…which is great for building an aircraft!
the down side is price, I can’t even get my wing materials for under 1k, now granted, the wing is the single most important part of the airplane that isnt a parachute, so im not going to skimp out on it. [as much as I can anyways!]
I was also thinking about the shape of the plane, I would like a windscreen [I ride a motorcycle, and at 60mph with no windscreen you aren’t really having all that much fun, why would I want to do that when I am 5000 feet off the ground?
Another thing I would like If I can get away with it is a covered tail, sure it waves on weight, but it looks ghetto in my opinion, like a half assed rig built to smuggle drugs across the border [I also read an article about that.]
What I am getting at is that I would like it to LOOK like a light sport, while still keeping true to part 103.
sort of an extra bonus that I REALLY want to do [but I’m not sure if my budget, engineering skills, or weight limits are going to afford it] would be to make the aircraft “ultra-portable” in the sense that I would like to be able to land at a neighboring airport and be able to attach the craft directly to a bumper hitch [folding the wings in of course] or even better, to register it as a motorcycle [since it will only have 3 wheels!, install a drive system, fold in the wings and be able to actually drive it to my friends house. but then again with the weight limits, that would probably tip the scales and render me a light sport, but if I can have 2 in 1, it might be worth it!]
so yea, I want to use square tubing and make it drivable…
I am also going to make a list of xboxes, guides sold, and cash saved tabs at the end of each post, I think that will give you the most up to date information on my build!
Xboxes fixed: 1 [Birthday fix]
Guides sold: haven’t finished the guide yet
Cash in: $0 [Im on vacation with family, buzz off!]
This is the part where I am kind of kicking myself for not going into the engineering field. I have to design and build a machine that can lift itself and myself into the air and not fall apart or plummet to the ground while it is doing it…and it has to weigh under 155lbs [without the engine]
To cut down on weight, a flying wing platform would be best. No tail means no tail weight, which means a lighter plane. however the flying wing is inherently unstable and I would have to combine several control surfaces together on the wing to achieve the desired effect [flight] So I may go with a modified flying wing design.
Next is building materials, most people who build their own planes do so out of wood. Wood is HEAVY, so I cant use it. I will use carbon enforced polystyrene foam for as many parts as I can because it is cheap, light, and strong, three qualities I need in this build.
the frame is the most important part of the plane so It must be built using high quality materials, I was thinking aircraft aluminum tubing or carbon fiber tubing. However both of these options are going to be EXPENSIVE. [a 5′ length o 2.5″ carbon fiber tubing is over $150 US! according to my calculations using NASAs wing simulator, I am going to need 30 feet of wing! there has to be a cheaper way…]
Anyways thats where I am at. If I come up with something I will post it here. so check back every so often and see.
Thanks for reading!
First of all let me introduce myself. My name is Nathan Wrzesinski and I am the founder of the free flight project.
I have been fascinated with flight since I was a little kid and my mom took us to the local fly-in breakfast to eat and go flying. I was hooked, it was amazing, and I know that I wanted to fly. The years passed and now I am 21, living on my own, and I still want to fly. My problem comes in on the financial front. I am a broke college student making 100-300 per week at my job. Not even this can deter me from wanting to fly.
I have been building model planes since I was 7, not the kind that you paint and look pretty, but the kind that actually fly. Now I want to do the same thing on a larger scale, human flight.
according to the FAA in the US, in order to fly without a license, your aircraft has to weigh in at less than 155 lbs without a motor, or 254lbs with one. I weigh 190lbs naked, so I have to build an aircraft that can support myself in flight, and it has to weigh less than I do [without the engine].
When I read that I thought to myself, “No way, cant be done” but it can, it has, and it does! So I will do it too.
so the first requirement is to have it weigh 254lbs or less,
the second requirement is that I spend no money out of pocket to build this machine, this means doing things on the side that will bring in enough cash to pay for the stuff I need. In my case, I know how to fix Xboxes and PS3’s, I am also writing a guide on how to fix and modify them yourself. So I will use the money from doing that, to fund my project.
and the third is that almost anyone who wants to build one can, this means no CNC, no specialty equipment [stuff the average person would have or could get easily] and no professional work [All work will be done by me.]
I do not want “donations” because that would defeat the third part of the project. If you want to support the project, buy the xbox repair/modification guide [once I finish and release it that is] and 100% of the proceeds will go strait into this project.
and thats it! Let’s build a plane!
the free flight project 