AIM - rcparkflyers
Fancy Foam - Mini Ultimate Series Part 0
Prelim
Well, in the next couple of days I am going to have a birthday... So I thought it has been a while since getting a new RC airplane, and while I have been building up my RC fund to a decent amount, this looked like a good reason to purchase one.
In a previous post I talked about attending the MIFF in KC and met a cool vendor called Fancy Foam. The owner Mike Hammel, in between his customers, talked with me for quite awhile about his company, airplanes and the construction process and philosophy that he uses to fabricate his aircraft.
I told him of my experience with another foamie (starts with a "T") and how I was very disappointed with the outcome of that plane. The strength, construction as well as fight characteristics were to me, just plain poor. He described very nicely and never bagging on a competitor, about his construction versus the "T"'s constuction. He said he was at the first concerned about the "T"s ability to take over the market and put his just starting company out of commission, as both types of planes were coming to market around the same time. At one time apparently the "T" was a good aircraft but when it went into mass production it faltered. Well I must have gotten one of those.
I am very glad to have gone to the MIFF sponsored by the KCFC and met Mike and got to see his planes. He had an ace pilot Brandon Chitty flying in the freestyle portion of he Fun Fly and was using an airplane Brandon designed for Fancy Foam the Chitty 3d Bipe. Bradon really was impressive Here is a video of that flight.. Wow.
Anyway, what really caught my eye was the design of the landing gear used on all his planes. Just so slick. That was the kicker for me. The "T"'s gear absolutely sucked. I tried to fabricate a piece of coroplast and CA on each side of the fuselage to glue a substantial holding spot to re-use the stock gear. That was pathetic. Check out the Fancy Foam gear. There's a set of gear. I am going to be using that on all my Foamies. There is even a video on that page, click on gear pix to view it and what Mike tried to do to destroy the gear. Not possible.
I then spoke to him expressing my love of "Cub like" flying.. Slow and easy but still what ailerons etc. I want to be able to take a break from high excitement aerobatics and just fly around, and still do most of my flying on calm or indoor flight conditions. He recommended the Fancy Foam Mini Ultimate. It is a bipe that will do most if not all what I am looking for, he said.
Looking closely at the aircraft one can see his craftsmanship and attention to detail. All parts are CNC cut, all parts have slots and positions that are cut out to further induce correct placements. For example the servos have little rectangles that are CNC'ed out to allow the modeler to correctly and with out question get the airplane built well.
The airplane I decided upon was the Mini Ultimate Bipe. I asked Mike what would I need to get to make this fool proof. Well he has that already thought out. A whole one-stop-shop kit that you can buy and get the whole thing done right, the first time. It includes:
- AXI 2204-54 outrunner
- Phoenix 10 speed control
- Etec 450 Lipo Battery
- Berg 4L microstamp receiver with crystal
- 3 Waypoint 038 ultra micro servos (4 grams each)
- GWS 8 x 4.3 prop
- Complete Mini Ultimate 10-300 white airframe precut and glue ready
- Printed instruction booklet
- Comes with over 6 feet of carbon fiber strips, laser cut plywood control horns, pushrods, landing gear with wheels, plywood firewall and 100+ sq inches of scrap repair foam just in case!
Well, we have a winner... I just had to do my "homework" before outlaying the cash but it definitely looked good.
So I did it, I ordered one today and hope to have it in the next few days.
This will be a multipart series, from start to finish of construction, test flights, (both indoor and outside) and maybe this will lead to the Fancy Foam Sukhoi SU-29...
Tnx Mike for the time and patience you spent with me at the Fun Fly! I learned A LOT! and very much enjoyed finding out that my new plane is coming from a fellow Kansan!
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Written By: jacq on Thursday, March 23, 2006
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