Whats Been Going on in March at rc3Dprint

Its been an eventful month to say the least. I had been working hard on a few projects to have them ready as lockdown begins to lift in the coming months. The plan was also to build a new workshop so as to get out of the way of the family and give them the office back! March started of well and construction began in earnest.

I managed two afternoons worth of building, completing the base, ready for the floor and walls to go up before I ended up in hospital (not building related!) for 9 days, requiring emergency surgery. This has pretty much wiped me out for this month, not just building the workshop but anything that required concentration!

Thankfully whilst I can't carry on building the workshop just yet I am back to designing, here is a preview of what is coming down the line.

The Micro Skigull was pretty much ready to get out and test, though whilst I was away the tail appears to have taken a knock. I had found that the bend in the elevator bowden was a bit too severe and was causing too much drag on the control rod so I have taken this opportunity to redesign it. Once that is printed I will switch it out and get the Skigull airbourne.

The Micro Velocity went on sale this month, though the continued lockdown in the UK meant that getting out to get some video of it flying wasn't possible. I was thrilled to see @jrboolander post a video of his flying on instagram, even if the flight did end rather abruptly. The beauty of these micro models is the low material usage and fast print times.

The third micro model in the series is almost ready as well. The micro Peregrine Flying Wing which weighs in at a featherweight 117g with a 700mm wing span came together this month. Some early tests indicate that I need to adjust the thrust line a little in order to improve the longitudinal controllability when the power is on. One thing I can say is that the model is tough and can survive a lot of nose dives into the grass!

Once these 3 micro model are up and running and joined the Micro SR-71 in the line up my focus will move back to the full size. I want to move ahead with the Harrier and bring the AW609 VTOL project back to life. For the AW609 I am thinking about reworking the horizontal stab then getting the model out there for anyone curious about VTOL bi-copters to have a go at developing the PID settings themselves.

Along with one of my partner designers we have been working on some modifications`tions to the Dragon. Some people have reported having issues getting their print settings dialled in to print the wings without the internal structure showing on the wing surface. We think we have come up with a solution which I will upload to the Dragon page in due course.

Also full scale, I have have a 2000mm span, EDF jet coming that is going to utilise an oversized 90mm EDF I bought for the Harrier but don't need just yet for that project. Here is a sneak peak...

Finally, and as always, thank you to everyone who has downloaded a model and supported rc3dprint. It makes it possible to continue devoting the to develop and make available these affordable models for download.

Safe Flying,

Jon