The Ampmeister is a 34 inch span park flyer designed to fly most aerobatic manoeuvres in the same small area we fly our park flyers. Powered by a geared speed400, it is a down size of my earlier Ampmaster design which flew on a geared astro 05 and ten cells. It features a fully symmetrical wing, light weight, and an open fuselage design which allows easy and fast battery changing. While the Ampmaster is not hard to fly, it is definately not a beginner's plane. It is quick and spirited.
We must have done something right with the gear setup on this little plane as it takes off almost hands off. An initial bit of throttle to get it moving followed by an immediate firewall and it's off in ten feet or less and climbing briskly. It torques slightly to the left, but not enough to even consider using the rudder. We're routinely getting 4.5 minutes of flight with throttle management on the 8 600mah AE battery packs we're using. The plane is flying with a 9 by 4.7 APC slow flyer prop and a six volt speed 400 geared at 3:1. We're using the Maxx gearbox available at Hobby Lobby.
Landings have proven to be exceptionally easy and I regularly fly it up the roadway about a foot off the ground until it's almost beside me before closing the throttle to let it settle on. Flown on final with a bit more speed and less nose high, the Ampmeister is a fun touch and go machine from pavement in any open parking lot. Much to my surprise and delight it shows little tendency to bounce and is easily landed smoothly. On a touch and go just advance the throttle and it accelerates away immediately. Definitely much more aggressive than 280 powered park flyers.
Initially I had a plywood skid on the tail which resulted in an immediate ground loop as soon as the tail stopped flying and the skid hit the ground. I decided to change to a functional tail wheel (smallest Dubro one I could find) and that quickly changed. It now rolls out straight and true
Shown naked in the above pictures, the complete airframe is ready for covering. Finished flying weight of the prototype is 18 ounces. The canopy used is the result of cutting (a lot of cutting) down a standard SIG 12 inch buddble canopy. A larger one is needed as the smaller ones don't have the width to span the fuselage.
The Ampmeister is shown above with the fuse top removed. All components are immediately within easy reach. Just in front of the turtle deck are the rudder and elevator servos. The GWS receiver can be seen velcroed to the left side and the 600 mah AE pack sits on a 1/8th balsa plate glued to rails on the fuselage sides. The aileron servo is buried deep in the wing just below the rear end of the battery pack. Above the geared speed400 a half inch strip of 3/16th balsa sheet holds a blind but which anchors the top in place. A 1/8th dowel or supermarket skewer keys into the turtledeck.
Awaiting final detailing, the Ampmeister sits on the pavement at our local school yard.
AMPMEISTER UPDATE!!!
Our AMPMEISTER has new horsepower under the hood. The E-FLITE 370 outrunner, with a three cell lipo and a 9 by 4.7 APC e-prop has dramatically improved the performance of this little airplane.
It now has nearly unlimited vertical,
easily makes HUGE loops and flies much faster. The addition of an aluminum
landing gear has it blasting off grass fields in 10-15 feet and climbing at
a 70-80 degree angle right out of sight if you wish.
Each plan set is $12.99 in US funds plus $3.00 shipping and handling (folded).
AMPMEISTER CONSTRUCTION NOTES:
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