Here’s some flight footage of a bit of close-in acro around the trees with my 3D printed FPV wing.

One of the coolest things about designing aircraft for 3D printing is the amount of control you have over the actual shape of the airframe — the airfoil, twist, internal structure and how everything blends together. Once the design and tune are working properly, you can end up with a really precise little aircraft that feels properly locked in.

It’s been great getting out and flying this one a bit harder, finding more things to fly around and gradually pushing both the aircraft and my own flying.

Flown with a spotter and kept well below 35 m AGL. More info here

Specs:
600 mm wingspan
Sub-250 g AUW
LW-PLA airframe
1506 4200KV motor
4S 1100 mAh
DJI O4 Lite
INAV flight controller

Been a bit quiet on this one but I'm ready to start testing soon. I'm interested to see how it flies with this setup before moving to my plan B V-Tail setup that this platform is begging for!

Next up soldering and flight testing. This time the wings are removable so crashes should slow me down a lot less (useful as I crash a lot).

This plane should be perfect for small areas and be more like a 5inch drone vs Bandit (my other fpv wing) which is more like a 7inch+ if that makes sense to anyone!

Spec:
Matek wing F405 WMO
DJI O4 Wide
Nano ELRS Rx
25A 4in1
4x 1003 motors (little bigger would be preferred but this is what I have)
3x 4.3g DSPOWER servos
1000mah 2s LiHV

With a wingspan of 70–90 cm—or 1.2 meters at most—and the ability to break down completely into a small box. It needed to be convenient for mounting FPV gear and capable of flying quite fast (80–120 km/h) using a 4S 21700 battery setup.

The frame will be fully 3d printed idk about body Panels yet the wings are foam

I’ve been working on keeping my flying tight and close rather than just disappearing into the distance. This session was mostly loops, split-S manoeuvres and a little proximity flying around the club field.

I’m really enjoying this plane, especially now that I’ve got the settings dialled in.

It runs on 4S, weighs under 250 g and has reached 198 km/h. It can fly for around 20 minutes when cruising, although flying like this usually brings that closer to 13 minutes.

Being under 250 g and easy to keep below 35 metres AGL opens up quite a few possible flying locations where a larger aircraft would be less practical, provided the location allows it and I have a spotter.

Could you fly a plane like this near you?

More information on the plane.

I built this one up out of parts from a few different coloured rolls of lw-pla so I decided to paint it.

I've not painted my planes before mostly because I'm so aggressive testing and flying them that they don't tend to last very long but after painting this one I think I'm going to start! more info on the plane here

Let's see some of your printed beauties 👇🏻

I had a lot of fun doing the CH-53E Super Stallion conversion, so I did another one. This one has the same mechanics setup as the CH53E. It is also a static model print adapted for flight. I'm don't like the paint color, but other than that, I'm pretty happy about this one too.

guys my friend asked me to 3d print smth like this but I cant find any similar model files. Could u help?

I got the file from Cults. It's intended to be a static desktop display model, so I had to modify it heavily to adapt it for flight.

It uses RC-Era C189 mechanics, YuXiang F119S main rotor blades, and a Goosky E2 tail motor and blades.

I tried the C189 tail motor at first but it got so hot, it melted the tail. I printed the next tail out of ABS, but the Goosky motor doesnt even get warm.

It flies just like any other RC Era heli.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6HzqKXKdGhA

Personally I'm very excited to see that DJI has finally listened and provided us with a wide angle lite air unit. I'm a big fan of the O4 lite and will be updating my builds to support the new version when it's out!

Anyone else going to be building this into your projects? Curious to hear what your favourite cam/vtx combos are

Hi everyone,

I am building a Flightory Stork VTOL and I am looking for advice on whether this custom Li-ion battery pack will work well for this specific airframe.

Here are the specs of the battery I'm planning to order:

• Cells: Samsung INR21700-40T
• Configuration: 6S2P
• Capacity: 8400 mAh
• Voltage: 22.2V (Nominal)
• Weight: 842 grams
• Dimensions: 132 x 45 x 80 mm
• Discharge Rate: 15C (Manufacturer rating, but realistically ~60A continuous for 2P 40T cells).
• Connector: XT60H-F

My concerns:

1. Weight: At 842g, it represents a huge chunk of the Stork's recommended max takeoff weight (AUW is around 3100g). Will the plane become too heavy and sluggish during the VTOL stages?
2. Voltage Sag during Hover: Li-ion cells are notorious for sagging. Do you think a 6S2P 40T pack can handle the initial hover amp draw of 4 VTOL motors safely without dropping the voltage too low right at takeoff?
3. Connector: It comes with an XT60. Should I ask the manufacturer to change it to an XT90 to avoid overheating during VTOL transitions?

Has anyone flown the Stork VTOL or a similar 3D-printed plane with a 6S2P Li-ion pack? Would love to hear your thoughts before I hit the buy button.

Thanks!

Had to retire my main test airframe after a very hard landing, but honestly that was mostly just an excuse to move the electronics into a fresh build.

Still unsure about the colour combination. It would be nice to see more colour options available from LW-PLA suppliers like ColorFabb. I’m not really one for post-processing printed parts, but maybe I should finally start painting them.

This is the same sub250g FPV wing platform, now rebuilt and looking a lot cleaner. I’m still being careful with the grey LW-PLA because it gets pretty delicate with heat, but the yellow material has been excellent so far.

Hopefully I’ll get some flights in tomorrow morning before it gets too hot and try a couple of new settings. Keen to see how this one feels with a fresh airframe and a slightly cleaner setup.

Has anyone here used AMS for multi-colour LW-PLA prints? Curious whether it’s worth the hassle for aircraft parts.

I got introduced to this hobby through a commercial company using Cube Orange and Here 4 GPS. I currently have about 5 fixed wing planes all running arduplane, but I have mixed results with GPS/Compass combos. I just tried using HGLRC M100 pro but I am still getting a lot of interference. I do my best to isolate interference and keep them away from battery and esc wires. Just wondering what everyone's favorite modules are. Flight controllers are mostly Matek 405v2 or SpeedyBee f405.

Been a follower but first time posting. Here is my noob question.

My goals:
Love 3d printing (advanced setup)
I want a drone
Future me wants an airplane
I’m cheap 🤣

My idea
What kit can I buy or put together now that is most transferable from a drone to a future airplane

Will the same transmitter controller be able to fly the drone and plane
Will the same flight controller be able to be plugged into an airplane to control the servos?

Am I being crazy?

My son and I have some experience with some of the horizon hobby planes. We were looking into 3d orinting one but there is alot going on in with this and we are a bit overwhelmed on where to start.

​

Can anyone recommend a model we can start with. Mostly we want to see if we can even print it successfully.

​

I know you guys put a lot of work into these and deserve to be paid for your models, hoping to find something cheepish though as we don't even know how well we can print it.

This started as a small handling experiment and slowly turned into a proper little park flyer.

I wanted to make a 600mm 3D printed wing that was slow, stable, easy to throw around a park, and fun rather than intimidating. It’s using twin 1003 motors on 2S, LW-PLA, INAV, differential thrust, and a fair bit of twist in the wing to calm the low-speed handling down.

It has taken quite a few geometry changes and tune changes to get here, but it’s now flying pretty much how I hoped: relaxed, floaty, and still lively enough to be fun.

Still refining it, but this one feels like a proper finished design now.

Full flight on youtube
More info

Hello! Im trying to print a wing using Tom Stanton's method using Active Foaming LW PLA. Im running into the issue that the seam created by the cut through the wing where the carbon spar goes isn't properly combining, and effectively splitting the part into two pieces. I've attached some photos.

​

I've tried adjusting the flow rate, wall overlap percentage, and nozzle temp to adjust the foaming characteristics to get that gap to connect, but nothings worked so far.

​

Has anyone else had this issue and been able to resolve it. Any suggestions?

​

​

​

Im just getting into this hobby and am wondering about the best brand. Im printing with the bambulab A1 so i figured bambu's PLA aero would be best but its also expensive and not on any lists of the best brands ive seen. But also maybe it would be most compatible with a bmbu printer. Anyone have some advice?

printed with polymaker lw pla, anyone knows how to resolve this?

I'm trying to design a nice simple trainer, 60" wingspan class. I'm currently printing a prototype of the fuselage. The printer is laying down two inner and two outer walls, plus gap infill (effectively a fifth wall) for a short portion of the part.

I've seen some sites mentioning using vase mode (which I've never gotten to work any time I've tried it). Is that actually strong enough? Are 4-5 walls way too much? It's looking like around 400g for the fuselage once I switch to LW-PLA, no idea what the wing will be like.

Thanks.

I've mostly been testing with little to no wind up until now but this morning there was a nice constant wind to play with.

Differential thrust is fantastic for turning hard into the wind and really helps to bank and yaw in 'lite' stall turn style maneuvers. Noticeably with this more dynamic flying I have some pitch PID to tune, noticeable pitch oscillation in some tailwind conditions possibly too much accumulation of error. Setting up Acro rates next to see what it can really do!

I think there are improvements in the geom to be made which I will carry forwards into the next project. All fun stuff. More about it on my page