UPDATE
I’ve been quite busy over the last month. Thank you to everyone for your great support and words of encouragement. My friends and family are wonderful to help me get through the first stages of starting up a new business selling EPP foam. Special thank you to my wife for understanding and allowing me to store all our EPP foam in the…. dining room and spare room. 🙂 She is wonderful! We are hoping in a few more years to build a new house on our 10 acre field we bought outside of town. This will provide a better space for the foam business and a nice field for testing.
SHIPPING EPP sheets
I know one of the biggest difficulties for my customers is the cost of shipping for the EPP foam. This is out of my control. I wish I could provide a less expensive option. I’m open to suggestions. I looked into Greyhound, however I read a lot of really bad experiences. If a customer really wanted me to use them, I would, however I am putting a huge disclaimer that I am not responsible for any damage or loss due to Greyhound’s terrible customer service and practices.
Another option I have is to cut the EPP foam 36×24 sheets down further to fit in a smaller box.
Do you have any other shipping suggestions?
SPEC WING
The first EPP Spec Wing prototype flew at the ReadyMadeRC FPVfest a few weeks ago. I heard from my test pilots Donny and Bob at ThrustFPV that the wing did well overall on building experience and flying, except that the EPP foam live hinge was not strong enough to pull out of the turns. I have balsa trailing edges on order and in transit for testing on prototype #2. If this works out, then I hope to have the kits available soon.
A huge thank you to Donny and Bob for testing this out for me and giving me great feed back. I hope to provide the best possible build and flying experience.
CITABRIA
The EPP foam Citabria flew again after an improved firewall was installed. I learned how to better use my light duty mill on my CNC to accurately cut light plywood. Using this technique I was able to accurately cut a new firewall that also better tied into the front of the fuselage.
On the initial launch I was dealing with some tail heavy issues, however after adjusting the battery I was able to get a lot of great data from the flight. I flew it in about 15-20mph winds and it surprisingly did okay consider the EPP wing is a huge barn door and the entire plane is light. It really likes to float in the air at lower speeds.
I am working out the details of prototype #2 along with building techniques that should speed up the build process for the end user. I would like the entire plane to go together, if using a hot glue gun, in less than an hour. The electronics would then need to be installed followed by optional paint/film covering.