Update March, 2007 - The E-mite, my first commercial effort, has been retired and put out of production. I do, however, still sell many other products at my company's page:
Update March, 2007 - The E-mite, my first commercial effort, has been retired and put out of production. I do, however, still sell many other products at my company's page:
Update April 16, 2004
My good 'ol reliable E-mite was showing considerable wear and tear from all the flying and hangar rash, so I removed the gear so I could build a nice shiny new one. I'll start it as soon as my workbench clears.
Update November 1, 2001
First production run of kits ordered. Will be ready to ship in a couple weeks.
Update October 26, 2001
Mike Calicchia has posted photos to the RC Microflight Message Boards of his Electric Mite built from the prototype laser cut kit. Looks and flies great. I'll be finishing up details on the kits and getting them put together for sale this month.
Update October 13, 2001
Finished rigging up the electronics and pushrods. It was misting rain and windy but I HAD to try out the new Mite. Flew great - just as good as the others. I'll be boxing up the sample kits for my test builders on Monday and getting them out.
Update October 12, 2001 (my birthday)
Sitting on my doorstep when I got home last night was the first test run of kits. Some small corrections need to be made for production, but all in all excellent quality wood and the cutting is great. I started a test build and in 4 hours had the fuselage and wing assembled and painted ready for equipment instalation and covering.
Update October 9, 2001
After seeing Mike Calicchia's Electric Mite build and getting his flight reports with the 4"x2.5" prop and considering that GWS now offers a prop adapter for the 4"x2.5" prop to fit direct on the IPS drive, I went ahead and ordered a test 'shot' of 10 kits from the laser cutting service. Free kits will go out to Jim and Mike for their efforts in building the prototypes. See Mike's photos on the RC Microflight Discussion Board
Update August 20, 2001
Jim Walker has had good success with the stock GWS direct drive system of IPS motor and 3"x2" props (see his photos on the RC Microflight Discussion Board) I'm considering re-drawing the nose to work with the smaller prop.
This is my third plane based on the Guided Mite. My first version can be found on my Guided Mite page. My first version was built from the original plans and flew nice enough that I decided it needed to be changed (LOL!). The new design includes a much slimmer fuselage, relocation of the inner compartments to better balance the electric motor and battery, fixed landing gear with decent sized wheels, a new nose design with additional reinforcement for durability and a battery compartment with door to increase aerodynamics. I call it the Electric Mite mainly because the design changes were all made to work better for E-flight.
This plane has been designed to work with all the most affordable micro electric components: GWS 4P receiver, 2 GWS Pico servos, GWS-A Carbon Brush motor used direct drive with a GWS 4"x2.5" prop and a Castle Creations Pixie 7P ESC. Batteries are Rayovac 9v NiMh, 6x110 Nicad or 7x270 NiMh battery packs.
This Electric Mite was built from plans I created with Turbocad-2D. I've finished up the plans and they're currently in the hands of a few test builders. When they're perfected I'll make them available somehow, either here free, on RC Microflight or as a kit.
The original mite is pictured for comparison in the sixth picture. It will probably be retired unless more testing of radical design changes are needed. This is a new area for me - retiring airframes before they're destroyed!
Electronics will be mounted this weekend and hopefully maiden flights can commence after that. I'll try to get some photos with my transmitter in them for size comparison but for now just judge by the fact that those are lite stik wheels on it.
Update June 23, 2001
Flew the Electric Mite at the field this weekend. The first four flights on 9-volt NiMh packs went fine, normal flights with good performance. For fun I decided to try my 7 cell 280mAh NiMh pack in the Mite. WOW! It's heavier and a bit more challenging to fly but performance is GREAT! Loops from level flight are nice and round and speed is way up. Will fly level at a little over 1/2 throttle which helps duration creep up into the 8+ minute range.
Posted 3 extra photos of yet another prototype (blue one) with my transmitter nearby for size comparison. This one's waiting for a shipment of servos and wheels for completion.
Update June 24, 2001
Although very windy (10-15mph) my friend Robert came over to fly so I grabbed the mite and the camera and we went to the local high school to see how much wind the mite would handle. Robert was nice enough to capture some movies and stills on my digital camera. It was overcast so the movies are a little dark, but they show the plane flying fine so they are below.
Update June 25, 2001
Servos came in and the blue prototype goes as good as the yellow one. Now I have a matched pair for slow motion pylon racing at the club field! All up weight on the new prototype plane is 4.97 oz (141g). Close enough to 5 oz even for my tastes!
Quicktime Movies
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