Let someone talk me into doing a Bipe, what was I thinking?! They are really hard to engineer correctly for 3D/precision flight. Don't relish doing umpteen versions to get it right. So I just went with what I'm most familiar with-the Clik planform and extrapolated from there. This ones designed for the MicroDan 2510-3D motor/TB18 and TP 1320 3s packs. 37" wingspan and shooting for sub 18oz AUW. Bare bones foam weighed in @ 7.1oz. I need to take the Dremel and mill out all the surfaces and part of the fuse. Should relieve the airframe of about 1oz. That will help with the AUW and give a more forward CG as the nose is pretty short coupled. Tried to leave a faux cockpit on for visual recognition and added the chin scoop cutout too. The SFG's/cabanes seem to work better with the larger one outboard so I'll stick with that setup for the initial prototype. Hopefully I'll be pretty close with everything the first time and have to do some minor changes for V2.0. Should be another educational experience. Trying to do something that flies like a 3D plane should, not a rehashed scale AEROBATIC plane that doesn't fly 3D anyway. Just taped together the 6mm parts for dry fitting will start milling out parts tommorrow. Will post some build pics(hey it's just foam not that difficult) and of course some video when she's done. Please-no more Pitts or Ultimates', something different YAY!. By the way-whoever designed the Amethyst pattern bipe, my hats off to you sir! Kind of has the pattern guys talking a lot. OMG-no cockpit who's going to fly the plane?! Take out the canopy hump and I'm sure that does away with a lot of undersirable coupling. You go boyyyy! This build is a tribute for all those who start with a blank sheet of paper and try and produce the best flying airframe possible...

After some discussion about hinging methods, decided to try micro Robart hinges in the 6mm depron. After beveling the aileron side and leaving wing side flat, the hinges were placed and holes made. Will hit it with some Sumo glue and lay aluminum flat stock(weighted) over wings to keep the glue from bulging the depron. Not much meat between the hinge and surface. Will add some strips of tape later "just in case". Also trying to keep the resistance down as we'll be using one Futaba S3154 digital servo per side. Will make some carbon plate horns too. I expect a lot of testing will take it's toll on the weaker areas, so I should be able to pinpoint where they are and fix them for the next version. I'll make a milling template later and mill all the control surfaces out-we all know how the oz's pile up and being a bipe it's not going to be as lite as a mono more than likely. Later...

Nice pattern bipe there. Looks to be a champ.

Haven't heard too much more about the Amethyst but I'm sure we will. Since QQ's Euphoria Bipe won the worlds, I'm sure we'll see more and more bipes joining the craze. It's still amazes me that if you take a monoplane and bipe side by side-even though the mono may fly better-people will still choose the bipe just for nostalgias' sake and looks(?).

Here's some shots of the areas I'll mill out to save some grams. Elevator has some balsa triangle stock CA'd on. Will also add some carbon flat stock to elevator for some added strength

Got around to milling the tailfeathers out tonight. Inserted carbon flat stock and CA'd. Unmilled elevator came in @ 13grams w/balsa corner stock glued on. Milling shaved off about 4grams. Added 2 grams with carbon/CA so only saved 2 grams total but came out stiffer than unreinforced. Sorta happy with that. Rudder milling shaved off 3grams, so total of 5grams was taken off. Every little bit counts I quess, plus it's off the farthest part of the plane so lenght X weight helps out too. Seems like a lot of work to save a few grams but the end result(scale time!) and flight testing will tell the tale. May be worth it to just live with the weight and go for simplicity...nah! All the weight is being taken off the aft part of plane behind CG so that will help balance out with the short nose moment. Later...

My oldest daughter brought home an art project named Clearance(for real). What a great name for a mascot. He's going to be helping me out with milling a channel in the wings for the carbon tubes. Still leaves some foam on one side and I'll use some Sumo glue to fill in the top. Almost blends in perfectly with the depron which should hide my mistakes. Here's some shots of the ailerons milled out. Saved 2.5grams per aileron. So looks like a little over 1/2oz. saved by milling. That's more than likely going to be used up by repairs later!

Got the bottom checker scheme done. Working on fuse scheme now. Just going for a basic paint job for side recognition in flight. Nothing fancy(can't really do one anyway!). Robarts were Sumo'd in and have very little resistance. Surfaces will flop around-nice. 3154's should have a field day slapping the surfaces around. One tip: You should clean up the excess glue off the hinges while it's expanding several times and flex surfaces to make sure there's no glue getting in hinges. Use a Q-tip and alcohol. Use some flat aluminum stock or something flat and weight the parts down while glue is setting. If you need to put some pressure on the parts to keep the hinge line tight do so with some extra weights, or whatever you have on hand. My 2 cents

Got some paint on the rest of the fuse. Kind of trying colors and shapes for the next one. Not quite sure what shows up best in flight on a mostly symmetrical bipe. Will try and get the fuse glued together tonight.

Got the fuse together between all the holiday festivities. Made a carbon plate mount for the MicroDan 2510-3D. It's got bling now

That's shapping up nicely. Looks awesome.

I can't wait to see how it flies!

Very cool dude! I'm a big fan of that design...Any chance of plans in the future?

Thanks for the kind words guys. I'll have to see how it flies first. I'm sure I'll have a few tweaks or changes to the next version but hopefully it should fly pretty much like a Clik Bipe. I'm seriously thinking of marketing it should the design fly well. I'll keep updates as soon as I can. Waiting on some 3154's to come in so I can finish off the plane. The hinging system with micro-robarts is totally trick. Never seen a foamie that has less friction on the hinge line than this one. Trying to push 2 ailerons with one 3154 so less resistance is a good thing. Surfaces will droop by themselves and flop around freely with out linkages. The servos should slap them around no problem. Got LG bent up and wing milled for servo install. Come on suppliers, I've got some foam to fling into the air!

Originally Posted by HuckinChikn

Very cool dude! I'm a big fan of that design...Any chance of plans in the future?

Got the Bipe-X up in the air for a few minutes between squalls. This weather lately has sucked big time. Brief impressions-a little too heavy for motor. Still flies well, probably needs a few more watts to get ballistic vertical. Probably will upgrade to Scorpion. Good 3D performance but pack is all the way forward. If pattern is desired a little heavier motor should cure that. Did a 7' donut. KE was with no rudder input. Hovers excellent. Need to make the next version a little smaller and lighter for the MicroDan. Always try and push the size limit for a motor and pushed too far this time. Nothing a Scorpion won't cure. Paint scheme was very visible even with todays crappy skies. Seems to be very stable and manueverable, more flight testing should reveal what it's capable of. With a few changes(as expected for prototype) I'll get the next one going for SEFF.

Here's the first video, I've got a couple more on tap. Blake checking out the Bipe-X for changes on the next version. Enjoy!
https://www.flyinggiants.com/gallery...hp?photo=42498