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foamy market exploration

coreman

50cc
Welcome Coreman! Glad to have you here on this site, and welcome to the "club of 3D students" where most of us here fall! We're just lucky to have so many awesome experts contributing their time to help makes us better! :)
When the time is right for your biz, let us know if we can help promote your products here.

-G

well, a lot of this is market research. Finding products people are interested in that aren't available. What can I contribute? The other side of it is I'd love to have something in the 50" Slick range at some point. it's tough to do stuff like that when 80+% of your "hobby" effort is for others, the business. So I guess I'm more on the foamie side than the gasser side at this point. and my customer base is far more on the newbie end of the spectrum so I need to be aware of that and not sell those guys super delicate planes that they break immediately and get nothing out of. I'm trying to avoid giving people that P-51 trainer they all seem to want and show up at the field with and give them something capable yet sturdy. So I would love to hear other people's thoughts on this stuff, wherever the most appropriate topic in here might be

Thanks for the welcome
 

gyro

GSN Contributor
Coreman, I moved this to the right place for you to discuss your project and get advice. Good luck

-G
 

coreman

50cc
Coreman, I moved this to the right place for you to discuss your project and get advice. Good luck

-G

Excellent. Thank you! I will put together a set of goals and post it as a reply in the near future.

Thanks again,
Jim/Coreman
 

gyro

GSN Contributor
Excellent. Thank you! I will put together a set of goals and post it as a reply in the near future.

Thanks again,
Jim/Coreman


my pleasure, let our staff know if we can help you out in any other way in the future :)
 

coreman

50cc
small-PaintedYaks2.jpgOver the last three years we have expanded into the indoor foamy market. We have been selling our version of Leadfeather's 32" Yak55 (as an authorized vendor) and are about to launch our EPP Spitfire and Leadfeather's 3D Delta kits. My market is somewhat different than companies like 3DHS in that I am focusing more on the beginner/intermediate pilots that need a plane they can try stuff with and that will survive a few bumps and repairs. So I am wondering what the more experienced 3D pilots suggest for additional products that will best serve this introductory, budget minded market. For the beginners we focus on 9mm EPP planes. Durable, quick/easy to repair. For the intermediate pilots we offer 6mm Depron versions that are a little more delicate but offer the crispness of a rigid airframe without the fragility of a milled 3mm advanced plane.
So guys, what do you think this market needs addressed to help these pilots achieve the mad skillz showcased here? What would have been a missing step in your own development that would have helped get you where you are sooner/cheaper/easier? Something to hone the skills before you are flying a ball of repairs.
 
Hi coreman.... I'm still a foamy guy even though I own and fly balsa planes. For me the progression was from flat profile. to box fuse ( still from EPP), to box fuse( and now full fuse) hybrids. I actually built a box fuselage leadfeather edge from scratch..it was a lot stiffer, penetrated the wind better, and the weight helped me with learning to tumble and spin the plane. These types of epp foamies fill the spot you were talking about, the "P-51 trainer ", as they look more like a real airplane but offer the toughness and repair ability of the epp profiles. Some thing I've been thinking of doing for a while is a round fuse epp yak or pitts, round fuse will probably be even stiffer than the box without the need for a bunch of carbon fiber to stiffen it up. Hope some of what I said was helpful, good luck .
 

coreman

50cc
Hi coreman.... I'm still a foamy guy even though I own and fly balsa planes. For me the progression was from flat profile. to box fuse ( still from EPP), to box fuse( and now full fuse) hybrids. I actually built a box fuselage leadfeather edge from scratch..it was a lot stiffer, penetrated the wind better, and the weight helped me with learning to tumble and spin the plane. These types of epp foamies fill the spot you were talking about, the "P-51 trainer ", as they look more like a real airplane but offer the toughness and repair ability of the epp profiles. Some thing I've been thinking of doing for a while is a round fuse epp yak or pitts, round fuse will probably be even stiffer than the box without the need for a bunch of carbon fiber to stiffen it up. Hope some of what I said was helpful, good luck .

it does help. I really want to add a biplane to the list and have been looking hard at the Pitts series. it would lend itself to a full fuselage nicely. The biggest issue I had with the (RCG) Mini Infinion I built was good battery access. it's easy enough to add a 3mm skin over a crutch framework but having a good "hatch" design is key and round complicates it a little more but it's still doable. And yes, weight does help with the carry through on a lot of the maneuvers and with a "skin" you can skeletonize the tail supports a bit more to ease the tail weight

it's funny because if you go to a lot of the Giant scale events, what you see after the normal flying day is a lot of foamies brought out to blow off steam. is that true at the Huck-style/3D events as well?

Thanks for the input
 
I've yet to go to a 3D event....but I see the same names from the big balsa threads posting in the profile and full fuse threads on rcgroups, guess it's safe to assume that would be the case. For me, I start out every flying session with 2 or 3 flights with my crack pitts flat profile biplane from twisted hobbies. There's something about having a plane that you know you can just about fly straight into the ground, walk over, re-center the prop and toss it back in the air. It definitely give you the freedom to attempt some really stupid moves low to the ground, a true stress reliever. I know I'd be interested in a full fuse pitts. The truly open area of EPP foamy production appears to be for larger sizes. Right now 48" wingspan, full fuse hybrids are the rage, but guys are already asking for larger sizes...that's a niche no one has attempted yet, might be something to think about.
 

coreman

50cc
The "biggest" problem with doing the larger planes in EPP is that once you get beyond a certain size there isn't much benefit. The weight starts adding up and the resilience gives in and you get just as much damage. You have to stress things a lot more to get the rigidity and going with a nice balsa construction starts being competitive. you aren't going to walk over and dust off an EPP 80" model the way you might with a 48". The more mass (due to trying to be more rigid) the more impact damage and on a full fuse version you have the twisting/crushing/tearing force differences between the two sides of the fuselage as it flexes. The other side of that is people aren't interested in building much anymore and 3DHS has a great set of options as you get larger. Tough for a little guy to compete with those planes and prices. But I think you might be right on going towards a full fuselage design and I will look into prototyping something there

Thanks for the input
 
Good luck and keep me informed . If I can be any help let me know.

I agree on the "bigger "problems with bigger epp birds. I had a 48" profile called the bouncer that was solid EPP ( about 1 " thick profile fuse and thick air foiled wings) needless to say it broke more often than bounced.
 
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