Hello everyone,
Iโll be sharing my experiences with over 40 flights using the Craycle model Orca V3, all with the same plane.
I finally managed to break the model; as I mentioned above, I achieved more than 40 successful landings with it. Some of these were hard landings that could almost be considered crashes.
The secret to the modelโs durability lies in its TPU body. The entire body is printed in flexible TPU material, while the wings are made of PLA.
In the photo below, the green parts are printed with TPU filament, and the black parts are PLA.
Regarding the electronics, I used a 2400 kV brushless motor, a 45A Dshot ESC, TowerPro 9g servo motors, a Speedybee F405 wing flight controller, a TBS Crossfire receiver, a 6-inch 2-blade propeller, a 1500mAh 4S 20C LiPo battery, and a DJI O3 VTX.
For the test flights, I was able to reach distances of over 3600 meters, a max altitude of 645 meters, and speeds over 200km/h several times.
Due to the modelโs TPU construction, I had issues with both hatches staying closed. I partially resolved this by scaling the spring lock parts to 120% size and adding a PLA support piece between the front and rear hatches.
Additionally, I positioned two screws at the front part of the front hatch to prevent the covers from opening during flight.
As for how the model broke, when I went for my usual flight, I noticed that one of the wings was slightly separated from the TPU body. I didnโt think it would be an issue and prepared for takeoff. As soon as I launched it, and it had an โemotionalโ moment with the ground
The separated wing tore off and broke, and the front hatch also shattered. However, there was no damage to the electronics or the propeller.
As I write these lines, the new wings are still printing, so I think Iโll be able to reassemble the model and continue flying by tomorrow.
Thanks for reading, and happy flying!
