A Simple Payload Dropping Mechanism

OK so you’ve seen the post about the club’s Christmas BBQ and the comps. If you’re into the wild Christmas shirt thing then the choices are all yours and the sky is the limit but if you are thinking of entering into the payload (“bomb”) drop then read on …

First some caveats (1) I built my dropping mechanism to fit my BrikStik which is a version of an UglyStik but wider and has a flat bottomed fuselage. If your chosen model has a rounded fuselage then instead of the cross mounts I used you might have to make some longitudinal rails to attach the dropping mechanism; (2) I didn’t measure anything. I made the payload first and then built the rest based on the dimensions of the payload; (3) I made it as simple as possible.

This is my payload …

… it is made from 100mm cardboard tube cut from the cardboard centre of a roll of covering film. The nose and ends are made from some scrap balsa (size determined by the available scrap) and there is a 15gm wheel weight stuck to the back of the nose plug.

The dropping mechanism is attached to the model on approximately the CoG although that is more luck than planning!

The dropping mechanism is made from scrap balsa and the release mechanism is a 9gm servo with a pushrod which retracts to release the payload.

The rubber band holds the payload in place until the servo retracts the pushrod and releases the rubber band allowing the payload to fall away. My servo is plugged into the gear port on the receiver.

Good luck and hope to see many people entering the Christmas bomb drop comp!

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