Post by bearcat on Apr 11, 2010 21:03:23 GMT -5
Mitch! Hey, let's fly one of these afternoons. I want to get the Accipiter Baddeus (aka "The Banana") flying right. Today it was quirky. At first it seemed to want to turn right and climb. I handed it over to Evan, who, with his great skill, brought it down for a nice landing. I adjusted the pushrods, which appeared to be too far off center, to the right and up elevator. However, on the second flight, which I had Evan do so that he could help me determine what the plane needed to trim out, the batteries on the transmitter began to fail and Evan prevented a horrible splintering crash from 50 ft up.
Instead, it spiraled but kept half-recovering, and it wasn't so bad. Just popped the foam wing off. Checked it out and everything is fine.
The motor is quite adequate actually, once I put a 9x5 prop on it. Mitch, it had plenty of power.
But why was it unstable? that's what I'm trying to figure out. And here we have some disagreement. Evan feels that the tail surfaces are a little bit small. Mitch says it flew great with that same tail before. I think it's a bit touchy.
So I don't know. Seems to be well-balanced on the bench. Porpoises a little bit in the air, and is VERY sensitive. I'll reduce the throws and get new batteries in the transmitter.
Then Mitch, I want you to take it up. It was your plane, you're the most familiar with it. Get it trimmed up nice, and I'd like to try it too. It looks like it'll fly good, soon as we get it trimmed up.
With a different wing, I think it's gonna act differently. And I'm wondering if this wing makes the tail moment too short.
The reason I think this is because the original wing was an inch less in chord, and CG was further forward a little. This means that the tail surfaces, which was designed to be the perfect size with the inch-longer tail moment, might be a bit on the small side now that the tail moment is slightly shorter. Evan brought this up which is what got me thinking.
I mean, I'm not an aeronautical engineer, but Evan might be right.
Mitch, this was why I thought the different wing might have resulted in needing a different tail.
Instead, it spiraled but kept half-recovering, and it wasn't so bad. Just popped the foam wing off. Checked it out and everything is fine.
The motor is quite adequate actually, once I put a 9x5 prop on it. Mitch, it had plenty of power.
But why was it unstable? that's what I'm trying to figure out. And here we have some disagreement. Evan feels that the tail surfaces are a little bit small. Mitch says it flew great with that same tail before. I think it's a bit touchy.
So I don't know. Seems to be well-balanced on the bench. Porpoises a little bit in the air, and is VERY sensitive. I'll reduce the throws and get new batteries in the transmitter.
Then Mitch, I want you to take it up. It was your plane, you're the most familiar with it. Get it trimmed up nice, and I'd like to try it too. It looks like it'll fly good, soon as we get it trimmed up.
With a different wing, I think it's gonna act differently. And I'm wondering if this wing makes the tail moment too short.
The reason I think this is because the original wing was an inch less in chord, and CG was further forward a little. This means that the tail surfaces, which was designed to be the perfect size with the inch-longer tail moment, might be a bit on the small side now that the tail moment is slightly shorter. Evan brought this up which is what got me thinking.
I mean, I'm not an aeronautical engineer, but Evan might be right.
Mitch, this was why I thought the different wing might have resulted in needing a different tail.