Re: Sheet Balsa Fighter

dirk gently Sun Aug 04, 2013 1:51 pm

I finally flown this one successfully today. The wing needed to be cut in half and glued back together with some dihedral, otherwise roll axis stability was not sufficient, and the plane would flip upside down in flight, no matter what I'd do.

After the dihedral was added, everything is nice and smooth, altough the ailerons are still a bit touchy. Not a huge problem, I still have some holes in the servo horn that I can use to reduce the throw.

Another thing is that, the plane is fast, touchy and... all white, it makes it difficult to keep up with it in flight, and it's easy to loose orientation. Due to this issue, I will probably paint the entire bottom side of the wing blue for better orientation. Anyway, I am very happy that the sheet wing experiment went well.

sdjjadk Sun Aug 04, 2013 5:04 pm

dirk gently wrote:I finally flown this one successfully today. The wing needed to be cut in half and glued back together with some dihedral, otherwise roll axis stability was not sufficient, and the plane would flip upside down in flight, no matter what I'd do.

After the dihedral was added, everything is nice and smooth, altough the ailerons are still a bit touchy. Not a huge problem, I still have some holes in the servo horn that I can use to reduce the throw.

Another thing is that, the plane is fast, touchy and... all white, it makes it difficult to keep up with it in flight, and it's easy to loose orientation. Due to this issue, I will probably paint the entire bottom side of the wing blue for better orientation. Anyway, I am very happy that the sheet wing experiment went well.

I like to read success stories like yours. Congrats on a nice looking plane. Thumbs Up

Shawn

dirk gently Thu Sep 26, 2013 4:35 am

Well, that's the end of this particular "success story". The plane has been decomissioned (nice word for "lost") as a result of a ground crew error (nice word for "screwup").

After recording a couple of flights, I failed to secure the receiver battery correctly. It disconnected mid-flight causing me to loose control over the plane, which flew off, out of sight and landed somewhere in the neck-high grass (or even in the nearby river) not to be found again.

Funny thing, the engine always had problems with emptying up the tank (due to wobbly needle). I was hoping it will quit early this time too, but of course, it run flawlessly this time, continued to work for what seemed to be an endless flight, it flew the plane so far away, I wasn't able to find it anymore.

**Cribbs74** Thu Sep 26, 2013 9:22 am

That stinks!

Did you have your name on/in it? The one good thing is you built a nice stable model if it was able to fly out of sight uncontrolled. You can pat yourself on the back for the good build anyway. Again sorry you lost it!

Ron

duke.johnson Thu Sep 26, 2013 9:33 am

I'm sorry to hear of your loss, also.

ian1954 Thu Sep 26, 2013 7:29 pm

I have enjoyed these snippets of successful experimentation. Picking up hints and tips is what this site is all about and postings like this topic are informative. Losing a model like this can only be upsetting.

getback Thu Sep 26, 2013 8:51 pm

just reading , I am also sorry to here for your plane wanted to be free and on its own a s I have a child who wants the same . but I once flew a plane that wanted to bee free but ended up it hit a tree a quarter mile away!! Very loud whap it was . again nice build !

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