Ok - finally got out to the flying field today (it's been six weeks since I last committed RC flight) and things went much better! On the down side, I forgot to charge my video camera so there's no fancy moving pictures. But, with a 5-10 mhp gusty wind she still flew!! Almost 2 minutes of sustained flight! I'm so pumped - this will work - I can feel it!! :applause:
So I used about 3/4 throttle on takeoff, and down to 1/2 for the rest of the time in the air. Definitely some thrust line issues - she ballooned up with more thrust, so the motor mount needs another washer to point down a bit more and the mount needs to be adjusted to correct the whole thrust line.
No torque rolling problems though. Course it helps that I corrected the reversed aileron servos before this flight (where's a face-palm emoji when I need one...) It doesn't have a lot of roll authority on the ailerons though - think they need a little more surface area. I did have some unexpected rolling in the wind, and a couple degrees of dihedral would probably be a good thing.
Elevator authority wasn't great either - I kept having to push down elevator to keep level flight (wasn't up long and stead enough to get into trimming) but when I did call for up elevator it just didn't do the trick. I think it's more a matter of rates though - I dialed all the rates back down after the first corkscrew flight and need to take the elevator back up a bit.
Rudder seems to work fine, I was fighting a bit of weather-vaning behavior with the wind and it seemed to work pretty well.
Didn't get a chance to try the flaps yet.
Now for the bad part of the flight. I was only one mistake high coming out of a banking turn and a gust of wind rolled me over a little steeper - I rolled back and then pulled up - but was pointed straight into the tree line. So I cut throttle all the way and went into the woods about 20 feet up in the air. It made a pretty impressive crack that got the attention of a guy facing away at the other end of the flight field.
Luckily it made it down to the ground, and the damage is fun to look at, but not too severe. The fuse tore almost in half right behind the wing - but in front of the servos so all the control linkages are just fine. There's also a divot in the leading edge of the wing, and one of the aileron's is loosened up from the foam a bit too much and needs to be rebuilt.
But that's it for damage :black_eyed:
So on the prototype's change log now:
- Fix fuselage
- Lengthen ailerons and re-hinge
- Add more down thrust
- Increase elevator rates
And as saiga pointed out, I need to redesign the motor mount to put the thrust line up where it should be. Think I'll borrow your whole motor mount idea too - looks like a good idea to me
After a couple more flights on the prototype (and hopefully a landing or two on the runway) I'll go back to modify the CAD files and prepare to make the 'production' model.