Help! Ft mini trainer in cardboard

Joel1234

New member
Evening. So I'm very new to this flight game but have a good understanding of engenering and have started to try get into the hobby . So I ordered myself a mini mustang now realizing for a beginner I'm peeps going to smash it to bits I wanted to build a tiny trainer but cos I'm abit skint and it's a while from payday ive made it out of 3mm corrugated cardboard.

Now building it is basicly the same and looks awsome and It weighs around 380grams (with the battery ) , I have the right lil 2300kv motor I am running a 1000 mah lipo 2s (this maybe an issue ? ) and a 6x3 prop so as ive seen I beleive the theory is all there . So why does it bank to the right as it eventually goes int to the floor maybe more power ? Or is it something else is it that because the fire wall is angled to the right and my motor goes the opposite way ( could that happen ) please help .
I am going to persevere with it but can a pro at this give me an idea of where I'm going wrong ?
 

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FL_Engineer

Elite member
I could be wrong but it sounds like your motor may be spinning CW rather than CCW. If this is the case you can switch two of the wire from the ESC to the motor. Be sure the writing on the prop is facing the front.
 

Joel1234

New member
That means the air all be pushed backwards wouldnt it ive done that a few times plugging in the wires or am I wrong as I say open to any suggestions and I will check lol but the props on the right way ive spent so much time researching I'm a pro at the basics now haha and learning from my mistakes
 

JasonK

Participation Award Recipient
does applying left rudder balance it back out? you might just need some trim.
if your CG is offset left/right to much it could impart some issues.
if your wing isn't mirrored well, it could be causing slightly uneven lift.
would need more info about how it flies to be 100% sure, what happens when you apply up/down elevator, left right rudder/etc.

does it fly straight if you just hand throw it? (no motor, neutral surfaces)
 

Joel1234

New member
does applying left rudder balance it back out? you might just need some trim.
if your CG is offset left/right to much it could impart some issues.
if your wing isn't mirrored well, it could be causing slightly uneven lift.
would need more info about how it flies to be 100% sure, what happens when you apply up/down elevator, left right rudder/etc.

does it fly straight if you just hand throw it? (no motor, neutral surfaces)
8
Hi there yeah it does through straight if anything leaning abit to the left hahathe only info I can really give you about flight is its seems to catch the air well but just curves instantly to the right untill the ground I'm honestly new to all aspects of flying including flying its a flat calm day and she chucks well and obviously wants to fly but maybe I'm just rubbish but I'm gonna try more trim tomorrow and well anything else you guys suggest determined to make it fly
 

MiniacRC

Well-known member
Wasn't that unfortunately deffo going ccw thank you though
Hate to harp on this, but when I was starting out, I made the mistake of making the prop spin CCW looking from the tail to nose (as we would identify left or right wing). My tiny trainer had exactly what you described, a right-ward tendency, but I used a 5" prop and it was less apparent after takeoff. It was after six months in the hobby that my buddy told me that the prop had to spin CCW when looking from the hobbyist's point of view, (not the pilot's in the cockpit), aka looking the plane head on. As an aero engineer in college at the time, I was super embarassed but it made sense after thinking about it.
When I switched from a CW prop (labeled "R" for reverse) to a CCW prop, and also reversed the motor direction to maintain forward thrust, my planes started tracking like bullet trains. The thrust angle (right-cocked) of the powerpod is to offset various inertial and aerodynamic effects of the spinning prop, such as gyroscopic precession, P-factor, slipstream induced yaw, etc.... If your prop spins CCW looking from the front, the motor will roll and yaw the plane left due to those various effects, and the right thrust angle will compensate. This balance is especially important for smaller planes with strong power setups.
When I zoom into your picture, it looks like that's a CW prop, which would explain the right turn. Can't tell too well though. Hope this was it! Best of luck , and clear skies! :)
 
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Joel1234

New member
Hate to harp on this, but when I was starting out, I made the mistake of making the prop spin CCW looking from the tail to nose (as we would identify left or right wing). My tiny trainer had exactly what you described, a right-ward tendency, but I used a 5" prop and it was less apparent after takeoff. It was after six months in the hobby that my buddy told me that the prop had to spin CCW when looking from the hobbyist's point of view, (not the pilot's in the cockpit), aka looking the plane head on. As an aero engineer in college at the time, I was super embarassed but it made sense after thinking about it.
When I switched from a CW prop (labeled "R" for reverse) to a CCW prop, and also reversed the motor direction to maintain forward thrust, my planes started tracking like bullet trains. The thrust angle (right-cocked) of the powerpod is to offset various inertial and aerodynamic effects of the spinning prop, such as gyroscopic precession, P-factor, slipstream induced yaw, etc.... If your prop spins CCW looking from the front, the motor will roll and yaw the plane left due to those various effects, and the right thrust angle will compensate. This balance is especially important for smaller planes with strong power setups.
When I zoom into your picture, it looks like that's a CW prop, which would explain the right turn. Can't tell too well though. Hope this was it! Best of luck , and clear skies! :)
please harp on . i as you where felt pretty ashamed id not even realised theres probaly a specific direction for the two props i didnt even look at the difference in both props when i got them all in all sometyhing i obviously did not cosider when looking into this i thought i had it all figured out . You are definatly onto something though as i deffo had the wrong prop on originally when i first maidened her howerver i did become confused as im sure the direction was of the motor was wrong (another noobie error ) but you may have saved the day here as she took off yesterday and does want to yaw to the right still and the motor is going cw definatly . so i will just switch the motor round and place the correct prop on it . also thank you so much for mentioning 'from the hobbyists point of veiw because this is definatly where i was going wrong and information on the web was hard to find and also confusing find alot of things end up being explained as if you should have a degree in it already lol.and thanks so much for taking the time out to help some one new in the hobby , im pretty good at these things very practically minded and good at understanding the science but ive definatly missed a few things and everything anyone has suggested has helped and this has been something that i thought i was getting wrong but couldnt figure out but thank you cos i was just going to roll the power pod over and would have been in the same shoes and have the same issue just in the opposite direction then id have done something stupid like change the thrust angle and it would have been a whole other storyy
 

FL_Engineer

Elite member
please harp on . i as you where felt pretty ashamed id not even realised theres probaly a specific direction for the two props i didnt even look at the difference in both props when i got them all in all sometyhing i obviously did not cosider when looking into this i thought i had it all figured out . You are definatly onto something though as i deffo had the wrong prop on originally when i first maidened her howerver i did become confused as im sure the direction was of the motor was wrong (another noobie error ) but you may have saved the day here as she took off yesterday and does want to yaw to the right still and the motor is going cw definatly . so i will just switch the motor round and place the correct prop on it . also thank you so much for mentioning 'from the hobbyists point of veiw because this is definatly where i was going wrong and information on the web was hard to find and also confusing find alot of things end up being explained as if you should have a degree in it already lol.and thanks so much for taking the time out to help some one new in the hobby , im pretty good at these things very practically minded and good at understanding the science but ive definatly missed a few things and everything anyone has suggested has helped and this has been something that i thought i was getting wrong but couldnt figure out but thank you cos i was just going to roll the power pod over and would have been in the same shoes and have the same issue just in the opposite direction then id have done something stupid like change the thrust angle and it would have been a whole other storyy
(y)
 

MiniacRC

Well-known member
@Joel1234 Glad you're onto something! :)
I agree, this should be something that's beaten over again and again by those who are making tutorials etc. for beginners. And yet, as a noob I just kept hearing , "counterclockwise, make sure its spinning counterclockwise" over and over again, never "from the hobbyists POV". At one point, I started playing other people's flight videos at x0.25 speed to see if I could confirm the prop's spin-up direction... sigh.... I guess it's obvious once you've done it for years.
But when literally everything about the plane (forward/backward, left/right wing, bottom/top) is defined looking at it from tail to nose, using a different semantic convention just for the prop can be misleading for someone stepping into the hobby. I don't know the history as to why it is so, perhaps because old planes were spun up manually by people standing in front....
Anyway, absolutely keep asking questions here, not all of us are experts (I'm definitely not), but we can shout-out when we see a mistake that we've made before! Good luck, I hope to hear about a straight-tracking trainer soon!