Hi!
I have been hanging around for a while, and I love this forum and the work that the Flite Test team is doing.
I built an Old Fogey and it turned out ok. I was hoping to be able to fly it outdoors on calm days, but it turns out it can hardly take any wind at all. The foam I built it from is very light, about 0.09 g/sqin if my kitchen scale can be trusted, so I think my build is more wind sensitive than "the original". My foam is also way more "bendy" than depron for example. Side wind keep tipping the plane over.
I started thinking about ways to make it handle wind better. I don't know the theory around how to achieve that, but here's my reasoning so far:
1. The wings keep folding in the wind gusts, especially if I happen to use more throws at the same time. I'm considering putting a fold-over airfoil wing on it. Would that help? It would definitely help with the sturdiness of the wing, and it would increase the weight which I guess is a good thing (although that could be fixed with more battery), but does it also help against the wind tipping the plane over? I'm thinking the polyhedral makes the wind grab the wing "from the side".
2. The profile of the fuselage is huge. Is this what causes the plane to tip over? If so I don't have any ideas for how to fix that, but would gladly take suggestions.
Here's a sketchup model with a (slight) dihedral airfoil wing, next to the original Old Fogey. The wing span and cord are the same. Comments? This wing does not have any under-camber at all, should I add some?
I would love to hear general comments about what makes a plane fly better in wind (other than the obvious size and weight), doesn't have to be related to this plane!
Since I built this plane I have found better quality foam board (which I would likely use if I build an airfoil wing) and of course I could just build another plane more suited for outdoor flying, but I find this an interesting project, and I hope to learn a thing or two about what makes a plane have a certain behavior.
I have been hanging around for a while, and I love this forum and the work that the Flite Test team is doing.
I built an Old Fogey and it turned out ok. I was hoping to be able to fly it outdoors on calm days, but it turns out it can hardly take any wind at all. The foam I built it from is very light, about 0.09 g/sqin if my kitchen scale can be trusted, so I think my build is more wind sensitive than "the original". My foam is also way more "bendy" than depron for example. Side wind keep tipping the plane over.
I started thinking about ways to make it handle wind better. I don't know the theory around how to achieve that, but here's my reasoning so far:
1. The wings keep folding in the wind gusts, especially if I happen to use more throws at the same time. I'm considering putting a fold-over airfoil wing on it. Would that help? It would definitely help with the sturdiness of the wing, and it would increase the weight which I guess is a good thing (although that could be fixed with more battery), but does it also help against the wind tipping the plane over? I'm thinking the polyhedral makes the wind grab the wing "from the side".
2. The profile of the fuselage is huge. Is this what causes the plane to tip over? If so I don't have any ideas for how to fix that, but would gladly take suggestions.
Here's a sketchup model with a (slight) dihedral airfoil wing, next to the original Old Fogey. The wing span and cord are the same. Comments? This wing does not have any under-camber at all, should I add some?
I would love to hear general comments about what makes a plane fly better in wind (other than the obvious size and weight), doesn't have to be related to this plane!
Since I built this plane I have found better quality foam board (which I would likely use if I build an airfoil wing) and of course I could just build another plane more suited for outdoor flying, but I find this an interesting project, and I hope to learn a thing or two about what makes a plane have a certain behavior.