No idea what is wrong with this ft scout.

Bricks

Master member
This one of the times it would be great to be able to be there to help with out seeing it everything is a guess.
When hand launching are you giving it a pretty throw it takes speed to fly and usually this type of reaction is caused by too slow airspeed..
 

TDL

Active member
Pretty hard to guess your issues without seeing pictures or more details. Which Scout did you build? Mini or standard? Your motor/ prop combo will work fine on a mini, but too small for the regular one. And, how did you launch your Scout? Taking off from ground or hand launching? However, I will make some wild guesses here.
Since you said you throttled up to 50% to 70% at launch, I guess you were hand launching it. Assuming you we’re flying a regular Scout on three channels, but with a 6” ’aggressive pitch“ CW prop on a thrust angle designed for CCW prop. The natural roll for a plane running CW prop is banking right. To make thing worst, your prop wash is fast but narrow and mostly applies to the left wing due to the reversed thrust angle. So your left wing generates more lift than your right wing (plane banks even more to right) unless you make a very strong toss at launching to overcome the imbalance on lift. So, as soon as your plane left your hand, it banked to the right, people intuitively would reduce throttle and go full left rudder and full up elevator. Unfortunately, your plane did not build up enough speed here, so your tail feathers were not effective enough, and once your plane rolled over 45 degree to the right, your full-up elevator actually became right rudder that turned your plane further to the right, and the left rudder became “up elevator” that increase the AOA of your plane- reduce your speed to below stall speed. Now your plane went into death-spiral. There is no way to recover from that given not enough altitude.
Now talking about the fix. If you would like to use your current setup on a regular Scout. You would need to reverse the trust angle as other suggested, and then try to fly off from the ground instead of hand launching it. As I said your prop wash is strong but narrow so you’d better build up the speed slowly on the ground an let your wing do the work to lift the plane evenly.
good luck!
 
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TDL

Active member
This one of the times it would be great to be able to be there to help with out seeing it everything is a guess.
When hand launching are you giving it a pretty throw it takes speed to fly and usually this type of reaction is caused by too slow airspeed..
Man, I spent 20 mins typing up and you said the same in two sentences...lol
 

Bricks

Master member
Man, I spent 20 mins typing up and you said the same in two sentences...lol


Yea but your explanation gave more of the why`s and where fores, some times for a newbei it helps them undersdtand a little better.
 

Jakedews4

New member
Wow, TDL you need to be a detective! You guessed everything right! I am I fact using a standard scout although I used the tile B plans on 7.5 by 11 inch paper so although I am flying standard plans it is smaller than a normal standard scout. Thank you all for the explanations. I will try to do a ground take off. I will also get a video of what is happening when the weather will let me. I just have one question about the explanation, what could I do to be able to hand launch my plane again? You described that if I could give a strong launch then I could hand launch the plane? I would be fine with doing ground take off but the only space I have where that’s possible is a pretty small section of asphalt and the bigger field is covered in high grass making it very hard to take of with the wheels I have. I just found some CCW props so I will switch over to those and reverse the motor instead of reversing the firewall. Thanks you all so much for the help.
 
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B40B

New member
Remember that gyroscopic effect works 90 degrees to the applied force. So if you push at the top of the prop, it gives you a yaw reaction. That is why the power pods have a thrust angle both down and to the side. If you change the rotation of the prop, you don't cancel the yaw force, you are adding to it, giving you a severe yaw.
 

Jakedews4

New member
Thanks, that makes much more sense now. I will see how CCW works and try to take videos the next time I try flying it.
 

RC Fly Time

New member
If you are able to fly from a ground take off I should imagine you'd be ok to hand launch you just might have to throw her faster, so by the time you let go you're at flying speed.
 

whackflyer

Master member
There are many on here who say hand launching is easier for a noob and I agree. It just adds another whole dimension to flying and you don't need to be trying to learn ground handing until you learn how to fly the plane. When you crash landing gear will also really mess your fuselage up if it tears out. Just get the video of the hand launch and everyone will try to help!
 

Merv

Site Moderator
Staff member
I agree with @whackflyer, it could be a Rx issue, do a range check.

Receiver antennas can be damaged in a crash and become ineffective. Look closely at the antenna(s) where they enter the case. If there is any metal showing you have damaged them, they need to be repaired or replaced.
 

Jakedews4

New member
Ok great news!!! Turns out it was my thrust angle and when I went back to CCW it flew great! Thank you all so much for the help and explanations I had no idea that the thrust angle was specific to the way the motor spun. I’m
so glad I now know that! I did check my receiver for antenna issues but I found none. Thank you all so much for your help I’m so glad I was finally able to get the plane to fly again. The forum won’t let me download the video so I guess I can’t show the awesome flight but I know it flew and that’s good enough for me.
 
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TDL

Active member
Ok great news!!! Turns out it was my thrust angle and when I went back to CCW it flew great! Thank you all so much for the help and explanations I had no idea that the thrust angle was specific to the way the motor spun. .....

Congrats! Please do show us your video!
Once the normal days return, you might consider joining a local club, you will learn much faster and more by flying with others.
Many years I joined a local club only because people complained me flying large 3d planes on a school yard next to my house. Back then I learned my skill via YouTube and sim, I thought I knew all the hot tricks and being cocky, but really knew nothing about properly setting up planes or why planes behave in certain ways. Very fortunately I met two club members, one was in the F3A Team America, another one was a judge for pattern competition. I learned tons of things from bugging them again and again and visually seeing what they did. There was another member competed in DLG, he taught me RC planes have many dimensions that I had not explorered.
Enjoy!
 

Jakedews4

New member
Thanks I will look into clubs in my area! Every time I try to upload the video it says it has no extension for it? Am I doing something wrong?
 

Ketchup

4s mini mustang
Thanks I will look into clubs in my area! Every time I try to upload the video it says it has no extension for it? Am I doing something wrong?
You could try getting a YouTube channel and uploading the video there, then posting the link or something here.