Scaling FT planes, Old Fogey, Spitfire etc... Pros/cons?

[OrangutangSurfer]

I have seen lots of chatter on the website about different sized FT planes I have noticed that there is some sort of industry standard in the wing size ie. 1000mm, 800mm, etc. I've noticed that most of the FT planes are in the 40in range so about 1000mm. Is there any benefit to scaling them down? does the same size power pack give better performance to a 800mm version of the same plane? so many people are in to the 800mm size, why?

I have a few reasons that I'm interested, first a 800mm plane would be soooo much easier to transport. and second I'd like to get more experience building "off the book" per say. I'm also enjoying doing something "different" I've pretty much been loyal to FT and all their planes but I recently built a Su-37 from frcfoamies.com and it's pretty sweet, gets lots of looks too. anything to increase my build skills gets me closer to flying what/how I want which I'm still figuring out at this point.

I would like to build a smaller old fogey the 80% range is good i suppose, but using the 24g motor and a 1000mah 3s how much of that slow fly characteristics am I going to loose? and if I went even smaller I have a 850mah 2s for that same motor to keep the weight down,. I recently built a puddle shark from rcgroups, but something isn't right with it cause it's really squirly, and it hates turning right. It flies slow but doesn't have that floaty feel like the fogey I'm looking for a slow slow flyer. the full sized old fogey just floated how small can I go and still have that floaty-ness?

as far as the spitfire goes. my thinking is that with a smaller plane there's less weight and with the same power I can increase my speed. It's cheaper to build foam planes than it is to up size my power pack and I've been a little spend crazy lately so no new parts, but I have enough parts and different motors to build about anything. The smallest I have is the 24g hextronic 1500kv motor, for my slow flyer, and I have a ntm 2826 1200kv and a turnigy 2826 1400kv for the spitfire. I also have some 1500mah batteries in case the 2200mah is to much for a smaller spitfire.

anybody want to weigh in on the pros and cons of scaling down? make a suggestion? I guess I'm just really picking peoples brains here.

thanks!

-Jes

 

[nerdnic]

Smaller planes in general don't fly as well as their larger versions. There are some exceptions but lift and wing loading doesn't scale down as well as up. That being said the FT planes do very well when reduced, the wing under camber is the biggest reason for this in my opinion.

A 800mm version Spitfire will fly faster on the same power set up as a full size. You'll lose the 'floaty' glide tendencies of the full size, though. There is a give and take with any change you make to an air frame. I have built many of the FT planes in various sizes and I am silently trying to lead the 800mm revolution

Some of the biggest pros in my opinion for smaller planes is that the electronics are cheaper, you use less foam, they build faster, and are actually more durable. You start to lose some of the forgiving flight tendencies but there is definitely a happy medium.

Check out the scaled plans thread I have, some of the planes have reviews and might give you some more info.