tiny tutor not controllable

hello_human

New member
so we got the guinea pig mkr2, it flies amazing and controls perfectly. i wanted to teach my dad how to fly something but i didn't want him to start with that because that thing seemed a lot more delicate. so we got the mighty mini tiny tutor, assembled it, and its completely uncontrollable.

whenever the throttle is even a little bit high, it noses straight up, and when the power is off for landing it, you cant flair it at all. moving the battery around wouldn't do anything because it would make one of those problems worse no matter what. i don't know what to do, because we have tried so much stuff and not had a single successful landing. the wings and fuselage are bent, we've broken 3 propellers, and the motor mount snapped in half. i don't really know what to do about it because nothing has helped it.

I'm really new to this so i have no clue what to do about this stuff, currently the plane is basically totaled because of the motor mount being snapped in half but i don't want to just give up on it, but currently we can either make it fly well, or land "well" and no in between. we can trim it to cruise great, but then the second you throttle down it just nose dives. we did the throw test thing, and we made it glide very well, but now the throttle has more control over pitch than the elevators.
 

Mr NCT

Site Moderator
I don't have a tiny tutor though I've built and flown (and crashed) a lot of the mighty mini series planes. The minis are very sensitive to up or down angle on the motor.
In general if you trim the plane so that it glides well but any increase in throttle makes it nose up then you need to give it some down thrust by putting a small washer at the top between the motor and firewall to angle the motor down. It may take more than one washer. Also in general high wing planes are more susceptible to this than low or mid wing planes because the high wing produces drag above the thrust line and so it wants to pitch up with increased throttle. Some of my planes I even build down thrust into the power pod.
Hope that helps.
 

FishbonesAir

Active member
Okay, what NCT said was spot on. More down thrust. Also, I would add, a smaller prop or smaller battery for reduced (but still adequate) thrust.

Edit: "Smaller battery" means 2s 7.4v vs 3s 11.1v. I really should have said "less powerful," or "lower voltage." If you're running the 3s battery, try a 2s. That alone may help tame the beast!

Here's something else, since you said you got it to cruise and glide:

Stick and Rudder: An Explanation of the Art of Flying https://www.amazon.com/dp/0070362408/?tag=lstir-20

This is a very old book. But it explains things differently. In a nutshell, instead of relying on the elevator to go up and down, particularly when landing, you get the airplane stable, then pull back power. This causes the plane to sink. As you approach the runway, a gentle application of of elevator, rather than making you "go up" causes the aircraft to flair, and slow down, so it will settle onto the runway.

Last thought. Simulators are your friend, and let you build a lot of Stick time quickly without wrecked airplanes!

Dave aka Capt Fishbones
 
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