What Did You Fly Today

[JennyC6]

I am still quite the novice here, but was working on the mini PT17 and having the same thing, but it was REAL touchy wanting to climb hard on much throttle at all - reading about not enough downward pitch angle seems to be the culprit (can someone in-the-know maybe weigh in here?) Would adding in controls to compensate just add drag when you throttle up? Add a tiny shim or washer at the top of the motor and try again?

Love reading your project posts @BATTLEAXE btw, and love the creativity you put into your paint!

Some planes just naturally do that. My TwinStar is the same way and it's got something like 4º down thrust on both engines. I have it hands free level at half power but if I throw the coals to it it damn near does loops on its own. Have to add about 20% down elevator to keep it level.

Might just mix that in automatically.

 

[BATTLEAXE]

I am still quite the novice here, but was working on the mini PT17 and having the same thing, but it was REAL touchy wanting to climb hard on much throttle at all - reading about not enough downward pitch angle seems to be the culprit (can someone in-the-know maybe weigh in here?) Would adding in controls to compensate just add drag when you throttle up? Add a tiny shim or washer at the top of the motor and try again?

Love reading your project posts @BATTLEAXE btw, and love the creativity you put into your paint!

Thanx man, appreciate it. Its just due to the efficiency of the wing gets exponentially better as the airspeed goes up, same thing if you fly into the wind or with it. If your Tx is capable adding the down elevator mix to your throttle control is really helpful. Opens up so much more at your fingertips... or thumb tips as it were. You aren't pigeon holed to flying in circuits, you can open it up with out the hassle of trying to trim down or compensate on the right stick.

I know Biplanes are especially bad for this given twice the lift potential of having two wings. Scale sort of biplanes even more so, a PT-17 would be this case. Down elevator will add a miniscule amount of drag compared to the throttle gain and peace of mind you get. You are just basically automatically compensating for what you would do with trim anyway. That style of plane wouldn't go any faster if there was no down trim, it would just loop on it own.

I put my elevator trim on a slider so i can manually adjust for the first couple flights to see what is needed at any given throttle position. Depending on the plane i will see how much it needs at 50%, 75%, and 100% respectively to get an idea. Then build a mix from that info.

You could try more down thrust as well but that will only go so far as a fixed position for the motor, It could work you will just have to try and see. I like playing with stuff like that, add something and take it up to see what happens, then make a change and take it up again. Its a fun little data thing to play with.

 

[bwarz]

I know my down angle was a bit less than the design (I use my own 3d printed power pods for everything... positive and negative aspects) and the day was super calm. I was also a bit nervous on the maiden too, it was just a very surprising response. In the planes defense though, I was also playing with the cg as I was quite tall heavy.... (now as I type, would tail heavy cause that on throttle too? I guess more research) I didn't want to trash it on day 1 so I hit the books so to speak to maybe learn something (love it! ) I'll have to look at throttle-based mixes in the spektrum... haven't done it before (or is it even possible on the dx6?)

just an afterthought on the tail heavy note...i was able to kinda fly it at a low throttle. didn't have much air time as I said before, I didn't want to trash it ..

 

[bwarz]

hmmmm.... after some reading I think I better look at cg again! I did all about cg on a biplane and got answers. just my first small dtfb bipe, so I'll claim noob

 

[bennmar02]

Maiden Experimental Airlines Axon Cardboard. After stupid bad crash, propeller cut thread of aileron, nice flight without any problems

 

[JennyC6]

God it's so pretty. Can't wait for my shock oil and venturi to come in; gonna be even prettier when it's leaving a blue-tinged pair of rooster tails behind it and howling like a banshee the whole time!

I didn't put the helmet in because that's where the FPV camera will live. The headlights I made functional and they are, no joke, better at throwing light than the headlights on my '95 F150! I'll need a lot of wiring to make them work though. And I mean that in just sheer length; to avoid unplug/replug every time the lid comes up(Which is every time I start the engine and then again at the end of the day) I will Y them up and run them all the way back to the hinge at the rear of the cage and then all the way back up to the front of the car where the receiver lives. It's a lot of wire, but will be more reliable than having to unplug and replug them constantly.

Fun fact: You can buy them pre-lit from Kyosho...for 70 dollars. I probably used 20 cents worth of LEDs, resistors, and an old male/male servo extension.

Thanx man, appreciate it. Its just due to the efficiency of the wing gets exponentially better as the airspeed goes up, same thing if you fly into the wind or with it. If your Tx is capable adding the down elevator mix to your throttle control is really helpful. Opens up so much more at your fingertips... or thumb tips as it were. You aren't pigeon holed to flying in circuits, you can open it up with out the hassle of trying to trim down or compensate on the right stick.

I know Biplanes are especially bad for this given twice the lift potential of having two wings. Scale sort of biplanes even more so, a PT-17 would be this case. Down elevator will add a miniscule amount of drag compared to the throttle gain and peace of mind you get. You are just basically automatically compensating for what you would do with trim anyway. That style of plane wouldn't go any faster if there was no down trim, it would just loop on it own.

I put my elevator trim on a slider so i can manually adjust for the first couple flights to see what is needed at any given throttle position. Depending on the plane i will see how much it needs at 50%, 75%, and 100% respectively to get an idea. Then build a mix from that info.

You could try more down thrust as well but that will only go so far as a fixed position for the motor, It could work you will just have to try and see. I like playing with stuff like that, add something and take it up to see what happens, then make a change and take it up again. Its a fun little data thing to play with.

Yup, gonna play with mixing on my TwinStar to get it to fly straight at all power settings.

 

[BATTLEAXE]

hmmmm.... after some reading I think I better look at cg again! I did all about cg on a biplane and got answers. just my first small dtfb bipe, so I'll claim noob

I have heard and tried the top view of the biplane and figure for 25-33% of that total chord. It has worked once and not the next. You could use a CG calculator, i haven't tried that yet but most that use it swear by it.

The DX6 should be able to do a throttle elevator mix...

I found a couple vids that may be helpful. I was looking for specific stuff that was less then 5 years old but this is what i came up with...

This one is kinda long but might help with all the issues you are having, or if anything will be good reminders of things you may haven't tried
This next one talks about flaps but you could do the same thing for the elevator

And it is the DX6i, not sure if you have the same system or even yours may be more up to date then these examples. Keep us posted as to how it works out

 

[Bifi.baarlo]

Today I flew my Guinea pig and piggybacking a Lidl glider

 

[OliverW]

Close to flight. Lots of issues with the covering that needs to be fixed before it flys. Gonna start up the enya shortly

 

[JennyC6]

Close to flight. Lots of issues with the covering that needs to be fixed before it flys. Gonna start up the enya shortly View attachment 177979

They need a 'love' button next to the 'like' button for posts like this. She's gorgeous! Get some video of that little Enya singing its little song for us~

 

[OliverW]

They need a 'love' button next to the 'like' button for posts like this. She's gorgeous! Get some video of that little Enya singing its little song for us~

Thank you very much! I just need to install the muffle before I start it up

 

[BATTLEAXE]

Close to flight. Lots of issues with the covering that needs to be fixed before it flys. Gonna start up the enya shortly View attachment 177979

That does look awesome man, I like the shiny parts. And your little Stick too

 

[OliverW]

That does look awesome man, I like the shiny parts. And your little Stick too

Thanks man! I was given that little stick by a friend. It flys pretty well. Just gotta keep the speed up in sharp turns

 

[Wildthing]

Close to flight. Lots of issues with the covering that needs to be fixed before it flys. Gonna start up the enya shortly View attachment 177979

I like it

 

[Timmy]

I was hoping to maiden @The Hangar 's F7F and my LED arrow today but the weather man had other ideas

 

[speedbirdted]

Hey, isn't that thing supposed to spin?

This is why we pay attention to the timer in the radio... or rather, don't bump the reset button for the timer after landing after 5 minutes to tweak the mixture, then proceed not to fill up Though, I got lucky this time as it died right next to the runway and I had plenty of altitude. The tank on this plane is only 2 ounces anyway...

I also mounted the camera on the newly 4-strokified Avistar, off center for some stupid reason, which screwed up the lateral balance so much that it needed tons of both rudder and aileron trim. Why didn't I just put it in the center?? I also underestimated both how bad the microphone is and how loud an engine is from 6 inches away. The audio just got turned into one massive fart.

Later I went to a swap meet and accidentally came home with more airplanes. Well, I wanted something to race in club 40 next year, so I guess it wasn't entirely an accident...

Picked this up for half a Benjamin. Not bad considering it came with a bunch of really nice metal gear Savox servos! All it needed was a reciever, a battery, wheels and an engine. Thing looked like it had no airtime whatsoever, hell I don't think until now it'd had an engine on it. The covering was just saggy from storage but half an hour with the iron cleaned that right up. I've had a 46 LA I got for next to nothing for a while but over last weekend I put about half a gallon through it on the bench breaking it in and I've gotten it to the point where it'll idle and transition consistently enough that I feel good about flying it.

Just today I got everything installed and taxied it around my yard and driveway, but I'm not going to fly it until I get a better receiver. The one in it now is from a little park flyer and doesn't have a diversity antenna, and I only really trust it for ground running. The engine is a little wobbly because the previous owner for some reason tried to convert the engine mounts to the integrated beam type - if done correctly it works perfectly, but... it was not done correctly. I'm going to just cut them off and add a more normal mount....

 

[JennyC6]

mmmmmm 4-stroke noises!

 

[Timmy]

I just came back from a 1 hr 40 min flight with @The Hangar 's F7F and my otter. My friend brought a ton of batteries.

F7F Maiden:
I got of to a rocky start unfortunately. I had one aileron lower than the other and because the F7F has small ailerons I wasn't really able to compensate with ailerons so i had to use diff. thrust. that worked for about 30 terrifying seconds before I chose to "land" in a low tree branch since that's softer than the ground. I ended up with some wing ding. nothing more. The tree was a good choice. I fixed the aileron and the second flight was awesome! I will say that it has really small control surfaces so acrobatics wasn't an option. It flies super stable and smooth though and landing were so satisfying. I would like larger ailerons and possibly a larger elevator. I would be a good trainer, I'm actually gonna let my friend try it at 7:30 when I will maiden my night arrow. Overall a great flier but not an acrobatic one. It looks really cool too.

I'm waiting for my friend to send me some footage he got so i can put it here if its any good. if not, I'll get my dad to film me at 7:30.

Otter:
I tried my first 2200 mah battery in there and with one notch of flaps it flew just like the 1300 mah was in there. Got a good long flight out of it.

 

[The Hangar]

I just came back from a 1 hr 40 min flight with @The Hangar 's F7F and my otter. My friend brought a ton of batteries.

F7F Maiden:
I got of to a rocky start unfortunately. I had one aileron lower than the other and because the F7F has small ailerons I wasn't really able to compensate with ailerons so i had to use diff. thrust. that worked for about 30 terrifying seconds before I chose to "land" in a low tree branch since that's softer than the ground. I ended up with some wing ding. nothing more. The tree was a good choice. I fixed the aileron and the second flight was awesome! I will say that it has really small control surfaces so acrobatics wasn't an option. It flies super stable and smooth though and landing were so satisfying. I would like larger ailerons and possibly a larger elevator. I would be a good trainer, I'm actually gonna let my friend try it at 7:30 when I will maiden my night arrow. Overall a great flier but not an acrobatic one. It looks really cool too.

I'm waiting for my friend to send me some footage he got so i can put it here if its any good. if not, I'll get my dad to film me at 7:30.

Otter:
I tried my first 2200 mah battery in there and with one notch of flaps it flew just like the 1300 mah was in there. Got a good long flight out of it.

Glad to hear that you got it flying well on the second attempt! My friend who flew it a couple days ago also suggested to enlarge the ailerons. I had tons of elevator control on mine so I would just bump up the elevator throws.

 

[Timmy]

I would just bump up the elevator throws.

ok