[RCSE] Re: Not likely CG...likely wing loading.

[Tom Rust]

In retrospect I think your right. I did fly this almost exactly same configuration a few days before. There was more wind that day, so it did have more airspeed. Prior to putting the camera/xmtr on it, I had flown it a bunch of times, so it was all trimmed out in the normal configuration (18 subC cells with a geared brushless motor). It would hand launch and always flew straight and level right out of my hands. Not quite capable of vertical climb, but pretty close - plenty of power. On the first flight with the camera/xmtr (well, not the first flight - I had flown it many times before with the camera/xmtr, but over a year ago), once airborne it had a LOT of down, so I  gave it a fair bit of up trim and right aileron to compensate for the weight on the left wing. Since I don't trust myself to hand launch it with the rcvr packpack on and all that weight, I took a set of landing gear wheels/bracket and taped it forward of the CG under the fuse. I would then do a ground launch. I have noticed that when normally trimmed for floating around, it takes a fair bit of down elevator held in place while under power to keep the nose at a reasonable climb angle. I may have pulled up instead on launch, as I wanted to make sure it cleared the brush it ended up in. SO its tendency to nose up under power, combined with my error of up elevator, probably made for the big mistake. It now seems likely that the first flight, with the down trim, is what saved it from a similar fate. The CG is probably fine - it may even be more nose heavy than normal, judging by the trim situation. Maybe I should sticker a little note on the wing to remind me to set down trim for TO. I have so many things to do when setting up a vidcam/xmtr flight, its too easy to forget one important step. Or a written checklist to go over. The wing panel spar is fine, but the outer 1/3 is pretty crumpled. No missing pieces (maybe a little hole here and there). The outer aileron is also crumpled. How would you fix it? Our local hero of broken planes, Martin Falarski, has resuscitated this plane twice - always nose repairs. [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: I guess there is only so far you can move the CG back .... All together enuf to make it totally unstable. SOme nifty video of the wing upside down just after launch.   While its possible that you got the CG back some, unless it was 50% back, it was more likely wing loading that cause the problem. Without a bunch of airspeed, the extra weight made the load unbearable, so the ship rolled over and gave up.   In any case sorry to hear about the damage. I'll check around to see if someone has some parts. Are you sure you can't repair what you got? You'd be surprised at how easy moldies are to repair well.  Just takes some patience to fit the pussle parts back in place. Gordy -- Tom Rust Nanochip Inc (510) 339-6263 (510) 339-9636 FAX (510) 912-4662 cell http://www.nanochip.com