UPDATE: I said I was either coming back from flying today with a broken airplane or knowledge gained. Looks like I got a little of both. Knowledge gained: NEVER trim out and learn to fly on a new airplane with friends present. They get sick of watching you toss and chase the plane time and time again, and want to see a loop or two. Also: never let 'em talk you into throwing that new plane on the hi-start before you're ready! After doing some initial test launches off the histart, I found out that my plane <V-tail modded skeeter>, has this bizarre tendency to drop the tail whenever you give her left or right roll. Anyone have any input as to what may cause this? I got a little ahead of myself with this plane, and did a loop. I think I may have not had enough forward airspeed, because the plane kind of stalled and made more of a cursive "l"- that is, went up the front side of the loop, kinda mushed over and to one side, and then went nose down and lost a LOT of the altitude I'd started from. Scared me to death, but I managed to recover her and landed it immediately thereafter. I believe I pulled up too sharply and started a stall series, because the nose dropped as I was pulling up.It should be noted that I've not measured the control deflections as I should have. The next time I went up on the highstart, I pulled back an extra 2 steps- what a difference! She went up pretty straight <I'd adjusted the mechanical settings of the linkages> and came off the histart with no troubles. I was able to actually turn back towards myself 180deg and start a landing approach, when I noticed that I'd gone outside the bounds of the billfold we were flying from. I was fine, thinking I'd be able to just circle around and start practicing an actual landing approach instead of letting her just fall to earth wherever gravity would dictate, when I happened to see a cement light pole out of the corner of my eye. Not being able to judge the distance, I freaked out and gave her full left- which immediately caused the wing to stop flying and the plane to flounder to earth. This is what is known as "tip stall", I take it? What do I do about it- put in some wash-out in the tips? Had to glue the Vtail back on after that one <it's worth noting that the Vtail assembly itself has proven to be VERY stout throughout all this, only letting the attachment to the fuselage itself break>. Took the plane back over to the histart and made sure the radio switch was in the "on" position.. I didn't waggle the tail to make sure she was still with us though. Put her on the histart, and she went curving to the right, not allowing me to recover her- I'm not sure if the RX was working at that point, or not. Next thing I see is a sickening dive towards terra firma, followed be a deafening CRUNCH! as she lawndarted in. Damage consists of a missing F2 former <right ahead of the wing saddle, which had already been broken many times>, an unresponsive RX <I think the crystal's toast>, and both of those outboard wing panels I'd mentioned the alignment issue of, are now neatly separated at the polyhedral junction. The wing center panels are fine, with the exception of the right outboard poly joint former missing, and a mangled trailing edge at the same area. Easy fix.. Both tips are in need of new inboard polyjoint formers and joiners, and a small amount of TE work needed on the right one. I think I'll work the wingtip extensions that I've seen on a website, into the new tips after I fix the damage already mentioned. I will CF and epoxy the joiner boxes as well, since the idea of using fiberglass and CA on the center section seems to have worked really well <the plane hit hard enough that the wing actually sheared off of the rubber mounts. Anyone have input on mounting the wing with nylon bolts?>. Here's a question- since I'm running a Vtail, would I be better off if I built the polyhedral breaks flat with the rest of the wing this time, making it a dihedral wing, not polyhedral? The fuselage is fine, mostly, with the exception of the control rods having broken out of their joints in the fuselage <am replacing them with Golden Rods>, the Vtail having broken off <again!>, and the front and rear of the wing saddle being a bit smashed from the G's of impact. All in all not a bad day's work. The most expensive part will probably be a new Xtl for the RX <or a new RX AND crystal! 8( >. Even if the plane was a total loss, it'd only be $25- luckily it's not that bad, though. ----- Original Message ----- From: "SilentFlight" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Saturday, August 25, 2001 11:30 PM Subject: Re: [RCSE] Dynaflite Skeeter WAS Re: [RCSE] Ebay items > Additionally: would like input on this please: > > > Bad note to today: noticed that my right polyhedral break is a full 1 1/4" > shallower, measured at the tip, than the left side. I'l correct it, but > would like to know the list's ideas regarding the effect of having a > steeper polyhedral angle vs. a shallower poyhedral angle: IE: Should I drop > the high side joint down to level with the low, or vice versa? > > Note: Dynaflite Skeeter instructions SUCK!!! > > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "SilentFlight" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Sent: Saturday, August 25, 2001 11:22 PM > Subject: [RCSE] Dynaflite Skeeter WAS Re: [RCSE] Ebay items > > > @airage.com > > RCSE-List facilities provided by Model Airplane News. Send "subscribe" and "unsubscribe" requests to [EMAIL PROTECTED] RCSE-List facilities provided by Model Airplane News. Send "subscribe" and "unsubscribe" requests to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
