Sunday, February 7, 2010

Speedwing prototype 3rd Flight

I flew the speedwing prototype again today after several small adjustments:

  1. Moved the CG forward about 0.5" ahead of neutral point. This seemed to help quite a bit- the wing was a lot more stable and easier to control. It could probably stand to get moved forward slightly more.
  2. Increased the aileron dual rate to 50%. Both aileron and elevator are currently at 70% expo.
The CG was moved by taping lead shot to the leading edge. Not pretty, but it works.



I managed to fly a couple laps of the field, then I was disoriented or something and hooked a wingtip on the snow. The landing, while spectacular, didn't do as much damage as I would have thought. The winglet that didn't break last flight came off, and a new crack opened up near the motor mount but that's it. Also, one of the set screws in the motor mount fell out so I'll have to find something to replace it with. Not too bad. I also flew it with the 1050 mAh 3s battery- which may have helped keep the speed down and things under control.



For the "real" wing I'll definitely be doing a couple things differently:
1) extend both spars across wing midline to strengthen that foam joint- it's just not strong enough now and breaks during every hard landing
2) add some kind of small fuselage extending forward of the wing leading edge, and have a long battery box to allow easy adjustment of the cg.

3 comments:

  1. That thing is impressive. Looks very stable. I'd like to see what it flies like when you put the more powerful motor (or is it battery) on it. It looks like it's more fun to fly as compared to the actual planes you have. Quite rad. Nice job.

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  2. This flight was definitely easier that previous ones! Each flight with adjustments is better than the last. But, it's still a prototype. I'll use everything I learn off of this airplane for the true top speed entry.

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  3. Are you starting you second build yet?

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