th1bill

Through divorce I lost my equipment about 23 yeaqrs ago and I'm just reentering the hobby. I have an 8 year old grandson I want to get his wings and his dad is training for his multi-engine Jet License right now. So having wings like his dad and fossilized old grandpa. (Just for reference, mine are 1960s vintage Helicopter Crew Wings.) I am in need of a little advice.

I have been faux flying on the FMS Sim with the Beginair. It is the same pane as the Wing Dragon Sportster 4 Channel that I'm getting for Christmas this year. I've done a good bit of research and I see that one model flyer cured the high center of gravity tendancy to roll on landing and ripping the Horiz. Stab. off by building, from scratch a V-Tail and then using the former Rudder Channel for Flaps to slow the landing to a crawl.

What I have in mind is along the lines of the JN4 Jenny's wing loops on the bottom for training young and new pilots. From my personal training on the 'puter i have found about 10% throttle a solid cure to the roll axis wobble on touch down. My wife will not let me play until Christmas and as a result I have no way to design a working solution. I'm looking for thoughts and advise right now.

The JN4 Jenny is driving my thought process. The Jenny has bail loops under both wings but the WD only has the upper wing and I'm thinking that someting, mildly flexable, needs to be 2 to 4 inches from the wing tips and be about 1 inch from the runway. I'm going to apply a strip of 2 inch wide, heavy duty, Packing tape, clear, to the leading edge for minor strike protection and a strip of the same clear tape down the thick portion of the top and bottom for spar effect to strengthen and to deflex the wings.

Any thoughts or design proposals will be appreciated.

bingo field

I don't usually mess with the foam stuff, but how about a length of trimmer string ? Plenty stiff, but flexible, and you can bend it with some heat to make it keep a curve.

th1bill

At the risk of sounding dumb, Trimmer String? Not as in Weed Wacker?

Bill Taylor
Killer Spade 806 CE
1969

Steve Steinbring

I fly at a couple of different clubs in our state, one a grass runway club, the other with a paved runway.

At the paved runway club I use wing tip protectors or trimmed stick-on felt chair leg protectors to keep surfaces from being chaffed each work well. The other option you mention is the Jenny type wingtip loops easily made out of piano wire or push rod material. We have a few pilots with the hard surface runway (very abrasive, flying grass is not a problem) that use the loops on certain airplanes. You will have to add attachment point reinforcements for the wire loops to attach on the wingtips; light plywood works well. You should be able to find plywood at either a hobby shop, or an Ace Hardware.

Hope this helps!

Steve

th1bill

Thank you Steve. Now you have me thinking. if I can find some 1/64th to 1/32nd plywood Model Boat skin I can wrap it around the wing and after cutting some 1/8th inch Ply to scroll saw the wing Root pattern out of and glue the 1/64th or 1/32nd skins inside of. In this manner I can find some alluminum or some other light weight tubing to put through the Wing Tips and lock these sleeved loops to the tips.

thank you for the spark. Any other thoughts before I do this will be looked into and considered.

bingo field

Yes, weed wacker line.

th1bill

Thanks Bingo,
I'll look into that also. Thinking about it I do recall seeing some that was .120" thick.

bingo field

You probably don't need to go that thick. Really common size could be from about .60 to .90. Maybe a neighbor has a 1 foot piece they would donate?

th1bill

I have MS due to Agent Orange exposure and I say that fr understanding added to the next sentence. My wife likely has some that size and I'll check with her. I no longer do the yard work because of my balance condition.

Thanks for the thought food.

stevenmax50

My Feedback: (1)

All I could get out of your posting was that your ex got all your RC stuff in the divorce. Man....what a beyatch.