ger87410

I'm not sure how I did either.
I just ran the calculations again and came up with 23.
I must have hit a wrong button.

superflea

I'm a bit confused I guess. You want the plane to fly slow on landing but as fast as possible in the air.
I assume you are not running a constant speed prop and that means that it either flies fast at all throttle positions or it flies slow at all throttle positions, relatively that is. to slow the plane down use a larger diameter prop with less pitch. if you want it to go fast then increase pitch, but it will fly faster at all throttle settings. It will even taxi faster

ger87410

superflea, I know. That's my problem. I want the plane to fly as fast as she can, but was hoping to use flaperons to increase the lift and thus allow a reduction of speed. I guess a solution would be to put a variable pitch prop.

RCKen

My Feedback: (9)

Actually, no. The solution is to learn to the basics of flight first before you start flying "as fast as you can", or before adding more complicated equipment such as a variable pitch prop. As was said earlier in this thread, proper landing techniques will go a lot further in helping to slow down the plane for landing. I actually had the same thing happen at our field last weekend. One of my old students was wondering if he should put the airbrakes back on his Nexstar so he could slow down for landing. I watched him land once and knew right away that it was his technique. He was simply coming in too hot to land. I showed him how to use his turns into final approach to slow down the plane and how the plane could be landed at almost a crawl speed. I'd recommend getting with the instructors, or more experienced pilots, at your field and ask them to help you adjust your landing approach so you can slow down for landing.

Ken

spiral_72

My plane is down at the moment, so I haven't gotta chance to try this:

A guy at the field recommended I introduce elevator on touchdown to slow the plane. For example; a tail dragger like the P51 you touchdown and as the plane slows you give more and more up elevator loading the tailwheel and slowing the plane. Obvously you'll have to regulate the elevator or else you'll pop back into the air and stall. A plane with a nose gear would require opposite elevator.

It's supposed to reduce your rolling distance dramatically and keep your plane out of the weeds

Hope it helps

MinnFlyer

My Feedback: (4)

Yes, Ideally with a tail-dragger all 3 wheels should touch down at the same time. And to do this, you feed in Up elevator just before you touch down

But if the plane is nose-heavy, you'll never get the tail to "sit" before touchdown. If you're nose-heavy, when you add Up elevator, the plane will go back up rather than have the tail come down.

ger87410

RCKen: still a bit off. Your post isn't worth a reply beyond this sentence...
I used to try to use the tail wheel to try to slow the plane until I accidentally popped the plane up cuz my speed was too high.

Take EVERYTHING with a grain of salt.

aerowoof

the only way to solve this is for you to add the flaperons and prove that they are the greatest thing since ice cream. please post landing video afterwards

ger87410

Everyone seems to be missing that the solution to the problem has already been found and flaperons was not it.
I don't have a good video recorder anyways.

P.S. the plane weights an amazing 5.7 pounds even with the camera.

ger87410

I didn't notice that the solution got removed for replacing the word 'wimp'. I wasn't aware that was sometimes frowned on...
Anyways the solution was to primarily decrease the idle and secondly to decrease the height on the turn to final.

Jim C.

ger87410

yeah its funny, It was like alot of people said...... technique. and by the way. I'm sure that RC Ken has forgotten more about rc planes then most of us will ever know.