ma_mulcahy

FYI, this bird is in Tower's weekly sale for $20 off.

Little Stik

" it will be difficult. There is not enough room between the linkages for both servos to go side by side, so that forces you to put them further forward , turn them on their side, put them outboard of the linkages, or maybe a combination of the these "

That is just what I was looking for. My whole idea was to be able to run flaps on it. I see that it is too much work for nothing,

Thanks for your help!

hugger-4641

My Feedback: (6)

Well, I don't know, I thought you were talking about ailerons, but flaps are different matter. You can keep the single servo aileron set up and still add flaps. You would still want to mount the servos in the wings. I presume you are now talking about actually adding flaps and not a "flaperon" set up. I would not recommend "flaperons", because you would have still have to use a separate left and right servo and the performance is not as good as it would be by adding flaps in addition to the ailerons. For almost the same amount of work,, it would be much better to leave the ailerons alone, add the flaps, and mount the flap servos in the wings.

cayrick

This is a question about powering a Tower Trainer 40. I am a relatively new pilot and have put a 46 OS on my tower trainer. Today was the second occasion when I took off straight full throttle. The plane was slowly rising to the left of the runway still at full throttle and it made a sharper turn to the left and came straight at me all at relatively slow speed. In other words it turned left on command upon liftoff but made that left turn into a U turn. and I dropped in into the ground as it was coming straight at me. One more experienced pilot suggested that the plane was overpowered and went into torque steer as he called it. His recommendation was to run an OS 40 instead of a 46. I like the power of a 46 but perhaps another possibility is to drop the throttle back upon takeoff until the plane stabilizes and then apply more throttle. Would appreciate comments from flyers who have experienced this issue. Thanks!

Hydro Junkie

Torque steer is when the plane rolls the direction opposite to what the prop is spinning and the plane changes direction because of it.
There are a few things you can do to minimize this:
1) As you already said, throttle back after lifting off. Just don't back off to the point the plane stalls
2) Add some trim to the ailerons to help hold the left wing up
3) Add some weight to the right wing. This is the last thing I'd do as it will affect your plane at all speeds and, in some cases, can make a plane unstable
4) Work on learning just how much/little aileron input it takes to get the plane to do what you want. It's possible that you applied too much "side stick" and, combined with the engine torque, it caused your issue.
I'm sure others will have other thoughts on this as well

hugger-4641

My Feedback: (6)

Hard to say without flying the plane myself, but I have several overpowered trainers and I have no trouble taking off straight. I suspect you may have inadvertently applied some left aileron or rudder. I've been guilty of this when I was first learning. If you have a computer radio, you can increase your "null" zone using the exponential settings and it might help keep inadvertent stick movement from having any affect. If you are using the "high" rate, try using "low" rate and see if it helps.

cayrick

This is the second time my Tower Trainer has made a U turn on me. I have also had problems keeping it from climbing as well (it is slightly nose heavy). Before this most recently described flight I placed a washers on the two top retaining screws for the motor mount to control upthrust. I cannot see how that would affect the tendency to turn left since it happened once prior to installing the washers. I have also considered putting a washer on the left bottom motor mount (between mount and firewall) as well to try to control the "U" turns along with more vigilance in throttling the airplane. I use a Spektrum DX7 radio and have D/R. Usually I set the rates up at 65%, 75% and 100% and expo at 50% in each of the 3 positions on ail, ele, and rud. I fly only at the lowest rate.
They say that it is through your mistakes you learn but I am growing increasingly unhappy fixing planes after a Sunday afternoon of flying. I have several trainers and most like the Avistar Elite are quite forgiving and help build my confidence. The two planes that I have recently purchased: this Tower Trainer has a tendency to turn left and Nexstar had a strong desire to go right. The Nexstar is now deceased.
I really appreciate this forum and all I continue to learn from it. I very much appreciate all your suggestions and advice.

j.duncker

My Feedback: (2)

I have been flying for quite a while and have been an instructor. It is MUCH easier to fly an overpowered model than an underpowered one. You can always throttle back.

Regarding the U turns on take off you are experiencing I suspect that you may be taking off too soon before flying speed is reached and climbing steeply. This is a common fault with beginners. One half of the wing is stalling giving you the 180 turn. The design characteristics of the trainer means it does this rather than a full blown flick roll.

So keep your 46 and get a little more ground speed before take off and climb out gently.

BTW Here is a full blown flick roll on take off. NOT PRETTY. NB second flight

cayrick

Yes the video was very similar to my accident. In my case as soon as it was airborne I turned it to the left (away from the runway) and then turned sharply left into a U turn and came right at me.

Hydro Junkie

You have to give that pilot a little credit, he almost saved it.

buzzard bait

In the video you can see that the right aileron was up at the start; that appeared to be the cause of the initial right turn, then I think he over-compensated and crashed in the other direction. Since he probably didn't intend full right aileron, I wonder if a servo was faulty. It's possible he also lifted off early, but that doesn't explain full right aileron at the beginning.

I completely disagree that over-powered airplanes are easier for beginners. I taught myself with planes that anyone now would call under-powered. With a buddy box and an experienced instructor it's a different story, because the experienced instructor can use power to get out of trouble, but for a beginner high power is as likely to CAUSE trouble as get you out of it.

I instructed with a Tower Trainer and would never consider using a ball bearing 46 on it. It is not very big and flies extremely well with a lowly 40LA, including vertical pull outs next to the tree line in tight situations.

For a Sig LT-40, which is much larger, a 46LA was fine, but I liked it better with an old OS 40 FSR, which is more powerful. To me, as an instructor, that was plenty of power, and that's got a 70 inch span.

Jim

ThunderBoat42

My Feedback: (1)

i used the wing center Servo for flaps by connecting them and added small servos in the wings for the ailerons. Similar to the NextStar set up.