V-Tail

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Mr. Hicks,

Hi, how's it going. I've written you before about general questions on the Tensor. I can't wait for it to come in through Atlanta Hobby. But hey, I was wondering, there is alot of activity with the AXI 2204 going on at RCGroups and I was thinking about putting it on the Tensor. This would be an indoor Tensor that was really a floater. Here are some preliminary numbers:

AXI 2204 is 24.5gm = 20 gm savings over Eflight 370
3s1p 480mah is 33 gm = 12 gm savings over 730mah, 21gm over 860
No landing gear = maybe 8 gms?

This would be a 1.4 oz savings over the baseline airplane at 9.5 oz to about 8oz. People are using an APC 9 x 3.8 and supposedly creating 10-12 oz of thrust with a goal of 1:1 at 70% throttle. I know you prefer a 10 in prop on the Tensor.

What do you think? Do you know the empty weight of the Tensor? And lastly, I thought the Tensor had 2 aileron servos, but I read from the horizon site it as one. Anyways, just wanted to see what you think. Thanks alot in advance.

Ed

GRH

Ed...I'm going to simply copy the email I sent you here incase anyone else is interested in this info.

George

Hi Ed,
This sounds like a really neat thing to try. The Tensor has nearly 400 in^2 of wing area and because the wings are so far apart you get nearly double the lift that you would with one wing...in other words the aerodynamic interference is pretty low. I'd say that the stock wing loading is about 3.8 oz/ft^2 (10.5oz/2.757ft^2) The empty weight with the E-Flite motor and fairly heavy equipment is 8.5oz. I think you could reduce this significantly by using the 4.5g servos and a lighter power system like you've mentioned.

The airplane does use a single servo for all four ailerons. Surprisingly this seems to work fine, especially indoors. Apparently the aerodynamic hinge moment on the ailerons aren't as high as we think...I too thought that it would require 2 aileron servos but the Tensor doesn't fly very fast and I think the reduction in dynamic pressure really helps out with the servo torque requirements.

The Tensor should fly fine with a 9" propeller. Personally I prefer the smaller props for precision flying. If they get too small the hovering is affected because there's not enough prop slipstream impingement on the rudder and elevator.

I hope this helps...let me know how it turns out,
George

V-Tail

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George,

Thanks for the reply. I think I remember now, the ~9.5 oz reported in FlyRC was the indoor configuration with 2s1p and the ~10.5 oz is with the outdoor 3s1p. Do you know what the airframe weight (no servos, receiver, battery, motor) would be? Then I could add up the components (4.4 gm servos) and see what the final weight could be.

That's interesting to know about the ailerons. I was hoping to add the 2nd servo for flaperons and see how slow the plane could fly indoor with some camber. Have you ever tried that?

Thanks again.

Ed

GRH

Ed,
I ran two aileron servos on the original prototype. Coupling the the ailerons as flaps/spoilers does some interesting things. The waterfalls are tighter with flaps. The airplane seems to respond faster in pitch.

I don't have the basic airframe weight...I'll have to build another one to get that number. Next time I build a Tensor I'll weigh it for you in stages.

George

V-Tail

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George,

Sounds really cool. Thanks alot for the info.

Ed