WING LOAD? HIGHER OR LOWER # easy to gly?

WING LOAD? HIGHER OR LOWER # easy to gly?
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WING LOAD? HIGHER OR LOWER # easy to gly? - 7/29/2003 7:39:24 AM

BULL-RCU

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Explain wing load... Which is more of a floater ? Higher or lower # ... ? Thanks

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WING LOAD? HIGHER OR LOWER # easy to gly? - 7/29/2003 8:11:49 AM

Dsegal

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Wing loading is simply a ratio of weight to wing area. The lower the wing loading the lower the air speed required to keep a model flying. Trainers and gliders have lower wing loadings than faster planes. But due to scale effects wing loadings should only be compared to planes of similar size.

Dave Segal

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WING LOAD? HIGHER OR LOWER # easy to gly? - 7/29/2003 8:13:17 AM

bearmech

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Lower wing loading tends to "float" more. Wing loading is the ratio of the wing area to weight of the aircraft, it's a gravity versus weight problem. Small wing area/heavy aircraft=high wing loading . light aircraft/large wing=low wing loading.

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WING LOAD? HIGHER OR LOWER # easy to gly? - 7/29/2003 8:23:36 AM

Gordon Mc

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Depends on which part of the flight envelope you are looking at, as well as factors such as the wind conditions.

e.g. a lighter wingloading can have an advantage in terms of being able to land the aircraft slower (which gives you more time to fix problems in the approach) ; conversely, lighter wingloading will make the aircraft more susceptible to being bounced around by the wind.

Gordon

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WING LOAD? HIGHER OR LOWER # easy to gly? - 7/29/2003 8:53:39 AM

bearmech

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"Floaters" by definition get bounced around in the wind by their nature, heavier symmetrical airfoils "cut the wind" better and land faster. The question was about floaters not stability.

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WING LOAD? HIGHER OR LOWER # easy to gly? - 7/29/2003 9:48:00 AM

BULL-RCU

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Thanks all....

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WING LOAD? HIGHER OR LOWER # easy to gly? - 7/29/2003 9:58:21 AM

JohnBuckner

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[QUOTE]Originally posted by Gordon Mc
e.g. a lighter wingloading can have an advantage in terms of being able to land the aircraft slower (which gives you more time to fix problems in the approach) ; conversely, lighter wingloading will make the aircraft more susceptible to being bounced around by the wind.

Gordon [/QUOTE]

Bearmech, Gordons reply is concise and entirely appropriate to the question.

John

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WING LOAD? HIGHER OR LOWER # easy to gly? - 7/29/2003 10:06:51 AM

JohnW

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Another thing to keep in mind are scale effects. Without going into details, larger wings are typically more efficient. Therefore, a large plane can be a "floater" even if it has what seems to be a high wing loading compared to smaller planes. The effect can be quite large. A giant scale plane can have a wing loading several times that of a 40 sized model, yet still "float" better than the 40 sized model. Even two similar sized planes can differ in "float" quite a lot depending upon aspect ratio, airfoil, etc.

A much better figure for predicting how light a plane will feel in the air is wing cubic loading, i.e. weight per volume of wing. Unfortunately, I rarely see this figure published.

Cheers

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WING LOAD? HIGHER OR LOWER # easy to gly? - 7/29/2003 7:23:44 PM

Gordon Mc

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[QUOTE]Originally posted by bearmech
"Floaters" by definition get bounced around in the wind by their nature, heavier symmetrical airfoils "cut the wind" better and land faster. The question was about floaters not stability. [/QUOTE]

Actually, there were two questions asked in the original post, not just one.

If you care to look at the subject line of the original post, you will see that there is an additional question posted there - " easier to gly [sic]?"

Hence the response about which is easier to fly, and not just which is more of a floater.

Regs,
Gordon

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A matter of perspective - 7/29/2003 8:19:52 PM

Mike James

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A lot of us who are experienced in RC can ramble on about wing loading "issues", but I think that, given that the question was asked in the "Beginners" forum, the answer is that "floaters", whatever their size, are probably easier for a beginner to fly.

When you have flown for a while and are comfortable with the basics, you can then experiment with the more heavily loaded planes. (... and probably crash more)

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WING LOAD? HIGHER OR LOWER # easy to gly? - 7/29/2003 8:20:20 PM

BULL-RCU

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How all this started is that I have a 40 size trainer plane... I've grown bored with it. ( Also have an electric Zogi 400 ). I picked up a VMAR 540t Edge cheap with a .61 2 stroke. I built the plane and had one of the top pilots fly it for me and set it up. 5 flights. He took it up two days both real windy (gusty), I wasn't confident enough to fly it in the gusty winds. (Didn't want to turn it into a pile of scrape wood). I've found that confidence is half the battle. Any how, I took it back to the field on a calm day and the club president was there and I had him take it up and recheck the trim. We decided it had way too much elivater throw. I did fly it for about 6 min. no problems did a few loops / rolls, just being careful not to give it tons of up elivater. ( would go up into loop, whip left into a dive.) I Ask him to bring it in for me because it was touchy. He tested it at slow speeds to see it's tendencies and it would tip stall right each time. To end this long story he did a right turn to line up for the run way and tip stalled and went into a dive and needless to say it is now sitting in the trash...

It was a 60 size plane with a heavy wing load. Yes, he could have done things different... No blame to place... If you let someone fly your plane SH*% happens... I just want a Edge style plan with a better wing load. This plane was heavy with tons of wing load. My next plane is going to be a 4 star 40 0r 60 I've flow a friends and it's easy ... I just want more. After that I want an Edge/ Giles style plane, but this time I'm going to pay more attention to wing load and wanted a better understanding of it. Only other plane I want would be War Bird or BIPLANE. Thanks All

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WING LOAD? HIGHER OR LOWER # easy to gly? - 7/29/2003 9:08:12 PM

bearmech

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John, Gordon

I did not mean to imply that Gordon was incorrect in any way! After reading my post again I see that it looks that way. Sorry for the confusion!

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