ululi1970

On a Sig Wonder the ailerons can be used as a elevon.
Of course, I learned it he hard way. I had built it with two aileron servos,
And today for the first time I decided to try the flaperons. As you can guess,
the instant I switch the flaps on, the plane took a sharp turn down. Luckily,
the ground was soft because of the recent rain, so I hope to salvage the engine. The fuse is intact,
The wing folded forward, snapping in two.
Well, live and learn, and make sure to be way high when trying new stuff!
BTW, if you have a wing kit for the wonder, pm me.

MinnFlyer

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That's a bummer. The Wonder is a great little plane. I hope you get a replacement!

AA5BY

And sometimes... being very high doesn't save the day. A week ago, I was very high when putting my Seagull Spacewalker II 120 into a flat spin. And, I went around only enough to confirm what it would do before initiating exit... nothing worked.

Like you... the fuselage survived intact, flat spinning all the way to the ground. Unfortunately, the wings contacted some tree limbs on the way.

ululi1970

Well, I was able to do a little post mortem last night. The engine(a little Magnum XL.15) survived the impact remarkably well. Luckily, the first thing to hit the ground was the prop, which must has stopped the engine before the spinner made contact, as the streaks marks left by dirt show clearly that the latter was not spinning when it drove into the ground. The nose section penetrated the ground (wet clay) a good 3'', halfway through the cylinder, at an angle of about 45 degrees, but no dirt was found inside the engine, which was completely disassembled for inspection. Shaft not bent either. Tough little fellow, and powerful too. I had tached it at 13800 on a 7x6 prop
just before launching...

Contrary to my first report, the fuse sustained some damage. The forward former was damaged, the left half separating from the fuse and the bottom cracking forward. I guess TiteBoond glue does not work too well on end grain... The top section between the wing mount and the firewall detached along he glue line on the left side, and the wing mount likewise separated from the fuse on the left side. Overall, it should be easy to fix it, and in fact I am planning to reinforce the whole area with tri stock along all sides. That way, I wont have to worry about the former. The rest of the fuse is in good shape.

The wing is another story. A posteriori, I realized that by installing the two wing servos along the mid section of the wing, one forward and one aft, I weakened the bottom sheeting, which neatly cracked open along the middle. The top sheeting instead stayed in one piece, but detached from the ribs instead. Ironically, if I did not have two servos on the aileros, I would not have done the flaperon thing that caused the crashed in first place.

In the new wing, I will put the servos out, and will have the wing fully sheeted (top and bottom), with ply webbing at the root and balsa webbing out to about 1/3. Should not add too much weight (the original wing was already fully sheeted along the bottom). Maybe some fiberglass along the center section for good measure....


I agree it is a fun plane to fly, fast to build and cheap. My greatest regret is that I did a really good job with the covering (see pic), and I was quite proud of it. The second time around should be easier, especially considering that the carved wing tips survived unscathed.

KitBuilder

All glues and epoxies survive point of impact. Generally the glue holds and the wood breaks along the grain or is destroyed. My cub went in nose first due to pilot error and the firewall snapped of with and inch or of fuse attached on all sides.