TheJester
Posts: 76
Joined: 5/6/2006
From: Fairfield,
IA, USA
Status: offline
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WARNING! WARNING! WARNING! WARNING! WARNING! WARNING! WARNING!
There is one MAJOR design construction flaw in Combat Wings design that we at FMF have discovered.
Having spoken with Combat Wings there is one problem at high speeds. Something we are calling "waffle", "flutter", or "ripple". This is at high speeds, generally when banking the wing will "flutter" so violently that it shakes out electronics sending the wing into complete failure.
We have lost the WHOLE Wing at one point in a bean field, found, it, tried to fix the flaw, but have now lost a 3000mah MaxAmps Lipo and 40amp ESC due to another "flutter". Don't let this happen to you.
It's very simple. In the directions they talk about and show you how to insert the carbon rods. Nothing wrong there, but what they fail to mention is something we at FMF came up with. GORILLA GLUE THE RODS INSIDE. After test fitting the rods into the wing, squeeze a good 10 second amount of Gorilla Glue into each hole. This will stiffen up the wing sufficiantly enough to prevent or help reduce the chances of the "waffle", "flutter", or "ripple".
Being as we have "juiced" up the wings as well, we are running Mega ACn 16/15/3 motors on 5x5 props with 35-40+amp ESC's, and 3000mah batteries. With this combo we have also found a way to put ALL the components in one place rather than cutting more holes in the wing as instructed. Simply put the "hard" half of velcro on the battery and the opposing "soft" half on the back of your receiver and esc so that they can just attach to your battery which is snuggly fit into the wing.
One last thing. The Combat wings are tough as nails, no doubt there, being as I've PILE DROVE it straight into the ground at full speed and even smacked a football goal post with it, only to pick it up, toss it into the air to keep flying. However, we have gone another extra step of 'toughening' it up.
When adding the strapping tape in construction, I decided to place the tape on a table, sticky side up and shaped like an 'X'. Make this the size of the wingspan, adding strips in a weaving manner until you have a complete square of woven strapping tape. One this way the next the opposite to "weave" them together. Then once you have that completed, cover the entire wing with 30 min 2 part Epoxy. With a good coat of Epoxy on the wing, take the strapping tape section you have made and apply it to the wing, sticky side to epoxy. Use a credit card, the one you used to buy the wing works best  , and fan out any bubbles or wrinkles to get the best adhersion as possible. After the Epoxy has cured, simply cut off the access strapping tape and repeat on the other side. This creates an epoxy/strapping tape "shell" and again stiffens the wing to prevent the "waffle", "flutter", or "ripple" problem.
I hope this reaches enough people before they too loose electronics or wings all together. One of us at Team FMF will post the video of this "waffle", "flutter", or "ripple" and how we deal with that problem soon, FIRE works best . Combat Wing has said they will be amending the constuction instructions soon too point out this problem and other than this issue, love flying these things as "Balsa/Real" pilots often ask what we are 'burning' in it to go so fast.
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FMF - Time, Money, and Imagination
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COMBAT WINGS WARNING!!!! - 
