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Old 02-06-2012 | 12:07 PM
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BMatthews
 
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From: Chilliwack, BC, CANADA
Default RE: High wing incidence

The need for an angular difference between the wing and tail will depend on where you intend to place the balance point. If you intend the model to be close to neutrally stable then you need little or no angle between the wing and stabilizer. If you want more stability and locate the balance point more forward of the aircraft Neutral Point then you'll need more angle.

If you don't build the angle in then you'll get there eventually with elevator trim used to make the model fly level at cruise speed. However most folks don't like the elevator to be noticably trimmed up or down by some larger amount. Seems they think it makes the model look somehow "broken". So they like to put some angle in so the final elevator trim isn't so noticable.

As mentioned a high wing design generally ends up with the center of drag forces being above the true 3D location of the actual Center Of Gravity. So that alone produces a nose up torque stabilizing effect with an increase in speed. In effect the CoD being higher than the CoG acts like some positive wing incidence.

With all this in mind the answer to your question becomes "it depends". If you want a more stable model with a strong positive pitch stability you'll put your CoG somewhat forward and that'll require some positive wing incidence to counter balance the nose down torque from the CG. If you keep the CG back then you won't need as much built in angular incidence between the wing and tail.

Note that I keep saying "wing and tail". The fuselage center line is a purely imaginary thing. Its only use is as a reference line to compare angles. Once at the flight line the air cares not a whit for the fuselage center line. It only sees the angular difference between the wing and the stabilizer and elevator.

But all in all for a more casual sport model I would suggest that you include about 1.5 to 2 degrees of positive wing incidence. On the other hand if you want to fly it like a hot 3D stunter then go with 0-0-0 for thrust-wing-tail. Then balance and trim it back to where it has no tendency to want to recover from a 45 degree dive on its own but doesn't want to steepen the dive either.