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Old 04-19-2015 | 11:39 AM
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Gray Beard
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Joined: Apr 2003
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From: Hemderson, NV
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Originally Posted by sea157
Gray Beard,
I have everything trimmed out right but anything above 1/4 throttle and she will shoot up at about a 45 degree angle.
So in your opinion should I give the motor mount a little down thrust?
Hard to say without having the plane in my shop to check the incidence of the wing and stab but I trim the plane at a bit over half throttle so it fly's straight and level then land and with the radio still turned on I look at the control surfaces to see where they are setting while in flight trim. That tells me a lot about the plane set up and is my starting point for everything else. Example of that would be down trim in the elevator would send me into the direction of checking for a plane that is tail heavy. CG is usually the first place to look. From there I would fly and trim the plane again and do the same thing to see how just changing the CG helped or hurt. I use an old pattern plane trim chart to help me with some problems. It just says if the plane does this then check that plus gives you a couple ways to fly the plane and see what it does. Example would be a straight dive and take your hands off the controls and watch what the plane does.
The chart may be posted in the pattern forum.
For your own piece of mind just take some washers with you to the field and change the engine thrust angle, fly it and see what it does. Just go slowly. Some planes require thrust angle and some don't but it is a trimming tool.
If you have any old pattern pilots at the field ask for trim help. In pattern flying trimming is an art form. I had a great one teach me. He also gave me the trim charts!!