Originally Posted by
BMatthews
Flying in wind can certainly lead to some extra work load. Not much you can do about roll and yaw effects due to side gusts from turbulence. But you can reduce your workload at maintaining the pitch axis if you trim the CG closer to the neutral stability point and re-trim the elevator to match the new CG. But while getting closer to neutral is good in some ways it's bad in others. So you'll want to find your own "sweet spot" for calming the effects of wind gusts vs having enough pitch stability for you to fly comfortably. I find that having the CG back even with a reduced elevator throw tends to make the model respond in a somewhat instant and nervous sort of way compared to a more trainer like CG setting. So a touch harder to fly smoothly and in a scale like manner. Perhaps some expo in addition to the reduced throw could aid with smoothing out the reaction to smaller inputs? That's something you'd want to play with. Also for flying in wind if you can SLIGHTLY reflex the ailerons and flaps to remove a bit of the airfoil's camber it might help too.
Adding weight won't really help any of these things. Increasing the wing loading is all about flying faster when it comes to gliders. Even your Fournier. But if that takes it away from looking scale like in the air then I don't see it as being an advantage. And scale models tend to already be fairly heavy. And that would seem to hold true here as well based on what Mick Reeve posted to Appowner above. And due to that it would be my last option after playing with setting the pitch trim to a value that gave me comfortable pitch handling and perhaps trying that reflexing trick. And, of course, lots of practice to learn to fly it in a manner that makes it look as scale like as practical.
Pitch is not the issue. if anyone bothered to look up AMA Scale Rules and Judges Guidelines one would see that you are judged on 10 maneuvers all flown individually with a start and finish in straight and level flight equal distance on each side of the judges. The maneuver itself is to be centered on the judges. You call the maneuver by stating to the judges Starting Now and you finish by calling Complete. You are only judged from the time you call starting now and when you call complete. You have 12 min to complete all of your maneuvers. Each maneuver has a realism element to the score and there is a fairly hefty down grade for un-scale like flight. Each maneuver is worth 10 points and there is also 10 points for over all realism in flight for the whole set of maneuvers.
Here is the problem. In strong winds a lightly loaded air frame flying downwind will speed by the judges in a very un-scale like speed and with great difficulty may or may not be able to hold a maneuver center on the judges or make realistic headway when the maneuver calls for the model to complete the maneuver heading upwind. The same air frame might barely make realistic headway when flown upwind and get pushed downwind beyond realistic in any turning maneuver. Remember the flight is not about performance its about perception for the judges. So now a ballasted air frame though not performance oriented may fly into the wind with a more realistic looking airspeed over ground. In the case of this model if I were a judge I would expect at least one maneuver to show the subject in its glide mode with the prop stopped (the prototype feathered the prop it did not windmill) Easiest maneuver is straight flight out which by the way is one of the mandatory maneuvers but again flying downwind may not be an option but ballasted and flying upwind may make it look passable.
Competitors pick maneuvers that they can fly well and are within the flight envelope of the prototype. Better to pick a less aggressive maneuver and score well than a flashy difficult maneuver and have the judges score you low because it didn't satisfy what they were looking for. Maneuvers have to be chosen from a list published in the rule book maneuvers not listed have to be approved by the CD and judges. I wonder what the op would pick for his 5 optional maneuvers
Dennis