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Old 10-17-2006 | 04:43 PM
  #72  
CafeenMan
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From: Spring Hill, FL
Default RE: Fliton Inspire 60 Acro

I can take photos Mike. It will be a few days before I get to it though and most it probably won't show in photos but I'll do my best.

Several pilots who are much more accomplished than I am have flown the plane and said, "holy ****!" when they saw the way it snapped to the one side.

I yank and bank most of my models and don't consider myself to be any kind of aerobatic pilot at all which is why you don't see anything on my site about how to fly. I teach how to build. And I definitely agree that the joint work isn't going to cause problems with flight unless the plane falls apart which hasn't happened.

But I did set up the plane carefully. It's probably not perfect but certainly it's not off enough to be causing the plane to snap over in turns.

And when I say I yank and bank, with this plane I kept toning down the turns until I figured out exactly where the plane would snap. When I say gentle right turn I'm talking about 1/3 - 1/2 throttle - plenty to maintain altitude and even climb out respectably and about 15 to 20 degree bank with slight elevator. It drops the right wing to about 90 and then it can be recovered easily. It's nothing to be concerned about as if the plane is going to spin into the ground or anything but it's not something any model should be doing in that flight envelope. I've never seen anything like it.

Anyway, I'll try to take photos of the leading edge of the wing. It's pretty pathetic in some areas. In some places it's right and in others it's rounded top and bottom but the very front is flat. Looks like some bozo at the factory start ripping at it with a sanding block, said, "good enough!" and then sent it down the assembly line without ever really looking at it.

The undulations in the sheeting aren't going to show up I'm pretty sure. But if you run your hand over it you can feel them easily. Some are more extreme than others to the point where I don't think they could be sanded out without going through the sheeting which I think is either 1.0 or 1.5 mm - pretty thin stuff.

Oh.. leading edges aren't sharp at all. I can see no reason for the behavior of the plane. If I could find a reason for it then I would not be griping so much. I'd just fix it or send it back. In this case the model looks like it shouldn't have any real problems but it most definitely does.

The only "mods" I made were to add strong mini servos to the elevators because I needed the tail weight any way and there was no place in the fuselage to mount them due to lightening cut outs. I skipped the wood dowel they provide because dowels are always bad unless you're flying a plane with a top speed of about 20 and precision flight isn't a consideration. If that's what's causing the problem then I guess it is all my fault and I owe fliton a big apology. What do you suppose the possibility of dual elevator servos mounted in the root of the stabilizer cause planes to snap over in turns?