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Old 11-21-2006 | 10:42 AM
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Sheds
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From: London, AK,
Default RE: Crow on a Super Balsa Bandit??

With it tip stalling the same way as the rudder, it would appear that you were close to the point of stall anyway and that the slower inboard wing stalled during the rudder turn?

Putting crow braking in will effectively reduce the angle of incidence of the outboard wing, making it more likely that the inboard section of the wing will stall before the outboard, effectively reducing the chances of a tip stall. However, if I understand the aerodynamics right, by reducing the angle of incidence outboard, you are effectively redistributing the lift to the inboard section but also slightly reducing the overall lift of the wing for the angle of attack of the aircraft overall. This will produce a slightly higher stall speed but with less risk of a tip stall, making for a slightly more benign landing characteristic.

You might also consider adding a wingfence, like on the BAe Hawk, as this creates a vortex on the upper surface of the wing which acts as a barrier - should the outboard section stall, the stall is less likely to spread inboard causing a full wing stall due to the vortex "barrier" caused by the wingfence. I believe that the reduction in lift from the wingfence is less than you would get than with the crow brakes, so your stall speed would be lower than Crow Brakes whilst still reducing the tip stall characteristics.

You can see the effect of the wingfence in the photo attached - the vortex it creates effectively destroys the lift on the wing behind it, i.e. the air pressure in that area is higher than across the rest of the upper wing surface - in the photo the high angle of incidence is creating massive lift and low pressure on the upper wing surface which is creating the water vapour that you can clearly see. You can then also clearly see the area where the lift is destroyed by the wing fence and the consequent "dip" in pressure along the wing. That's the barrier that prevents the stall from spreading inboard and causing the full wing stall. I think I got that right?!

Anyway, you may decide that the crow brakes will be less of a visual impairment than wing fences and a reasonably effective tradeoff between tip stall characteristic and overall stall speed. Your call!

cheers
Sheds
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