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Old 02-16-2003 | 05:24 PM
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Ben Lanterman
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From: St. Charles, MO
Default CG / elevator throw / stall

Bedford this is a no blasting zone!! The angle of attack at a given speed that a wing stalls at is independent of elevator and CG, true, but the ability of the airplane to produce that angle of attack is highly dependent on those things. Two different things going on.

To achieve a 3 point or tail down attitude (not necessarily a full stall but it does look nice when it is) I would increase the elevator throw. If you have access to a RealFlight Simulator you can try this out for yourself and you will find there are elevator settings along with CG locations that will prevent getting the full stall landing regardless of airspeed. Sometimes it becomes impossible to get to a min flying speed even with full up elevator.

Moving the CG aft makes the airplane less stable and so makes the elevator more effective. This makes the input from the trim control on the transmitter more effective in trimming the airplane and makes getting the higher angles of attack possible with the same original elevator control.

There are limits to moving the CG aft of course, again RealFlight is a great tool to investigate these types of things. It is the only place to look at aft CG investigations with out breaking an airplane.

Back to the elevator control. There are a series of power off speeds resulting from the various elevator positions. Without enough elevator throw the low speed may not be attainable.

Without enough throw the nose can't be lifted enough and the speed dropped enough to do the 3 point landing or a full stall. As you raise the nose of the airplane the increased angle of attack on the wing creates a down moment and the stabilizing effect of the stabilizer creates a more tail up force (nose down moment) and the elevator is pushing the tail down (actually the net result of the stab and elevator is what is happening since both are connected but for talking purposes its OK to look at the separately, maybe). The total airplane nose down moment is greater with increased angle of attack.

So if there is not enough elevator throw it can't get or maintain the nose up attitude and it can't get or maintain the slow speeds you desire.