ORIGINAL: forestroke
gboulton, opjose - i am humbled by your responses and am happy that you both have valuable input. i think all of this goes back to gboulton's notion not to generalize, that every plane has its particular characteristics and that is what really determines whether that particular plane is right for a 2nd plane. my experiences clearly vary from yours. and while all your rationale does make sense to me, i still have a hard time accepting them based on my own experiences. as such i will make these amends.
don't fly themselves - it would be good to find something that does right itself. which ones i will not say but i'd say a WACO probably not :-)
orientation - if you want a bipe, please ensure that you make the top and bottom of the wings look different.
ground handling - please choose a plane that is not short coupled. choose something like the hog bipe suggested by gboulton
setup - if you choose a plane that has a long nose and a long tail then setup will not be any more difficult.
*chuckle* Those are probably reasonable amendments, yeah. *heh*
And hey, I must toss the comment back to you...your input is well-noted as well. There's no question that a great many bipes share the traits being talked about here, and certainly, ANY pilot should familiarize himself with the things he might want to look for before choosing another plane.
the only thing i would disagree is the balance issue. the shorter the object, the more difficult to balance and with the added complexity of two wings
Eh...this one probably depends on nothing more than our individual definitions of "easy".
Certainly, a shorter moment requires more WEIGHT to have the same effect. By one definition, that could be seen as more difficult, since it makes it more difficult to achieve the right balance while keeping the plane light.
In my particular case, I find it "easier" since the addition or subtraction of a small amount of weight doesn't throw the CG around by several miles. "Less sensitive", I guess would be the term.
I will ABSOLUTELY agree with you that the second wing makes DETERMINING the CG a right pain in the rump...I WILL say this though, as something of an aside...it is my belief that a "Vanessa CG machine" (See
http://home.mindspring.com/~the-plum...%20Machine.htm for details, or, if you wish, PM me, I'll be happy to share pics and such) goes a LONG way to removing that hassle.
gboulton- I am sorry if I let me 25 years of flying and teaching folks on RC aircraft get in the way here...Your post comes off as VERY arrogant so I will go ahead and assume that you are WAY smarter and cooler than I-
I was just giving my .02 although I guess it was not worth that much....geesh, no wonder I avoid this forum
*chuckle*
So be it. You're right...I won't argue with you at all on that one. I am, indeed, a pretty arrogant so-and-so.