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Old 08-10-2009 | 08:38 PM
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Charlie P.'s Avatar
Charlie P.
 
Joined: Feb 2003
Posts: 5,117
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From: Port Crane, NY
Default RE: weight VS stability

You're asking different things. Stability is not necessarily directly proportional to wing loading. If you have the center-of-gravity where it is stated on the plans or instructions then it should be stable enough to glide in without power. Unless it is a highly aerobatic model and they have the COG in a neutral spot - and then it may be a handful at low speed.

You could be trying to land too slow. Some designs will tip stall at low speed - just like real aircraft. If this has tapered wings (a warbird, say) you might just have to keep up some steam.

. . . i know im not stalling it because I can fly it even slower at altitude.
Flying "on the prop" does allow you to move slowly through the air, but that is not flying. That is making the engine carry stalled wings through the air. If you are flying level "at altitude" then the aircraft will do the same regardless of height above the ground. Wings don't know how far up they are (and don't care). A foamie may have some ground effect, but it wouldn't be much and I doubt it would be more than a few inches of "cushion". I think it may be the illusion that aircraft look like they are moving faster the closer they get to the ground because you have more and closer visual references.

Adding weight to the model will increase wing loading and make it fly faster (and require a higher approach speed).

A solution wold be to mix the ailerons so that they both raise slightly - killing some of the wing's lift (spoilers - the opposite of flaps).

Or just land faster. ;-)