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Old 09-01-2009 | 01:29 PM
  #15  
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Hossfly
 
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From: New Caney, TX
Default RE: Aileron Question


ORIGINAL: MetallicaJunkie

Which set up would make cause the nose to want to pitch up A or B?.... I am having a hard time setting the ailerons on a plane that has them running the whole length of the wing

OK, I have glanced over down through post #14. First your depictions do NOT provide any true information.

While one can find many variations as most model airplane depict the longitudinal axis as a point to measure incidence. In the real world that is not true. The chord line of the horizontal stabilizer is the line from which all aerodynamic incidence angles apply.
Example: A depicted longitudinal axis shows 2° downthrust, 2° positive wing incidence and a 1° negative incidence for the stabilizer. Aerodynamically the machine has 1° downthrust, 3° positive wing and zero for the stab.

Now you want to adjust your ailerons for certain wing incidence changes. OK, so what kind of wing do you have?

Most flat bottom wings have a rounded leading Edge. Since chord line is between the farthest forward point and the trailing edge, then a flat bottom wing already has some positive incidence relative to a flat stab. parallel to the bottom of the wing.
Any droop of the ailerons provides more positive incidence, more lift for a given airspeed, and probably a bit more touchy on the controls, especially elevator. Roll those ailerons up a few degrees and the machine now generally flies smoother. I cut all full span ailerons off some 2-4" from the outboard tips and glue those tips back to the main wings with a slight twist-up. T.O. and landings are much nicer and most of the dreaded "tip stall" is eliminated but never totally eliminated.

Symmetrical wings must fly at some positive angle-of-attack (AOA) normally not perceptual to the eye, depending on wing area, weight, and airspeed. A slight roll down of the full span ailerons will make the model less touchy, but inverted flight will require considerable nose-up (down elevator) pressure and the model will be seen as such. That is why most aerobatic pilots use neutral control surface settings and use an aft CG which applies the down force to load the wing to some AOA to maintain adequate lift, regardless of whether upright or inverted or on an up-line or down-line. (AOA is the angle between a chord-line and the oncoming airflow. AOA has nothing to do with INCIDENCE angles)
Roll up the ailerons on a sym. wing and it flies with the nose up dragging itseld to adequate positive AOA along with a draggy fuse. and stab. Pressure a slight bit of down elevator and it litterally wants to fall out of the sky.

I have assisted a number of RCers with a squirrely scale model on TO/Landings/ and even in-flight maneuvers by showing them how to roll up the ailerons several degrees, 1/16" or more, and therefore tame the tiger. It's simply "washout" which all machines like.

Hopefully the above explanation/s will provide adequate information for you to adjust your ailerons to what you wish. The only definite is that there is no definite. However the less differential incidence between stab and wing chordlines, the easier the machine is to fly. That will all change when you start flying Free Flight. All the statements are for subsonic convergent airflow which pretty much covers our models. If you are getting into trans sonic and supersonic divergent airflow, please write a book! [X(]

Good Luck.