RCU Forums - View Single Post - ModelTech Great Lakes Setup
View Single Post
Old 04-04-2002, 01:23 AM
  #1  
Lloyd
My Feedback: (1)
 
Join Date: Mar 2002
Location: Milpitas, CA
Posts: 38
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
Default ModelTech Great Lakes Setup

I have a ModelTech Great lakes Kit #123685. It’s an ARC with build data somewhat lacking. I’m confused about wing incidence and overall flight surface setup.

The instructions say to set up the engine thrust with 2 degrees right and 2 degrees down with respect to the lower wing. It specifies NOT to use the horiz. stab as a reference for this measurement. However, it falls short of explaining just what the lower wing to horiz. stab relationship is supposed to be. Further, there is no incidence specifcation for the top wing. I’m just not content on leaving those other relationships to chance, particularly after finding the remains of this same plane in the trash can of our flying field. BTW, I took these pieces home with me for spare parts and glued them back together giving me a whole fuse and lower wing.

So, I temporarily clamped together the Great Lakes kit in order to establish what the factory builders made the relationships of the flight surfaces. Using a Robart incidence meter, I find the horz stab has 1 degree positive incidence and the upper wing has 1 1/4 positive incidence both with respect to the lower wing. This seemed strange to me and suddenly I have a possible explanation why the only other example I’ve seen of this model was found in the trash. So, I figure, before I cover the Kit top wing, I’ll make a copy for the spare parts plane I retrieved from the trash. The Kit top wing is semi-symmetrical and has a label "UP" stamped on one of the wing tip formers. However, when I made templates of the airfoil, I found that if assembled per indications, the top wing will be reversed cambered, meaning the fat part of the airfoil will be towards the bottom of the plane. Was this a stamping mistake? Or, was this done for improved inverted performance?

So, I don’t know what to do. I want this bipe to be aerobatic but land with some forgiveness. I tend toward the "hot dog" style of flying as I get bored with level flight 1 foot after take off and 1 foot before landing. Any advise?

Thanks in advance,
Lloyd