What does airbrake - crow mean ?

( I sent back my tower radio , and considering a Fatuba 8 Ch. radio for the U Can DO.)<br type="_moz" />

Flaps down, ailerons up, or vice versa. Slows thing down REAL fast. sailplane guys like this function for spot landing and dethermaling.

Thank you.

When the hanger 9 stick first came out setting up crow was the big thing for a while, a lot of fun too!!!

Flaps increase the angle of attack on your wing. On alot of wing types this can increase the tendancyto tip stall. By "crowing" your ailerons up you decrease your angle of attack at the wing tips ( helping prevent a tip stall) while your flaps slow the plane down.

Unless you are going to add flaps to the UCD, Crow isn't an option. Stear away from Flaperons also. I've seen to many crunched planes because of them. On the 9C, you can program in air brakes though. IT gives full up aileron on both wings, and then either full up elevator or a slow up elevator. It is mostly for braking after landing, The UCDdoesn't need that though. It is a floater and will stop within 30 or 40 ft of touch down on an asphalt runway. Take off roll is only about 30 to 40 ft also. You can land hot and still slow it down quickly without the air brake.

My recomendation woud be to set it up normally, 5 channels, 2 aileron, and one each for the other surfaces and just fly it until you are used to the plane. Then start playing with the computer to see what you can gain. The full up ailerons will tend to pitch the nose up in flight. Idiscovered this the first and only time I tried it . Mid flight, the plane went wacko. Ibarely got it down in one piece I then found that both ailerons were way up. Ihad left the slider on the right side active for flap trim and I kept bumping it during the flight and adding more and more up flaperons. Never again.

Don
</p>

Don, your just no fun at all!!!

Not on mine!

I use Crow all the time with my STOCK UCD....

Of course it is the Giant Scale version which I'm STILL flying...

I wish it had not been discontinued. It's a nice 3D plane, though a bit fragile.

My first instructor had one of the giants. He was going to sell it to me, just the air frame, but it did't pass my gage. IEit wouldn't quite fit into my car. Another guy bouht it and he flew it as it should be flown, no mercy. Except one day. one of the wing holding screws broke and the wing rotated on the tube and well, not much left from there.

My flight time on a UCD60 was just about 3 seconds. 2.75 of them was spent trying to right the left hand roll when it lifted off and the last 0.25 seconds was realizing I had the alierons reversed, CRUNCH. I salvaged everything but the fuselage, it was really crunched. Minor damage on the wing. Might buy a fuselage one of these days and put it back together.

Don

Lol!

FYI: My "Giant" has an painted in long ovoid area on the canopy and a complete new rudder with new covering and trim, because I did the very same thing.

I had to repair it as best I could because of lack of parts, hence the "sunshade" ovoid over the pilot, but otherwise the plane looks as good as new, and no one can tell it was ever repaired.

I really like wood/balsa in this regard.

Hey Thanks Guys!<div> I think I will stick with my  4 Ch. FM    and look for a bigger 4 Stroke engine.</div><div>This is my first low wing anyway.</div>

Ouch!

If this is your first low winger, I don't think the landing gear will last longer than a flight or two.

Keep your rates LOW, and remember this thing WILL float in... so slowly that you may pancake it in for a landing, as often happens with U-Can-Do's.

It's a great flyer, but lousy second plane.

The UCD 60 will be a real bear to fly without using exponential with a computer radio. With the 4 channel you will need very little control throw due to the very large 3D control surfaces.

What should I do?

Check out the lower priced computer radios for exponential and / or dual rates on aileron, elevator and rudder. Hitec, Spectrum [JR], Futaba and Airtronics all make good radios for flying planes with larger control surfaces.

I would sugget strengthing the landing gear block as it is a very weak point. I just installed my second block. I stupidly made the first replacement out of red oak but ran the grain side to side instead of front to back, Cracked right down the middle on my first rough landing. New block is 3/8" thick poplar extended about 1" into the cooling tunnel behind the engine for added strength. I also went to [4] 8-32 nylon bots for attachment. No problems since.

I also agree that having a computer radio with expo is a big help, I put 50% neg [have Futaba trans] on Ail, Ele, and Rudder.

I also suggest youy try using high rates on rudder during taxi, if not it takes a mile to turn it.

Good luck and have fun.

Gary

Yup, forget about Crow, flaperons, etc.

You simply DO NOT need it with this plane.

What you DO need is a decent computer controlled TX and receiver, to get Expo and adjustable throws.

Beefing up the landing gear area as indicated above is always a great idea. But you don't want to rely upon this alone.

Even a beefed up landing gear will EASILY rip out on a U-Can-Do.

It is a much better idea to first improve the pilot, so as not to have hard landings with this plane.

In your shoes, if it is possible, I'd go for a different tail dragger and wring that out first, then move onto the UCD.

If that is NOT possible learn to fly the UCD at LOW rates for the first dozen flights or more.

You can practically lawn dart a trainer plane ( which I see newbies doing all the time ) but the UCD needs to touch down just "kissing" the ground to keep it intact.

Fortunately doing so is easy to do once you are familiar with the plane, as it is capable of floating in at VERY low speeds.

The problem is that novices don't quite know how to gauge the stall speed with the UCD, and 9 times out of 10 end up pancaking them into the ground when they stall about 8 feet or more over the ground.

I rarely see people driving UCD's into the ground as they do trainers, but I always see them dropping them in a stall breaking off the landing gear... and if there is a wind the problem is worst...

A small headwind will keep the plane flying, even in REVERSE! But if the wind cuts out quickly the plane plops down HARD.

One good point is that the tail of the UCD is long enough that yaw during takeoff is not a big factor.