tjm5837

I've had my Hangar 9 Pulse xt 60 for about a month now. It scared the hell out of me on the first flight, way out of trim and very nose heavy and fast. The battery sitting up front like a brick. 1st landing came in a little fast and got a bounce, so tried to power up and go around again. Because it was still out of trim on landing it rolled to left and caught a wing. Just minor damage. Fixed it and took it out again after some battery positioning and CG adjusting. It flew much better , great as a matter of fact. Still fast on the landing, due to my flaperons being adjusted improperly couldn't use them so ended up ditching in the high grass...no damage. Did some more word on CG ..moving the receiver battery and main battery around and back as far as possible. Adjusted the flaps. Took it out again....Perfection!!!!! Fast if I wanted it to be, slow and floaty if I wanted it to be. Before landing wanted to do some slow passes along the runway... did several... should have just landed then. Last slow and low pass just off the runway...getting cocky now, there was a sapling about 5 ft high that blended in with the green trees in the background...I hit it with the right wing , ripping the wing off and fuselage into the ground. Plane was a mess.
After about a 10 hour rebuild with lots of epoxy , ultra cote....It looks almost as good as new and probably stronger with just a slight hint of a scar on the right wing..actually makes it look kinda cool . Ready to take it out again...but a little nervous of course due to my landing jinks with this plane... have a few foam planes.. never problem landing them. but an 8 or 9 pound plane made of balsa does scare the hell out of me. We will have to see how it goes....maybe I'm just not a balsa guy!

reincarnate

Lots of epoxy=lots of weight=an even more unstable bird. Check, double check, and then look again at the balance.

You also say flaperons. This can (will) cause instability at low speeds. Try going the other way with about 3-5 degree of spoilerons. It'll help with the stall speed...a little.

What engine are you using?

Also, what is "...receiver battery and main battery..."?

tjm5837

Thanks for the imput reincarnate. May have overstated the epoxy...used judishishy...if thats a word. Looks to be a good rebuild...pretty proud of it. However I will take your advice and extensively test the balance and CG . Running a E-flite power 60 outrunner, whith a 5000 mah 6S 22.2V 30C lipo main battery and 4.8V Nicd rx battery. Lots of weight but the plane seems to be very overpowered. Weight shouldn't be a problem. The spoileron comment is interesting, as I do find lots of lift with the flaperons but plane does seem a bit unstable with them down. The spoilerons should be good for high alpha aproaches right? But the won't improve lift, will the give the plane less lift? Am also going to switch out the prop from a 16x8e to a 15x6e to slow it down a bit more and give more torque, as some have said this is a better combination for this plane. Also how does 3-5 degrees translate into travel in mm or inches? Sorry for the stupid questions but this is my 1st balsa plane with a flaperon set up.

Adui

Eh? I am fairly new to this and wont argue with you, but I will ask a question. I was led to believe that flaps on full sized aircraft are in fact used to reduce the stall speed, effectively allowing controlled flight at lower air speeds. So if this is the case why would flaps / flaperons make a model aircraft less stable where they makes full sized aircraft more stable?

(Apologies for the thread hijack, but I really wanted to know this)

WestCoastFlyer

My Feedback: (1)

Flaps in full size airplanes extend out for more wing area. Flaps in model airplanes are shortish inboard ailerons that move down in unison. Not the same.

landeck

My Feedback: (1)

IMHO, flaperons to not cause instatability at low speeds. They increase the speed at which a wing will tip stall. This can be death during a landing. Standard flaps, those which are separate from and inboard of the ailerons, to not increase instatabiliy or tip stall speed. I have three planes with standard flaps, GP Cherokee, H9 Piper Pawnee, and BH Trojan T28, and the flaps are quite effective in slowing the plane down and increasing lift on landings. While flaperons can work, I find there is too much risk to use them. Besides, I have the H9 Pulse XT 60 and there is no need to slow it down further on landing, it does just fine.

Bruce

landeck

My Feedback: (1)

Some full size planes have flaps that just drop down and others have flaps that drop down and out. On models the flaps normally only drop down to lessen complexity of installation. The width of flaps on models can vary greatly. On my Trojan, they are wider than the ailerons, on my Piper Pawnee they are the same width, and on the Cherokee they are narrower than the ailerons. On the Cherokee the flaps take up at least half the wing and the ailerons are almost barn door size.

Bruce

WestCoastFlyer

My Feedback: (1)

I was giving Adui the basic answer to his question. While taking full scale flying lessons I loved practicing landings and one of my favorite aspects was deploying flaps - you get a sense of when you should deploy and how much, not full every time, and you can feel the flaps work. Love those flaps!

Adui

And thank you for that, I really was just asking because I didn't know. Thanks to the others who also filled in the blanks as well!

tjm5837

[quote][/quote

Thanks landek, good explanation. I will try to land without the flaperons down next time..seems that the first time I landed was the best and it was without the flaperons.