Landing Problem
 

Hi

I have a JP SWift which is a sports/glider, after building the plane I set up the COG to the manufacturers spec's, on test flights it was way nose heavy and I started removing weight I had added, after a while the plane was flying nicely and glided well but somethig changed when coming into landing it would start porposing and the only way to stop it was either up the air speed which you cannot do if coming in dead stick or a bit of down elevator which made the landing hot and heavy.

So after 3 flights with this happening the last landing was to much and torn my landing gear out and split the fuse.

What has caused this? Is it the COG or just landing speed?

Many Thanks Lawrence

RE: Landing Problem
 

I don't consider myself an expert but a mid level intermediate pilot. It sounds to me that your plane is "stalling". Try keeping your airspeed up a bit and report back what happens

RE: Landing Problem
 

Here is a link to the plane in question

[link=http://www.flyelectric.com/kit-swift.html]JP Swift[/link]

Due to damage from the last landing, I will need to repair and remove the landing gear all together.

RE: Landing Problem
 

I have a similar plane (Areo Bird Xtreme) and I prefer to belly land it. The field I fly on is a soccer field and the wheels on the Areobird tend to get hung up in the grass

RE: Landing Problem
 

Sounds like something came loose in flight and was moving around, shifting your cg, making it fly like that

RE: Landing Problem
 

Hi
I thought the same thing, and checked battery and ESC,Rx when it first happened and all were secure, it flies and glides fine it only porposes when landing dead stick if I give it down elevator it stops but the angle of landings is increased and "bounce" and roll away at speed. I haven't tried landing under power yet as I was still checking my COG issue when this started.[:o]

What would happen if the plane was slightly tail heavy?

Cheers Lawrence

PS I was taking the plane up high get it to fly level and then with power off placing it into a 45* dive the only thing it did was to continue in the dive, it diddn't level, pull up or roll just headed straight for earth untill I gave up on elevator

RE: Landing Problem
 

The "porpoising" you referred to at slow speeds indicates either a tail-heavy condition or a problem with the incidence of the horizontal stab relative to the wing causing the tail to stall before the wing does (hence down elevator correcting the problem).

RE: Landing Problem
 

Hi Guy's

Thanks for all your input, I took my easy star out today and ran some test moving the battery around, Yes the swift is slightly tail heavy so when the repairs are completed I shall add so more weight to her nose and this should solve the problem.

A guy at the local hobby shop picked it, he told me that most gliders looking for thermals set there planes up slightly tail heavy as it helps them thermal better but the down side is when landing you need to power in or they "porpoise" so I used the ES and moved the battery back alittle at a time and sure enough it glided better but as soon as you slowed it to much.... up and down, up and down bit of power and all OK.
Anyway had a great morning flying and testing, I forgot how much fun the ES is to fly will have to take her out more often;)

Thanks again Lawrence