Mike Connor

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Kmot

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I like!

Mike Connor

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It looks pretty good. Wonder if it will fly?

Lomcevak Duck

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Other than fin placement, is it any different from the Screamin Demon?

Troy-RCU

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Hey, you beat me to it... Looks great!!!!

Mike Connor

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This was built with a Screamin Demon kit. The laser cut fins had to be cut and pieced together and the wing tip was done a little different.

Troy,
I was thinking about you when I built this but I left off the wing tip skids because here in Oklahoma we have this stuff called grass to land on.

Any one that has my kit and has not started it yet can easily do this to yours. Send me an email for a fin template in pdf format. Leave a blunt end on the wing tip as shown below. The 10* wing tip tilt is because I thought it would look good and rarely do things the easy way. It is not required.

MJD

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Might help you not snag a wingtip though.. maybe?

bob27s

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looks nice mike !!

Troy-RCU

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Funny.... I think those tiplets may help extend glide ratio. They seemed to do that on slope wings. Let us know how it goes...

mmattockx

Mike,

Looks great! I like this much better than the original twin fins.

How are you launching it with the winglets on?


Mark

Mike Connor

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I thought about that but with well over 100 flights on a straight wing tip Dust there were few landing problems. I just try to keep the nose up and little and no bank at touch down.

Troy,
The airlines claim a 4% performance improvement from winglets due to reducing wing tip vortices. Don't really need a better glide ratio but I will take the extra speed.

Mike Connor

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Hey Mark,
It will be getting too cold for the dirt bikes so it is time to get busy and build yours with winglets. I am really happy with the fin shape and the overall looks. One kit that can be several planes. I think my covering scheme really came out nice too.

For launch the plane can be held from behind with your thumb on top next to the winglet and your four fingers on the bottom.

mmattockx

Mike,

Don't remind me, it is starting to feel a lot like winter this week. At least it was decent last night for taking the kids out trick or treating.... I think I am definitely going with the winglets, I like the look much better. And, as you say, with enough engine on it, it will fly right out of your hand anyway. I will probably be going with a ST 45, and first flights can be with a 10x6 to make sure it pulls hard from the launch. Should be no problem with the light weights people were reporting.

I like the covering scheme as well. Very bold and colorful, which I like.


Mark

bob27s

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mike...

let me know how it flys.....

you essentially have a "tail-less" aircraft.

The tips placed like that tend not to provide a lot of yaw stability. Too far from the center of mass. In a lot of cases, they can create yaw instability. A little bit of lift/drag differential between the two sides..... and it will start rotating about the CG.

In fact, that is a balancing act for larger aircraft with winglets.... they usually require a bigger vertical fin to afford better yaw stability, and you have to avoid increasing drag there to the point it un-does what good the winglets do. On airliners, the tips are comparitiely small, and work well. But when you get down in size ... sometimes the trade does not work out quite as well.

I think you will be ok.... and it does look kewl

Mike Connor

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Hey Bob,
I had some of the same concerns at first but now am fairly confident. It will take a test flight to make sure and as I said in my second post in this thread, "I wonder if it will fly?" Anyone trying this on one of my kits at this point is flying an experimental aircraft. I hope to test it soon but have a few things in front of it. I have too many airplanes and not enough radios and engines.

I started off by researching some of Burt Rutan's full scale aircraft and then looked at the RC flying wing/Delta aircraft with winglets. It seems that most of the "tail-less" flying wings use winglets from the Zagi on up and a few of the deltas like the Bullit shown below. Watching the videos I see no evidence of yaw instability during flight at any speed. I also noticed the left turn tendency during launch is almost non existent. This makes me think that "spiral slip stream" may be responsible for most of the dip to the left at launch. The difference at launch between my two different deltas may shed some light on this. A few other positive things to consider is less surface interference from the two fins being so close together and airflow being blocked at high angles of attack.

I didn't want to make the fins too big because of drag so what I came up with is a "vertical fin volume coefficient" of .025. This is not real high but for comparison the full scale J-3 Cub and a typical RC Q-500 is .022. It is hard to see in the picture but the center section is raised giving me an additional 10 sq in for yaw stability and it is right down the middle. Considering that the coefficient is .031.

Even at Douglas aircraft the real proof is with the test flight. I did give this project some thought and hope it works well. Like you said, "and it does look kewl".

Mike Connor

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I finally got to put a couple of flights on my newest delta with winglets and yaw stability was not a problem. I was flying the plane and could not find an experienced camera man so I ended up getting 8 seconds of video out of several minutes of recording. Will try to find someone to fly it so I can get some good video next time.

Winds were 12 to 15 mph and choppy so slow speed flight was getting bounced around a little. Medium and high speed flight was like it was on rails and flew similar to my normal tail deltas. It would do bounce off the wall turns, drill bit rolls and accelerate vertically. Even with out the unfinished engine cowling it was really quick with the stock TT Pro 46 and APC 9 x 7 Prop. I am not going to make any speed claims until I can confirm with radar but the two into the wind passes on the video were not the fastest. Chuckl with a Jett 60LX on his must have got a real rush.

Very short video of launch and two passes into the wind.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tt2kOTQ1bM0

bob27s

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Great to hear that it flys as good as it look !!!!!

Bob

combatpigg

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Nice going, Mike! It will be interesting to give the tip fins a try on my next delta. The tip fins improve the look of the model.
I use them on my RC combat flying wings, taped on.

Troy-RCU

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Cool deal Mike!! I was just making the guys drool at the local field on Sunday showing them my Screamin Demon plans and rear exhaust motor I plan for it. There's one of your kits almost done out here and hopefully we'll see how fast it goes. He tends to shoe-horn a lot of horsepower into his ships.

Mike Connor

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combatpigg,
My fins were 8% of the wing area or a volume coefficient of .025 and worked fine. At slow speeds in choppy air it bounced around on the roll axis a little but not the yaw axis. With any speed at all it was rock solid. It does look good but the fins out there keep hitting things but have not broke yet.

Troy,
Let me know how yours and your friends flies. I have been flying three in different configurations and having a blast with high speed, radical turns and fast rolls. Most of the locals can't believe it doesn't snap in two when I change directions instantly and I pass most planes up even at half throttle.

randy racer

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mike, looks like i'm in for one of your deltas. one of the two you are shipping to Tim G in Kentucky is for me. i can't wait to get this thing together and flying.

randy racer

mmattockx

Mike,

Any more video of the Lickety Split?

Mark

Mike Connor

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Your kits are here with Priority Mail labels on them and will be at the post office in a couple of hours. You should have them no later then Tuesday.

If you haven't flown a delta like this or a Dust before take it slow till you get a good feel for it. They can be a handful at speed on high rates. After that just watch the old farts fun for cover. Glad I am only 58.

Mike Connor

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Hey Mark,
My two flights so far show the winglets on the Lickety-Split work great. I can now recommend them to anyone wanting to modify my kit.

I may get some more video this weekend if I can find some help. I need either a good camera man or good pilot to get good video. The camera man is the hardest to find and most pilots won't bring it down low and fast for the camera. It flies very much like my normal fin delta.

LGM Graphix

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No real reason the winglets shouldn't work, they work on a Zagi (ew, did I just say zagi)....
One of these days I guess I'll have to build another delta, haven't had one in a long time.