One of the fellows at our field has a Canard,An old Italian 40 size ARF powered by a Magnum 52 2 stroke so should have ample power!DIrection being in italian so not much help!DId find a balance point in some pictures.Appears that elevator should go down to cause nose to lift?First attempt to fly ended 300'down the runway hitting a fence doing some damage but is now repaired.Woiuldn't lift nose just stayed on ground?Had considerable racke to the gear nose was down a lot but this was the factory gear.Now changing to get it to sit level.ANy body have any thouhgt on this subject will try it again thursday A M.Thanks!!

What exacly do you mean elevator down? Is it an all flying surface, or does it have a hinge with a deflectable control surface? The canard has to generate lift and raise the nose to climb. The oposite of a normal elevator control.

Looking from the front of the plane.
The trailing edge of the canard should lower with "UP" elevator in both cases.

I fly a canard every week. Yes, up elevator moves the elevator on the canard wing down. The landing gear should be adjusted so plane sits level or slightly nose down. I assume engine is mounted at rear and uses a pusher prop. Engine will overheat on the ground. My rule is to be in the air within 30 seconds from startup. If engine needs a lot of adjustment, change the prop to a std prop of the same dia, pitch, and make, and do all of the engine tuning, then put the pusher back on, quickly confirm the tuning and take off. In the air it is very normal. Mine is great in high winds. Make sure you have the CG correct. It is usually just in front of the main wing. There are methods posted at this website for calculating the canard CG. Search for it. Keep it nose heavy for the first few flights. Keep the first few landings on the hot side. If you have more questions I can help you, but you will have to give a much more detailed description of the plane. ( size, weight, wing span, canard span, wing sweep, etc) Post some pictures.

Another thing. Adjust elevator to be level, and have a lot of travel (about 1 inch up and 1 inch down). In the air the nose drops when you stall. Practice this to get used to that canard feature.

Hi;Thanks for the prompt replys.This one is a front engine as said using a Mag 52.Not sure of size approx 60"wong.Quite heavy is lot of hardwod in body wings are foam covered with lite ply?HAven't weighed it but not a liteweight!The elevator movement was far less than you mentioned probably half that!Don't knoow the name of the plane as everything is in Italian!He got it lot of years ago at fle market where he works occaionally.Is what would have passed for an ARF 20 years ago.Will take my camera out to field and get some pictures ofit.Not sure if will make it this AM as kept him over here to long with the wine glass so don't know if he got all repairs made or not last night!He is going to level it out a little as really had a drastic rake to its sitting position!Are there anyCanard kits etc out there don't remember ever seeing one!THanks Bob!Thanks

Bob,

On my canard designs, I find that the plane must be sitting level on the ground. If the nose is down, the force on the nose gear will increase as the speed increases and it will be a bugger to lift off. If you have enough elevator travel to overcome the down force to lift off, the plane will jump into the air, which can make for exciting liftoffs. (and hit the ground after doing a figure 9, which happend to my Starliner Mk I)

As to CG, make sure it is right, if the pictures you have are not clear, I beleieve you can get a calculator off the net. For my designs, I used the calculations from Andy Lennon's book: Basics of Model Aircraft Design. I find them to be right on.

Kits, had been looking myself, only one I found was called StarChaser and it shows a date of 1982 on the plans. Found it in a rack of old kits at a hobby shop. Otherwise, all I have seen are plans from RCM magazine.

Pictured below is my Starliner Mk III. It has a 61" span, 44" length, weighs 6lbs and is powered by an O.S. .45fsr. It is a kick and a half to fly, very stable, yet responsive. My favorite manuver is to roll up to a 90 degree bank, give full up elevator and do a 360 degree turn in about 50-75 feet at about 90 mph. (no joke, it will do it!, haven't broke the wing yet!). Currently I have about 60+ flights on it.

Later!