macgyver22

I'm building a GP Ultra Sport 40+ and was thinking of a wing modification. I was thinking of turning the inner 1/3 of the aileron surface into flaps. I debating between this configuration and just using flapperons. Anyway, if I do go with flaps, can I mix it so that the flaps will move just like the ailerons (I would use 4 servos, 2 flaps 2 ailerons) and then when I turn on the flaps (using the nob or slidder) then they move like flaps and not the ailerons? I think I'm making this sound much more difficult than it is.

Basically if I have 4 servos and 4 wing segments, can I make the flaps act like flaps with a dial, switch or slidder, and when I'm not using the flaps as flaps, they should act like ailerons. Also, when I've got the flaps acting like flaps, I don't want them to move at all when I move the ailerons.

Charlie P.

Yes.

Get yourself to the Futaba Frequently-Asked-Questions and read the material there. If you still have questions, come back here. It is explained there pretty well.

http://www.futaba-rc.com/faq/faq-9c.html

You can even get the outer ailerons to come up as the inner flaps go down.

Lynx

Why do you need that? The difference between doing it your way, and using flapperons, is that you'd have slightly better aileron control when your flaps were down, and it would tend not to 'veer' when you were steering quiet as much in extreme flap positions. As long as you don't use the flap's ALL the time, it's no use to you to go through the difficulties of setting up an entirely seperate set of control surfaces for it, and just adds another series of points of failures to your setup. If you TRULY need issolated flaps, you'll know it because you'll have problems keeping the plane from rolling or skewing when the flaperons are down. What Charlie was talking about was probably spoilerons mixed independantly of the ailerons, which just help kill airspeed and reduce lift. Why do you feel you need issolated flaps? It's a big modification, for something you may not really need.

Charlie P.

Yep. Spoilerons (I have them on my Contender 60 with the apron flap).

Why bother? As your own signature mentions: curiosity. "What if's" are a great part of this sport for a lot of us. I'm toying with the idea of adding spoilers to the outer panels of a polyhedral-removed Dynaflight Butterfly just to see if I can bank it with less drag. They'd work like ailerons on the lifting side only, and as spoilers on landing to steepen the approach. Why? Because I want a cheap powered glider. Worth the effort? Probably not. But the only way to find out is to try.