paladin

My Feedback: (9)

Wheels, flaps make any WWII plane much easier to land when used correctly. 10 degrees of flap is good for takeoff and it helps but the problem I have is remembering to clean them up. In all the excitement I forget and re-trim the plane. So I take off without the unless a judges tells me it is prototypical for that aircraft at a contest. As for landing 10degrees of flap is dangerous because it increases lift without increasing drag you need drag to keep the nose down. So with 10 to 25 degrees of flap the plane will want to balloon, I recommend 45 degrees of flap (on WWII planes) because it provides tons of drag. The drag allows you two very important options you never had before. You can come in hot on those really windy days the pull it level just above the ground and let the flap drag slow you down, wheel land and once on the ground pop the flaps up and the tail will come right to the ground. The second is on calm days you have to carry throttle to keep speed up which helps keep air going over the E and R.

Once 2slow gets ready to try them I’m sure we will go into much more detail on how to use them.

Joe

SpitfireMKI

My Feedback: (2)

Flaps on take off can be a bad thing too regardless of the percentage, many planes tend to want to pitch nose down (especially split flaps) that will increase your chances of a nose over on a grass field. In my warbird driving, I've never found a need for a flapped take off.

I have played with a G45 H9 Cessna I use as a UAV trainer, doing shortfield T/O's with a 10 lb. payload, total weight 30 lbs. 1/2 flap and gun it, start the nose off the ground then pull the mains up once the a/s is right. Takes about 75-80 feet !

Paladin, correct me if I am wrong, but if I recall any flap setting (except split type which are really airbrakes) creates lift at a certain airspeed. Meaning, at let's say 1/2 flap and 75 mph, you will be generating more lift than drag , as the airspeed drops to say 35 mph, drag increases and lift decreases. So really, the 10% flap will increase your lift but as speed drops eventally will result in some drag, obviously less than 40% flap.

My Vailly T-bolt is a great example of this lift/drag, I got a little slow on landing and wasn't positioned where I wanted to be (Yeah I stll do that !) With full flaps the jug just crawls, I added power (Rudder to correct yaw ) even though I was powering up, the low airspeed combined with the flaps made acceleration very slow, as I turned crosswind I was at full power but airspeed was still very slow, those barndoor flaps were really slowing things, gradually as the power overcame the drag and airspeed came up, I started to climb from the lift. It's really cool because this characteristic is like a full scale.

BTW- You may not notice this with a lighter plane because they will overcome the drag quickly and start climbing.

S1

paladin

My Feedback: (9)

Spit, a set configuration creates the same ratio of lift and drag regardless of the speed of the plane. But
10degrees of flap creates lots of lift, little bit of drag
20 degrees of flap creates more lift than drag
25 degrees of flap creates = lift and drag
35 degrees of flap creates more drag than lift
45 degrees of flap creates tons of drag and some more lift
50 degrees of flap lift decreases (in most configurations) while drag continues to increase.

I’ve given these measurements in degrees of flap deflection but the real measure should be in degrees of cord change. Because 45 degrees of flap deflection on an AT-6 vs a P-51 presents a different AOA in the dirty configuration. So those numbers are just guidelines. I just set up a KMP hurri and used 55degrees of flap because the flaps are small and noticed that most pic of the full size use considerably more than 45 degrees.

The hardest thing to teach new pilots to flaps is that when the flaps go down the planes flying attitude changes. We modelers fly according to how the plane looks so it is worth the time spent to put them down and just tool around advance the throttle and retreat it see how it acts. Also getting behind the power curve which is what I think you are talking about. As the wt of your plane goes up your power to wt ratio goes down and for the first time in a modelers life they find them selves having to fly the wing. They are used to poping the throttle in and getting out of there on an over shoot. With flaps down you need to keep the wings level and add the throttle smoothly to let the plane gain speed. If you pop and go like in a sport plane you wont go far.

So for a flap trainer you want well built flaps because you will be spending a lot of time with them down to see how the plane fly’s with them. You want it light enough to be able to land without flaps reliably (because that is the way you feel comfortable right now) and well built in landing gear because you will make some supersonic landings, some bad landings, some badly yawed landings till you get the hang of it. (WHEELS)When you are ready to do these parts write back and we will go over the changes to make (flaps, landing gear).

Joe

SpitfireMKI

My Feedback: (2)

Regardless of the flap's position, increases in airspeed result in increased lift, decreased airspeed results in more drag.

S1

BlueMax3

My Feedback: (1)

One point I would like to make about the self adhesive weights (this may or may not have been a factor in your situation) --I have a GSP Spitfire with a Saito 100 and used the Prather lead strips with adhesive backing. The weights did not stay on long using just the adhesive backing. Eventually fuel or oil gets underneath them and with engine vibration they eventually come off. I had one flight where a strip came off and worked it's way out the exit hole in my cowl. It changed the cg significantly, making it tail heavy, and I was lucky to land the plane! I would strongly recommend using something else in addition to the adhesive backing to hold lead strips on. A variety of things could be used (wire, screws, epoxy), but I have found that using both screws and epoxy works well and keeps the weights on.

Best wishes for many successful future flights. The Texan is a nice plane!

Travis

scalebldr

My Feedback: (7)

you know what i use foradding weght and adhering it and if used on wood or a polyesrer based fiberglass will not come loose.reclaimed lead birdshot mixed into polyester resiin and the poured into place say behind the nose ring.the plane is then positioned nose down in such a way the shot and resin will not leak out of the fuse.later if you need to remove any weight a dremael tool with a sanding disk or grinding stone can remove some of the material but do not breathe the dust,use a resperator mask.

scalebldr

My Feedback: (7)

flaps,
i use flaps for take off and landing on my twins,for take off just a tad off flap is used probably 5-10 degrees,it has helped when an engine has quit right sfter take off.the extra lift generated as the engine dies is enough to allow time to transition before the inevitable stall and snap.on landing i use full flaps at about 45 degress and half throttle.this make for a steep but safe approach with about a 10 foot run out after touchdown.that is how slow it comes in almost a 45 degree descent.The part that i like during this approach is if i have to go arround for any reason,instead of moving the throttle all i have to do is slowly raise the flaps and the plane accelaerates and climps on it's own as the speed increases and the drag decrease,this way i do not have to worry about an engine loading up and quiting from going from say idle to full throtle during the minutes on final.next time you are flying your jug with full flaps and full throttle at the crawl you said in your post,just try raising the flaps slowly and watch the speed increase then altitude.this works if you have flaps on a porpotional channel and not a 3 position switch.

scalebldr

My Feedback: (7)

flaps continued,
one overlooked point in the flap discusion is that the stall speed id decreased as well,that means the airplane can safely fly slower than if no flaps were used.if i remember from flight traing on a cessna 152 there was about a 20 m.p.h difference in landing speed between flaps and no flaps,obviously the flaps speed was the slowest.

paladin

My Feedback: (9)

I used to use shot when my dad and I reloaded shotgun shells. Since then I've changed to pistols so now I use .35 and .44 hole with projectles bonded in. certainly a conversation starter if i do work at the field.

I like the slowly put flaps up Idea for twins. I've been looking at GSP's mosquito do you think that has enough flap to pull that off?

Joe

Hear is some pic's of my kyosho me 109 on final. Its great for letting pilots see what to expect because its so light all the affects are excentuated

kram-RCU

Just a little trick I stole from high school baseball/football coaches: Get Video, Watch It.

You would not believe how many different opinions there are after a maiden flight, especially a bad one...it's like ten different people witnessing a crime scene. I have found that analyzing a good video soon after the flight can be very helpful, especially for the pilot, who's apt to have motor-cerebellar memory of all the little baubles and imperfections. And it clears the air of most of the distorted opinions and inaccurate versions of "what went wrong" from bystanders. Even for flights that go well, video can help with minor issues like: "What was my landing speed, really?", or "Do I need aileron, rudder, or left engine trim?," or "Why did I hop that landing?"


mt