richbran

Hi there NS lovers,

I had a Northstar, loooong time ago, pretty much at the beginning when is appeared on the market. Must be 15 Years ago or some.

Ik did not have too many flights with it, as it met its demise way too soon because of a charging problem (had made the loading receptacle soo watertight, it even did not let current go in [&o] ), but what I remember it did more ore less a continuous "waggle" in flight.
It might have been a crosscoupled (I think that is what they call when roll oscillations are caused by directional problems) roll, no idea. Maybe when I would build a new one I would test with a gyrostabiliser.

As far as I know the kit has changed over the Years, how it behaves today?

Loosing models in the beginning without having gone through the whole characteristics spectre makes for a very long lasting unsatisfactory feeling......

JimCasey

My Feedback: (1)

Every Northstar, and most Deltas I have seen do seem to have a small but persistent yaw waggle.
It does not seem to hurt anything, but it is distracting.

I built a delta once with vertical stabilizers at the wingtips, and gave them 1 degree toe-in. It seemed to raise the frequency of the waggle and to damp it out in 2-3 oscillations.

If it's really a problem for you, a gyro hooked to a rudder could be tuned to act as a yaw damper.

scott7x71

Building a Northstar now- glad to know about the waggle! I have a gyro that I will put in it. Hopefully that will prevent any waggle, or wiggle for that matter.

ryanpilot

My Feedback: (4)

This may be to late for you guys that have not had a Rear PYLON mounted Tractor engine on a plane. Even in full scale home builts that have the engine mounted in the rear stab has the oscillation problem. If you notice when you pull the power back it flys straight. When you power in it wags the tail. If you think about it you have a prop pulling the plane through the air trying to push all that mass in front through the air. It naturally wants to swap ends in flight.

There is a home built called the SEAWIND. There has been at least one crash and pilot death because of this oscillation. I do not know if it was exaggerated due to building or what.

theKM

it's a quirk. Nothin bad should come of it. Even my half size North Star does a teeny version of it, but not as noticable as the original North Star. It also waggles a little on landing... once again, it's nothing to be scared of. It's an awesome plane with awesome flying and general handling characteristics.