Dear Wombat:
Stab twist (inboard tip up toward main wing viewed from the front of
the plane) asists in getting the proper turn. The plane will
usually fly with the stab level. See the discussions by Don Ross
and Lew Gitlow in their books.
Have you ever seen an indoor plane fly straight (and crash into the
wall) when wound to full turns? This sometimes means the stab tilt
was removed by twist in the motor stick induced by high initial
torque. Not a good thing.
Tip plates on the stab versus center rudder is a hard issue to
decide. Some say the tip plates reduce wing tip vortices and
therefore reduce drag. F1D planes never seem to use tip plates on
the stab. Maybe because they fly so slowly they can do better with
a center rudder. Probably the extreme lightweight construction of
this class does not lend itself to the utilization of tip plates.
When it comes to SciOly planes, the experts have different
preferences. Cezar Banks likes tip plates on the stab of his SciOly
2005 and 2006 designs, made of very light balsa sheet. Bill Gowen
likes dihedral outboard wing sections on the stab of his SciOly 2007
design which are just frame sections covered with tissue or Mylar.
Seems to me that Ray Harlan's SciOly 2006 Cruiser designs use a
single center rudder made of a frame convered wtih Mylar.
Try each configuration and see if you notice any performance
differences. In the end, a well trimmed plane built to the specs of
just about any descent design will be very competitive provided
there is good prop/motor matching, good winding, and of course,
luck.
Calgoddard
Received on Thu Sep 21 2006 - 21:42:19 CEST
This archive was generated by Yannick on Sat Dec 14 2019 - 19:13:44 CET