Nice Rick - but the gliders I flew are missing!
----- Original Message -----
From: themaxout_at_aol.com
To: Indoor_Construction_at_yahoogroups.com
Sent: Wednesday, March 10, 2010 3:15 PM
Subject: Re: [Indoor_Construction] Std. Catapult glider
Bill,
Thanks...here's the photo I took of your glider box..
Rick Pangell
Editor of "The Max-Out" Newsletter of
The Magnificent Mountain Men FF Club of Colorado
In a message dated 3/10/2010 11:38:56 A.M. Mountain Standard Time, wdgowen_at_gmail.com writes:
Rick
I would never put water on wood flaps. I don't think there is any way to keep them from warping. Even if you DON'T put water on them they will probably warp. This is my main reason for trying foam flaps.
For dry forming wood flaps you just squeeze them between thumb and finger and gently stretch in the direction you want them to go. As Stan says it may take minutes or hours.
Really thin wood flaps seem to expand after being attached to the more rigid front part of the wing. This produces bulges in the flaps that make it impossible to get the shape you want. When this happens I usually wind up cutting tiny chordwise slivers out of the flaps so they can be straightened out and then glue the edges back together with Duco.
For my new foam flaps I used some old Durobatics foam that came curved. I understand the newer stuff is flat. At any rate after you sand the stuff down to flap thickness you can manipulate it pretty much the same way as balsa. I used 5 minute epoxy to attach.
It takes a good bit of flap camber to get a good sink rate. I don't know how much is the right amount but I usually add camber as the day goes on and this usually helps.
There is a heck of a lot going on with flaps in the flight of low ceiling gliders. After a number of years of flying them I still don't understand much of it. Here are some of the questions:
1. How does flap stiffness affect incidence during the climb?
2. WHEN do the flaps affect incidence during the climb?
3. What's the best way to set initial incidence?
4. How does flap camber affect incidence during the climb and then during the glide?
5. Connected to all the above: if you trim for a bunt (I normally do) then how does flap stiffness and camber affect when the bunt happens, how much bunt do you get and when does it stop?
6. Can differential flap deflection or stiffness be used to get a better transition?
And on and on.........
----- Original Message -----
From: themaxout_at_aol.com
To: Indoor_Construction_at_yahoogroups.com
Sent: Wednesday, March 10, 2010 12:26 PM
Subject: Re: [Indoor_Construction] Std. Catapult glider
As long as we are talking about flaps on gliders....what is the preferred method to getting the curvature on them? On the std CLG I built for the PPCC I wet formed them...they were balsa, what is the method if using Depron?
Rick Pangell
Editor of "The Max-Out" Newsletter of
The Magnificent Mountain Men FF Club of Colorado
In a message dated 3/10/2010 9:47:57 A.M. Mountain Standard Time, wdgowen_at_gmail.com writes:
I've done it both ways and have had good and bad gliders built both ways. I think Stan's Slow Poker started this method. Drela's Upstart has full span flaps. Two of the talking points for the rigid tip are that it produces washout in the tips (relative to the rest of the wing) and helps control vibration of the flaps.
----- Original Message -----
From: Warthodson_at_aol.com
To: Indoor_Construction_at_yahoogroups.com ; freeflightml_at_yahoogroups.com
Sent: Wednesday, March 10, 2010 9:07 AM
Subject: [Indoor_Construction] Std. Catapult glider
All the category 1 flapper type standard catapult glider drawings I have seen show the training edge flapper free to flex except at the wing tip where it is attached to a ridged wing tip section. This would seem to limit the ability of the flapper to flex. I am curious why this is? Wouldn't it be better to not restrain the flap at all?
Gary
- application/x-ygp-stripped attachment: stored
Received on Wed Mar 10 2010 - 13:19:40 CET