Steering rig, VP hinge stiffness

From: Tapio Linkosalo <tapio.linkosalo_at_iki.fi>
Date: Tue, 17 Aug 2010 17:34:46 +0300

First of all, greetings from Belgrade. It was great to meet again many
old friends, and make a number of new, I will not start listing names as
I would skip someone and then would need to be ashamed.... Anyway, the
contest was hot and tough, I did not do so good, but I think I learned a
lot, so now I have lots of homework to do.

Two questions raised:
- what sort of line would be good for the steering balloon? I had a foam
rod between the balloon and the line, but the line that I used was quite
thin monofilament. For fine handling it was not too pleasant, but I feel
that some braided stuff would feel more comfy for the fingers. But
should it be elastic (like dacron), or as stout as possible (dyneema)?
Is it getter to have a tight contact with the balloon, or line that can
dampen some impulses? Further: I had glued some thin dyneema within the
foam rod to take the load, but my thinned contact glue did hot hold the
line in the slot, any suggestions for a good glue for this application.

- another question rises from two observations. First, on my best flight
my model reached top height, then descended maybe 5 meters rather
rapidly before settling down to much better cruise. Also I heard
reported that on some steers, mr. Tregers model actually started
climbing after the steer. A common explanation for both these event
could be, if the prop hinges were "holding" a little, in the same manner
as you need to tap the mechanical barometer to see if air pressure is
changing; for my flight the prop may have "jumped" to the better
setting, and for Treger the steering might have bumped the prop to lower
pitch? Does this happen in F1D, or does the rubber unknotting give
enough "tapping" to make the hinges move freely?



-Tapio-
Received on Tue Aug 17 2010 - 07:34:49 CEST