This morning I was able to take advantage of some of the wonderful
suggestions kindly provided by members. I flew my "standard" (Not
"limited") pennyplane with excellent results. The flight time in the
same gymnasium increased from 3 minutes to 4 minutes. I was amazed! And
this time I used a 1/3 length motor with a balanced spacer.
Using lubed 3/32 SuperSport rubber, wound to over 1 ounce inch( Didn't
go higher - afraid of breakage.) and then unwound to 0.5 ounce inch. The
plane seemed to climb a bit steeper with a slower flight speed and
resulting slower prop speed - that's really great! The cruise portion of
the flight was much flatter and longer, and the descent seemed to be at
lesser angle. The condition of the motor on landing was aprox. one half
row of knots.
All in all, it was as good as I could imagine I would ever be able to
do! Next week I will get to fly in a somewhat higher ceiling gym - and
will report on that.....
Thanks everyone, Richard
--- In Indoor_Construction_at_yahoogroups.com, "Rick121x" <rickie121x@...>
wrote:
>
> I am a fairly new indoor flier and have designed and built a
pennyplane from the "best" information I could assemble. Pictures posted
in folder " Richards Pennyplane". It weighs 3.2 grams (with prop), and
all other details are basic per AMA rules. I am using a balsa sheet, 15"
dia., 25" pitch propeller. (It weighs 1.2 grams.) - and 3/32 in. "A to
Z" (Peck Polymers) Supersport rubber from my hobby-shop. Rubber lube is
STP "Son of a Gun", and seems to work very nicely.
>
> The wing is simplex 4%, and the stab is circular 3%. Thrust is
zero-zero, stab is at zero, and the wing, 4.4 deg.
>
> I set up the plane using the "ten step adjustment process", and it
flys "right on the verge" of a stall. It reliably recovers from a rafter
beam "hit". The flight balance location is 88% wing chord.(With prop and
rubber.)
>
> It flies in approx. 14 foot circle and the climb is just beautiful to
see, flying very slowly at about 15 degrees attack angle. With the
climb loading the prop, it turns quite slowly, ...estimate 1.2 to 1.5
rev. per second.
>
> Right now I am using a 1/2 length motor with weighted spacer, and
winding to 0.5 ounce-inch torque, I am getting lovely flights in a 25
foot ceiling - 2 1/2 to 3 minutes. But I would believe the cruise
period is very short. The motor has roughly 1/2 length of "knots" at
landing. If I put in more turns the climb is too high, and with a longer
motor, the flight is longer, but of variable heights, with the causes
unknown to me.
>
> I would very much like to achieve a longer cruise time and and with
slower descent. Is there anyone with experience to suggest the next
logical step to me to take?
>
Received on Tue May 29 2012 - 14:55:51 CEST
This archive was generated by Yannick on Sat Dec 14 2019 - 19:13:47 CET