Out of foam, out of motors, what's left to do when the in-laws invade?
Work on old designs!!


Been working on this one for a bit now and reworked a few parts in sketchup, specifically the lower wings, in which I thought the original problem was in why it crashed...
However, after some taxi tests today I think the original problem might have been an aileron control wire coming undone! This would help explain the loss of control, but I'm not entirely sold.

Anyway you guys asked to see it in foam so here it is:

Aftermath of original maiden...

Reworked:



Looks pretty good, but so did the original, now I'm waiting for the wind to settle! Attached files

 

Thanks!
Gonna try and hit the paint shop today with it, much too windy to try and fly it. My experience with bipes is that the wind HAS to be perfectly calm.

 

Alright guys, I suck at bipes. No doubt about it, I can't even begin to explain what when wrong here.
This time I couldn't even get the bugger off the ground. Low on the list is some video to get up of me trying to fly this today, but don't hold yer breath.

I'll pull a weight for you guys incase someone knows the ropes with these kites, but I'm gonna shelf this one again. (I've been meaning to rework my hellcat anyhow, it'd be nice to have a phlat wing for it).

In the mean time I've been working a few other models in the background, but the in-laws have taken over my PC room so progress has been much slower then I would have liked.
More to come...

 

Don't give up she's a beauty!

 

CG problems?
http://adamone.rchomepage.com/cg_calc.htm
http://adamone.rchomepage.com/cg2_canard.htm
http://www.geistware.com/rcmodeling/cg_super_calc.htm
Just treat the bi-wing like a single wing, with the leading edge at the average LE location, and a wingspan of the total of both wings. In other words, if the top wing is 12" from the LE of the horizontal stab, and the bottom wing is 11" away, just input 11 1/2" into the calculator. Then, if the top wing is 27" and the bottom one is 24", just tell the calculator it's a 51" wing. So a 51" wing located 11 1/2" from the horiz. stab is the same aerodynamically as the 2 staggered wings of my example biplane.
And your CG will be very far forward of where you think it ought to be - biplanes are like that.

 

I will look into that, but unless the CG is IN FRONT of the aircraft (which is impossible) ALL the weight sits in front of the wing. The way it acts seems like a CG problem entirely, but unless I fill the small amount of space available with lead, I feel there is little more that can be done. intentionally I designed ALL the heavy parts to sit infront of the wing on this one becasue of the CG problems I've had w/ my SE5A.

Best I can figure is that in those days the engines were so poor and produced so little HP that the harry edge of unstablibty was flirted with just to get enough lift to get them into the air with a reasonable abount of menuverability. :?

 

This could also be the root of my problems.
I guess it's worth giving another try, not a lot of work to reglue the struts, and then some time on a good simulator...

 

It flew!

Then I crashed it horribly...
I think this would make a great indoor flyer, if you had a large enough arena, but at 31" it's so light that any slight breeze put this thing in a world of hurt. The wind softly took me mercilessly to the ground. I fought back pretty hard kicking that rudder as it tried to take me low over no-mans land, managed to get it going the other way, decided it ease back on the throttle and bring it down when it came for me again, it was too late too low to take any measurable action. -I'm sure this is why I crashed the very first time I tried to fly it now.

My problems were mainly with the takeoff, with the 9x5 GWS prop it could have used a tad more thrust, but it was plenty quick.

Since I broke my motor mount this one is going in the history books for me, this time for sure, but I'd love to see some others try this one out who have the luxury of nil wind conditions.

 

Also, if one wanted to make this an indoor flyer, axe the carbon fiber rod, or get a much smaller dia one, and use a light weight lipo instead of an A123 pack. That will keep this under the 17 if not 12oz range. All of my weight was the battery.

 

Lightflight is currently out of the motors I think I want to use on that P-38
In the mean time I'm gonna try and get my hands on another motor mount (as I destroyed the one I was trying out in the nieuport) tomorrow from the LHS.

So if all goes well, I'll have my F6F flying again tomorrow, with another model ready to phlat-print (I've redone that one as well w/ a phlatwing instead of the original hotwire).

lol I originally wanted to use this now broken down motor in my F6F, but then I had these ideas on how neat another biplane would be, knowing darn well the trouble I had with the last one...

So don't feel too bad for me, that Corsair I've got cheered me right up cause I had a chance to get that out again today. That plane flys so nice!

 

:mrgreen: Not quite!
Got my pp up again last night, almost as hard keeping P-Cs working as it is to keep airplanes flying...

 

http://www.e-fliterc.com/Products/Defau ... ID=EFL1950

Neat plane! Great video! I am certain mine would fly in those still conditions, but it would have to lose some weight. I think the solution is a 50" bipe! What do you guys think?

 

N17 For the Toledo Show!

Attached files Neuiport17.cnc (113.9 KB)Â Newport17 - TOLEDO SHOW.skp (2 MB)Â

 

Thanks Mark, we certainly had a blast!
I seen a Neuiport at the show w/ out a head rest, I think I'm going to offer another version w/ out it so it will be an easier build. Got to love these single sheet foamies, maybe you can get yours to fly?? :mrgreen:

 

The trick is to get it to balance, and there is not a lot of room in the nose for this little guy to put all the heavy parts. The blue wonder will have plenty of power, but I wonder about it's weight!