Building new airplane

I am rebuilding a Great Planes BLT park flyer, with an extra servo moving the new aelerons I added. Beside the main wing, everything else is a new and simpler design; the fuselage is a 1/2" sq stick and the tail wings and control surfaces are thin flat sheets of balsa covered of course. This is to make it feel more like a .40 aircraft, just hate the idea of flying something with elevators used as aelerons and motor power used to provide pitch. Even though Ive never successfully flown it.

So where do I put the C of G on this airplane? Similar to the original mark on the main wing? Is there any other 'theory' I need to understand to make sure this thing flies apart from balance of C of G?

As a side question, the RX on this thing uses a 'single conversion' xtal which shows a great deal of interference in my area (random jitters outdoors, main cause of last crash). Where do I have to go to get rid of these jitters? Or do I have to use a double conversion rx?

Reply to
Ghazan Haider
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| This is to make it feel more like a .40 aircraft, just hate the idea | of flying something with elevators used as aelerons and motor power | used to provide pitch.

Huh?

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Looking at the picture, it's a standard three channel plane with throttle, rudder and elevator control. Rudder turns, elevator (and throttle, of course) controls pitch.

The elevator isn't used as ailerons, and motor power always controls pitch, but it's not the only way of doing so in most `serious' planes.

Adding ailerons to this plane sounds OK to me, though I suspect it flies fine without them. rudder/elevator/throttle planes can be fun to fly and the lack of ailerons really isn't that serious unless you're looking to do aerobatics -- and even then they can do quite a few maneuvers if the throws are high enough and the CoG is far enough back.

| Even though Ive never successfully flown it.

You might want to try it with the stock wing. You might find it to be OK. With that much dihedral, it won't fly that differently with rudder turning vs. aileron turning.

| So where do I put the C of G on this airplane? Similar to the original | mark on the main wing?

The CoG is pretty much always in the same place, for any plane of this general shape -- 25% to 33% back from the front of the wing. Since it has a landing gear, set the CoG at 25% and try to rise off the ground. Move it back a little at a time until it's right.

| Is there any other 'theory' I need to understand | to make sure this thing flies apart from balance of C of G?

CoG is extremely important, but the 25%-33% rule of thumb works for most planes. Only if the plane has swept wings, or is a flying wing or canard or is a bipe does it really get more complicated.

CoG more forward = stable, but inefficient. Less aerobatic. CoG more backwards = unstable, but efficient (to a point.) More aerobatic, though if you get too far back it will be so aerobatic that you won't be able to fly it.

As for other theories, you may have added so much weight that it can't fly well anymore. Or maybe not -- I don't know exactly what you've done.

| As a side question, the RX on this thing uses a 'single conversion' | xtal which shows a great deal of interference in my area (random | jitters outdoors, main cause of last crash). Where do I have to go to | get rid of these jitters? Or do I have to use a double conversion rx?

Random (minor) jitters shouldn't cause a crash on a slow park flier like this. But full scale deflections certainly can, and if you're having intereference problems, a dual conversion receiver (or a good single conversion one, like by Berg) is probably a good idea.

It may not make the problem go away, however -- it depends on what the source of the interference is. And we can't really debug that for you here ...

You mentioned the crystal. Single conversion crystals go with single conversion receivers, and dual conversion crystals go with dual conversion receivers. You can't just put a dual conversion crystal into a single conversion receiver to reduce interference -- instead, it just won't work. Or more accurately, it'll be listening to a totally different channel than you expect.

Reply to
Doug McLaren

I've been putting together an indoor flyer myself recently. From what I've seen, most micro and submicro receivers are single conversion only. You have to move up to standard sized (.40 glow) receivers to get dual conversion in most line-ups.

If anybody happens to know of dual conversion micro/sub-micro receivers, I'd love to hear about them. My Colour Butterfly (Green Models) should be fine to fly outdoors as well, but using a single conversion GWS receiver at the field makes me nervous.

Reply to
Ed Paasch

| If anybody happens to know of dual conversion micro/sub-micro | receivers, I'd love to hear about them.

FMA M5

5 channels 0.30 oz $55 at
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BEerg-4 DSP micro stamp

4 channels 0.25 oz $35 once it's out (single conversion, but GOOD single conversion.)

There's also a few other tiny Berg receivers with more channels and more features that cost a bit more.

Sombra Shadow 3 Synthesized receiver!

7 channels $80, +$15 programmer 0.28 oz

Plantraco DSP4 $27 (but need a crystal) Might be single conversion, but it's still good quality

4 channels. 0.22 oz

Polk Hobbies Seeker Micro RX Synthesized! $60

0.5 oz

And there's more ...

I've personally used the FMA M5, some Berg receivers (but not the micro stamp) and the Plantraco DSP4. All are better than your standard full sized FM receiver because they have DSPs that throw out bad frames -- almost no glitches.

As for single conversion vs. dual conversion, I've posted a summary of what you need to know about them before, and I'll include it again here :

single conversion: some are bad, some are OK, and some are better. double conversion: just about all are OK or better.

Hitec Feather = really bad, single conversion. GWS 4P (and similar) = bad, single conversion (but better than the Feather.) Most PPM JR receivers = OK, single conversion Most PPM Futaba receivers = OK, dual conversion Most PPM Hitec receivers = OK, dual conversion Berg receivers = better, single conversion FMA receivers = better, dual conversion Most PCM JR receivers = better, single conversion (?) Most PCM non-JR receivers = better, dual conversion

Got it? :)

The `Bad' receivers tend to have bad range, and tend to glitch if anybody else is flying nearby, even on different channels.

The `OK' receivers have good range, and generally only glitch if there is direct interference (on the same channel, or only 10 kHz away like might be caused by a pager tower.)

The `Better' receivers have good range, and generally do not glitch at all because they discard invalid frames. They are still affected by direct interference like the `OK' receivers, but they handle it better.

(Of course, I'm ignoring receivers made before 1991 here because they may not be `narrow band'.)

And the real kicker is that the `better' FMA and Berg receivers cost less than the `OK' Futaba and JR receivers, and about the same as the `OK' Hitec receivers.

Reply to
Doug McLaren

Thank you for enlightening me, Doug! I'm afraid my local hobby stores are only stocked with the usual suspects.

Reply to
Ed Paasch

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