Designs

[i brk a lot of eggs]

I am helping get some of the 5th and 6th graders at our scholl started after getting 3 minutes or more last year. Is the Leading edge better than the Freedom flight? Or is it the other way around?

[blue cobra]

Random Tip for Beginners:

Use a sharpie to shade a few centimeters of your leading edge spar so you can quickly identify which way it is supposed to be on the plane.


Also, about the kits, I completely understand why people use them. I used "cheating" for lack of a better word. Actually, my first plane was a kit, and I'm thinking about trying the Leading Edge this year, along with my own designs. Does Indoor Model Supply usually run out of LE kits very quickly?

[smartkid222]

has the leading edge kit been around for a while or is a new kit this year?

[carneyf1d]

If i remember correctly, Leading Edge was a design by Cezar Banks. It's been around for quite a while. I ton of really effective planes have been designed around his original plan. If you search for it, i think there is a online view of his plans.

[jander14indoor]

I suspect execution and experience trump design, within reason. Minimum weight is a key part of execution. So pick whichever you like and do it well.

The Freedom Flight kit has a lot of experience behind it, and lots of help from the company. I don't like aspects of the design, but that's my bias on execution, not a condemnation of the capability. Lots of students have been very successful with it.

The Leading Edge was designed by a VERY experienced indoor flyer to minimize drag and has a pretty extreme wing (very long chord). The wing spars were designed specifically with minimizing drag in mind, but are harder to build well. It might, I repeat MIGHT, have slightly more inherent capability, but not if you don't execute.

So, pick a design, learn to trim it to minimum drag/max duration condition, then practice lots to learn to deal with the unexpected on competition day.

Thanks,

Jeff Anderson
Livonia, MI

[blue cobra]

Like in the LE kit, if turn is induced by things you can't change like stab tilt and wing warp, what do you do if the flight diameter is wrong?

And, how do you make the wing warp?

[jander14indoor]

Small changes, breath on the relevant component to heat and moisten, bend into desired shape, hold till cool and dry.

Larger changes, crack and reglue in new position. Note, this is how I set initial trim. This takes a little practice, but becomes quick, easy and stays solid with experience.
Its why I build a little underweight and bring up to weight with clay. I can remove or move clay as appropriate to stay at 7.0 gm and maintain balance point. But if you are careful, you can do a lot of corrections and not gain much weight. And I'm the weight fiend!

I actually don't mess with turn radius much. I tend to keep my circles on the medium side. Only reduce for very small rooms. I haven't found it paid to open it up for the real large sites, instead I use it to control where I'm flying in the site.

Jeff Anderson
Livonia, MI

[smartkid222]

i wouldn't recommend wing warp as there are many other things that can be done to induce a turn. some of these include

1) if using a saddle system or wing posts, they would be on the left side of the fuselage
2) horizontal stabalizer is tilted (stab tilt)
3) propeller is mounted a few degrees to the left
4) vertical stabalizer/ fins are used
5) Connect motor stick to the tailboom at an angle.

[andrewwski]

Often it's best to combine a number of different techniques though.

You definitely don't NEED wing warp. It will fly and turn with the use of other methods. However, wing warp may help you with trimming - it may give you a nicer or smoother turn, etc.

My best plane used wing warp. The trailing edge of the port side was lowered about an eighth of an inch. This was combined with an offset wing and slight angling of the prop. It had a level stab with tips, no vertical rudder. The wing warp definitely made it fly better, but the flight time probably would not have been much less if it was not present.

There are numerous things you want to try when trimming. It all comes down to practice, and getting a feeling for your plane.

And I always found that breathing on the spar was plenty to allow it to be bent slightly. You don't want to be using super dense balsa for the spars anyway.

[carneyf1d]

I'm pretty sure wing warp causes drag. So i'd use other turning mechanisms before you switch over to warping