tilting the wing

[Sciencevale]

Does tilting the the wing effect the way the plane flys? And if so how?

[jander14indoor]

Yes, it will affect the turn. Functionally equivalent to tilting the tail, but opposite effect.

Jeff Anderson
Livonia, MI

[Sciencevale]

What do you mean by oppisite effect? Will it turn the other way?

[jander14indoor]

The tilt of the wing vs the tail isn't with respect to the ground (while in flight, most likely neither is level) but with respect to each other.
So the conventional tail tilt to right for left turn is tilted with respect to the wing. Tail tilted to left, with respect to tail is the same thing and will also cause a left turn.
What you can't do is tilt both in the same direction. That would just keep them parallel and do nothing.

Jeff Anderson
Livonia, MI

[Unome]

Essentially, to figure out which way a plane will turn, draw an (imaginary) line between the center of the end of each wingtip and the corresponding end of each side of the tail. The plane will turn toward the shorter one; if they're the same length (no turn, or turned in the same direction by the same amount) the plane will not turn.

(can someone else please confirm this? am not entirely sure)

[bernard]

Essentially, to figure out which way a plane will turn, draw an (imaginary) line between the center of the end of each wingtip and the corresponding end of each side of the tail. The plane will turn toward the shorter one; if they're the same length (no turn, or turned in the same direction by the same amount) the plane will not turn.

(can someone else please confirm this? am not entirely sure)

Also, If thrust and wash in are not consistent with the stabilizer tilt, the plane may not turn and may be unstable. Diagram borrowed from Freedom Flight Fun Science kit instructions.

[jander14indoor]

Wing/stab relative tilt are only ONE control for your turn.
You can (should) also induce turn by angling the prop to one side or the other (typically left for WS planes), by offsetting the rudder (again typically to the left) or angling the whole tail assembly (again typically to the left).
You will need to use all of those properly balanced to maintain a steady left turn at minimum drag across the range of speeds a WS plane flies under the influence of the changing rubber torque. This is all part of trimming the plane to fly efficiently.

Jeff Anderson
Livonia MI

[Kyle_Guo]

And where can you find the general trimming techniques?

[bjt4888]

Kyle,

I am not coaching Middle School this year and haven't constructed a Freedom Flight WS kit this year, but in the past these kits included quite a few pages of very good flight setup and trimming information at the end of the instruction manual.

Brian T.

[jander14indoor]

You'll also find a lot if you look around the archives.
There are some good ones on line too.
10-step trimming and free flight might be good search terms.

Jeff Anderson
Livonia, MI