I had this beauty out again yesterday for a bunch more fun😀 I didn't shoot any video of yesterday's session as much of what I was experimenting with required that I fly the plane quite high, so not too exciting😐
I now have 43 flights on this little beauty over three flight sessions and have it and myself really dialed in now😎 With a new plane, especially a fairly high performance one like this T50 with which I am not that familiar, it sometimes takes me a little longer to be fully comfortable with it's behaviors and performance. In other words I need to get myself "dialed in" somewhat as well😉 I think I am pretty much in sync with this plane now😊
I did end up sliding the battery back about another 1/4", this didn't really affect my CG or balance point by much, just gave me a better feel on the sticks as it felt just the tiniest bit nose heavy. Like most things, I think it is just a personal feel that can only be determined as the number of flights increases. Things are nice and tight around the CG now in the battery bay.
From the front of the 2200 3S battery to the tip of the motor nut measures 8.5"/216 mm, not including the rudder servos which are behind the prop slot, essentially the largest amount of plane weight (battery, ESC, motor, receiver, aileron and elevon servos) are located in this distance. These roughly add up to 323 gr/11.4 oz. Given that the AUW of the plane with battery is 552 gr/19.5 oz and the plane measured from the tip of the nose to the tip of the "booms" on the elevons is 37.5"/953.5 mm, this means that 58% of the weight is located within about 23% of the plane's length. This is pretty impressive and probably contributes to how quick this plane changes direction in the pitch and roll.
I did decide to experiment with flaps yesterday to see how they would impact slow flight stability and also in shortening landing approach (kind of like a speed brake effect) and allow for softer landing. I know it seems counter intuitive to buy a Ferrari and then drive it around in second gear😏, but I like to know where the limits are with my planes, especially an air frame like the T50 with which I am not that familiar.
I had to play around with the deflection a bit, starting fairly high at about 5/8" deflection which was too much and found that about 1/2" deflection was adequate. Not so much for slow flying, but for approach and landing. Here is a picture of my flaps deflected.
I have my transmitter set up so that they deploy relatively slowly, it takes 2 seconds from the time I flip the switch until they are fully deployed. I find this easier to handle than the flaps snapping down immediately. I had also wanted to see what sort of high alpha I might be able to get out of this plane.
So high alpha was a bit of a bust, when the plane was very slow, any more than about 30 degrees AOA (angle of attack) and wing rock came on or the plane just kind of sat there not knowing what to do with itself until it just yawed and rolled unpredictably. I fear that because I trimmed the rudders down by about 25% from stock that I also did not really have the best rudder authority for high alpha steering. This isn't a real disappointment, I don't fly a lot of high alpha anyway and I built this plane as a "speedster", a role which it fits quite well.
So I then just flew around slowly, seeing how slow I could get and still attempt relatively flat turns without issue using mostly rudder and occasionally a bit of roll input. I could get the plane a little bit slower with flaps than without, but when it hit that point of stall, adverse yaw, tip stalls or other adverse behaviors came on unpredictably and aggressively. Fortunately I experimented with all this above 100 ft so I had time to recover. If I did any of this at 50 ft or less, I fear I would have been doing a "walk of shame" to pick up whatever remained of my plane😬 It took about 50 ft of altitude to recover from these tip stalls and adverse yaw as I had to let speed build up a bit so that I could get control authority to fly out of the situation.
So lesson learned or relearned, don't fly this plane slow😀 It just isn't happy there and unless I like watching my plane throw "temper tantrums" by putting into situations where it isn't happy, not something I will experiment with anymore😉
As my runway is about 650 ft long, shortening my landing approach is not really something I need to worry about, if I cana't land my park jet in that much runway, I probably need to find another hobby!😲 The flaps did work well as "speed brakes" when experimenting with them on landing, although they did cause the nose to want to drop about 30 degrees without applying any up elevator. It shortened my landing approach on average about 30% and did make the landings softer, but I actually found the approach to be smoother without flaps than with them. Also, if I got a little aggressive with the elevator on approach, with the added drag, the nose would pitch up much more than I wanted and the plane would almost stall. If it was something I really wanted to mess around with, I could mix in some up elevator when the flaps deploy, but I don't think I'll bother. It was just fun to experiment😊
So next up I think will be a "flyoff" with the F-22 V5. I have another EMAX RS2306 2750 Kv motor on the way which will get put into the F-22 so that the power setups will be equal and it will be fun to compare them😊
Park Jet noise...the "other" sound of freedom😎
Cheers,
Scott
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