Leave well enough alone and other old adages we ignore.

[captain crunch]

Why does it seem everytime I try to "improve" a plane that flies just fine I end up making repairs, uh, I mean modifications? Judging by the posts I read I'm in good company. ;)

[DBCherry]

Leave well enough alone Well, guess we just have to prove the "old Adage".

Besides, if it can go wrong, it will. ;)

Just my 2 cents. :D

[Tom Smith]

I often wonder why guys will take a great flying 3 channel model and put ailerons on it, when it was designed to be flown 3 channel in the first place. Had a buddy do that to a great flying model and all but ruined it. It now hangs in his garage, never to fly again. Do we know more the the designers? Tom

[DBCherry]

Do we know more the the designers? Not usually. ;) But sometimes it does pay off. Like putting ailerons on a Sig Kadet Sr.

It's not necessarily that a plane flys better, but that it flys differently, or is capable of different things with ailerons. Usually requires the removal of some dihedral though.

[Tom Smith]

Exactly what my buddy did. He left the dihedral the same and added ailerons. The setup didn't work worth a darn, and added so much weight and drag that the OS 10 was no longer able to pull it along safely. Darn shame, I flew it on R,E,M, for years and it flew fine. There is now a guy in my club trying to put ailerons on a Wingo. I just walked away when he told me that. Tom

[Basketcase]

Hi Tom, it doesn't always have to result in a ruined plane. I'm not claiming I know more than any designer, in fact I know nothing about anything. :)

But after flying my GWS Tigermoth with R/E/T I always felt something looked wrong when it turned. After rudder is applied it yaws then banks, then turns. It's not 'right'.

So when I built a Hobby Lobby Stearman PT-17 I removed the dihedral to full scale specs and added ailerons. The wings are slightly undercambered. A lot of folks advised that they would not work or would cause adverse yaw. Happily this is not the case. It flies great. :) And the turns look much more scale than the turns by the 'moth.

It's not real aerobatic but will do a nice barrel roll and (at least to me) looks very scale like cruising around in a Stearman like fashion.

I'm very happy with my aileron conversion and would do it again.

BC

[Tom Smith]

Nice paint scheme. I have one too, but I built mine stock. It flies great on a speed 300 geared 4:1 using 7, 500mah nimh cells. One of my favorite planes. Tom

[DBCherry]

Oh Jeez.... Now I have to start thinking about ANOTHER plane! :mad: ;)

[Robbie d]

Wow, that is the best small scale Stearman I have seen. As to adverse yaw, that all depends on the throw of the ailerons. Makes a nice alternative to al the TM's flying around.

[Basketcase]

Thanks for the kind words everybody. :)

Tom, it's good to hear you have one too. It is a pretty biplane.
I'm using the HL recommended 300 motor also, except with 8 cell 800 mah NiMH packs.

Robbie you're probably right, I was worried about adverse yaw and dialed in differential using 2 servos and epa settings. Never tried it with equal movement both ways.

In addition to the dihedral and ailerons, I cut the battery hatch in the bottom, redesigned the landing gear and bulkhead and made the wings removable, and don't really feel I messed it up.

I never flew it stock so can't really compare but can't image it would fly better without the ailerons.

BC