thats ok Rich,
i found it very interesting when i was learning about these wings,
very clear explanations and pictures

Popped over to the local micro light airstrip today, what a really helpful bunch! They let me look round/take photos and answer my daft questions!

Took a bunch of photos, the chaps were telling me how complex the wing is in its design. There are 2 bars under the tips that are fixed to the LE and stop the tips from flexing down in extreme turbulence, never noticed those before!
The more I find out the more its getting ever appealing


Regards

Rich

G'Day Rich........I'm thinking that it could be a good idea if you were to by Deb's a nice sewing machine for Xmas..........You never know for what reason she may need one.......
Chris............

Brilliant Rich
which airfield is that?
I was down long marston yesterday evening hoping to get in my first lesson as im going for my license now ive finally got the money
the wind was too strong though so had to give it a miss

we had a lovely time looking round the gliders and watching a couple of other flexwings taking off though
theyre amazing aircraft i could sit and watch them all day!

yeah those struts at the wing tips are called 'washout struts' or 'tipstruts' or even 'tip wands' ive heard them called lol
they act as a stop for the sail so the washout in the wing cant completely dissappear,
the cables coming from the kingpost (ontop of the wing) to the trailing edge of the inner wing do the same job and are called 'luff lines' or the 'reflex bridle'
they dont do anything most of the time- tips are lifted off the tipstruts in normal flight and lufflines are slack,
they come into play at high speed and low angles of attack because this is when the sail is the flattest,

if the washout dissappears totally the wing will loose its stability and the wing could actually go into a luffing dive and tumble,
this is where the washout completely dissappears so stability is lost,
the wing -having no pitch stability and negative reflex - the trailing edge is acting like down elevator now and can dive upsidedown, this sets off a tumbling motion due to the momentum of the trike and normally causes the aircraft to break up in midair and crash,
these tumbles are pretty much unrecoverable,
ive had one during a failed loop on my microlight but it didnt break due to the lower weight and less momentum,
was very cool watching it tumble from about 200ft though! nothing i could do to stop it lol.
funny in model form.. very scary stuff in real aircraft,
these days with safety features built into the wings these tumbles only usually happen during manouvers outside the limits set by the manufacturer (loops etc)

Ultralight Trike tumbling (0 min 16 sec)

loop failure hang gliding slow mo (0 min 55 sec)

Mark,
Its just a small grass airfield located at a place called Button Oak, on the back road between Bewdley and Bridgenorth. There were about 7 aircraft there mainly 3 axis types but a couple of flex wings.


Regards

Rich

Ah ok thanks Rich, ill have to remember that one for a place to visit

ive started work on my new rear undercarriage now and its looking quite smart,
gotta make the two brackets to hold the wheels and then i can attach it all up!

should look far more realistic than the alloy piece i was using for testing.


ive come up with a new design for the front suspension aswell as the springs were to ...err.. springy!!
on the 'failed runway landings' video you can see how much the front bounced off the deck on heavy landing so this new design should be far more cushioning

pics soon

made a couple of titanium brackets today to replace the plastic ones i had holding the seat frame to the trike,

didnt have a plastic one break as the front strut takes all the forces but think these look abit neater and clamp it far better

heres the main undercarriage mount that also holds the two trike frame pieces together, this allows the legs to pivot for suspension,
also a pic of the brackets that hold the rear wheels on,
not finished yet as got to make the mount for the strut that braces the undercarriage from moving fore and aft

Very nice work..............

thanks mate
just painted the undercarriage carbon bits white like on the real quik's,
looks really realistic now cant wait to get her back in the air

Microlight is almost airworthy again
few (badly) photoshopped pics of what it looks like now below.
just a few more details to finish and itll be ready.

trike colour has been changed to flouro yellow as its my favourite colour,
also brightens it up abit and goes well with the blue wing.

been working on the new pilot with more realistic helmet which im excited about seing on the new onboard videos

the frame is new with a few mods over the old one,
trike is slightly longer to allow more room for pilot,

servos have been re-positioned much lower and moved inwards by about 15-20mm, this has moved them behind the sideskirts hidden almost out of sight.
this bought up the problem of the steering arms hitting the seat frame so the seat frame has been modified to allow clearance.

all the trike fibreglass bits have been changed for white fiberglass for a more realistic look aswell as the kingpost and Aframe.
this looks cooler imo and also makes the wing steering arms less noticable too.

ive made two small brackets for the corners of the Aframe to hold the front and rear cables seperate, this means itll be easier to reposition the frame fore and aft without wasting a big length of cable and also make changing cables easier.

the ground wire bracket (top of kingpost) has been modified with a sort of cross shaped bracket for mounting and holding the ground wires better.

front yokes (for holding forks) have been remade with the forks mounted inline with the shaft as the suspension is giving the castor effect now by mounting the front wheel behind the steering pivot.

alloy rear undercarriage used for testing has been junked and undercarriage is now white fibreglass spars with titanium brackets for a more realistic look and to add suspension.
new fins have been made to fit the undercarriage spars too,
was thinking of proper spats but decided against it as i fly alot off grass and these would easily be damaged,
maybe ill make a pair and keep them for concrete flying

hopefully be finished tomorrow so will post pics then of the actual thing

regards,mark

man would i love one of those! lol

i looked at them wings before id built mine but theyd be too big for my trike,

lovely looking wings though

to big for me to, thats a third scale.
I have ordered the 1/5th scale which is about 2.1 meter wing span.
a little more my size for the belatrike.

about the size of the one I ordered.