yeah i almost whacked myself a couple times. coming in to hot for the catch... lol. good thing its light!

Alula launch vid..

I'll try to get the top of the launch next time... was sorta rushing this during lunch hour.

Alula1 (1 min 22 sec)

Jun C.

Looks like it gets up there .
How's the blade doing.
It almost looks as though a gentle 360 would be smoother than the 270, "torque-on-the-bladewise". If that makes sense .

Thanks for the video, Pete

Originally Posted by -=RCpeterV=-

Looks like it gets up there .
How's the blade doing.
It almost looks as though a gentle 360 would be smoother than the 270, "torque-on-the-bladewise". If that makes sense .

Thanks for the video, Pete

Yes, smooth and spin speed are key. That's with minimum effort. Though my spin isn't smooth yet. Still trying to figure out my grip at the beginning of the spin. Would like to stabilize the plane...

Has anyone experimented with a stiffer tail? That might help reduce the initial wag after release.

The blade is holding up nicely.

Jun C.

Originally Posted by jcats

Has anyone experimented with a stiffer tail? That might help reduce the initial wag after release.

you could put carbon rods in tail and body. either one in the middle. or two one angled a little up and the other down. its gonna cost ya some more weight though. that much weight in the back is gonna result in lots more nose weight. your alula may go the highest, but its gonna have a high wind loading and high sink rate. could use that colorplast stuff to help save some weight. it may also be a tad stiffer. weight wont matter if you just fly slopes. forget about thermals if the weight goes up though...

Originally Posted by BillHones

forget about thermals if the weight goes up though...

i dont think you know who Jun is...check out this picture again:
http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/attac...mentid=3014243

do you see all those 1st place plaques? how about all those dark blue mugs? each mug is from a win at our local DLG contests. Jun is one of the top ten DLG pilots in the US right now. He got second last year in the biggest US DLG contest. He can thermal anything. we should be honored to have him talking to us in this thread

coroplast is also MUCH heavier than foam and carbon. putting two strips of flat carbon on both sides of the tail fin and fixing it with CA will add such a small amount of weight you will likely not feel it. it will stiffen the tail and may aid in launch. i think that the short tail moment is the likey culprit for poor launch performance and not its stiffness, but thats just my opinion. i think i may reinforce it some day though.

Jun,
my peg is ready for its debut tomorrow. i will try to get some footage of launch performance if Jon brings his camera.
paul

Originally Posted by jcats

Has anyone experimented with a stiffer tail? That might help reduce the initial wag after release.
Jun C.

What if the tail was just glued. That should stiffen it significantly without much of a weight penalty...... don't you think?

Whoa, Paul! Thanks, dude. LOL! I don't see myself that way. It's mostly fun, sharing the hobby with good people and partly competition for me. The honor is all mine to be part of this community!

Now for the plane...
The plane launches just fine. It's not a poor launching plane at all. I'm just curious if others have modded the tail. I've actually CA'd and taped the tail and the wings on and the plane feels more solid at release. Highly recommended if you have the one-piece setup.
I may try the carbon strips one of these days, too.

Good luck tomorrow, Paul. Since we're used to our DLG's thin wings, it might feel weird at first coz the Alula wing is thick!

Fun little plane!!!

Jun C.

Originally Posted by -=RCpeterV=-

What if the tail was just glued. That should stiffen it significantly without much of a weight penalty...... don't you think?

mine is glued. you can see tail wiggle in my launch video. i think it looks similar to most other videos. i think its something that planks just have when thrown. having the tail so close the cg results in very little leverage and more wag.

Jun,
your thought on stiffening the tail got me thinking. i went back to look at my tail and feel how mushy it was...and it was a bit mushy. i then looked a little closer and saw that the foam was splitting right at the TE of the root on the outside of the tail mount. i am sure this was from launching. with the peg, i am going to be putting more into the plane on launch so i went ahead and put a six inch long piece of 0.030" carbon rod on both sides. the carbon rod runs from about two inches before the tail mount, to get it in the meaty part of the fuse, and runs aft to about four inches shy of the tip of the tail. the tail is stiffer now. thanks for pointing this out to me. it is apparently a weak part of the plane.

after adding the two rods on both sides of the tail and hitting them with some thin CA, i added 1.1 gr. since i was a tad nose heavy, i will fly it like this and see if i need to rebalance. i will keep you posted on this, Bill, because you do bring up a valid point about keeping weight off the tail.

as for the peg, i placed two patches of fiber glass on top and bottom in a tear shape fashion. i made sure the patches overlapped with the spar to effectively "tie" then to it. used two layers of 3/4oz glass for each patch, so it is equivalent to 1.5oz glass. i wet the patches out with west systems 105/206 (the laminating resin staple) and then put my peg in with thickened 5min epoxy after the patches cured.

now the AUW is 5.97oz. i forget what it was before.

paul

PS: Jun, stop being so modest!

Oh man, always wondered what a jcats launch would look like w/ the alula... Holy schnikies. that's great. Had to post the vid to the slope forum, hope you don't mind.

Ordered one of these little guy's about a week ago. Really liking that peg idea. Thanks for all the R&D guy's. Can't wait to get mine !

Originally Posted by fearfactorfred

Ordered one of these little guy's about a week ago. Really liking that peg idea. Thanks for all the R&D guy's. Can't wait to get mine !

the R&D is done but field testing is still underway

Originally Posted by ajroahkni

Oh man, always wondered what a jcats launch would look like w/ the alula... Holy schnikies. that's great. Had to post the vid to the slope forum, hope you don't mind.

Sure, I don't mind. Glad you like it. I'm still working on the launch tho. It's a little hard to stabilize the plane with the blade- especially if there's a breeze. Maybe coz I'm used to a longer wingspan and we can usually set 60 inchers on the ground.
So far, I've found that an almost 360 arc is the best. I guess I took the last step of the DLG launch. Anything more would be just wasted effort. Anything less may not be enough. I think......

The blade definitely helps. What do you think, Paul?

Jun C

Originally Posted by jcats

Sure, I don't mind. Glad you like it. I'm still working on the launch tho. It's a little hard to stabilize the plane with the blade- especially if there's a breeze. Maybe coz I'm used to a longer wingspan and we can usually set 60 inchers on the ground.
So far, I've found that an almost 360 arc is the best. I guess I took the last step of the DLG launch. Anything more would be just wasted effort. Anything less may not be enough. I think......

The blade definitely helps. What do you think, Paul?

Jun C

Jun:
What kind of height are you getting?

dave in ct