Originally Posted by G_T

Unless I'm mistaken, on the Fr3aK it is shipped in cruise position not speed. Speed is then a couple mm up at the root of the flaperons. Or lay a straightedge across the bottom of the wing.

Gerald

Ok, then this makes sense why it works so well in my "speed" setting. I was guessing on the setting as my time was limited. I flew mostly in my zero'd/speed setting and now I see why I liked it the best even over cruise.I will reset my condition and try again!

Gerald is correct. The root (fuselage) setting is cruise. Speed would be up about a mm and camber can be from three to six mm down from that depending on weight and conditions.

I find VERY few situations with this airplane that warrant speed mode. I spend a large amount of time with some to alot of camber dialed in. Most "return from thermal" situations are done in cruise for me, and even sometimes a bit of camber there as well.

I agree with Tom on the camber settings. I don't find myself using the speed position much. Part of that is because my speed mode is also my launch climbout mode and the elevator trim setting there is such that the plane will travel very fast without pitching up. It is not set for any usable trimmed speed, I have to always have my eye on the plane and hand fly the speed when in that speed mode. I find that the cruise camber position works well most of the time and so I use it a lot, even for fast return flights from down wind. If you read my report from teh recent Charlotte contest, where I wrote about my insane downwind adventure deep behind the tree line on the other side of teh valley of death, I never once used speed mode, I never even thought about it.

I'm not saying that my setup is the best. Maybe it is, Maybe I need to set up a speed mode that is different from launch climbout and try different camber settings for speed and different trimmed speeds, or maybe a speed trim slider. Probably I'll just keep on muddling through with sub optimal setups as usual though.

I just spent a few minutes playing with wings and straight edges. My models are in California right now, but I do have a Fr3ak wing in my shop that has the fixed center tab set to fit the Fr3ak fuselage. My straight edge tells me that the flaperon would up less than one millimeter up if I lay that straight edge across the hinge line on the bottom of the wing. That means to me that what I've been using as cruise position is very close to what Geraldd is calling speed position. I'll have a closer look at my models when I get to Poway.

Per post #14, what is the offset for the vertical to get the rudder to Zero angle of attack to free stream? Should I just sight from the tail and equalize the rudder area on each side of the surface?
Bob

Yes, that is what I have been doing on my Edge and Z4D foils (Fr3aK Tails), works great!

Looks like there was a failure to convey the proper pep talk to Phil prior to his Fr3aK demo on the international stage. It should have been something like "look, no pressure man, but you HAVE to be #1 with the U.S moldie on U.S soil".

J/K, I know the Fr3aK is capable of putting the smack down on every normal plane/pilot combo. Too bad it's flying against guys that use The Force!

Sam, I think there are about five Fr3aKs at Poway besides Phils. I'm not sure who is flying them as primaries, but several others have them out there. Keep in mind that most people don't have much stick time on them either.

Also, if you've never been to Poway, the competition is tough and the field is tough. It's very very easy to find yourself in the middle of the pack. At a glance of the scores as of now, 14 of the top 16 spots are filled by guys with F3X WC experience.

Tom, I too noticed the field is full of folks using The Force. My original post was meant in pure jest to get Big Dirty performing better!

It's looking like I won't be making The Bruce or F3K Team Selects (if I were to qualify) to see how this baby performs in another high level contest environment, but one day Mr. Wurts might be persuaded to buy one and give the world a smacking with it!

The trouble with Mr. Wurts is he seems to be able to win with no mater what he's flying!
Kinda like Michael Jordan and the "it's gota be the shoes" Nike campaign.... everybody knows the shoes don't really mean much...

Joe could win with three popsicle sticks, a bottle of CA and a crappy old two channel radio.

Originally Posted by Nathan Schmoekel

The trouble with Mr. Wurts is he seems to be able to win with no mater what he's flying!
Kinda like Michael Jordan and the "it's gota be the shoes" Nike campaign.... everybody knows the shoes don't really mean much...

Well we know with Joe it's not the Shoes

Shoeless Joe,

walt

Ha....You're not going to believe this but the credits for Field of Deams is running on my TV as I type this. If you build it, he will come.....

Originally Posted by tom43004

Joe could with with three popsicle sticks, a bottle of CA and a crappy old two channel radio.

Tom,

You give Joe too much of an advantage giving him that much stuff.

Chris

Textreme Spread tow / Kevlar 2.4 friendly fuselage with "AKP" is now standard in the kits.

AKP = Aft Kick Point for those who don't read here daily. Layers of material are manipulated to put the flex point further back on the fuselage.

This is typical of the fuselages coming from the molds lately... at 38g with canopy.