Yep- the plane looked like it was dragging its tail the whole flight. Looks very much tail heavy.

Cool looking plane though.

It does look a little out of balance and you know what they say about unbalanced planes,
“A nose heavy plane doesn’t fly very good but a tail heavy plane only flies once.”

Steve. Airplanes turn with the rudder, & roll with ailerons.
Maybe I am wrong but it looks like all turns were done with ailerons.
Here is the NTSB report.

What you had was probably a tail heavy plane, rolling the plane and then using elevator to act as a rudder since the plane was in a roll all the tail surfaces change their function. I would also say it is highly likely that on the last turn before it stalled and crash the ailerons were used to turn/roll and when it stalled full up was given, which since the plane was on it side just exaserbated the problem and sealed the deal. This leads to the problem of never letting the shadow of the plane and the actaul plane touching. Keep the shadow of the plane far away from the plane.



Does that make sense???? Maybe you know this but if not do this next time you look at the plane. Hold full up elevator and look at the tail and how the full up will push the tail down pointing nose up. If you have enough power this is fine. If not you will loose airspeed and stall. While still holding full up turn the plane on its side with wings vertical or perpindicular to the ground. Now look at the elevator in its full up position. It has now become the rudder. And the rudder has become the elevator. Sorry if you already know this but if not this is important as you will understand why the plane flies the way it does. A glider is a clean ship and likes to fly clean. When you start putting ailerons and elevator & rudder up into the airstream you suddenly increase the drag alot. That and several other reasons is why you turn with rudder. Especially on a glider.

I have seen guys who have been flying all their lives who appaerantly have broken their left thumb. All they do is use the throttle. When we were in St George for the fly in I saw several big planes have trouble on landings because if they were off the center line they would use ailerons to turn instead of rudder. Rolling the plane to turn 10' off the ground is not a good idea.

If you want to learn how to turn, fly a helicopter. If you dont use the left stick to turn the heli just rolls and rolls and never turns. Until you give a heli left stick the tail just stays were it is.


Also if you are having trouble either go up or down. Land or get some height. Dont loiter one mistake high if things are not right.

Hope this helps.

Also it looks way underpowered. If that was 1/2 throttle then you might be ok. If that was full you need a bigger motor/ or you have the wrong prop/ or you have the wrong esc/ or you have the wrong battery.

Do you have a watt meter??? If not come over to my house some evening before you go on the trip and we can mess around with props until we find the sweet spot for that motor. It could be as simple as the wrong prop.

Also I have a bunch of motors, batteries, esc's, etc, so if you need spare stuff I could loan you just about anything you might need. Well except an Easy Glider, I dont have on of those.

Also do you know about how to use boiling water to repair the easy glider foam??? If not search on rc groups for the answer.

Bad news, Jon. I'm currently at mile post 197 Southbound I-15 on our way down to St. George. Thanks so much for the offer to meet with me! Let's definitely meet after the trip sometime to determine the perfect prop. I found out that an 11x6 was a little too much, as the motor was getting hot. I got a 9x6 and an 8x6 for this trip...hopefully one of them will work. I'm a little nervous because there's not as much "buffer" as I would prefer with my ESC, which is only rated at 40A. What you saw in the video, the plane was only around 1/2 throttle...maybe a little lower. It had TONS of pull.

Good luck. Have Fun.

Have fun in St. George and good luck with the photo shoot.

Update:

First, it's great to see I have cell phone reception here. Its just a pain to type with my thumbs...

Second, okay, so my fault, but I hand-launched a little too steep, and stalled right off the bad, but I've re-balanced everything, and the CG should be spot-on now. Broke the littlle prop saver I was using (not the prop) so I've come back to replace it.

Third, The motor is doing this funky rattling thing. I removed everything from the plane, and about 85% throttle, it does this strange vibrating thing. (Very noticable with a prop on.) COund this be some kind of broken-wire syndrome?

Fourth, so get this - we forgot the charger for the camera, so we're only going to get one more flight on this trip. Hillarious. I'm pretty sure I'll be able to keep the plane in one piece, and I'd love to get together with Jon to make this platform more solid.

Check to see if a hex nut holding the motor is loose. Or the prop saver might be loose. Or the whole motor mount might be loose. Or the prop might be badly out of balance. Try it without the prop to see if it still rattles. If not, you at least rule out the out-of-balance prop.

That's a bummer about the camera charger. Been there, done that. Twice.

Let me know when your back Steve and we will get things tuned up. For how quickly you went from start to finish on this project you are doing pretty danged good. Just keep the shadow away from the plane for the rest of the trip & you will be fine.

Originally Posted by JONBOYLEMON

Let me know when your back Steve and we will get things tuned up. For how quickly you went from start to finish on this project you are doing pretty danged good. Just keep the shadow away from the plane for the rest of the trip & you will be fine.

And if the plane does happen to touch its shadow, don’t get discouraged it happens to Darth (okay, all of us) all the time. Just try to have fun. If your planes not flying, try study some plants to take your mind off of it for a while. Just think, the next time you go down you’ll be ready (or at least more ready).

Originally Posted by chicken hawk

...don’t get discouraged it happens to Darth (okay, all of us) all the time.

I crash on purpose to make you guys look better.

Originally Posted by Darth_Elevator

I crash on purpose to make you guys look better.

It's working.

Yes, it is. And you owe me big time.

Cliff, your mission should you choose to accept...

FPV Van with 37" Flat TV (6 min 15 sec)

or anyone else with a sweet mini-van *ahem* Jon

Wow! That's cool. I'm willing to give a one point bonus in the war to whoever shows up with a setup like that and lets me fly it. Two points if you cut the hole in the roof of the van.