Being a person who can't leave well enough alone, I have made several experimental planes which don't adhere well to conventional DLG thinking.

Low Wing T-Tail Project

The least ambitious, most recent, and best flying of these experiments is what I call the BaskeTFlitz.

Flying notes

The plane flies and handles nicely, especially given its unfortunate weight of 271g. The launch performance is good, being about what I would expect from a Flitz 2 wing. I do not think the fuselage choice has hampered it there. Launch pull up is prompt and clean, with a relatively straight climb out. Once in the air, the plane flies beautifully, with prompt elevator and rudder response, and little tendency for the horizontal stabilizer to override user inputs.

The only slight wrinkle, which some (myself included) may consider to be a feature, is some entertaining pitch-yaw coupling in turns. When in a thermal turn, with some up elevator and “in” rudder held to maintain radius, slight additional up elevator will cause a radius-reducing yaw response. For slight elevator movements in a thermal turn, the pitch attitude will not change. I have confirmed that this occurs in both directions, and that my pull strings are not interfering with each other. More drastic elevator inputs will cause conventional responses.



Building Notes

While I was at school, I was kindly given a Flitz 2 wing in need of some.. help. The inboard 4" of the right wing was saturated with core cracks...Continue Reading

I got a telephoto lens and a DSLR. Any plane pictures I take will be curated here:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folde...G7?usp=sharing

Some excerpts:...Continue Reading

See Below, Comments...Continue Reading

In 7-9 weeks, Oleg will deliver a special package.. Build thread will be below..

Edit: 11/7/17
Just got the magic email! They ship Thursday 11/9/17!
Edit: 11/16/17
They Arrived! Pictures below:

Recently I have been helping my brother fix his ELF after an unexpected tail detachment on launch. As we were rebuilding it, we observed that the v-mount that holds and hinges the elevator was gone. Looking at Kennedy Composites, we observed that not only the cost of shipping was greater than the cost of the part, but the part would arrive one day after our deadline to get the ELF flying. Considering our options, we realized that we had all the materials and know-how to make our own v-mount. We dug up several scraps of balsa , a broken ELF boom, and retrieved our stock of packing tape, thin CA, Textreme unidirectional carbon, and Carboweave CW 20. Measuring the inside dimension of the v-mount off of the v-mount affixed to my ELF, we determined the angle of the balsa scraps relative to the boom. We then filled the cracks and low spots in the mold with baking soda and thin CA, as seen in the first picture. We then put a piece of packing tape over the mold, making a "mold releasing" surface. The lay up scheme went as follows. 1) Tack down one end of a small strip of Textreme to one ear of the mold with Medium CA and let it set up. 2) Tack the other end to the other ear and let it set up. 3) Dribble thin CA over the whole part. 4) Repeat with alternating lavers of CW 20 and textreme. We used 5 of each. Once all the CA has completely cured, we removed the part from the mold, trimmed it and drilled holes. Then we sealed the edges using thin CA.

We also did strength analysis on a piece of scrap by drilling the hole closer to the edge of the material than we had did on the final part, and could not strip out the hole with both our best efforts.

Feel free to comment below..

Every now and then, I feel that my aircraft need something special and unique to themselves besides repairs. Kevlar pods do not look good on the front of an all carbon aircraft, so my solution is to fade out the black via spike. Neon green is easy to see, so that was my accent color of choice. Yes, I know pink is much more popular that green, so go get your own rattle can. These pods are primed, painted and clear-coated entirely by rattle can and masking tape methods.
If you are seeing this, what do you use to make your DLGs special besides repairs and associated cover ups?

Feel free to share in the comments below..

flyinghedgehogs
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