I can say from experience that these planes are tough. I crashed full speed nearly directly down 5 times before the spars broke. At that point I scabbed the extra fiberglass along side it and flew again....

Hi,
I was wondering if anyone's shortened the Elevons on a Reaper, or other CTH wing, to just the outboard ends of the wing and fixed the inboard elevon lengths onto the main wing?

Wouldn't this increase the chord length of the (fixed part of the) wing in the centre, increasing your load carrying capacity without any weight penalty?

As the angle of attack of the wing increased (with elevon input), the previous inboard elevon area would be angled down into the airflow producing more lift, kinda like permanent attitude-dependent flaps.

Or am I thinking about this all wrong?

HC

Originally Posted by HighwayChild

Hi,
I was wondering if anyone's shortened the Elevons on a Reaper, or other CTH wing, to just the outboard ends of the wing and fixed the inboard elevon lengths onto the main wing?

Wouldn't this increase the chord length of the (fixed part of the) wing in the centre, increasing your load carrying capacity without any weight penalty?

As the angle of attack of the wing increased (with elevon input), the previous inboard elevon area would be angled down into the airflow producing more lift, kinda like permanent attitude-dependent flaps.

Or am I thinking about this all wrong?

HC

Hi HC,

The control surfaces are figured into the area of the wing so I don’t believe there would be any benefit. Not sure what the benefit of making the ailerons fixed in the center would be but they would still need to be reflexed up on a wing unless the airfoil is reflexed by design. Build it as designed and see if it does work just fine for what you want it to do. Then you can always experiment to see if you can improve it and see what works and what doesn't.

jb

Has anyone tried gyros on a combat wing? Do the helicopter gyros work? Where is the best place to get them?

highway child.

interesting. But the down side would be a couple things. Control horns on 90% of these are attached there. You would have to move them and the servos more outboard which would mean servo extensions. Plus I think loosing control surface area would kill my roll rate. I suppose for the FPV peeps that wouldn't be an issue, but it is for the combat peeps.

As far as lifting ability, if the fast guy is running at 60+ oz. even with a bigger motor. Mine is 28.6oz. I haven't seen anyone report max lifting capability officially, but there is nearly a 2lb. spread right there, if you can assume that you would probably be able to strap 32oz onto mine and it would still fly ok. How much more payload do you need.?

I think it might be a fun experiment, to build a fresh one like you suggest and fly it side by side with a conventional one to see if payload was increased, but I don't think anyone is going to alter one they already have built to do that.

They are available at Crashtesthobby.com try it and let us know how it flies and hauls.

Pat

So, since I crashed mine over and over and it had roughly 30 small glue sticks in it and a 2.5ft threaded rod to help me bring shape to the nose again it weighed in at 3lbs 6.5 oz. Just a 2200 ma battery. I also clipped 3 inches off each side of the wings. I got it in there air before the final crash rendered her totaled. Took me 4 or 5 throws to get it off the ground and when it got up it barely took flight. I'm talking skimming the ground for 30 feet after I threw it 10' up. There wasn't any wind that day either. I'm guessing it would be slightly easier with the extra 6" of wing that it comes with.

I have since cut the center 18" out of it and will make a "G.R.ASS" out of it. Get it!? Grim Reaper Assassin........Because it is about the size of the Assassin and it was a Grim Reaper.....yea anyway....

Anyway for what it is worth.

Dec, probably closer to a widowmaker.... Ok so now we know it doesnt do well at 55 oz. with the stock motor setup.!

That is a TON of glue... You're abusive

hmmm- I'm likin' that G.R.ASS idea...

Mine got a lot heavier with the last repair (hot glue instead of gorilla glue)
But still flies well. maybe even better than before the last major crash.
Got it all good to go again. Ready for the sWARm.

dec- are you gonna make it for the war?

I was hoping someone might be able to tell me what the difference is between the 60" and 55" reaper is in terms of flight characteristics? I have read that adding sweep increases stability at higher speeds and i'd imagine the more swept wing would be less stable in the roll due to decreased wingspan. But how does it affect slow speed handling and stall chacteristics?

Cheers
Isaac

Originally Posted by IsaacW

I was hoping someone might be able to tell me what the difference is between the 60" and 55" reaper is in terms of flight characteristics? I have read that adding sweep increases stability at higher speeds and i'd imagine the more swept wing would be less stable in the roll due to decreased wingspan. But how does it affect slow speed handling and stall chacteristics?

Cheers
Isaac

We have at least 20 flying Reapers here in our club and during testing the group liked the higher sweep on the Reaper for flight, looks and balance so we made it the stock plane in the kit.

Both wing configurations are cut out of 72" of foam. The decrease in wingspan is due totally to the sweep and there is only a small difference in wing area. We have a few flyers that sweep them even more.

Thanks for the feedback guys, but of course I didn't want to have to blow money building something as an experiment if someone else had already done it!

For combat, sure the Reaper doesn't need that much weight - flights are relatively short and there's no extra equipment. I was thinking more for FPV payloads, where long flights times are common and lots of gear are carried. For example one of Trappy's Zephyrs weighs 2.2kgs (4.85lbs).

Why would you want a gyro on a wing???? For FPV I could see it, anything I else I have no idea what it would buy you.

I was thinking gyro for the wing for FPV as well. Where is the best place to get the gyros? and can you set them up with elevons?

Tom, I don't think i'll be able to make it. Unfortunately. What is the expected turnout?

The only way I know of to get a gyro to work with elevon mixing is to have an onboard mixer. It won't work with radio mixing