Beautiful! If it was -10 I think my dumb thumbs would have been frozen thumbs (and fingers) though.

Originally Posted by mutski

Well, I'm back in Alaska. Feel better now?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6JdC-a66Dmo

Shazam! I'm going to visit that site some day. I want to go to there.

Originally Posted by AleRRon

Beautiful! If it was -10 I think my dumb thumbs would have been frozen thumbs (and fingers) though.

Two options - heat packs in my mittens, or put it in iNav position hold while I warm my fingers. But it was only -5.

Anyone have a answer? I have the fpv version of the drift, trying to fly with the 2S li ion pack. I have it balanced square on the points on the wing. First launch, 3/4 throttle, nose over into the ground, breaking the nose.

Repaired, Second attempt, cg in the same place, 3/4 throttle, holding full up elevator, launch, gentle decent, then start to climb. go full throttle, and up she goes. Turn loose of the elevator stick to put in some trim, and straight into the ground, off comes the nose................again.

Does the cg need to be moved forward of the marks on the wing, or am I doing something I haven't thought of yet. The wings are straight and so is the tail.

Off to do another repair.

Thanks in advance for the help.

Needs to be a bit more nose heavy, see post 830 and 841.

Originally Posted by stevea3342

Needs to be a bit more nose heavy, see post 830 and 841.

It has no problem going on it’s nose.

If you move the cg fwd of the spots on the wing, then aren’t you moving weight aft?

Originally Posted by Bill0

It has no problem going on it’s nose.

If you move the cg fwd of the spots on the wing, then aren’t you moving weight aft?

If it's tail-heavy, it has a tendency to stall and fall into a death spiral. Mine crashed repeatedly until I put the CG 4-5mm forward of the marks on the wings.

Launch at about 3/4 throttle. Give it a firm toss with the plane level or just a little bit nose up. If the throttle is too low and the nose too high, it may stall and crash.

I recommend adding 1 mm of mechanical upward trim to the elevator. Turn on the transmitter and plug in the flight battery to put your servos in the neutral position, then adjust the elevator push rod to give about 1 mm of up-elevator. That will help with launches. See the attached photo of my elevator with neutral sticks.

What flight controller are you using? I have the Matek F411-WSE. When the plane is level, the flight controller thinks it's nose-up and adds down elevator. I fixed this by changing the board pitch by +4 degrees under Board and Sensor Alignment on the Configuration tab in iNav. Now it flies level hands-free in stabilized modes. I haven't used Kopilot, don't know if you have similar options with that one.

maybe i'm old fashioned, but surely the first launch should be purely gliding (power off) over the proverbial long grass ?

power on is not going to teach you anything that pure gliding won't demonstrate, except with less speed to throw your plane into the ground if it is poorly balanced


thrust line is a different problem, but there's a lot to be said for checking your plane flies with reasonable trim settings before encouraging it to show you it doesn't with added confounders

if it can glide, it can fly... then check how it goes with power, and reassess accordingly

Originally Posted by scruffy1

maybe i'm old fashioned, but surely the first launch should be purely gliding (power off) over the proverbial long grass ?

power on is not going to teach you anything that pure gliding won't demonstrate, except with less speed to throw your plane into the ground if it is poorly balanced


thrust line is a different problem, but there's a lot to be said for checking your plane flies with reasonable trim settings before encouraging it to show you it doesn't with added confounders

if it can glide, it can fly... then check how it goes with power, and reassess accordingly

That sounds like a really good philosophy, but I started naïve; I've always applied the power. I didn't toss my Drift into the tall grass until I was trying to figure out why the camera kept dying, but when I did, I was amazed at how well it glides. Maybe I wouldn't have struggled with the CG problem if I'd started your way.

Originally Posted by Bill0

Anyone have a answer? I have the fpv version of the drift, trying to fly with the 2S li ion pack. I have it balanced square on the points on the wing. First launch, 3/4 throttle, nose over into the ground, breaking the nose.

Repaired, Second attempt, cg in the same place, 3/4 throttle, holding full up elevator, launch, gentle decent, then start to climb. go full throttle, and up she goes. Turn loose of the elevator stick to put in some trim, and straight into the ground, off comes the nose................again.

Does the cg need to be moved forward of the marks on the wing, or am I doing something I haven't thought of yet. The wings are straight and so is the tail.

Off to do another repair.

Thanks in advance for the help.

Are your control surfaces moving correctly in both manual and stability modes? I had a similar problem and it was because the elevator was reversed. Sorry if you already checked that, but it seems like a common problem even veterans can make.

Originally Posted by c2v2

Are your control surfaces moving correctly in both manual and stability modes? I had a similar problem and it was because the elevator was reversed. Sorry if you already checked that, but it seems like a common problem even veterans can make.

Thanks for the info, but I did check everything and it’s all working in the right directions in manual mode and stabilized mode. I launched it in manual mode and haven’t had the chance to go back out again and try it again. I still have it to fix, which is a easy one.

Thanks again...........Bill

...

Originally Posted by Bill0

Thanks for the info, but I did check everything and it’s all working in the right directions in manual mode and stabilized mode. I launched it in manual mode and haven’t had the chance to go back out again and try it again. I still have it to fix, which is a easy one.

Thanks again...........Bill

Add in some up elevator and adjust the cg a few mm forward of the bumps on the wing. Mine needs a bit of up elevator (3mm or so) to fly in manual and stability mode. Full throttle tends to push the nose down on launch due to the thrust angle. 5/8 to 3/4 throttle with a slight upward toss works best for me.

Originally Posted by Missiletm

Add in some up elevator and adjust the cg a few mm forward of the bumps on the wing. Mine needs a bit of up elevator (3mm or so) to fly in manual and stability mode. Full throttle tends to push the nose down on launch due to the thrust angle. 5/8 to 3/4 throttle with a slight upward toss works best for me.

Thanks.. I'll do the repairs this weekend and get back out at it next week. Family for the holiday is here now, so, must entertain.

After many great flights I may have to retire my Drift after today's flight... She has been a good plane mostly and has the Kopilot FC. I have had RTH working so well that I have used this as auto launch almost exclusively but on the second flight today I gave her a toss and as I was walking to sit down and put on the goggles she decided to turn left and crash into the lake instead I recovered her and dried her out but I am not sure I will keep flying her now. So much for being cocky and not having the radio in my hands.