I last flew about 8 weeks ago and had good success. I flew my Whisper 2 and my Easy Star twice each. Actually made intentional landings in the desired general area with both planes. Almost no wind. I was flushed with a sense of victory over sin and ignorance!

I took my XE2 out yesterday. Very light wind around 5 mph. I admit that the plane taxes my meager beginner's skills but I have had successful flights with it on occasion. It is VERY maneuverable and a bit fast for my 60 year old reflexes even with the stock speed 400 set up.. I haven't flown it in months for those reasons. It intimidates me a bit I guess. I was in trouble right from the launch but got it settled down and began flying in counter clockwise fashion. Flew probably 6 or 8 laps then it happend again, just like so many times before. I'm making a turn, get a little out of sorts and the plane spirals down out of the sky before I can get my act together. It all happens so quickly it's like I don't even have time to really see what's going on! Crashed REALLY hard this time. The durability of this plane is unbelievable but I've finally manged to break the EPP in the area of the prop cut out (three cracks). I've got it 2/3 repaired already. Just need to replace the motor mount and recover the area with Ultra coat.

Can any wing flyers out there tell me why I keep doing this?

I'm getting a bit frustrated to put it mildly.

What is actually happening?

Is this what is called "tip stall"?

Am I holdong the turn too long?

Am I turning too tight a radius?

I am thinking of putting longer control horns on the ailerons to make it a bit less sensitive. I already have the rods in the farthest hole of the medium sized horns that came with the kit.

Any help will be appreciated by this student pilot.

Hey dawg,maybe you might be a little tail heavy.And if you can move the winglets down so that a half inch or so is below the bottom edge of the wing at the trailing edge,it should help the tip stall/death spiral. Maybe back the throws down a fuzz too.Sometimes a little extra throttle in the turn helps. Good luck,keep trying,when all is right,it should be pretty nice.

Can any wing flyers out there tell me why I keep doing this?
Going too slow for the G's your pulling.


I'm getting a bit frustrated to put it mildly.
I'll bet!

What is actually happening?
Tip stall.

Is this what is called "tip stall"?
Yup.

Am I holdong the turn too long?
No.

Am I turning too tight a radius?
Yes for the airspeed.


Tip stalling is caused by the fact that the inboard wing is going slower than the outboard wing, meaning its possible to stall the inboard wing while the outboard one still is lifting effectively. What you get is a very fast roll straight down, called a spin.

The solution is to do shallower turns when your going slower, and avoid pulling up hard in that condition.

If you find yourself in a spin, there is only one solution, you must first unstall the wing by releasing the controls, ( continuing to pull up will keep it spinning all the way to the ground), allow it to build some speed in a dive THEN gently pull up out of it.

Good luck!
Dean in Milwaukee

Lost_Dawg,

Congratuatinos on your success with the Wisper 2 and the EZ*.

Based on your post I am going to assume you are a fairly new flyer. If that is true, I If would recommend you put at least one of your planes away. You are trying to learn too many planes at once.

Flying wings are very different from your other plans. I have a Zagi slope glider and a Boomer hand launch, both wings, and they take somewhat different flying skills as compared to my other planes.

Wings are easy to put into spirals because they are so short tip to tail. We say they are very pitch sensative. Most people find some expo helpful when flying a wing so you don't over control it.

As statedabove, you are probably trying to slow the wing to much on the turns and you MAY be turning too tight resulting in too much loss of air speed. You must keep the speed up on most flying wings that have motors.

I don't know your specific plane, so that is the best advice I can provide at this time.

Move the CG a touch forward...and don't try to turn sharp, low and slow.

Try getting a feel for how sharp you can pull it (practice high up) and try slowing it down as well.

Minifly makes a good suggestion about moving the CG forward a bit. Wings can be hard to balance. You may be a touch tail heavy which will cause the type of behavior you describe. Be VERY careful about the placement of your battery pack for each flight.

Simplest way to play with the CG, if you can't move the battery easily is tape a quarter, dime or penny near the nose of the plane, then fly it. See if it is any better. I have a quarter on the nose of my Zagi because I am too lazy to move stuff around to fix the CG. Works fine!

I taught 3 of my sons to fly on the XE2. At our altitude it is a little underpowered with the brushed motor and is easier to fly with a little more speed and power. With a little modification a brushless motor can push it around nicely.

I'm pushing a similar sized plane around now with an inexpensive BP21 and an 8x4 DD prop, a 25 A CC ESC and a 1320 3 cell lipo battery. I went to the BP 21 and the 8x4 prop to quiet the plane down and it flies well at 4500 feet elevation.

Keep it light. If your plane weighs too much it multiplies the stall characteristics.

Do you have flex in the wings? Do you get flutter in a dive? Several of the newbies have built planes that can flex and when they do the elevons no longer respond to the servo input. Planes with this problem loose control in corners and loops.

Are your connection rods flexing. They need to be tight. The XE2 has a good set up for solid connections. You should be able to move most servo arms with slight pressure on the elevon.

Are your servos moving in the EPP foam. If so hot glue or goop them solidly into the wing.

When a flying wing flies too slow you are near that point of stall and may tumble especially if you are tail heavy.

Make sure you don't have too much throw in the elevons. Too much throw increases the stall characteristics and especially hard for beginners because beginners tend to give too much stick to manovers to start with.

Put the CG slightly ahead of the recommended CG for learning.

All of my boys learned without having to replace a single plane. The only damage we have had is elevon damage from combat. (They are the Nintendo generation. They show no mercy.)

I want to say thanks to all the guys who took the time to try and help me out. I am going to try out the things you have suggested and see if I can't get better at flying it. The plane is all repaired and ready to go. I'm adding a little weight to the nose and putting a little longer control horns on the aielerons for starters. I only have a Hi Tech Neon radio so expo, etc is not an option.

You can add EPA/ATV and dual rates to the Neon. I have them on mine.

Go to servocity.com and get the aforementioned upgrades for your neon. Dual rates will make your life ALOT easier. Aloha.

Lono

Thanks for the suggestions! The tx upgrades for dual rate and ATV are on order from Servo City.

I had the same problem. I ended up limiting the up aileron travel of the tip that was stalling about 80%. I left everything else at 100%. After that I was able to do really tight slow turns and loops.