blue320
Flight lieutenant
Posts: 50
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Post by blue320 on May 9, 2012 1:31:43 GMT 1
In an effort to strengthen my SC's wing, I managed to reduced the dihedral/angle of the wing. I applied three strips of packing tape on the bottom from strut botton to botton. To make sure it's even, I used two CD casings for height and placed them in the middle of the wing while I was taping. I still used the struts for support though.
I was wondering if I'm flying better/learning or did this modification enhanced the SC's manueverability? Doing inverted flights, loops, etc. seem easier. I'm flying a stock SC LP.
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Post by flydiver on May 9, 2012 1:45:04 GMT 1
Dihedral has self righting characteristics. Removing some of the DH will make it easier to get 'off center', but it will not self right as well. An experienced pilot can cope with that and may like it better.
OTOH, If you made the wing completely flat with rudder only you would be pretty unhappy I think. It likely would tend to roll part way over and dive aggressively.
Without ailerons a flat wing and rudder combo make for a pretty difficult plane on some platforms. I think the Cub would be one of them.
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blue320
Flight lieutenant
Posts: 50
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Post by blue320 on May 9, 2012 3:10:45 GMT 1
Flydiver...
It's not 100% flat. I want to say 70%. I can still take my hands off the stick and let it glide/fly. I actually have a new SC wing as a backup. I'm thinking of swapping them just to really feel the difference.
I'll try to take a picture and show you. Thanks again for the feedback.
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Post by flydiver on May 9, 2012 4:36:50 GMT 1
A completely flat wing can be flown hands off, no problem. Dihedral adds roll stability. Here's one explanation:
Dihedral is the upward angle of the wings from a horizontal (front/rear view) axis of the plane. The benefit of a positive dihedral wing, is extra stability on the ROLL axis. Since both wings are angled slightly up, and if the RIGHT wing were to start rolling down (or clockwise), it will stop when it becomes perpendicular to the horizontal axis. This is because when the wing reaches 0-degree horizontal angle, it produces lift, thus raising the right wing back up. This now causes the LEFT wing to to reach 0-degree horizontal angle, thus making it cause left and rise again.
Because both wings Lift back and forth naturally, it keeps the airplane stable on the ROLL (horizontal) axis. This design is used on most commercial airlines today to keep them very stable during flight.
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blue320
Flight lieutenant
Posts: 50
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Post by blue320 on May 9, 2012 19:53:12 GMT 1
Hey FlyDiver,
Your explanation is better than Wikipedia. hahhahaha I started reading and researching about dihedral wings after posting here. Thanks for explaining in layman's term. Now, I get it.
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Post by flydiver on May 10, 2012 2:10:43 GMT 1
Sometime you'll have a plane with a flat wing, ailerons, and rudder. You may mod the SC or get one built that way. After you figure out how to fly it with ailerons properly get some altitude and try to fly it with rudder and elevator alone. You'll find it pretty interesting, likely challenging, and possibly just about impossible at first.
3D flat foamy profile planes will fly quite well on rudder and elevator, at least mine do. They just pivot around almost dead flat. My 'regular' aileron planes don't fly well at all on rudder turning alone. I've also found minimal benefit for programming rudder + ailerons. That may be a function of my planes. There's a lot of controversy about this. It's an extremely common question on how to mix aileron with rudder.
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