Aces High Bulletin Board
General Forums => The O' Club => Topic started by: Chalenge on August 09, 2010, 02:29:12 AM
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Have you noticed any spiral instability in your modified OlyIII? You would see it as a nose tuck and roll counter to any slip you come out of.
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I think most planes exhibit that to some extent, and I've seen some in my Oly too. Not bad at all, it basically flies itself, I just need to turn it once in a while. It's a simple plane to fly. When it goes into a bank, It doesn't try to return to level flight very quickly, but it doesn't really tighten its bank either. It's stability seems fairly "neutral", or "normal". I wouldn't say it's negative.
What I did see initially was a strong adverse yaw effect. I slaved the rudder to the ailerons at a rate of 50%, and that went away. I increased the aileron deflection, but haven't increased the rudder to correspond, I think I may still need to. I haven't tried a roll lately, but when I have it's really tough to get it over. Loops are easy of course.
Here's a video of one of my flights. It was pretty breezy, and I actually launched it with a tailwind from over my right shoulder (you'll notice I was close to stalling it on the launch). The mailbox is actually my neighbors, my house id the one I launch directly towards, buried in the trees. That's my son and I on the road.
I've been so busy with work that I haven't had much time to fly it, and when I do, the conditions aren't so good. This was one of my best days, and I only had about 1/2 hour to devote to it. I'm a long way from figuring out the specifics on this plane, and haven't thermal flown a sailplane in 15 years, so I'm rusty...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f4zaEd8Hpnc