Blackhorse Super Air

Stephen, look on the bright side, he is unlikly to have rape in the field next season.

Posted by Bruce Richards on 19/07/2009 08:24:43:

Well, looking on the bright side, I suppose you were able to use the wheels again, Bruce!

 

Pete

They havent had rape in this field for 20 years.I join the club and the farmer sows rape seed.Theres no point scratching his disco,there isnt a square panel on it and idont think there is anything on the farm he hasnt managed to hit with it,a scratch would improve it,but his a very very nice man

Whilst looking for the Super Air this a scene I found.I walked further round the field and found a place I could get through the fence to a path

A beautiful scene, you may find trout fishing less expensive!

The way its been going lately anything would be less expensive.I started the year not needing to buy or build any models this year and since my "A" its all gone wrong.Thing is my flying has improved so much that the low wingers beckoned a bit sooner than expected.

The good news is that using the Mpx Mentor and video Camers they found a model.The bad news is it isnt mine.They were able to work out exacly where it was by a big patch of ground the rape seed hasnt grown on.They think they saw a wing in the direction of where I feel my model went in but were unable to get a fix as to its location.They are hoping to try again in a morecontrolled way.First run was a bit hap hazard

Stephen, your not alone I've busted two good models in the past 3 weeks a Seagull PC9 and Black Horse Cessna 182. On crashing the Cessna it broke the exhaust manifold of the SC 52fs as well.  I'm so peed off beacause I made the same stupid mistake twice, going down wind with insufficent speed. A common mistake with low wingers but not twice.

Thanks very much for th advice, I need to learn these things on this Forum instead of a club member advicing me when Im picking the bits up.Can you explain what happens when you go down wind to slow please

When you fly into the wind, ie take off you get extra lift due to the speed of the air over the wing, while down wind if you do not increase you engine speed slightly you lose that lift you had due to the decrease in the air speed over the wing then when you come to turn into the wind the plane stalls and goes downward very rapidly.  The answer is to increase you engine speed a bit before you begin to make your turn,  obviously the higher the wind speed the more you must take this into account. I belive most crashes of lowwingers are at the point of turning from a down wind leg onto a cross wind due to stalling as a result of insufficent airspeed.

I am sure there are many far more technical minded pilots who will be able to explain this in better terms.

I understand Andrew, you take off and when you go downwind you reduce power otherwise the model may go to fast.Then as you turn back into wind you increase power to keep the necessary speed up.Is that right.I think  i had that today but I was high up.My instructor handed the model to me and  I reduced speed because ir was a bit to fast for me.When I turned I lost a lot of height so straightened up and increased speed,I didnt have a problem after that and kept it at the higher speed and got used to it.It did unnerve me a bit because I didnt understand what had happened.Ill be wary of that in future,thankyou for that Andrew

Thats right, speed up before you start your turn, once you have made the turn you can reduce power if required. This situation often arises as you turn on to the base leg to make you landing approch. This was my mistake slowing down to soon in the turn and you get a tip stall. Was the model your were flying today your Seagull 40, I,ve just got one to replace my PC9. Not put it together yet, have been reading you blog, very helpful. Good luck weather does not look to good for flying over the next couple of days though.

It depends how close you are to the stall speed.

 

I guess you could describe a perfect circuit as done at a constant ground speed. 

 

Imagine your plane stalls below 20 miles per hour (I am making these numbers up).  Your circuit needs to be done at over 20 miles per hour in dead calm conditions.

 

Now imagine the wind is blowing at 10mph.

 

When flying upwind you only need a ground speed of 10mph, as the wind adds another 10mph of airspeed.

When flying downwind you need an ground speed of 30mph, as the wind subtracts 10mph of airspeed. 

 

This is why you often see the downwind leg as much faster than the upwind leg.

 

If you want a constant speed circuit it needs to be done at a minimum of 30mph.

 

I am guessing that, like me, you still fly quite slowly, as this gives you more time.  This means you must be more aware of the wind, as if you are flat out then you are in little danger of dropping below the stall speed.

 

I would imagine most stalls are actually at the turn onto the downwind leg, as you suddenly have the wind working against your ground speed.

Yes Andy it was the Seagull 40.In a stall thread it was discussed at putting a model very high to see what it did a slow speed so you could learn its characteristics.You can see from the wing the the 40 should be forgiving.I tend to have my instructor land a few times forme then I can learn the speed needed.So far it lands very well for him

I bascially just wrote a big lecture and then when i posted it timed out!!! Hate it when it does that

 

For us beginners Stephen. Basically every aircraft has a stall speed which is only relevant to airspeed and not groundspeed and does not matter whether there is a 30knt headwind, 15knt tailwind, 500knt crosswind etc etc...

 

When the airspeed falls below the stall speed the aircraft WILL stall!!

 

So, on that downwind leg when us beginners panic becuase we think it is going so fast we chop the throttle, the airspeed dramatically reduces and groundspeed increases. The wind is pushing the model and the prop is not pulling it!

 

Then, if we havent already, when we turn base/finals the inevitable result is ground impact, due to stall (Because our airspeed was still low even though the model looked like it was going fast) and at low altitude there is no time to recover.  

 

Airspeed = Speed through air.

Groundspeed = Speed over ground.

 

We actually think it is going fast but it isnt, so the airspeed drops below stall speed and then STALL!

 

Practice taking your aircraft up high and gradually slowing it down whilst pulling more and more up elevator. This will teach you the charactheristics of a stall and give you a rough idea of your models stall speed.

 

Cheers,

 

Ross.

 

 

 

 

Thankyou, for that Ross Ill do that very helpfull S

Also, real world pilots have the comfort of being able to continuously monitor an airspeed indicator so in theory they could just keep the throttle set at a setting where the airspeed is just above stall speed and fly around into wind, crosswind, downwind etc.

 

There will be no difference in the aircrafts airspeed but all the pilot will notice is the ground going passed them faster or slower!! If they panic and reduce throttle on downwind because they think they are going to fast, airspeed will reduce and STALL.

 

 

My instructor is always telling me the model must fly faster than the wind ,down wind otherwise the controls wont work is this a similar sonario?

Its funny actually .I often flew my Boomerang flat out.,All the gear from that is in the Seagull 40 but Im flying it slower!