| T.R | Title | User | Personal
Name | Date | Lines |
|---|
| 923.1 | "Please don't Snap-roll" | VERSA::TULANKO | | Thu Mar 09 1989 16:44 | 21 |
|
Wayne,
I have an Electra that I built last year to use as a vacation
plane without having to haul my flight box , extra fuel , etc...
around . Its a good flier , but not too aerobatic . It's a typical
sailplane(sluggish and slow to respond to controls) , but still
fun . Seeing how you made the plane more aerobatic , did you re-
inforce the wing by using hardwood spars or something similar?
If not , does the wing seem strong enough to handle the extra stress
being put on it ? I'd also like to know if you changed the dihedral
any and how well it rolls . My Electra has seen alot of neglect,
mainly because of limited aerobatics . Sounds like you came up on
something .
|
____O____
Carl
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| 923.2 | Sloooo snap roll | DACT6::DICKSON | Wayne Dickson | Wed Mar 15 1989 12:22 | 20 |
| carl,
The plans called for the dihedral (in the center) to be made
of ply that was pre-cut, (actually it was pre-CRUNCHed, the
die-cutting was really poor) I used the same angle and re-
inforced the center with cloth (typ.) At the second dihedral
I also joined with ply and cloth. The wing loading is not that
dramatic... but I did add shear webs from the center to the
outboard panel.
I also have an Electri-Cub from Great Plains and with a geared
reduction .15 and 8.4V pack I get good acrobatics.
The Electra flies "cleaner" with (1) dihedral but does have
more of a tendency to tip stall at power-off times. Still
working on a hammerhead stall! but really, the plane does
do rolls and for a "cheap" thrill at electric performance
it was well worth the building time and real fun to experiment!
Wayne.
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| 923.3 | Thanks for the tip | VERSA::TULANKO | | Thu Mar 16 1989 11:21 | 13 |
|
Wayne ,
I thank you for the input . the electra kit is inexpensive
that I can afford another one to experiment with . Will give it a try ,
and thanks again . PS; You wern't kidding about the die cutting on this
one . the piper is the same way with alot of slop in the rib cuts for
the main spars too . But they're still good fliers .
Keep em' flying ,
Carl
|
| 923.4 | ELECTRIC LADY? | NYJOPS::BOBA | Bob Aldea @PCO | Thu Oct 26 1989 09:19 | 13 |
| I've been told that the Gentle Lady works well as an electric and
doesn't really need the stronger wing of the Electra/Sophisticated
Lady. More recently an article in MB mentioned that a modified
Lady was the lightest 7 cell sailplane at the Astro Soar meet.
The combination of better and cheaper seems worth investigation,
and I thought it might be a nice addition to the hanger, although
with the aerobatic mods in this note, the wing strength might be a
problem.
The modifications were detailed in an old (Feb'85?) issue of Model
Builder. I'd guess that the fuselage needs widening, and maybe
a longer nose? Can anyone provide a copy of the article, or
recommended modifications based on personal experience?
|
| 923.5 | Home sick angel called Elektra | ODIHAM::WARWICK_B | | Tue Jan 09 1990 08:04 | 48 |
| Eric,
I can't remember your rules for the winter project -- you only
implemented one in the end did you not -- there aint no rules! or
was there a second one saying rule 1 could not be changed?
Anyway as a spur to my building ( having declared to all and sundry
that I will do it then I have an incentive! ) I will finish building
the Goldberg Elektra which I bought back in Oct/Nov.
I have not flown electric before or even been close to one flying
so I did not know what to expect. I guess that from this notesfile
I came to the conclusion that there are two types of electric plane
-- the small wingspan fast aerobatic kind and the thermal style
with electric assist rather than bungee or winch.
Anyway I chose the Elektra for some easy stick time -- blast for
the sky and then float around!
Some of you may say that I cannot expect this bird to head for heaven
at a vast rate of knots. However, I was eye-balling all the hardware
which has to go into the fuse last night and figuring out where
it ought to go when I decided to put the prop on the motor and hook
up the battery for a staic thrust test.
The motor is a 550 direct drive and the prop is a Graupner folding
8" x 4.5" ( I do not plan to use the standard Goldberg prop supplied
as I did not want to prang it on landing ). The nicad pack is a
standard 6 cell Sanyo.
Anyway, I hooked it up and grasping the motor firmly flicked the
switch --- WWOOWW the prop wash nearly ripped the shirt of my back
but as soon as the motor hit full revs ( 2 seconds? ) the prop assembly
flew off the motor shaft and hurtled accross the room -- 10 feet
without a drop in altitude!!
I had not tightened up the collet enough -- obviously!
I know the plane is going to weigh a few pounds with the nicad being
a large part of this but this motor/prop sure seems to give some
thrust!
Sorry to ramble -- expect to see some photos in a month or so.
Regards
Brian
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