I had my first attempt, after months of anticipation, at flight testing my 2-meters wingspan glider. The electronics worked fine. The vertical surface (for rudder control) attachment looked a bit suspect but I couldn't wait anymore I mean It had rained out for the past two weeks! There's only so much patience a guy can have!
Well setting up the glider on the field I realised something crucial that I had overlooked (I think I blatantly ignored this one)... The weight balance of the glider made it tail heavy. To all my non-technical guys it means all the weight of glider didn't sit under the correct part of the wing but further away towards the tail. Simply put... the glider WILL NOT GLIDE... not properly anyway (and most probably break something on it's way down).
But I decided to press on... I mean, YOU CAN still fly with a tail-heavy airplane... YEAH RIGHT!
After assembling the glider and doing an electronics check, to check if the proof WAS REALLY in the pudding (there's no pudding --- I'm just saying). I swallowed every instincts of me to not hand-launched the glider and set to give it a shot (Kids -- don't be like me -- always listen to your instincts). Lord and behold, the glider flew.... For like 2 SECONDS! It pitched up in the air and came crashing (hard landing to be more precise) down TAIL first.
In the back of my mind I knew I pushed the flight test through eventhough the glider was not properly balanced. But to my surprise, the strengthening of the wing-to-fuselage and fuselage-to-tail interface held their end of the deal by keeping the glider intact... MAN! Was I GLAD!
So didn't need anymore confirmation (I know --- I should have known better right!) that I needed to correct the weight balancing the glider before the next launch. In my pride, I agree and so I'm in the process of making some changes to fuselage to correct the weight balance. I'll keep you guys posted the latest development.
Below are some pictures of the what the glider looked like on the day. Enjoy!
Well setting up the glider on the field I realised something crucial that I had overlooked (I think I blatantly ignored this one)... The weight balance of the glider made it tail heavy. To all my non-technical guys it means all the weight of glider didn't sit under the correct part of the wing but further away towards the tail. Simply put... the glider WILL NOT GLIDE... not properly anyway (and most probably break something on it's way down).
But I decided to press on... I mean, YOU CAN still fly with a tail-heavy airplane... YEAH RIGHT!
After assembling the glider and doing an electronics check, to check if the proof WAS REALLY in the pudding (there's no pudding --- I'm just saying). I swallowed every instincts of me to not hand-launched the glider and set to give it a shot (Kids -- don't be like me -- always listen to your instincts). Lord and behold, the glider flew.... For like 2 SECONDS! It pitched up in the air and came crashing (hard landing to be more precise) down TAIL first.
In the back of my mind I knew I pushed the flight test through eventhough the glider was not properly balanced. But to my surprise, the strengthening of the wing-to-fuselage and fuselage-to-tail interface held their end of the deal by keeping the glider intact... MAN! Was I GLAD!
So didn't need anymore confirmation (I know --- I should have known better right!) that I needed to correct the weight balancing the glider before the next launch. In my pride, I agree and so I'm in the process of making some changes to fuselage to correct the weight balance. I'll keep you guys posted the latest development.
Below are some pictures of the what the glider looked like on the day. Enjoy!
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