Monday, October 12, 2015

Kfm3 flying wing post-mortem

Maiden'd the Kfm3 flying wing this evening, and while it does fly, I really don't like the handling characteristics. It's rather pitch sensitive (expected) but for some reason it does not turn as well as I hope. It rolls well enough, but doesn't track as well as my Kfm4 wing. I wonder if it's because of the vertical stabilizers....

In addition, it has difficulty penetrating the wind. Even at full throttle it appears to move rather slowly. But more importantly, it's handling characteristics in a crosswind are rather poor. For some reason the Kfm4 wing dealt with it better. Maybe the wind was much stronger today.

Finally, the stick mount is just not working for this design. In order to have the thrust line aligned with the middle of the wing, the motor actually juts out under the wing. I've made a foam block to shield it, but hard landings can bend the mount.

In any case, I think I'm done with this experiment, and going to use what I've learnt so far to build another design. This one will be a swept wing with a pod, and the wing sweep will be a bit more than my first wing in order to make balancing the CG easier.


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