Mercy! Mercy! That Dang Nabed PERCY!

When the Requirement exceeds the Capacity of the Processor

On Wednesday I had breakfast with the guys in Wisconsin Rapids. We talked about the status of our flying club and model airplanes and that sort of stuff. Since the restaurant is close to the club's flying field I brought a couple of airplanes hoping one of the members would do the same and join me out there. Since it was windy and there was no interest I went out alone telling the guys I wanted to take a close look at the field for the upcoming Fun Fly we'll be holding.

When I got out there it was even windier but I said, "What the heck," (To myself), I'll try taxiing The Gull around and see how the old girl responds. For those who aren't aware (and who would be?) The Gull is this big old antique gull wing flying model. When I was at the Flight School with Dave he checked it out and said it was underpowered and the ailerons didn't have enough surface area. So when I got home I called Heads Up RC and explained the problem, thinking I would get a recommendation on a larger electric motor. The Technician said it wasn't that the motor was too small but that there wasn't enough Oomph in the battery. He said if I went to a five or six cell it would produce gobs more power. So I ordered one to try.

Another problem that Dave pointed out on The Gull was that the center of gravity (CG) was out of whack. The airplane was tail heavy. This is a frequent problem when converting a RC model from gas to electric. A gas engine and fuel load tends to weigh more. If you add instead an electric motor and batter than the tail is heavier than the nose and it flies like a dog with worms scooting its butt along the ground. I thought with the bigger battery up front that this would correct the problem but it didn't . As I was taxiing around the model lifted off and while I was trying to decided what to do it gained altitude. Suddenly I was past the point of no return and let it continue to climb past the end of the runway. I got it to turn and it scooted down wind dragging its tail and when I turned back into the wind it became a handful. I got it to align with the runway and chopped the throttle and it stalled and landed hard, doing damage to the wingtip, tail and right hand side of the fuselage. After repairing the Giant Big Stick the damage was minor.

On the one hand I was happy that The Gull now had plenty of power but I had to do something to move the CG forward. So I extended the front end two and a half inches. That should make a huge difference by both shifting the motor further forward along with the heavier battery.

In retrospect I should have just leveled the wings and let it settle back onto the runway. I guess the unexpected takeoff presented a problem that required more brain bytes than my processor had to offer. Well you live and learn.