Moderator Comment by Gary Mortimer on March 30, 2010 at 8:41am

How did you mould the centre pod?? Looks great. Wings are the only way ;-)

Those winglets look a tad large and might benefit from a little bit underneath as well. I dont know the aerodynamic smarts for that but apparently 5-10% below helps, its what we have done and it does. I will get Chris Mc N to comment. Like the cut out ailerons as well. It can be a pain against the fins.

How are you keeping thecorrex wings stiff??

Other think they are tricky, but I think wings are easy ;-)

Comment by Curt Filipowski on March 30, 2010 at 9:58am

Thanks! I actually got the center ABS pod from Centexflyer, he runs a SAR service out of the states using wings (http://www.rpflightsystems.com/MainPage.html), they have some amazing looking wing!

The winglets are slightly larger then I originally planned so I will experiment with sizing, they also droop below the wing approx 1.75" to help ward off any tip stalling tendency. The original wing was very stable with this setup with no stall tendencies (even will full control deflection under glide) so I hope this design will be the same.

Correx wings?? You lost me :) . If you look at the build log you'll see that the wings are internally braced with 2 carbon spars and are pulled tightly against a center foam pod section which takes all the flight stresses (technically it could fly without the ABS pod).

I love wings, build them right and they are hands off stable and very efficient designs.

Moderator Comment by Morli on March 30, 2010 at 6:48pm

Hi Curt,
Like your wing( one of the best I have ever seen) , a very well done and neat inside installation :)), clean lines and finish. A Job well done. A video of it flying will be very much appreciated. the only thing I could dare to comment on is the GPS cable here may bounce around ( and touch the gyros causing some vibration trouble) , the looped portion which gos forward could also the secured in the same Velcro that holds the UDB, The GPS it self may appreciate some protection from hard bumps/vibrations using some soft foam as the antenna is known to be weak. A finishing touch with a small cowl for the exposed engine mount might make it look even better IMHO. cheers

Moderator Comment by Gary Mortimer on March 30, 2010 at 11:49pm

I thought that looked like one of Genes centre sections, cool.

Moderator Comment by Morli on March 31, 2010 at 1:05am

Genes center section?

Comment by Curt Filipowski on March 31, 2010 at 7:37am

Morli, thankyou for the compliments and insights! I will secure the GPS lead before flying. A motor pod fairing may be in the wings future.

Gary,
Yes sir, thankfully the wing is also Gene's design so the pods he builds are directly compatible with my wing.

I did get some walk around testing done last night and it looks like the RTL function (waypoint function) is working very well. I did a few hand tosses in manual mode and I think I may be a bit tail heavy but other then some minor tweeking I am shooting for a weekend maiden where I should be able to try out the stability function at the least.

Comment by Scott Plunkett on April 1, 2010 at 2:13pm

Beautiful bird..Wingz are SO the way to go!

Comment by Curt Filipowski on April 8, 2010 at 10:19am

I agree Scott!

Maiden Flight:

Last weekend I decided it was time to see how the stability and waypoint functions worked in the air. After flying around in manual mode (super easy to fly, definatly my most stable wing yet!) to achieve yaw lock I leveled it out a few mistakes high and engaged stability mode. I am running completely stock gains for all controls and noticed the wing would rock left and right (gain to high) but would not hold a stable attitude...after a few seconds in stability mode the wing rolled off to once side and started a shallow dive towards the ground all the while rocking left and right.

I dropped back into manual and flew out the rest of the pack testing the stability function a few more times...all with the same result.

I am sure I saw Bryan post his gain values for his wing either on this site or on the google code board so I'll adjust my gains and fly again. I am just happy to see everything working! Once I get my gains all sorted out I'm sure it will perform great!

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