I see people fly all kind of airplanes:slowflyers, acrobatic, gliders,hotliners,etc.
I felt in love with fiberglass hotliners.But they come in different sizes:1.5 to 3 meters span(even more).
I almost bought the plane shown here.It's a custom made 2800 mm by 1250 mm long.
My first concern was the wing span.Is it too long for me?Will it be difficult to fly?
Because I saw a relation between wing span/vs plane weight my questions are:
What is the best ratio wingspan/weight for an all purpose glider(plane) and what is the optimum wingspan to liftoff 1kg of payload(video camera and accesories)?
My conclusion is:2800mm is too much for me.The best size is around 1500mm.
Of course this is only my opinion.
To be more rigorous I found a link on wiki describing relation between wing span and plane weight:
The aspect ratio of a wing is the length of the wing compared with the breadth (chord) of the wing. A high aspect ratio indicates long, narrow wings, whereas a low aspect ratio indicates short, stubby wings
Comments
Best of luck with your new model - if you survive the learning curve, it looks like a lot of fun.
If EasyStar is so durable maybe Boeing should make their Dreamliner out of elapor foam,not carbon fiber.:)
Also the new EasyStar should be filled with helium so nobody could crush them.Sorry for my black humor.
unfortunately I already bought my next plane:
http://shop.lindinger.at/product_info.php?products_id=62769&osC...
One reason is that we don't live forever to go all the steps to achieve something.
I hope I made one good choice(it's made of fiberglass but it's not as slim as a hotliner).
Now to describe my experience with EsyStar:Even an cave man can do it.When you get bored of flying or the situation gets windy you can simply crush it to the ground.This way you will learn bad habits.
A better answer to your question starts by considering your first comment: "I'm new to rc planes", and then continues on by considering that so far you have been flying an EasyStar, and you are "looking for something more durable".
There aren't very many planes "more durable" than the EasyStar. What sort of durability are you looking for? What other attributes do you want in the model? The Beginners forum on RCGroups is a good place to go if you want lots of suggestions.
A composite hotliner is not a good second plane, in general. They are not "durable" in most senses of the word, and mistakes tend to be very expensive.
You asked "My first concern was the wing span.Is it too long for me? Will it be difficult to fly?"
None of us have seen you fly or know how confident you are. All other things being equal, a longer wing implies more roll damping (note, not necessarily stability). The issue of "difficult to fly" is tough to answer without knowing a lot more about the model; hotliners are frequently "difficult" to fly because they are capable of flying very fast, retain energy well (making landing difficult), and tend to be heavy and very highly powered, leading to complications during launching. In addition, the narrow aspect ratio and small frontal area make it quite easy to lose sight of this sort of airframe.
If you're hoping for a concrete suggestion; based on reading between the lines above I would encourage you to look at the EasyGlider. It's robust, easy to build, easy to fly, and is a good intermediate step between the Easy* and an entry-level hotliner. You can also beef up the power system and add some weight (brass rod inside the wing spar is popular) to make it faster without spending very much money.
If you want to provide persistence on calm days, a glider is great, if you want to survey a large area, a faster plane might have some advantages.
For any wing length, the wider, thicker wing will provide more lift at the same airspeed with less drag.
Glider are only more efficient because they travel slow, they are not the most efficient design for getting from a to b.
To give some info:
Blanik L-23 Sailplane Wingspan: 16.2 m (53 ft 2 in) Wing area: 19.2 m² (206 ft²)
max load, 2 passangers
Piper PA-18 Normal Plane Wingspan: 35 ft 2½ in (10.73 m) Wing area: 178.5 sq ft (16.58 m²)
Max takeoff weight: 1,750 lb (794 kg) so 820 lbs load.
The PA-18 has shorter and smaller wings but a larger load, but the L-23 is built to be a glider and therefore more efficent.
You also need to look at how to load is going to affect the air flow over the plane.
If you just put a lead brick inside the airplane it might handel better than if you ducktape a camera to the wing.