Finally there

Waggly tails
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AllenD
Posts: 11
Joined: 21 Mar 2019, 10:32

Finally there

Post by AllenD »

After being tied up on several other projects over the last year, I finally got around to finishing the Fidget that I started a couple of months ago. I now have 2.01 flights on it. The first flight was in very windy conditions, with a gusty cross wind. I took off with full throttle and the Fidget immediately went into a hard left spiral, coming around and hitting the fence bordering our field, even though I had full right rudder applied. The damage wasn't too bad, I had it repaired in about an hour. I went to the field a couple of days later, in the early morning to get some calm air, and found that with full right rudder applied, the plane still went hard left on takeoff roll, so back home to put in more right thrust. The second attempt last Sunday showed the same tendency to go left, but not so bad, so I put in three turns of right rudder on the rudder clevis and went for it. This time the take off was straight and it flew, though needing some down trim. Flew it for five or six minutes and landed. Next day put in a couple of turns down on the elevator clevis and tried it again. Another successful flight of five minutes or more. I sure looks pretty wiggling it's way through the air, so now, fifty years after my unsuccessful attempt to fly Galloping Ghost, I've now joined the GG flyers club. I still need to do a bit more trimming, it flies straight with full throttle, but goes a little right at half throttle, so I'm going to shim the motor a little more right and take out a little right rudder trim. It flies well enough with the elevator throw it now has, but lands a little hard, with not enough flair, so I'll probably increase the elevator throw. All in all, I happy with it. With many successful single channel flight the last two years and now my first successful GG flight, I'm a happy camper.

Allen Dye
Virginia, USA.
Tobe
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Joined: 16 Feb 2018, 06:19
Location: Varberg or Stockholm, Sweden

Re: Finally there

Post by Tobe »

Good to hear Allen, very well done. Remember that Rome was not built in one day!
Cheers,

Tobe
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Wayne_H
Posts: 809
Joined: 17 Feb 2018, 05:26
Location: Temora, NSW. Australia
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Re: Finally there

Post by Wayne_H »

Way to go Allen - perseverance pays off :D

Enjoy having the Fidgets! :P
Cheers,

Wayne
Once a Retrobate, always a Retrobate............ ;)
AllenD
Posts: 11
Joined: 21 Mar 2019, 10:32

Re: Finally there

Post by AllenD »

Now that I've got the Fidget about worked out, its time to go where my heart truly lies, engine powered aircraft. The Fidget was just to see how well GG worked. Now I'll have to order another actuator and build something like a Mayfly. Except for a few small 3D foamies and such, I don't have any electric stuff. I guess I'm just too old school. I have several small engines lying around, so putting a glow powered GG into the air won't be too hard.
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Wayne_H
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Joined: 17 Feb 2018, 05:26
Location: Temora, NSW. Australia
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Re: Finally there

Post by Wayne_H »

AllenD wrote: 02 Oct 2019, 15:26 Now that I've got the Fidget about worked out, its time to go where my heart truly lies, engine powered aircraft............ I guess I'm just too old school. I have several small engines lying around, so putting a glow powered GG into the air won't be too hard.
Allen, I can personally recommend the Dick's Dream or the Whizard - both are fabulous S/C or G/G performers :D
Cheers,

Wayne
Once a Retrobate, always a Retrobate............ ;)
AllenD
Posts: 11
Joined: 21 Mar 2019, 10:32

Re: Finally there

Post by AllenD »

Thanks Wayne, I'll check them out. I'm not fixed on what will be my next GG plane, as long as it has an engine.
jmendoza
Posts: 167
Joined: 18 Feb 2018, 23:07

Re: Finally there

Post by jmendoza »

The Mayfly will need a bunch of right thrust. On the 1st few flights, mine would only turn left and you could only do a right turn if you cut the throttle after descending to build airspeed...it was very challenging to say the least. The wizard by Ace is pretty easy to trim. I had to shim the wing incidence so that the elevator at neutral had equal up and down travel. Once that was sorted, it flew much better.


I have found out that Galloping Ghost does not have as much control authority as proportional, so it is critical to get the plane trimmed out in terms of thrust, CG and incidence to optimize the control effectiveness.
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