I had my two favorite Russian park jets at the field today... :)
Unfortunately I didn't get to complete as many flights as I would have liked because it started to rain, but the weather front moving in provided me with a good opportunity for some flying in gusty, swirling winds. The wind was probably around 10-15 mph, but gusty and variable in direction, so a great "laboratory" to assess the Mig29 V4's handling in these conditions. I managed to get 6 good flights in the wind with the Mig V4 today before the rain chased me away.
I tried one flight with a 1600 battery (AUW of 19 oz) and it was a pretty good handful, getting bounced around pretty well, so I put a 2200 in it (AUW of 20.5 oz) and it's behavior became much tamer and more stable. The KF airfoil extended forward along the LERX on top has proven once again to be a real winner in helping with wind stability, I have tried this on the last three planes I built before the Mig29 V4, so once again it is a real bonus for flying in the wind.
I was also very happy with the lack of "wind vaning" or "fish tailing" when turning through the wind. One of the problems I sometimes would notice with the Mig29 V3 was with the bigger elevons and wider elevon span, that sometimes the back end would get pushed out in turns, causing it to kind of "fish tail" late in turns and not hold the same track all the way through the maneuver. The reduced size and span of the elevons on the Mig29 V4 seems to have eliminated this tendency, it tracked solid and true like it was on rails all the way through the turn.
I also spent some time getting my throws and expos more dialed in today. I tend to like to fly in a more scale fashion, so if you like to really thrash and hammer around, these throws and expos might be too tame for you, but I find they are working well for me.
I have about 4" total travel on my elevons right now (2" each way) in the pitch which gives me great authority and a little extra if I really need to yank it to keep from running into the ground or a tree. In my Turnigy er9x setup, this equates to about 80% throws.
On the ailerons, I have about 2" total travel (1" each way) and I may even reduce this a little further. I have the linkage already 50% mechanically reduced by putting my pushrod about the middle of the servo arm, so I might reduce the throws down from about 80% to 65-70% just to soften things in the roll a bit more. The new aileron design is so effective that it takes very little movement when it is working in concert with the elevons to make the plane turn or roll. Just to keep my inputs smooth, I use about 50% expo in the pitch and about 60% expo in the roll to prevent over control.
I haven't really done much playing around with the rudders thus far, so they are still at about 80% throws with 50% expo which is plenty to help with the odd coordinated turn in the wind or with some hammerhead stall turns I have been practicing. I haven't really explored any high alpha with this plane yet and not sure that I will. I will probably wait til I have my F18 V4 completed to do any serious high alpha.
So even though today was cut short by mother nature, still some good flying, testing and evaluation completed with my Mig29 V4. Much more to come in the weeks ahead. Unfortunately or fortunately depending on how I look at it, the weather may stay wet for a few more days, so I may get a good start on my F18 V4 build... :)
Cheers,
Scott
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