Another great day at the field with a couple of my Mig 29 V4s... :)
I was blessed this morning with a couple hours of dead still air, so took full advantage it to get my NAMCV2 (the blue camo one in the picture) dialed in for high alpha.
I will caveat this post by saying my high alpha skills are a work in progress and if a plane doesn't necessarily do high alpha well, I don't consider the plane a failure, not all planes were ever designed to do it for real. It is definitely a skill that in my experience requires practice and patience, not only to get the plane set up correctly, but to get myself into the right mindset to really focus on doing it well. I do enjoy it as a way to challenge myself primarily in keeping my control and power inputs smooth and forcing myself to use more finesse rather than just slamming the sticks around. I find as I practice high alpha flying occasionally that these principles spill over into my normal flying and make me a better pilot from a standpoint of staying smooth with my control inputs. Although sometimes you just gotta slam the sticks around anyway, all part of the fun... :)
I did experiment with the deflection of the spoilerons a bit to see if that made a difference since the ailerons are different from stock and the V1, but lo and behold, 5/8" of deflection seemed to be where it worked best which is the common thread between the V1 and stock Mig V4 as well.
Not by a whole lot compared to the V1, but the V2 is the best high alpha performer of the three Mig V4s in my hangar. Maybe because I have more weight shifted forward and in closer proximity to the CofG and the different shape of aileron, I'm not sure. The larger rudders are of course a big winner also.
I flew about six flights of pretty much nothing but high alpha from launch to landing and was very impressed with how this plane handled. When first getting setup to start high alpha, it wing rocked somewhat when the spoilerons were deployed, but once it settled in and I got the power setting and elevon deflection just right, it really was very solid. Wing rock when it came on was very gradual and normally just by easing off a bit on the elevator, it stabilized right away. I'm "guesstimating" here, but I would say that I was holding a good solid 40-45 degrees AOA (angle of attack) throughout my high alpha sessions.
This plane is more susceptible to the helix effect of prop wash and prop torque that I quoted and described in this post http://migsrus.blogspot.ca/2014/08/mig29-v4m3e3-hi-alpha-testing.html than the stock Mig and the V1. As I mentioned in my first impressions of this plane's high alpha abilities, if I took my thumb off the rudder, it would slowly drift left, so a bit of right rudder was always needed to get it to hold a solid heading (more on that later). Although because of the phenomena described in the link above all planes including this one are more of a challenge to turn right in high alpha, this one responds much better than stock and the V1 taking less rudder input to turn right and less delay before the nose responds to the input.
So what does it take for me to keep this plane in good solid high alpha? I will discuss my findings as a function more of how much surface deflection is required versus stick input as everyone's throws and expos can be different. Remembering also that the moving surface area of the elevons on this plane are about 10-15% smaller than stock (however, more interesting observations on that in a moment... :) ) Your deflections may also be different depending on your plane's weight, your power system and how your weight is distributed, I post these numbers as a point of reference.
- throttle - I found that around 45-55% throttle was the power envelope needed to maintain good altitude and attitude hold. Obviously more if I was getting into trouble or got the nose up too high and needed to power out of a stall, and a bit less if I was climbing, but 45-55% was a very consistent power setting;
- I mentioned my spoileron deflection already, 5/8";
- I was holding about 1.5" of elevator deflection to keep the correct attitude, obviously with minor adjustments as needed to prevent wing rock; and
- as mentioned, to keep it from drifting left, I had about 1/4" right rudder deflection.
So how does it compare in high alpha to my other two Mig V4s? The V1 and this V2 are very similar in fact, the slight nod in stability and rudder authority going to the V2, but overall, capable of about the same AOA with the same spoileron and elevon deflection and power input.
I also did some more high alpha with the stock Mig today. It is also a very good high alpha platform, but not capable of the same AOA, maybe 5-10% less, not a lot, but noticeable. Wing rock comes on more quickly and aggressively and requires a more aggressive dropping of the nose to recover from it. The rudder authority is good, but can very easily cause the plane to want to roll and as a result if I get too aggressive on the rudders, this tendency to roll can then cause wing rock and potential tip stall, most of which can happen in a very short time span... :/.
Additionally, maybe cause she is much more "battle worn" and has had a few good "gonks", a lot more rudder input is required to hold the stock Mig straight as the nose tends to wander all over the place at times. It also seems to require more throttle movement to maintain altitude and attitude, so a bit more challenging in those aspects than the V1 and V2. What is interesting is that even though the elevons are bigger on stock than the V1 and V2, the amount of deflection required to hold the nose up was about the same, 1.5".
Now don't get me wrong, I'm not saying the stock V4 is a "train wreck" in high alpha, from my experience it is better than the Mig V3 and equally as good as the F18 V3 although I have exponentially more high alpha time on my F18 V3 than the Mig V4, so it may not completely be a fair comparison.
Anyway, enough about high alpha...this was the first time since I maidened this plane that I was able to really blast around without worrying about what the wind was going to do to it. I had also dropped the "hot" motor into it that I spoke about in this thread http://migsrus.blogspot.ca/2014/09/not-all-components-are-created-equally.html , so big smiles all around... :)
This plane in this configuration with this weight is just amazing. I know it might seem scatter brained of me to keep saying with every new Mig I modify that it is the best plane I have ever flown, but on the other hand, this is a progression, learning from the previous plane/planes and working to improve on the next, so why not?
As I got into really thrashing this plane around, it was like it was a thoroughbred being let free in the pasture on a cool fall morning, it just wanted to run and turn and just kick up it's heels. I know it might seem goofy to speak about an inanimate plane like that, but it is just pure fun to fly, even more fun when wind is not a factor... :) It almost seemed that the plane was having as much fun as I was... :).
I also did some slow flying comparisons between the stock Mig and the V2, but will probably write that up in another post comparing downsized elevons and ailerons to stock, so more to follow on that in the very near future, some interesting observations... :)
Cheers,
Scott
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