Another fun day at the field yesterday, blasted another 12 batteries through my new Mig29 V4 NAMCV2 and 5 through my Su35.
It was still a tricky day wind wise, but I did manage to get a couple bursts of high alpha with my NAMCV2... :)
I'm happy to report that the larger rudders now make it much easier to turn right compared to the challenges I seemed to be having with the NAMCV1. Interestingly, now when I take "hands off" the rudder, it will start to drift left where "hands off" the NAMCV1 would stay straight. That is the thing I love about scratch building, each plane has it's own little soul and idiosyncrasies.. :) In fact to keep it straight in high alpha I needed to keep just the tiniest bit of right rudder input. This is very similar to what happens with my old RCP F18 V3, so not surprising. The drift to the left is more than likely caused by a couple factors that were already discussed at length in this previous post http://migsrus.blogspot.ca/2014/08/mig29-v4m3e3-hi-alpha-testing.html
With each flight I log, I am more and more pleased with how this NAMCV2 flies, I think by concentrating on losing a little bit of weight and really paying attention to the sanding and finish, the combination really makes this plane perform well. I'm really liking the smooth yet direct input I get from these rudders for how I like to fly anyway. The different shape of ailerons as I mentioned in my first post flight report also seem to make turns and rolls just a little crisper and direct. I still need to swap out the motor, I think the current motor is working too hard, maybe bad bearings or something in the motor, not sure. So I will do that later today before more testing coming up this week.
I am also hoping to get cutting foam on my Su35 MK2 NAMCV2 this week. I have decided that the only real significant mod I will make is to use Mig29 V4 horizontal stabs and elevons. I had discussed modifying the vert stabs, rudders and ailerons, but decided against that, it flies just fine the way it is with those surfaces. Other changes will be to build techniques like symmetrical leading edges on the wings and elevons/horizontal stabs and a few other tweaks. As mentioned before, I will try to shoot a build video which will be shot in stages and edited together to discuss some of the "FRCcentric" build steps and techniques that have worked for me in the past.
Cheers,
Scott
Scott,
ReplyDeleteAfter my crashfest I wore out the batteries on my v4 with stock leading edge vertical stabilizers and full vertical rudders like on your v2. This type rudder definitely makes high alpha easier as it induces a slight bit of downward pitch in turns. I could turn right no problem as compared to my inboard vertical rudders. However, knife edge was very hard with the full length rudders as previously reported.
Once again, reproducible results, how awesome is that!
Working on the RTR NAMCv2 Mig!
Been doing a lot comparisons between the scale Mig, SebArt and the V4. When modeling and resizing for comparisons I did wing tip to tip, and nose to tail to reference points. Make a long story short, the v4 is stretched compared to both. The extra length is in the forward fuselage. I looked at multiple ways to shorten the nose but they would have been a complete pain in the @$$. The wing trailing edge to elevon distance is very close, no changes there even though that would have been easy to shorten the side plates.
Biggest change is the LERX and wing leading edge which I am taking about 3/4 inch off. This should push the COL aft and make it pitchy like your SU. Hopefully high alpha will not be to adversely effected.
I went back through your posts, on the NAMCv2 did you extend the leading edge of the vertical stabilizer like the v1 or did you leave it stock?
Stephan
Hi Stephan -
DeleteJust in quick response to your last question, I did extend the leading edge of the vertical stab forward like on the V1, then with the trailing edge being angled back, that gave me the wider part at the top. I may have played around with it a bit more also to give me about 1 and 3/4" to 2" across the top.
Will respond to the rest of your post tomorrow... :) Sounds exciting!
Cheers,
Scott
Hi again Stephan -
DeleteYes, I'm always excited when someone else gets the same results when a new modification is being tested and evaluated, reproducible results are worth their weight in gold and also confirm that what I saw and felt wasn't just a "one off" situation.
I have been thinking about the rudder/vert stab design on my V2, you could probably still use an inboard rudder setup and be able to extend the surface up a bit and maybe pull the hinge back a bit which would give you a bit more room to go vertically without comprising the strength of the leading edge. That way you could still have the stationary part at the top of the vert stab to help with knife edge maneuvers. Would take drawing a few lines to see what happens, but I'm sure with a little tinkering it would be possible to gain a few extra sq inches of movable rudder surface and still keep them inboard.
I was also wondering that because even with a slight angle we are keeping the rudder shape basically rectangular if that is also helping reduce the rudder roll of the stock Mig29 V4 rudder. I'm thinking that because the bottom of the rudder is much wider on the stock Mig than it is at the top, that might be part of what is causing the roll? Somewhere in between the 13 degrees that the stock rudders are angled and vertical is the magic place where performance will change, the 3 degree angle on the V2 thus far seems to still give smooth, direct rudder response without any roll tendencies for me anyway.
Sounds like a very interesting challenge to reshape the LERX and leading edge of the wing, I am excited to see/hear what happens. I know there are always doubts how modifications might affect certain areas of flight performance like high alpha, pitch or roll responsiveness, etc. Sometimes it is just a compromise we have to make and sometimes the plane surprises us and does it all well anyway... :)
Much of the excitement for me comes in the discovery of how each little tweak and mod affects the plane and it's performance, allowing us to either keep that mod for the next plane or tweak it even more. Very easy to do with foam and it rarely gets boring... :)!
Weather looks good for the week here, so lots of flying with my fleet of Migs!
Look forward to seeing the next RTMS/NAMC USA evolution of the Mig29... :)
Cheers,
Scott