What did you do aeroplane wise today?

[9600baud]

Hi there,

I went yesterday to fly my new profile model of a Hawker Fury, but it didn't go as planned.

Some facts:
* it weighs 8.8 g, wingspan is 330 mm
* around 2-3° down thrust, no right thrust
* only little dihedral

It glides slowly and nicely and also flies nicely with little power. I tried 1/16" rubber first and it made a slow gentle curve but it wasn't enough to climb. So I switched to 3/32" and the result was what you can see in the video below. Almost every time it leans to the left with the tail really low. I tried some minor trimming things, a bit down elevator, a bit more weight on the left wing but nothing showed me the right direction.

In the end the nose bearing was lose, so there was no more down thrust.

A couple of month ago I built a Curtiss SBC-3 by Ray Malmstrom, and it behaved very much the same.
If anyone has some insights, how to cure that, I would really appreciate it.

Cheers
Alex

[Squirrelnet]

A very nice motorcycle ride out to Old Warden today with Andy B (of this Parish) I had skin in the game with the Sopwith Dove I'm currently building so good to see that but also great to see the 1911 Deperdussin minus it's wings in the engineering workshop. I'm slowly building up the courage to do one of these, probably CO2..but that short nose   

Andy very observantly noticed the edges of the 1910 AVRO Triplane replica tailplane had been left square and not sanded round as we aeromodellers tend to do by habit. Aircraft from just a few years later seemed to have discovered the sanding block 

[OZPAF]

Andy very observantly noticed the edges of the 1910 AVRO Triplane replica tailplane had been left square and not sanded round as we aeromodellers tend to do by habit. Aircraft from just a few years later seemed to have discovered the sanding block 

I guess at the time it wasn't left square for a good reason - however it is actually more effecient to have sharp TE's and not rounded off ones. Slim the TE's down but don't round them off - leave the edges sharp.

That must have been a fun day - bike ride to see some aircraft and with a fellow modelling mate.

John

[OZPAF]

Alex the model seems to indicate that there is insufficient Fin area, and I suspect that more area is required for Biplanes.

Lack of fin area would make it difficult to use wash in on the inside wing or side thrust - producing the yaw indicated by your model.

Try adding extensions to the fin - - approx 10% more and see if that helps with side thrust and wash in.

Good luck.

John

[9600baud]

Thanks John, I'll try that!

Alex

[Nigel_M]

I went yesterday to fly my new profile model of a Hawker Fury, but it didn't go as planned.
...
Cheers
Alex

If that was a medium size RC biplane, I would suspect excessive and opposite aileron differential, i.e. too much down aileron producing opposite yaw. I had very similar flight behaviour until I corrected this on a 50" Tiger Moth. I had to turn using rudder for quite a difficult flight. But I'm sorry I don't know how well that translates to a 330mm freeflighter.

Good luck.
Nigel

[Squirrelnet]

Had a nice trip out today to the RAF Museum in Hendon... well Hannants are next door and I needed some paint

The Grahame White hanger is great but there seems so little information on the Grahame White company despite it being Claude Graham White who founded Hendon and based his company there. I can't seem to find a book on the company and it's aircraft either or have I just missed it?

Edit - just found out there's a Putnam biography of Claude Graham White by Grahame Wallace  which is now on my hunt list  Edit Edit - Just got one from ABE Books

Anyway great to see the hanger preserved along with the internal office block and now housing a collection of WW1 aircraft, the genuine Fokker DVII is a real treat

[g_kandylakis]

Hi Chris,

I was there last year, the Monday after the indoor scale nationals. Had an afternoon flight back home so had time and made it a point to go to Hendon again, the first time being back in 1991...

Took plenty of photographs of some excellent exhibits.

Same situation this year, I am thinking about Duxford this time.

George

[Lastwoodsman]

Sun March 28 2026

What did you do airplanewise today?

     The rebuilt wing of the 30 inch Beaver,   is now glued onto the fuse and is drying.   We only need to glue the wing struts back on ....

     Weather and wind wise,  it looks like Mon March 30 2026 is a flying day !!!    We had a full day of much needed gentle rain -  one quarter inch -   on Thur March 26,  and I toured the Cricket Field and Jackson park on Wed,    and found where the deepest growth areas of grass are.   But the grass has not really started to grow yet.

      So,  I have to have the model ready to fly by Monday and today is Friday when I wrote this.

Pic #1      2170     The rebuilt wing is glued back on.

Pic #2     WIND FORECAST DAILY ONE WEEK   START FRI MARCH 27 2026

Pic #3     WIND FORECAST FOR MON MARCH 30 2026

Pic #4     DAILY TEMPS FOR ONE WEEK STARTING MARCH 27 2026

Lastwoodsman
Richard

[Lastwoodsman]

What did you do airplane wise today?

Sun March 29 2026

The Beaver is ready to fly again after breaking the wing.  Here are four pics. 

Pic #1    2184
Pic #2    2186
Pic #3    2188
Pic #4    2190

I just have to add the  0.70g  clay to the left wing tip,  add the five gram clay  "anti-glare cover"  to the top of the cowl,  and do a final balance recheck.  Flying day tomorrow Mon March 30 2026 .... if the weather holds ...

Lastwoodsman
Richard

[Lastwoodsman]

What did you do airplane wise today?

Mon April 6 2026       Flight Report #4 Session

     Everything went well on a beautiful,  low wind,  sunny morning.   I got my flying in,  before the wind picked up, and it started raining off and on,  all the rest of the day.

     I got 23 pics,  9 good powered flights,  and a spring tour of Jackson Park in spring flush.   The longest flight was three seconds on 90 finger winds,  so I could not get an in-flight pic,  which is the over-riding objective here.   But great results so far.   

Pic #1     2246     Entrance to Jackson Park.   No wind on the flag.    I knew it would be wet,  and wet it was.

Pic #2     2249     Passing my test glide spot beside the Spitfire and Hurricane replicas.   No wind on the flag.

Pic #3     2262      Spring leaf flush -  the buds are swollen with a green tinge on the large hardwoods in the distance.

Pic #4     2265     Leaving the park with an intact  30  inch Beaver.     Wind on the flag.

     I will post a full,   Flight Report #4 Mon Apr 6 2026,   in my  30  inch Beaver thread.

Lastwoodsman
Richard

[Lastwoodsman]

What did you do airplane wise today?

Sat April 11 2026

     This is how my just finished,  big down thrust/right thrust shim looks,   in the  30  inch Beaver.

Pic #1     2378     Left side built up for right thrust.

Pic #2     2379     Under side view of the  "low" edge (thin edge"  of the  big shim.

Pic #3     2380     Down thrust visible.

Pic #4     2381      Right thrust visible.

Ready to fly!      It is a flying day today ....   

Lastwoodsman
Richard

[Konrad]

Deja vu all over again!

No it's not 1930 but rather 2026. Last week I saw the rigid airship Pathfinder making her test flights over the San Francisco Bay area.

[Lastwoodsman]

What did you do airplane wise today?

Sat April 11 2026     post  2 of 2 today

Pic #1     2348     This shim worked great,  until it crumpled up like a house of cards while handling it,  after four flights this AM,   of Flight Report  #6.    Details coming up.

Pic #2     2290     I saw this sunrise from my building board while working on the  30 inch Beaver.

Pic #3     2291     This sunrise pic goes beside the above pic.

Lastwoodsman
Richard

[OZPAF]

Interesting shot of the pathfinder Konrad. I did a quick check on it and I'll be doing more research later!

Beautiful sunrise Richard.

John