Atmospheric Wind Range for flying

bakergw Mon Jan 04, 2021 3:11 pm

Goodaye All,

Can anyone help me please with; Old Bugger

What is the sensible max wind in kmh or mph to be able to expect to fly reasonably a 1/2A profile rat plank wing with an 049 Surestart? Where I am at the moment has been blowing at 25 - 35 kmh every day for two weeks now. Making it hard to get the boat out fishing even, so Ive been trying to fly instead and i have only recently comeback to it after 45 years so im not very good at it Smile

When I was young i remember riding my bike around to all my mates places to see if someone would come fly with me and the weather seemed to not matter to me. I flew combat wings with enya 2.5 glows and Taipan goldhead glows and in my memory the weather/wind was never a big problem. Just mum would crack at me if thunder and lightning were around because the wire lines were dangerous she said. Laughing

Cheers,
Gary

706jim Mon Jan 04, 2021 4:33 pm

I can't specify a number but when flying control line, I'd call it a day when I could no longer maintain line tension.

roddie Mon Jan 04, 2021 5:57 pm

Hi Gary, The little 1/2A slab-wing planes are not forgiving when even a light breeze blows across the circle. You can find yourself running backwards to regain line tension.. which can work.. if you're lucky.

Someone posted recently regarding a "Man-win" 1/2A C/L flying-wing made of coroplast/coroflute.. and often powered by a Cox .049 reed-valve engine.. which is what you have.. right?

The Man-win design features an engine mount that gives a new meaning to the term "thrust offset".. Laughing

That is to say; the model would tend to hang out there on the lines under adverse conditions.. as compared to a garden-variety sport-model. It's supposedly a durable little model too.

I can't personally endorse the Man-win.. because I've never flown one.. but it seems like a fun and easy build.. and you had some experience with flying-wings (combat ships) you mentioned. You could probably tune the model to your preference; between prop-choice and line-length.. enough to get you flying again comfortably.

See the below weblink;

http://www.balsabeavers.com/information/plans/manwin.pdf

Jason_WI Mon Jan 04, 2021 6:11 pm

roddie wrote:Hi Gary, The little 1/2A slab-wing planes are not forgiving when even a light breeze blows across the circle. You can find yourself running backwards to regain line tension.. which can work.. if you're lucky.

Anybody ever try adding a section of elastic line to "store line tension" to maintain tension? Probably 70 years too late for that patent.... Probably drown out the elevator control.

bakergw Tue Jan 05, 2021 3:41 am

Thanks Roddie,

Ok, maybe my flying isnt so bad then. Im certainly doing plenty of running backwards to get tension back on 30 foot lines. Engine is offset and using wing weight. Wind is so bad even the professional fishing boats are not going out. I didnt know the 1/2 A profile slab wings were so touchy. Laughing

Nice excuse for me. Old Bugger

The "man-win" looks really good. I will definitely build one and give it a try. Ill chase up some corroplast. It looks like a really nice easy build which means I can make a number of them and crash them and just get another out of the car if needed Laughing

It has the bonus that I dont need to use dope to fuel proof it, which is a very big bonus for me medically.

Ill let you know how it goes building and flying it. Back to work in a couple of days as my leave is nearly over, so take a while now to get to it and build it, but definitely will. Looks like a fun model for me to build and fly.

Yes, I am flying with Cox 049 engines. Have some Surestart, venom II, and Tee Dee 049 engines and many spare parts I bought from Bernie and Matt. I really like the Cox 049 engines, thats where I started sooo long ago, they are awesome little engines I can modify and play with, and they are so easy to start, run and maintain. Very Happy