Chris Reid
-
Posts
326 -
Joined
-
Last visited
Chris Reid's Achievements
0
Reputation
-
Scottish Aviation Pioneer by Chris Reid C of G Position
Chris Reid replied to alan p's topic in In The Air
As the original 2007 designer of Pioneer, I did not build mine from the published plan which had several errors not on my original drawing. Looking at my published copy today, I am not happy with the CG positions shown. I did have a CG issue on the first flight as I had not included the wing slats as part of the wing chord. Thus if I built one today, I would set the CG at max 33% of the chord back from the leading edge including the slats. This will be safe. Chris Reid. -
As the original designer in 2007. I think I remember Carlos at the time as contributing to my build blog. Which I am not finding at the moment. I am talking with Basil. Any other builders out there. If I can help anyone. Let me know. Chris Reid.
-
Hi Guys, Great that interest in the Dragon has revived after a too long break in test flying. Will it ever be safe to go out again? You prompted memories of my earlier twins Denis, and I am aghast to find it was 19 and 17 years ago. The Islander was marginal on power with twin Graupner Speed 400s. It would take off slowly on tarmac but had no swerving issues. It had a nosewheel which probably helped. It became much nicer to fly later with brushless inrunners replacing the Speed 400s. Vroompire was much more lively on Speed 400s. Actually a bit fast for my reflexes at the time. Hand launched there were no problems. Chris
-
-
-
Thanks John for your very interesting input. My own installation is pretty simple with the throttle control going to two ESCs via a Y lead. My very simple Orange TX has some mixing but not up to your ideas. I am pretty confident that my reversing one motor as described above will be a fix. That, and a good rudder/tailwheel link, which has always worked well for me before. However, my advancing years means that avoidance of other people to cut the risk of covid19 has prevented further test flying. I've recently had a first vaccination so hopefully I'll be able to go flying again soon. Chris
-
Chris Reid joined the community
-
Hi Paulo, I was sorry to read that your Agritug has had a minor prang. Mine has had several (all my fault) but always came back. Dry soldered joints can cause problems. I recently got my money back on a non-working cheap Chinese ESC, only to find later a dodgy soldered motor connection. all the best. Chris.
-
Enjoy your second Agritug outing Paulo. 35C here in UK yesterday! My garden needs rain, but has lots of shade. Looks like climate change is getting closer? Chris.
-
Congratulations Paulo. It was good to see that your Agritug behaved itself pretty well on the first flight. It is always a bit of an anxious process wondering what you are going to get. It is a surprise to me too that the design is nine years old, and that I have been designing for eighteen years. Where does the time go? Your flying field looks like a pretty hot place! Enjoy your next flights. Chris.
-
Great to see your progress Paulo. Good luck with the first flight. Mine was pretty uneventful, just a click or two of aileron trim needed. Super to fly thereafter, and still a flying favourite. I'm not doing any flying right now. Being ancient I'm taking no risk of catching the virus so avoiding meeting other people. My DH84 Dragon (see the forum elsewhere) has yet to complete first flight trials as I've had to modify the motor rotation directions after uncontrollable swerves left on the take-off run. Chris.
-
Interesting Paul. Nice that you saved it. I was in transition to going all electric when I designed Agritug. I imagine it goes pretty well on I/C power. CR
-
Looks good Paulo. It's great to see another Agritug coming into being. Keep well, Regards, Chris.
-
Hi Paulo, My Agritug has a single small Hitec HS42 for the ailerons, and a Ripmax SD200 for the elevators. Both have been adequate for the model which is fully aerobatic. I'm guessing that your choice will be fine. Hope this helps, Chris.
-
Hi Paulo, it's great to see another Agritug being built after so long. 2011 now seems like history. I still have my original design model and, although it shows signs of a lot of flying, it is still a favourite for its friendly flying characteristics and I have kept it despite reducing the size of my fleet by disposing of other models. keep some info coming on your build and if I can help at all, come back through the forum. Chris R
-
Some more small progress. Small regluing of the pilot's seat dislodged by the test flight minor prang. Two oz of lead added to the nose to move the CG forward a fraction - the wings are straight but slightly swept aft of a tapered centre section, which made the result of my original graphical calculation a bit uncertain. Finally, I bought two APC 8x6 electric props, one of which was a pusher. They needed 1/8" trimmed from the tips to clear the fuselage. I switched the leads on the starboard motor to get reversed running and put the pusher prop on that side. It looks good. The motors are now turning inwards, each at 8,700 revs at full power, pulling 21A from the 2x3S lipos in parallel. That's 215W, giving 2lb 6oz of static thrust- 6oz more than the original 7x4 props. That's around 50W/lb, enough for a scale 30s biplane. With any luck that should fix the swing at take off. De Havilland did the same, ie reverse one prop, with their Hornet for the same reason: the Mosquito was a bit of a beast on take off, it needed a lot of rudder and differential throttle to go straight, and easily got out of hand. When it stops raining and warms up a bit, I'll give the Dragon another go. Merry Christmas to all my readers.
