D40 Flying Wing - by me not Joe Manors

[Peter Garsden]

Obviously the D40 is in the background - the Redshift is in the foreground!

Well, today was the day for the maiden. A Westerly blowing onto the Orme creates massive lift and is nearly as good as a South Westerly, but the wind strength was registering at 20 to 30mph, so ideal conditions.

I had set up the D40 to the recommendations from an RC Group which was really for DS'ing (2.5mm throw on the elevator). I was a bit hesitant because I am going to fly it front side. Also, some of the elevator is shielded by the fuselage compared with the high fin installation on the original. So I nearly increased the throws, but decided against. I should have gone with my instinct.

I tried to test glide it and thought it needed more up trim, so I dialled some in on the subtrim menu.

I launched it. Too much up trim. Couldn't bring it down. I was holding full down elevator and still it was going up! I dialled in full crow to try to land it, but had got the elevator reversed - more up elevator!!

The model went way back and landed out of sight. Hope and pray. I spend ages looking for it. Some nice lady walkers found it in the end. It never is where you think it is.

So back to base for a radical retrim - I doubled the elevator throw, dialled out the up trim I had put in, and increased the snap flap percentage to 50%.

2nd flight - nearly perfect - but a bit too much snap flap. Also not enough down on full crow. Landed safely however. Back to base and less snap flap - down to 40%.

Relaunch and perfect. Wow. This is how a D40 should fly I am sure. It was so much more relaxed to fly than I remember.

1. I had taken the lead out of the wings - only about 50grams each side.
2. The massive carbon fin meant that it tracked so well in the turns - like an F3F model and so fast.
3. It can fly the full length of the slope in knife edge - I have never had a glider that will do that before.
4. It still flies incredibly fast, but only on demand when you get it going. Might need a bit more lead in the nose.
5. I could fly this all day without needing barbiturates when I land.
6. As it is black I can see it more easily in an overcast sky. Doesn't disappear like it used to when it was white.

All in all, big success. Very happy with it. All the credit goes to Joe Manors for the design of the fast wing and tailplane of course.

I have the plan of the fuselage but as it was lost foam it would be a big job to reproduce it. Next time I would wind clingfilm round the fuselage to give a better finish, but it isn't bad.

This is going to get much more air time than the original D40 which frightened me to death. I think I am going to make some vinyl stickers for it in white. Mmm...yes indeed.

Edited By Peter Garsden on 27/05/2019 19:24:44

[conrad taggart]

Peter well done - sounds great. Looking forward to seeing it on the slopes - though fair bit of rain being forecast over the next week !

Conrad

[Peter Garsden]

This is last night's handy work - busy with the vinyl cutter - made some white lettering which looks OK. Not shown is the smaller D40 on the fin. Here's to more successful flying.