Hi All, I recently bought a flex-wing microlight (aka "trike", "ultralight", "hang-glider with a lawnmower engine"). Specifically, a Mainair Flash 2 Alpha.
There is currently a picture of it here: http://www.sites.ecosse.net/graeme.ritchie/eosm/home.asp?txtMenu=forsale Obviously, I want model it in FG. However, as flexwings are quite different from the normal aircraft that we model, I need some advice as to what FDM to use. To give an idea of how flexwings differ from normal aircraft, here are some details: - They have single hang-glider style wing, no tail and a very small fixed "rudder". - The wing pivots on a point that is pretty close to the center of lift during all phases of flight, and from which the trike unit hangs during flight. - The pilot controls the aircraft by moving the entire wing in the required direction. The back end of the wing flexes, to help turns. - The rudder on the wing provides limited yaw control as it is attached to the wing rather than the trike. - There is no trimming for different flight phases. Vertical speed is purely controlled by power. - My aircraft has a 50HP two-stroke Rotax 503 engine (pull start!) with reduction gear to reduce maximum RPM form 7000 to approx 4000 on the fixed prop. - Typical cruise is 55mph, stall 35mph and Vne 70mph. - Empty weight is around 200kg, MAUW 390kg. - Flex-wing flying is very much "seat-of-the-pants" using external visual references to maneuver the aircraft rather than instruments. So, should I use YASim or JSBSim for this project? -Stuart ___________________________________________________________ All new Yahoo! Mail "The new Interface is stunning in its simplicity and ease of use." - PC Magazine http://uk.docs.yahoo.com/nowyoucan.html ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Take Surveys. Earn Cash. Influence the Future of IT Join SourceForge.net's Techsay panel and you'll get the chance to share your opinions on IT & business topics through brief surveys - and earn cash http://www.techsay.com/default.php?page=join.php&p=sourceforge&CID=DEVDEV _______________________________________________ Flightgear-devel mailing list Flightgear-devel@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/flightgear-devel
