Camber is VERY useful for getting more lift on light
days. Works better on some airfoils than others.
Its never more than 3-5 degrees to be really effective.
1/8" is probably too much for a lot of cases. I'd say
you get most of your benefit in the 0-3/32" region,
but it probably depends on the ship.
A slight drooping of the trailing edge often does wonders,
especially for 'fast' airfoils with no natural camber (downward
curving) of the TE.
There are plenty of times I've only been able to fly a sloper
on a light day by having camber.
As for the ruddervators for slopers. I've had about 4 six-servo
slopers and I've never found the extra rudder servo worth it
for a sloper. If I have a rudder servo on a v-tail I usually
turn it off! It only messes up the roll. Recently I built a 6-servo
sloper as a 5 servo version. Gave me more room in the canopy.
I don't miss it one iota.
On my TD planes, I use rudders for flying thermals. In that kind
of flying a rudder is very important for making flat energy-efficient
turns.
For slopers the rudder function is good if you are really racing,
as in competition, where you are measuring tight times.
For a turn you *can* see a tightening of the turn with aileron/rudder
coupling, but it is not impressive enough to use in normal fun
or aerobatic flying, in fact you'll find yourself tending to
fly with rudder switched off, because the flying is more exciting
overall without them.
-Paul
Tom Sheehy wrote:
>
> I've slowly been working my way up the glider food chain (foamie, built up,
> composite, etc..) and now have a couple of planes which I need
> help/suggestions setting up. One is an electric Graupner Cumulus 2000,
> which has ailerons/v-tail, the other is a Flamingo HLG which has full
> ailerons/spoilerons and a v-tail.
>
> I've got the basics down and can fly the models as they are setup now
> without any trouble (in fact, both are really nice planes for where and how
> I fly), but I'm looking to learn more about the performance gains that can
> be had by making minor adjustments to the control surfaces.
>
> I often read here about folks adjusting the camber/reflex on their planes
> while flying to achieve various results. I haven't been able to find a
> source for information on how/why and how much these settings can affect a
> plane's performance.
>
> For example, on both these planes, I have a trim knob on my Futaba Tx which
> allows me to change the aileron trim up and down to provide reflex or
> camber, but I have no idea what the appropriate control throws should be..
> is 1/8" (just picking a random amount) a little or a lot when you are
> changing the profile of a wing? What guidelines should I use to set the
> appropriate range of motion, and when should I use each?
>
> Another question specific to v-tail/aileron models.. how many of you fly
> with rudder/aileron coupling? Right now I have both of my planes set up so
> that I can switch between coupled and uncoupled modes, but was wondering
> what most people did? Do you like to 'fly' the tail 100% of the time, or
> prefer the simplicity of 'setting it and forgetting it'?
>
> Thanks for any help..
>
> -- Tom
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