Mike's Flying

Mark3

Originally uploaded by Mikebert4

Ok, this here is Mark3 with the wing’s properly bent up. She flew alright, though had a tendancy to flip over or dive suddenly.

The wings are the big breakthrough with this design – as I mentioned in the techy bit for Mark2 thin wings are the way forward.

The Techy bit:

The failing of Mark3 was simply it’s stability, or lack thereof. The progressive dihedral of the wings added a lot of lateral stability, but longitudinally it was lacking.

The center of gravity was a good 2cm behind the center of pressure which was the root cause.

By this time it became evident that stability is the big thing for these free-flight gliders. Being so light and being made of such limiting material one has to pay careful note to how the wings will bend in flight, and the loading they undergo.

The phugoid (porpussing) mode of flight seems to be the easiest to maintain, a steady glide being near impossible when the rough air is combined with the light weight of these gliders.

Interestingly, and in support of the arguments I made for Mark2, roughening the leading edge aided the glide substantially.