DSing again, just brilliant!

[sean]

I had a brilliant day DSing today in the strong westerlies up at Bald Knob, man, it was a blast! I got there around 2pm and the wind was reasonably strong but with huge, bumpy gusts. Lift on the front side was very bumpy and quite unpleasant really, so I didn't waste any time and dove for the back side almost straight away.

Immediately the speeds were high, much higher than I've ever flown before, either through my limited DS attempts or in front side dives. Unfortunately my Bat's Halfpipe-style fin kept getting knocked sideways making it virtually impossible to DS with much success. So I drove home and got some Super 77 and resprayed the carbon fin boom, let it dry for a bit and reattached the fin. This seemed to do the job, the fin stayed put for most of the day after that.

When the gusts came up the speed was awesome but the back side was very, very turbulent making it hard to track the circles. This could have been exacerbated by the feeble fin mount, I could see the fin getting violently shaken as I crossed through the shear layer on the downwind leg. On some of the faster passes, after hitting strong turbulence that violently shook the whole plane, I encountered visible wing flutter, but this didn't cause any damage so I stuck at it. It looks like the Bat needs some strengthening work if I can get these kinds of speeds on a regular basis. It was amazing how as the speeds increased I didn't care much about crashing, just concentrated on trying to go faster. There were a few big crashes and on one occasion I nearly lost it behind the hill... a gust rolled the wings and threw it toward the ground making it disappear from view... all I could do was pull up and miraculously it came back into sight without hitting anything.

In the late afternoon the wind dropped slightly and the back side got much smoother making it a lot easier to fly the circles accurately, but the speeds weren't quite as high. I'm looking forward to DSing in an easterly now, should be quite a bit smoother.

Overall another really good day! I just wish I had a radar

[ezza]

sean said:

I didn't waste any time and dove for the back side almost straight away.

Hahaha, such a great comment. Ds'ing is best when the frontside is too strong. A lot of guys like to start ds'ing with a huge dive from speck hieght but I am always to impatient, and just dive in asap. ;D

Sounds like you are having a ball. You have done really well to ds so much and keep the plane in one piece. It took me a couple of airframes to learn!

You have got to get that Reaper finished and introduced to the 'Darkside'. It tracks so well, you will probably find it easier to ds with.

I found out the 'hard way', that I needed to turn down the rates, as ds speeds increase. Even 2-3mm of aileron travel is too touchy on the Reaper at good speed. Sounds like you are starting to experience this with the Bat? I now have the dual rates switch set up for 2 settings for ds. I find it makes it easier to do clean circuits, especially when it is turbulent because I find that I 'overcorrect' the turbulence with higher rates.

[sean]

Hey Ezza, The Bat is really tough, I reckon I should have written it off at least a couple of times by now but it keeps bouncing back for more, even though I only put strapping tape on the LE (I didn't build it with DS in mind...). It's survived some huge hits with almost no damage. The flutter was a concern though, too much of that and I could have a piece of high speed confetti.

I started with high rates on the ailerons but as you have found I ended using low rates on the ailerons, and I think I could lower the rates a bit more, except it was getting rolled violently this way and that so I need some control response to get out of trouble. I tried using low rates on the elevators and found that I crashed too easily, because I didn't have enough control authority to avoid hitting the ground when knocked around by turbulence. But the Bat's elev is not very sensitive even on full rates.

The fin was a big worry, it was easy to see it being shaken around and I think this was sometimes causing the whole plane to become unstable, rapidly yawing left and right. I'll need to build a new tail and tail mount for DSing I think.

I can't wait to get the Reaper going now! Should be awesome, but because of my mods it won't take hits as well as the Bat (I presume) so I'm afraid I won't be as adventurous with it. I haven't been able to do any more on it since the move, I'll get back to it before too long though.

[ezza]

Hey Sean,

Good idea to go full rates for the elevator. It is basically the opposite of flying frontside, small aileron travel and lots of elevator. I have had so many 'saves' with a full elevator pull just above the dirt!

I think you will be fine with the Reaper. The fuse and wing seperate pretty well in the event of a big crash.

I wonder what the cause of the flutter is?

Hope the wind sticks around for the weekend.

[swoopdown]

Thats great to hear.
Keep up the great work. Im coming up with Destiny in hand and i cant wait to hit Bald Knob and a few of the old spots again. I might even be able to knock off Dads JW60 and put it through its paces.

[sean]

Hey Swoopdown, When are you heading up? If the weather gods are kind it'd be good to catch up for some DSing!

Sean.

[ezza]

I might be able to get up for some ds this weekend. ;D Hopefully conditions are good?
Love to see that reaper go Sean!!

I just found this www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=724458 on RCG. Crazy full scale pilots!!

[sean]

Hey Ezza, That'd be great, but the weather's not looking good at this stage, fingers crossed.

[jase]

i've got my realfight program working now so as soon as i find a suitable slope on that i'm going to start teaching myself to DS. i guess if i crash 100 planes learning on a simulator i won't wreck as many when it comes to teh real thing.

[sean]

Hey Jase, I have Realflight too. Unfortunately I don't think you can DS in it, they haven't coded that functionality into it. If it's possible it would certainly be fun.

I made a version of my Griffon-Reaper that is flyable in RealFlight G3, if you're interested I can send it to you.

Sean.

[sean]

Here's a screenie:

[jase]

looks good... i've been using their powered delta wing with no power. it's a heap of fun. the 3.5 upgrade may have that incorporated into it also.. will check on the website to see what it can really do.

i've got Reflex XTR flight sim i'm going to checkout tonight, see if i can get that working. i'm sure one of these programs u can do it in.

[ezza]

Looks awesome Sean! Can't wait to see/hear how she goes.

Yeah weather not looking too good, fingers crossed though.

I have not tried the simulator thing before, but I downloaded the free slope soaring simulator a few weeks ago and it is better than I expected. You can get all sorts of planes and ds as well! I find the Moth is best for ds. You can wind it up really fast until it flips out of control. ;D There is also an F3F course on there, 42.33 is my PB so far. Here is the link; www.rowlhouse.co.uk/sss/sss-2.19.0.zip

[sean]

Hey Jase, I have the 3.5 upgrade installed, it's well worth the download but still no DS as far as I'm aware. I'm a bit skeptical about DS in a sim though, it'd be hard to simulate the effects of turbulence etc convincingly, there are just so many variables. For DS I reckon the best simulator ia an unbreakable foamy ;D

Edit: Ezza beat me to the punch RE the free sim...

Ezza, does the DS feel convincing in SSS? I haven't tried that sim myself.

[ezza]

Sean,
I guess the sim helps you with things like angles to dive in at and punchouts etc, but the ds on the sim is easier than the real thing because once you are in a groove you can pretty much keep it there without any left or right control. I guess it is a 'perfect' shear layer with no backside turbulence. You can do amazingly small circles. Definately easier to manage your speed than the real thing. But still worth it. IMO
The frontside flying is pretty true though. You even get a nice swooshing sound if you do a close fly-by. ;D There are a couple of slopes to choose from, you can have up to 10 other planes in the sky and you can fly normal(rc pilot) view, cockpit view or even follow the plane. Nothing like the real thing but I was surprised how good it was 'for free'.