Balancing for Roll on CL Stunt Ships
WHEN GETTING into discussions about various characteristics of ships with many modelers, I find that most people have a hard time expressing themselves. Also, many fliers have vague ideas and a lack of understanding why their planes fly the way they do, or even why they build them in a certain way. I think the reason for this is because in modeling, there is not a complete universal language due to a certain unfamiliarity with aeronautics-both terms and physics. However, one does not have to be a mathematical whiz to become acquainted with these laws and terms of flight. As a matter of fact, in most cases the mere ability to add, subtract, multiply and divide is all that is necessary to make the world of aeronautics much more intelligible in modeling than what it presently is.
Balancing for Yaw on CL Stunt Ships
LAST MONTH I explained the three axes of a plane and covered in detail balancing around the longitudinal axis-balancing for roll. In this article I will explain balancing around the vertical axis-balancing for yaw. Induced Yaw: Although roll balancing is the most complex form of balancing in CL stunt flying with regard to trimming, the yaw problem is probably the most misunderstood and overtreated balance situation. This is true for two reasons. First, because unlike pitch and roll, we always want a certain amount of the yaw characteristic in our ships to keep line tension. Second, because the very nature of CL flying constantly has our ships yawing, that is, our ships always follow a curved lateral path at all attitudes in flight. Because of this relentless circular path, we get centrifugal force which is the major factor in keeping the tension that we want in the control lines.
Balancing for Pitch on CL Stunt Ships
THE PITCH situation is by far the easiest of all three situations to trim for. In most cases, it's simply a matter of adding or taking away nose or tail weight. However, there's a scientific rule that says, in effect, that an advantage in some aspect will be accompanied by a disadvantage in another. This is all too true here, because the pitch balance situation is probably the toughest to design and build for. This is because pitch is the only aspect of maneuverability that concerns us in CL flying. Unlike roll and yaw, we need moments sometimes and don't want them at others.
