Need your help fellows - fighting elevator on final

[stangflyer]

@aarestor is correct and that will tell you if your up / down thrust is off. If you go full throttle with the plane trimmed and cut the throttle and the plane still flies level, then you are tail heavy.

I know I may get flamed here but we'll see. On a fully symmetrical wing like your plane and nearly all aerobatic planes the wings DO NOT generate lift. Angle of attach makes the plane fly along with modern power levels pulling the plane along.
So to check your CG (after you check for possible thrust issue) you need to fly straight and level at about half throttle. Roll inverted and see how the plane acts then. When you do this at a 45 degree up-line depending on the amount of power you have you have angle of attack and the wings are lifting the plane and you will get a false indication of CG. This is especially the case when you are very close to neutral as you mentioned.

I will tell you that I have a Great Planes Cap 580 that was brand new and I just built it recently. I much prefer that plane just a tad more on the nose heavy side than neutral like I fly my other planes. It does just about everything better not being neutral and draws perfect scale lines.

Yup-yup. What Terry said! My son and I encountered your "EXACT" issue with his smaller Edge. Doing the same thing that Terry outlined to a letter, we discovered that the plane needed some thrust alignment refinement. Once that was taken care of, the plane now flies more precisely and lands like a dream. Oh wait, are we talking on the mains? Sorry, I guess we only do rudder landings with our little Pilot Edges. LOL... All kidding aside, Pretty sure Terry "nailed" it on this one.

 

[skunkwurk]

Yup-yup. What Terry said! My son and I encountered your "EXACT" issue with his smaller Edge. Doing the same thing that Terry outlined to a letter, we discovered that the plane needed some thrust alignment refinement. Once that was taken care of, the plane now flies more precisely and lands like a dream. Oh wait, are we talking on the mains? Sorry, I guess we only do rudder landings with our little Pilot Edges. LOL... All kidding aside, Pretty sure Terry "nailed" it on this one.

Hi Stangflyer, I was wondering, I had not seen anything from you. I agree, I think Terry nailed it.

sc

 

[stangflyer]

Hi Stangflyer, I was wondering, I had not seen anything from you. I agree, I think Terry nailed it.

sc

Sorry buddy. Between lots of hours at work and working on the Edge, I don't get muchome time to come on here lately. That's due to change though. Edge is almost done. Yay! Hope your problem gets resolved.

 

[witchfingers]

My brother had a foam with wood frame edge from hobbyking and we fought with that airframe to keep it on a level flight path. Finally we shimmed the motor and now it is one of the funnest planes we have flown. The thrust angle was way off. This problem was only when you had the throttle up high. It was fine on landing. Should be interesting to see how yours pans out skunkwurk.

 

[skunkwurk]

My brother had a foam with wood frame edge from hobbyking and we fought with that airframe to keep it on a level flight path. Finally we shimmed the motor and now it is one of the funnest planes we have flown. The thrust angle was way off. This problem was only when you had the throttle up high. It was fine on landing. Should be interesting to see how yours pans out skunkwurk.

Wasn't able to get out there today, work got in the way... I'll be at the field at 9am tomorrow though...

sc

 

[Terryscustom]

My brother had a foam with wood frame edge from hobbyking and we fought with that airframe to keep it on a level flight path. Finally we shimmed the motor and now it is one of the funnest planes we have flown. The thrust angle was way off. This problem was only when you had the throttle up high. It was fine on landing. Should be interesting to see how yours pans out skunkwurk.

That must be a hobby king thing, I helped a guy at our field and we balanced and checked everything under the sun on his Hobby King 30cc slick. The stabs are laser cut through the fuse and glued in place and were off! We finally ended up dialing in down elevator with his idle down switch to help him land. There were soooooo many things wrong with that plane it was humorous.

Good Luck @skunkwurk I'm sure it will be a whole new animal once you get it trimmed out.

 

[Judge]

FWIW, While I use a touch of down elevator mixed to low throttle for flying, I turn that mix off for landing. I am constantly adjusting the throttle while landing and I do not like the change in elevator trim that causes when the mix is on.

Properly done, a stable landing approach will require very little adjustment of the elevator before the final flare. The throttle is adjusted to moderate the approach and touch down point. While landing elevator controls speed and throttle controls the touch down point (glide path).

I see too many modelers who have this backwards. They try to use the elevator to control the touch down point and the throttle to control speed. This typically results in a stall or very sloppy/abrupt arrival on the runway.

 

[witchfingers]

'' abrupt arrival on the runway" I like that a lot. That is a sweet way of saying a guy just took out his landing gear. I may use that saying in the future.

 

[skunkwurk]

ok fellas, results are in.

The changes did make a difference in the landing tendencies. I think it's a bit of a floater actually, I'm not used to that, I may just need to get used to it. I checked the engine thrust, based on comments, and I don't think it needs to be changed. Chopping the throttle does not show any signs of ballooning or diving from 1/2 throttle to closed at altitude across from wind direction. I did notice I need some up elevator mix with rudder, it's pushing to the belly on knife-edge, so does my smaller one, no surprise.

Anyway, I'll keep plugging away at it, full throttle on this plane is completely insane. It's burning through a lot of fuel, 32 oz barely gets me a 10minute flight. I cut my timer down to 8 minutes as on one of my post flight checks I discovered very very low fuel in reserve after landing. My mid range is a little fat, I'll have to adjust needles a bit. Including a pic from today.

sc

 

[Naughty Monkey]

Good to hear you are getting it dialed in. Now enjoy flying the snot out if it