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Light plane instability

Posted: Fri Jan 06, 2017 3:41 am
by Stambo
Can any of you fixed wing guys answer a question for me.
Having started with a coaxial heli, moving on to a 450 6ch cp and then a 500 cp, I then discover quads and the helicopters became ornaments.
I still fly little V911s with my son but that's about it for me and helicopters.
A while back I started messing with fixed wing with the idea of some nice relaxing FPV flights up a little higher than I am used to in a Miniquad.
I have an AXN but it is a little too big for me to be comfortable FPV flying it around my little property at this stage.
I have scratch built an FT Sparrow and an FT Arrow.
Both fly ok but seem to be stable only on the very best of days with little to no wind.
I have a couple of micro VTX camera combos coming from Banggood, one of which will end up alternating between these two aircraft.
Being used to the flight controller taking care of quads and keeping things super stable is it normal for a small, light fixed wing to be moved around a bit by the slightest breeze?

Re: Light plane instability

Posted: Fri Jan 06, 2017 7:52 pm
by pvolcko
They will move around, yes. Especially small foamies. I just took a look at the FT Sparrow. That has a lot of control surface area, which is going to make it get thrown around quite a bit. Coupled with the light weight it may well be unmanageable in anything more than a bit of a breeze.

Re: Light plane instability

Posted: Fri Jan 06, 2017 8:33 pm
by Derek
Yes, Stambo...smaller, lightweight, planes will definitely get beat around more in the wind. Especially if there is a lot of wing surface. Something that I've done to help counter this is to add a simple heading hold/rate mode gyro to the aileron channel. Having that gyro set to heading hold helps to smooth out some of the bumps. If you can spend a bit more money, HK sells an OrangeRX 3 axis flight stabilizer. I love this things. I have 4 of them. They are easy to install, setup, and tune.

Re: Light plane instability

Posted: Fri Jan 06, 2017 10:30 pm
by Stambo
Thanks guys, I thought that might be the case.
The flight stabilizer idea already crossed my mind, since I use a Taranis I have been looking at the S6r from Frysky.
It is apparently not the easiest to set up but has the advantage of being adjustable from the tx once it is.
Probably a bit overkill for the little planes but it is certainly on the shopping list for the AXN.