Ryerson U heavy lift test flight- success!!!

[Frank v B]

Jack and I helped Ryerson achieve flight with their heavy lift plane.  The design can best be described as mostly wing with small appendages.  Very short-coupled (little distance between trailing edge of the wing and the leading edge of the stab), huge ailerons, twin rudders, under-cambered airfoil.  The heavy lift contest is taking place in California in less than 3 weeks.  These planes lift up to 30 pounds of steel slabs.


Winds were strong (20 km/h plus) from the north and gusty, temperature minus 1C



The flight was only in a straight line, got about 6 feet off the ground and landed in one piece about 100 feet from the take-off point. It had about 6 pounds of ballast.


I flew my Birdie 10 while the Ryerson plane was being assembled and did about 5 low passes to see how the strong winds affected the take-off/landing.  Surprisingly flyable with little swirling.


There were many problems to overcome today:
- the UBEC fried and replaced it with a standard 4.8 volt receiver pack
- the receiver would not bind (Spectrum DX 6) so we used my Birdie 10 DX 6 TX and Orange Rx with satellite RX.
- the tail assembly was bolted on (nylon bolts) and was promptly broken off when the student stood up and it got caught on his jacket.  It was Zip-tied back on.
- the 6 cell battery pack was disconnected to walk the plane over to the runway and the Deans connector pulled off (cold solder joints).  I brought a fully charged 4 cell 2650 65C battery and used it. 


Dr. Keith Shaw saved the day.  He told us about 10 years ago at the EMFSO AGM that his King Crimson flying wing (and Horten and Northrop wings) used 7 degrees of wash-out for stability. I had both ailerons adjusted with about 5 degrees of "up" to compensate for the short-coupled design.  It was miraculous.  Thanks Keith  (see, I listened to your presentation! )


Did about 5 taxies down the runway and tried a little more "up" every time and it wanted to fly.  It was never my intention to fly anything but a straight line.  The 4 cells did not produce enough power to make a turn and stop it from falling from the sky.  Take-off speed was about fast walking speed because of the wind.


It landed in one piece, in a straight line but behaved very much like a bucking Bronco.  Got lucky in timing the landing with the sine-curve flight path so it landed in one piece.


Back to the shop and awaiting the next call.


A very rewarding and neat experience...now that I have thawed out.


Frank