Joining the 1/4 scale club/ BUSA Sopwith Pup

Michael · June 13, 2014, 11:38:07 AM

Regarding your test-flight - tomorrow is our float fly.

If you want to test-fly it in privacy, tomorrow should be pretty good.

Otherwise, there's always Sunday afternoon.

battlestu · June 13, 2014, 11:41:13 AM

if you can trust the weather network Sunday looks good

Gregor77 · June 14, 2014, 04:45:05 AM

We were talking at the field and my blue one is balanced based on this post: Well I dug a little deeper on this cg issue with the Balsa USA Sopwith Pup and this is what I found: 5 1/4" from the leading edge of the top wing is the standard optimal cg for this model. The assembly manual, page 30, photo 164 shows the construction of the machine gun , this photo also shows the location of the original CG at 5 1/4". If you compare the photo to the plans that come with the kit the cg on the plan is not in the same place and is well forward of the cg in this photo. So. Between 4" and 5 1/4. You have some play room.

Gregor77 · June 14, 2014, 04:49:16 AM

If you plan on the maiden today. I could try to bring my blue one to compare set ups. I know that I was a bit of tail elevator down. About 1-2 cm from level. A few clicks of right rudder and level wings. You should be good at that point. Plus I was at 5" from the leading edge for c/g. That could explain the few clicks down. But could be incidents also.

electroflyer · June 14, 2014, 09:43:50 PM

Hey guys,
Test flew the plane today. It was better than expected. Despite the wind it penetrated nicely. The only hiccup in the entire flight was landing smoothly on the grass, then right near the end of the roll out touching the geotex runway which popped the retaining clip causing the wheel to fall off and an abrupt end to the landing ...tail up! Fortunately no damage. Greg, thanks for the info regarding cog. I did suspect a fairly wide tolerance, but decided to err on the side of caution. 18 ounces later, I'm at 4.25 " and it felt good. Thanks to Greg, Andy Frank and Jeff for your words of encouragement. Thanks to the same guys the Apprentice has been rescued from the tree.

Cheers!
P.S. The Pup flew twice!

Michael · June 14, 2014, 10:25:35 PM

Congratulations!

Sorry we missed it.

sihinch · June 15, 2014, 01:52:04 AM

Yeah!! Way to go. Congrats Glenn.

piker · June 17, 2014, 01:08:30 PM

I'm really happy to hear about your successful test flight. It sounds like you had fun flying it. Congratulations!!

Next stop... Kingston.

Everyone should come out to Kingston to watch the TEMAC 1/4 scale Biplane demo flights

Frank v B · June 17, 2014, 08:23:04 PM

The first flight of Glenn's Pup was terrific. It just lifted into the sky at half throttle and showed no tendency to want to do anything nasty. Interesting that full throttle did not make it go much faster. I think Glenn was smart to use a low pitch prop for power and not speed. Looked like half throttle was the speed limit of the airframe.

Majestic.

The test flight was a nice break from the Apprentice retrieval party in the tree.

Frank