Tiger Moth - the first flights

Monday, 12. September 2011 00:00

Tiger Moth first flew in one very hot afternoon, in 4-5 m/s wind.  
 
If the Tiger Moth was controlled properly, it was a good fun. But TM must be controlled also in dead air. It needs just a small wind blow and it´s already going down. You can´t rashly pull up, because you would fall into tail spin. You can´t help it with an engine because it´s to weak.  
 
HobbyCity is telling fairytales about engine, being selected with a propeller. It´s not truth. It´s not cooled at all and even when you fly for a half of power, it´s getting too hot very soon. It´s got 130W motor input, so with a 650g airplane you have 200W per kg. It means that the airplane should be shifty and well powered. But the most of electricity is changing into the heat, TM is flying very slowly (which is OK) but doesn´t have any reserves for critic situations or for a basic acrobatics. If you want to do looping, you have to climb for long, til you´re high enough. Flying on back is practicly impossible.  
 
My engine could be scrap since production, I don´t know. But it wasn´t useful. At last, I have changed it and I have used noname outrunner from HobbyCity, 45g, 1000kv. I didn´t have a good propeller for it, so I had to use smaller 9x4. With this propeller the engine took just 85W, but flying of TM was almost the same, even when it took about 45W less! When I´ll put to this engine a 10x4 propeller, it´ll take 130-150W (and it won´t change all W to heat) and TM will be able to fly a bit more crazy!  
 
 
My insights about flying:  
 
The center of gravity (CQ) is too on back. It´s move 5mm forward is good.  
 
Spinner is totally useless. It´s vibrating and it´s about to fall off.  
 
Chassis is constructed badly. I mean it´s gripping to hull, in front side. I´ll manage that differently, you´ll see that in the list of modifications in other article.  
 
TM needs a perfect runway. Landing on grass ends up mostly with a model damage. Wings and rudder.  
 
It´s needed a mix Master ailerons – Slave rudder, or the turns are hard and not nice. The turn „over the engine“ is very bad without a rudder.  
 
Next I have some mentions about construction, but I´ll summarize that in a special article.  
 
 
Even when TM has these defections, it´s a beautiful plane, which looks awesome and dignified when flying.  
 
If you´re at least a bit advanced pilot, you don´t mind about „bubbles“, you have a good runway and you love biplanes – don´t hesitate.  
 
My daughter Johanka has recorded a video in earlyevening calm, where I´m flying with TM with 90W power. It looks that it flies all by itself. It doesn´t. It has to be controlled properly. Even when it´s flying by itself (it can do that), it can fall down any moment.   
 
But... If I would want flying without controlling, I would take Rookie or EasyStar... Tiger Moth is a bit delicate, but it worth it! :)  
 
 
 
So here´s the video..  
 
 
Note: If you´re using Internet Explorer and all you can see is just a frame with little "X" in the top corner, your Flash in IE is dated. You can download actual in official Adobe site (instal and restart the computer)
http://get.adobe.com/cz/flashplayer/?promoid=DAFYL
or use another browser like Firefox, Opera, Chrome, Safari...
 
 
 
 
(Note:
Any mentions or questions write to comments under this article, please. Thank you!