[Sandy]

Originally Posted by mwavesdave

Any RC aircraft properly trimmed out, should be able to do a power-off glide down to approach and touchdown. Remember, the airplane knows a whole lot more about how to fly than you do! lol Listen to it!

Reading the Haynes Manual for the hurricane, there's a letter from a Squadron Leader about the transitioning of his guys from Harts and Demons to the "new" hurricane monoplane. He said the younger fliers were having trouble "landing power-off from the glide..."! They had to get used to "flying the plane onto the ground"

If they had to do it guess we'd better as well..

[Mike Sebastien]

All my scale Warbirds are a bitch to land. If you pull the power back on my 50cc Top flite Corsair with the gear down and flaps down, it falls out of the sky. The airplane weighs 25 lbs. You have to fly the approach with power on and then reduce to 1/4 throttle, when the wheels touch then the throttle comes back to idle.

They are bitch to land.

This is a quote from the top Flite Corsair instruction manual.

"When it’s time to land, fly a normal landing pattern and
approach. Lower the flaps keeping a few clicks of power
on until you are over the runway threshold. For your first
few landings, plan to land slightly faster than stall speed. "

[davidmc36]

That's your 50 cc 25 pound model.

The foam four footers will be nothing like that.

[Mike Sebastien]

Originally Posted by davidmc36

That's your 50 cc 25 pound model.

The foam four footers will be nothing like that.

Your right, they will be easy to land. I was backing up what Sandy was commenting about.

[mwavesdave]

I'm surprised Mike, none of my warbirds to date (knock on wood) are an issue. The Spit, P-47, Sea Fury, FW-190, Corsair, are all floaters, and pretty much land themselves. I routinely fly them till they run out of fuel, and deadstick them in. Of course, I wouldn't drop a pile of flap on a deadstick, maybe 5-10 degrees if any. My 1/5th stuff is pretty much all Platt designs, built from plans though, not a one over 20 pounds. I do have a TF 1/5th P-51, and it's heavy, as are all the top flite giant scale birds.

I've got the Haynes manual for the Hurricane as well, but it's a bit of apples and oranges, talking about pilots transitioning from biplanes to high performance monoplanes, and comparing their differences in wing loadings to what we fly. Keep the wing loading light, and landings will be a breeze. Build a brick, it will fly like a brick! lol

[CF105]

The foamies are definitely easier to land! Found that out for myself when I got my first balsa warbird. Although I have to say the H9 P-47 (60 size) has been a pleasant surprise. That one can practically land itself.

[Mike Sebastien]

Originally Posted by mwavesdave

I routinely fly them till they run out of fuel, and deadstick them in. Of course, I wouldn't drop a pile of flap on a deadstick, maybe 5-10 degrees if any. My 1/5th stuff is pretty much all Platt designs, built from plans though, not a one over 20 pounds. I do have a TF 1/5th P-51, and it's heavy, as are all the top flite giant scale birds.

Liked to see you land my mosquito with that technique or my Zirolli spitfire.

[mwavesdave]

If they won't, they're simply too heavy. Especially the Spit. The Dave Platt Spit, 1/5th scale, will fly, and did so often in the 80s and 90s, with a two stroke .90. It was designed to be light enough to do so. Hence, even with the 35cc gasser I've got, it will still float like crazy. The Yellow Aircraft Spit I'm building has a 50cc, and is a bit heavier, but I know damn well she'll still float. I've watched Al Coolen glide his Top Flite Giant scale Spit in deadstick a couple of times, with nary an issue. Recommend removing all cement from your airplanes! (just kidding) I do get it though, if you start loading an aircraft down, big engine, lots of detail, etc, etc, you'll crank the wing loading, and a glider she won't be. But it's not Jets we're talking about, they are mostly lead sleds.
Flaps, by the way, are only flaps to a certain degree (literally), and are primarily for controlling rate of descent, without increasing speed. There's a reason why you don't see a Cessna taking off with 40 degrees of flap, too much drag, flaps are now operating as speed/dive brakes. We take off with 0-15 degrees max. Normal landing, 10-20 degrees. If I'm using 40, it's because I need to drop quickly over an obstacle, i.e. mountain flying, you can't come low into Hope BC! But, if I'm using that much flap, I need to stuff the nose down, or the greatly increased drag will quickly bleed off too much airspeed. Not really meant for you Mike, you know you're theory of flight, this is for others reading, who might equate flaps with lift only, and not understand the whole L/D ratio thing, and exponential drag increase with flap deployment.

[CF105]

There's a couple of grass strips around NB, used for forestry work that require full flap on a Cessna too! I tell ya, you learn real fast just how good your short field technique is, after practicing on a 10,000' paved runway!

Full-sized warbirds had an insane amount of flap available. I swear some had close to 90 degrees full-flap.

[mwavesdave]

You do get spoiled flying on a large runway. Always headed out from Victoria to the smaller fields for practice. We had a great 172 though, with the Horton STOL kit on it, lots of fun in the mountains. Agree on the warbirds flaps, some due to carrier landing requirements, long noses, hard to see over, flaps would let them stuff the nose down, etc. I doubt I use more than 1/2 the avail flap on my TF Corsair. Spit seems another matter, same as the Sea Fury, full flap or no flap, they're happy, but not so much with anything in between.