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56" Gentle Lady Evo - Major project creep

There is a 3D printed assembly that goes in the root, and that gets sheeted in with 1/16" balsa top and bottom. The basswood spar engages the 3D printed part and the lower sheeting.

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Hey Wayne,

That looks neat. I noticed the spar has a notch similar to what was on the mini wanderer. Have you thought of making the 3d printed part in two pieces that butt up against the spar? Then the spar can be full depth and have a good strong bond to the upper sheeting.

Regards,

Hank
 
The wing has been together for a while waiting for me to sand and cover. Got her sanded yesterday, and just a bit of clean up sanding and get her covered. :)

I had expected to reduce the amount of sanding needed using these leading and trailing edges. I'd say work load is slightly reduced, not the larger gain I had expected. I'd guess I spent an hour sanding on the wings. Not all that bad. I probably sanded more than the average builder would.
 
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Maiden Flight Report​

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We gave her a quick CG with a 800mah2S lipo under the canopy, she had a perfect CG. Check the controls, take a few photos and lets fly!
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We like to do start with a glide test and if it is stable we add power and fly out. That is exactly what we did here. No issues!
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She looks great with the sun lighting up here ribs.
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I wasn't 100% sure if I had the wing angles right for the shoulder wing location, but instantly Jarron let us know she was handling great, and he started catching thermals. Within a couple of minutes he told me he was going to steal her so he could fly her this weekend. :)

Stall is a non-event, slow her down, and keep holding up elevator and she will stall and recover, stall and recover.. No bad breaks or sketchy behaviours. "We don't need no washout!"

Power level is just right, climbs to a comfortable altitude in 10 or so seconds, and if there is any thermal activity she is quick to point it out to you. Very nice.

We got a bunch of photos and video while we tested different flight objectives. Loops are not an issue, heck, she even rolls pretty decently for a rudder ship. Jarron did some inverted passes just because. you will see some in the video once it is processed.

We all took turns flying her, catching thermals, spiraling down, just having a great time. She is a sweet plane with some sporty credentials. We did a few landings that were as gentle as can be, and on the final landing Jaron tipped a little stree branch on final and ended up landing inverted. No damage! Woohoo!
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A couple of small tweaks for manufacturing and she is ready to go to market! She is indeed a gentle lady!
 

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I keep telling you guys to watch those trees!
Looks like the mower needs to "Slip" near where Jarron is standing!...
 
Glad to see it flies. I think you should change the name to the “Sunsetter”. Gentle Lady Evo is clunky and negates all the design work you did on this model.

Hank
 
I'm planning to set up an older big span floater for flying from the backyard. :) I don't think span is really the issue, it is more wing loading, as soon as we get a little wind back there, it gets very bumpy. We call it the vortex, it will throw perfectly happy planes nearly inverted just when you least expect it. Higher wing loading helps cut through the junky air.
 
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