Konrad
Very Strong User
For the last five years I've been fighting trying to land an BlitzRC (FMS) FW190 1400mm and only getting about a 20% success rate. Most landing result in a lot of skidding, side hopping scraped wing tips, large bounces and often end up on the spinner.
Some back ground, I literally got this FMS FW190 by pulling it out of the trash bin at a field where I often fly. It has a fuselage that was broken into 3 pieces one wing was snapped in half and various control surfaces were torn off. (Just my kind of model)! On the maiden flight I had reversed the aileron and in 10 yards of flight I ended up with a ship much the same as I got it. So I did another rebuild of the beer cooler!
The FMS Fw190 1400mm has proven to be a real fun flying foamy. Well every aspect other than the landing. It lands much like a Gee Bee R1, that is everything looks nice and stable on landing until the wheels touch, then all hell breaks loose! For a long time I thought that the problem might be as a result of some mis-alignment as a result of my repairs. About 3 years ago a friend bough a new FMS FW190 (same molds as my BlitzRC Fw 190). He had much the same landing experience. OK, his success rate was a bit higher at 25% to 30%. There was a clue in that he used lighter 3200 mAh batteries and I was using 5000 mAh batteries.
Both his and my Fw 190 were balanced at the same location on the wing and in the air they flew much the same. But why did he have almost twice as good a landing success as I was getting. (Now please don't mention the obvious, that he might be a better pilot than I)! Well last month I was trying to land my FW190 and by my good fortune these attempts where witnessed by a full size test pilot Eric Presten. He brought to my attention that the other Fw 190 had the center of mass in the vertical closer to the gear (he was using 3200 mAh cells and I was using 5000mAh cells).
So I wasn't going to give up my flight times and go with a smaller battery. (These batteries are used in my 8 cell 90mm EDF jets, smaller cells would be totally inadequate). Seeing that FMS has the battery place way up in the cowl I thought I'd hack away at the nose and make room lower down to allow the battery to lie on top of the wing front mount. This in effect lowers the battery mass 50mm.
Well I just got back from flying the FMS Fw-190 with the new mod and made 5 great landing in a row with only using the landing gears as part of my landings (no wing tips or spinners). I knew that the center of mass relative to the landing gear did effect how the airplane handles on the ground. But I'm shocked at just how large an effect lowering the center of mass actually has.
I'm impressed that it only took Presten seeing two of my landing and one of the other FMS Fw-190 to find the root cause. A lesson I take away from this is that it is a good idea to have more than one set of eyes looking to solve problems.
P.S.
I've been hearing that there is a new Horizon Hobbies E-Flite FW-190 1500mm on the market that exhibits much the same issues on the ground.
Some back ground, I literally got this FMS FW190 by pulling it out of the trash bin at a field where I often fly. It has a fuselage that was broken into 3 pieces one wing was snapped in half and various control surfaces were torn off. (Just my kind of model)! On the maiden flight I had reversed the aileron and in 10 yards of flight I ended up with a ship much the same as I got it. So I did another rebuild of the beer cooler!
The FMS Fw190 1400mm has proven to be a real fun flying foamy. Well every aspect other than the landing. It lands much like a Gee Bee R1, that is everything looks nice and stable on landing until the wheels touch, then all hell breaks loose! For a long time I thought that the problem might be as a result of some mis-alignment as a result of my repairs. About 3 years ago a friend bough a new FMS FW190 (same molds as my BlitzRC Fw 190). He had much the same landing experience. OK, his success rate was a bit higher at 25% to 30%. There was a clue in that he used lighter 3200 mAh batteries and I was using 5000 mAh batteries.
Both his and my Fw 190 were balanced at the same location on the wing and in the air they flew much the same. But why did he have almost twice as good a landing success as I was getting. (Now please don't mention the obvious, that he might be a better pilot than I)! Well last month I was trying to land my FW190 and by my good fortune these attempts where witnessed by a full size test pilot Eric Presten. He brought to my attention that the other Fw 190 had the center of mass in the vertical closer to the gear (he was using 3200 mAh cells and I was using 5000mAh cells).
So I wasn't going to give up my flight times and go with a smaller battery. (These batteries are used in my 8 cell 90mm EDF jets, smaller cells would be totally inadequate). Seeing that FMS has the battery place way up in the cowl I thought I'd hack away at the nose and make room lower down to allow the battery to lie on top of the wing front mount. This in effect lowers the battery mass 50mm.
Well I just got back from flying the FMS Fw-190 with the new mod and made 5 great landing in a row with only using the landing gears as part of my landings (no wing tips or spinners). I knew that the center of mass relative to the landing gear did effect how the airplane handles on the ground. But I'm shocked at just how large an effect lowering the center of mass actually has.
I'm impressed that it only took Presten seeing two of my landing and one of the other FMS Fw-190 to find the root cause. A lesson I take away from this is that it is a good idea to have more than one set of eyes looking to solve problems.
P.S.
I've been hearing that there is a new Horizon Hobbies E-Flite FW-190 1500mm on the market that exhibits much the same issues on the ground.
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