<blockquote id=“quote”><font size=“1” face=“Verdana, Arial, Helvetica” id=“quote”>quote:<hr height=“1” noshade id=“quote”>Originally posted by Dick Lemke
Hi Phillip - point I was trying to make, is that moving a couple pounds of lead and or sheeting a mainsail takes more effort and time than trimming fast acting servos to “prop-hang”.
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True… but I’m planning for that. I won’t be using a standard winch servo for the side to side weight shift. I’m looking at using a much bigger motor and higher speed system. As for the sail winch, I’ve learned from my Tornado that the movement needed to dump air from the sails is smaller than I first thought. I’m now setting the sail with the stick and controlling the heal of the boat with the trim…
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I believe - strictly my opinion which no one has been able to prove differently by sailing one yet - is that by the time you realize you need to shift weight, it may be too late or the winches too slow.
Not saying it can’t be done; not saying it won’t work; not saying a capsize that is self-recovering isn’t a practical solution … I am simply asking … if you aren’t on board, and if you can’t feel the boat starting to quickly heel, how do you determine “when” to move the weight and “where” do you move it… out to the windward side, out to the side and also to the rear, or simply to the rear?
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The fore and aft weight shift should be a bit less critical then the side to side… I imagine that the fore and aft will be used to trim the sit of the boat rather than keep the thing upright.
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In your airplane example, it seems you “knew” you were putting the plane in that position first and had only to balance to keep it there. Same on the boat - if you heel a catamaran on purpose onto one hull it is much easier to keep it balanced there - than to be caught off guard and keep from dumping from a heavy wind gust that couldn’t be seen.
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Putting the plane in the prop-hanging position is the easy bit… A plane will naturally want to fall over, but can fall in any direction… and does. To recover from the plane falling over it’s usually neccesary to use throttle, rudder, aileron and elevator control, all at once, at the right time, by the right amounts… The plane is never completely stable and is wanting to fall over all the time… And then there’s the effect of the wind…
Controlling just the sheet and ballast on a boat strikes me as being potentially easier…
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Regardless - it will be interesting to see what you come up with, and how well it sails…and recovers.
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Thanks. The more I read up on weight shift boats, the more tricks I’ve found to cheat a little… A small amount of ballast on the keel is one… making the wings boyant is another… every little helps.
cheers,
Philip Rawson
www.flymodels.co.uk