I lost a TF Score during a comp in strong wind last weekend (very embarrassing in front of judges!). I have never been happy with the line tension up high on either of the two Scores that I have owned. I have tried shifting the leadouts back and putting in more tip weight with no discernable difference in line tension when doing the overhead maneouvres. Finally I lost it completely going into the top loop of the vertical eight and it splattered on the opposite side of the circle despite a rapid retreat try to get line tension back. I have been running an Enya 61 CXS on 20% nitro which seems to handle the 68oz model OK on a CF 2 blade 13 x 5.25 prop and 65 ft lines. The low manouvres such as the squares, horizontal eights and triangles are fine but I had a few prior close calls during the high maneouvres before losing the model. I am sure that all the flying surfaces were aligned correctly and the model was tracking well in level flight.

Has anybody tried either rudder offset or gone all the way and set up a "rabe" rudder on one of these?

My Saito 56 powered Score has no problems at all with line tension anywhere and handles wind well. Running 5.2 second laps on 63 foot lines Eye to Eye. I believe Alan hit the nail on the head..

Hi Dallas, I've had several scores and they all seem to have the same problem, get in a tight situation and they seem to stall out. I rebuild one using a magnum fuseage with the magnum tail set up. It flys a lot better than the original plane. The enya 60 is plenty of power for the plane with the right setting. I have tried several different engines and the plane seems to have the same tendencies. With more power the problem seems to disappear. Some say its a great plane, I don't disagree, I just say watch the plane and everyone I've seen has the same problem. If you set the engine up with the fuseage that comes with arf your engine off set is very great. Good luck and sorry for your lost. There is several articles in this forum about the score, Gary

Dallas
My condolences on the lost model.  I believe your problem was the leadouts were too far BACK.  Seems counter-intuitive but more ikely than not it was the cause.  When the leadouts are aft you have lots of line tension down low but it all goes away above 45 degrees.

I have always believed that trim problems are best addressed and resolved at low power settings - as you go faster things should get better, but if you have to fly fast with a 60 CXS just to keep the airplane from drilling you in the sunglasses - you should be looking for trim help.  Don't let high flight speeds mask a different problem. 

I think Brett Budk posted a trimming primer on the Open Forum section a couple weeks ago - might want to look that up and see if/how it applies to your situation...

I lost a TF Score during a comp in strong wind last weekend (very embarrassing in front of judges!). I have never been happy with the line tension up high on either of the two Scores that I have owned. I have tried shifting the leadouts back and putting in more tip weight with no discernable difference in line tension when doing the overhead maneouvres.

Has anybody tried either rudder offset or gone all the way and set up a "rabe" rudder on one of these?

   Rudder offset or, worse, moving the leadouts aft,  *hurts* overhead tension!  Both tend to crab the airplane sideways in flight and that is very very bad for overhead tension. Even in tiny amounts.

   The Rabe rudder will, at best, not help this problem very much. The intent of the Rabe rudder is to compensate for gyroscopic precession of the prop and to *prevent the airplane from yawing*. Perfectly adjusted, it can help with the top two corners of the hourglass and maybe a bit with the overheads.

     But note well the "perfectly adjusted" part. Almost every single Rabe rudder I have ever seen is so grossly maladjusted that it hurt the performance severely. Even in the hands of some extremely well-known and accomplished pilots. I figure if Top 5 pilots can't adjust it anywhere close, most people will be in real trouble. Note that the intent is to get rid of yaw - not induce it (as you are suggesting with the rudder offset questions). But almost always, it's adjusted to provide tremendously excessive offset. Only a tiny motion is needed to compensate for precession in most cases, but frequently it's set to flop back and forth an inch or more.

     The point is, unless you are an absolute master at trimming, you will not be able to take advantage of the slight improvement that is provided with the Rabe Rudder, and much more likely, you will make the airplane fly much worse.

      Bottom line is - set the leadouts per LINEII (or Bob Reeves' LINEIII) and leave them there. Add an adjustable rudder, but start with the fin and rudder *dead straight ahead*. Do it just as carefully as any other alignment.  Add about 1/16 of offset. Then fly the airplane. If the airplane is yawed away from you in level flight, or noses in on hard corners, reduce the offset. If it's yawed in at you, it gets unexpectedly light on the lines at the entrance to the inside rounds, or the airplane noses out on hard corners, add offset. Go in 1/32" increments -that's a very significant adjustment. The best you can do with this is to get a tiny inboard yaw on outsides and a tiny outboard yaw on insides. The Rabe rudder would hypothetically remove that, and that's *all it is supposed to do*.


       Brett