Hi Guys,
Linheart,
Thanks for your comments. I always enjoy hearing from you. We all owe you a big Thank You for turning us on to the benefits of the APC-E 12x6 props, they have made a big improvement in our E power systems. My P-40 went from a good flyng ECL plane to a GREAT flying ECL plane after you told me about your prop! :-)
I thought the same as you did after seeing Wolfgang's video. Then, after reading the text again, I interpreted his hand movements as "accelerating" and "decelerating" the card to simulate different G loads. This change in G loads changed the RPM in the motor. (I could be wrong, it has happened before ;-) He is away on business for several days but I hope to get a clarification from him next week. I also hope to get some feedback from the test flights he, and others have done.
Igor,
You and Linheart have a good point about the possible speed up on the down maneuvers if they have lower line tension. This is opposite from the ideal. Gravity is bringing us down fast enough, we sure don't want to help by increasing our RPM! ;-)
I don't think we are looking for flying slow on the down line, just decreasing our RPM enough to compinsate for the normal acceleration from gravity. If we can keep the down lines at the same speed as our slower up lines, then the pattern should look more balanced, and give it a smoothness that will look more pleasing to the judges, and it will make the down lines a little less "stressful" for the pilot at the 5' alt. ;-)
Your right, our gov mode helps our ECL planes address these problems and almost solves them. I agree about not needing additional speed overhead, as long as we are in near perfect CLPA conditions with winds below 7K and little or no turbulence up high. IMHO: When the wind picks up, and/or there is turbulence up high from trees, etc. then extra speed is important overhead. In these conditions I just turn up my power on my JMP timer and this helps a lot. But it also increases my speed everywhere, which is not ideal.
Alan,
My guess is that you hit the nail on the head. All this "tweeking" to get the right speed and the right line tension at just the right time is very tricky, maybe even difficult? I like your passive idea. With our E systems we do have a lot of room to play with torque at changing speeds/loads. You, and others, have always said there is still a lot of ECL gains to be made in playing with props. Please keep us posted with your results.
I totally agree, the early wet engines 4/2 was a good idea, and when everything goes perfectly it worked very well. One of our goals in ECL is to match this 4/2, and maybe exceed it. (On a personal note: I am very hesitant to give any credit for anything to a criminal predator like D Fox.)
I THINK THIS QUEST IS WORTH THE EFORT:
If we stopped development where we are now, with our reliable, repeatable, turnkey, powerful, governor controlled systems, I would still be a very happy CLPA flyer! :-) I think we are = to or better than the best wet systems out there (especially when you consider the importance of reliability and repeatability).
BUT, IMHO: The quest for the holy grail of having the really smooth, even paced, slow motion, in almost any WX, performance like we have in IMAC and pattern RC flying may be worth some extra effort. To do this without a pilot throttle control is a real tech challenge. With people like you three, Dean, Wolfgang, Kim, Mike, Will, and many others working on it, I'm sure it will be solved. :-)
My ideal would be a plane flying slowly, 6+ sec laps, then pulls uphill with no problems, slow down lines, with full control (line tension) at all times, in any WX. I think we are getting closer with our ECL systems (and the wet piped systems). But the goal is still out there.
OUTSIDE THE BOX?
This may be a little outside the box, but we may want to consider mounting a small E-Fan motor near the outside wingtip, perpendicular to the flight path. Using Wolfgangs G-Sensor system would allow us to send a variable amount of power to this Fan unit to maintain line tension without the speed up on the down line problem pointed out by Igor and Linheart. The new E-Fan units are getting very efficient and are relatively light. (we need tip wt anyway ;-). I hope one of our dedicated experts out there tries this someday.
Thanks again for all your comments. It will be interesting to see how this new product performs in the real world.
Regards,