Do All .60 powered planes pull a lot?

[Juan Valentin]

      I have been wanting to build a big .60 powered stunter but the few times my buddy Alex has let me fly a couple of his planes I feel like they pull a whole lot and that has stopped me from building one.  The most I did with his planes were a few loops.I`m  5'3"  180 pounds and the planes felt like they were ready to pull my arm.  I don`t know if in his case is a matter of preference or that all big planes pull a lot. What has been your experience with .60 powered planes?
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  Juan

[Randy Cuberly]

How much an airplane pulls depends largely on how much it weighs and how fast it flys.

Since most 60 powered airplanes tend to be larger and heavier they do pull harder certainly than a 40 size airplane that weighs significantly less.

There are other factors that affect "pull" such as CG location and other trim conditions.  A nose heavy airplane will tend to "pull" more than one that is properly balanced or tail heavy.

Line length and size are other factors that will effect line tension and relative "pull".

My personal experience is that an airplane that pulls really hard is both tiring and difficult to fly precisely and should be trimmed differently!

Randy Cuberly

[goozgog]

Hello Juan,
                My experience agrees with Randy's.

  Most of my stunters are .60 size.
( Ro-Jett .65 , .67, several ST. 60's, Aviastar .61).

  I find that the sixties perform better up to about
15 mph of wind but beyond that I prefer a forty
sized something on 60 foot lines.
On a windy contest day, will you bail or fly?

   The sixties just start moving too fast for precision
work in high winds. Better flyers than me probably
don't have the same problem.

   However, my absolute favorite thing in Control
Line is overhead eights in strong winds. I love
feeling a .60 chop it's way to windward very
slowly and then accelerate as it makes the turn
off the wind.
Everything is in slow motion and the plane seems
to hang up there by magic.
For me, that's worth the price of admission.
 

Cheers! - K.

[Paul Smith]

Pulling hard is whole object of big engines.

[proparc]

Larry Renger had a Saito 30 powered Flite Streak that made my arm sore. My Saito 72 powered ship was one of the easiest planes on the old arm to fly. 36 flights back-to -back in one session.

[john e. holliday]

As stated earlier, it depends on how the plane is set up and trimmed.   I've watched Dave Trible, Pat Johnston and a few others make flying the big planes look easy.   I've had .35 size planes that were a bear to fly until they were trimmed.   Of course a lot depends on your balance and how you stand in the circle.  My little Ringmaster S-1 tried to pull me out of the circle a couple of weeks ago flying on rough ground and could not get good footing.  So don't be afraid to try a bigger plane.

[Brett Buck]

      I have been wanting to build a big .60 powered stunter but the few times my buddy Alex has let me fly a couple of his planes I feel like they pull a whole lot and that has stopped me from building one.  The most I did with his planes were a few loops.I`m  5'3"  180 pounds and the planes felt like they were ready to pull my arm.  I don`t know if in his case is a matter of preference or that all big planes pull a lot. What has been your experience with .60 powered planes?

    It has a lot more to do with the airplane than it does the engine. A typical competitive stunt airplane is about 650-700 square inches and weighs around 4 lbs. That's going to pull around 10 lbs no matter what engine might go in it. It can be daunting to fly these in heavy air unless your engine helps you a lot, and at just the right times. If a 60 helps more than a 40, it is actually easier with a 60. I actually think, at the current level of development, a perfect engine run is still better in this regard than the best electrics. If it is not running perfectly, it can be a real problem to hold on to in bad conditions.

   I think control loads can be just as big a problem as overall tension, but you have some control over that with CG settings (at least with modern airplanes, which permit a wide range of CG positions).

    Even though all  modern systems (piped, 4-stroke, or electric) can all reliably get through patterns in conditions for which the contest will be suspended, how well you do in bad conditions is still determined by how well your powerplant works, not how big it is.

    No one really knows how well smaller airplanes will do, since no one has tried it at the highest levels. One of my long-term projects is to apply what we have learned since the mid-80s about trim, design, and power to a smaller airplane in the 550 square inch/mid 40 ounce range and see how it stacks up, primarily because the larger airplanes are so physically daunting to fly. The closest you could get to this with a current design or kit would be a Vector 40, and the only change I would make is to use a low-aspect ratio tail - which may or may not actually improve anything.

    Brett