It wouldn't turn

[Dwayne]

I'm flying yesterday in quite gusty conditions, a slightly modified Sarpolus Challenger (wing tips), LA 46, 61 foot lines, this plane normally fly's on rails but yesterday coming down form the outside square it didn't want to turn inverted and  almost went in.  Never experienced anything like this before, any idea's what happened?

[jim gilmore]

any chance that the controls got hungup inside or at the clips ??

[Ron Cribbs]

When flying in wind you put more stress on the control surfaces. Could it be possible you have pushrod flex?

[Dwayne]

When flying in wind you put more stress on the control surfaces. Could it be possible you have pushrod flex?

That's interesting, carbon fiber pushrod but you never know it could have flexed,

What about wind shear?

[Garf]

It could be a stall caused by turbulence.

[Perry Rose]

At my field I can expect the wind I feel will be the same up to about 30 degrees of height. Above that it can come from 180 from the ground wind.

[phil c]

Likely you hit a down gust,  either something coming over the trees or another obstruction,  or just a roll in the air that was in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Glad you saved it.  Did it fly better the next time?  If not something is obviously wrong with the controls.

[Dwayne]

Likely you hit a down gust,  either something coming over the trees or another obstruction,  or just a roll in the air that was in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Glad you saved it.  Did it fly better the next time?  If not something is obviously wrong with the controls.

That's what I'm thinking,  I did some lazy 8's after and it seemed ok but the wind really picked up so I didn't fly again. A little unnerving to say the least.

[Tim Wescott]

A gust may have made it slack on the lines just as you hit 'down'.  If you're not a super-cool pilot and if it happened fast enough, you may not have noticed.

[Dwayne]

A gust may have made it slack on the lines just as you hit 'down'.  If you're not a super-cool pilot and if it happened fast enough, you may not have noticed.

Hey I'm way super cool, just ask my mom. 

[Dennis Toth]

Since it wouldn't turn on an outside maneuver it likely wasn't a flexing pushrod. If the wind was strong, sometime you can get pushed down by the wind. Two things about turning ships in the wind. First don't have the ship's CG to far forward, your ships looks like a modern design with a longer tail moment and larger stab/elevator then the Nobler class of ships so you can move the CG rearward (somewhere between 23 -25% of the average cord). Next thing is the prop. The LA46 likes higher rpm, an 11x4 ish prop is the norm. In the wind you could try a little smaller diameter like a 10.5". The larger diameter the slower the corner.

I like to set up my ships for the windy conditions as it covers both the dead calm and the higher wind. I like to use shorter lines all the time as it keeps the line tension up as a reasonable lap time. Let us know what you find.

Best,     DennisT