Guys,
In our area we have to conditions that dominate - 12+ wind or dead calm. In looking at the ships that seem to handle the conditions with the least problems it seems that particularly in the calm the ships with the lesser depth to the fuse have the edge. The extreme is with the profile fuse. My ship has a very depth fuse, lots of side area. In the calm it seems to generate lots of turbulence and keeps you on your toes. A fellow flyer has a ship that has about half the depth of mine and in the calm he seems to be able to just stand there and do the consecutive maneuvers with very little need to move. Both ships have flaps and are about the same wing area and load. Anyone else notice this with full fuse ships?
Best, Dennis
I can think of 4 design points to achieve better wind handling:
1) Less fuse side. I am not big on this approach as it also eliminates the benefits of having a deep fuse.
2) Design for CG to be close to CL. The smaller the distance, the less of an "arm" wind has to push with. It also helps with windup in the rounds.
3) Increase fuse area in front of CG. Most designs had a lot of area in behind the CG and not enough in front of it. If you design a fuse so that has equal areas around the CG.
4) Do not build rudder offset. On the downwind side, rudder with an offset presents a large area at exteme arm lenght for the wind to push on and cause it to turn into the circle. On the upwind side, it forces it to point outwards, taking away engine thrust from moving the model forward.
I bet that your fellow flier has more rearward CG on his model.