Depron 109 for both Free Flight and RC.

Richards report.

Tony's ME109 flew well but needed a few adjustments along the way. First flight went OK but roll control was almost non existent, luckily the 109 has a decent amount of dihedral and the single circuit was nurtured round using the rudder. It was also very pitch sensitive so for the second run maximum throws on the ailerons and a significant amount of church roof was added up front. This gave better results with a very nice flying model with good roll response.

However, despite the increase nose weight there was still pitch sensitivity which is a sure sign that there is not enough tailplane area. This was highlighted on the down wind legs when there wasn't as much airflow over the surfaces.

So, if it were me I would increase aileron size and add around 10% in area to the tail, move the servos forward of the CG and that should sort things out.

A cracking model, well designed and put together which is light for its size! looking forward to getting it out in calmer conditions.

Rich

I don't know Richard, and may be doing him an injustice, but I do not understand this comment - snipped -
This was highlighted on the down wind legs when there wasn't as much airflow over the surfaces. - endsnip
The aircraft does not know whether it is going into, across or away from the wind - it only 'knows' it's speed, ie enough, or not enough! (stalled).
The only way it can have been too slow going 'down-wind' was if the pilot was trying to maintain the same GROUND-speed, by hauling up on the elevators, and cutting back on the power.

I given up commenting on the down wind subject!

My advice would be to increase the chord of the ailerons rather than their span. On a relatively thick wing section 'strip' ailerons can get blanketed by the wings thick turbulent layer at slow speeds, particularly the up aileron. This makes the adverse yaw even worse and when coupled to the yaw bank effect from the wing dihedral it can make the ailerons almst completely ineffectual. It needs serious rudder input to over come it.

I note there is significant area counter balance on the elevators. It acts right at the tip of each elevator so unless it is stiff enough in torsion it will make the elevator almost unstable. In other words a slight deflection at the root will result in a bigger deflection at its tip and of course it get worse as the speed rises.
My Canberra was very hard to control until I removed its similar elevator counter balance area. Its now just 'sensitive' but quite controllable.

made the nose block for the rubber powered version today.
still going to use a plastic two blade prop for trimming purposes.