Folland Gnat T1

There was a reason.
The rear angle of the canopy means that if the front is held by a peg it simply will not lift out. A rear peg it had to be.

At last its all back together and tested.

A month and 2 days since its first completion.

Tonight the weatherperson forecast that next week the weather pattern is changing with a period of high pressure giving light winds, reasonable temperatures, sun and little rain.
The final comment made was there had not been such a forecast since mid September last year.
We can only hope.

Broke the nose again.

It looks like I seriously misjudged the torque roll on hand launch and it would have helped if I had remembered to switch on the gyro!
The result is it banked to about 45 degrees soon after launch touched a wing tip and still at full power it 'cartwheeled' snapping off the nose rather than crushing it as it did before.
The break is fairly clean on the tension side of the break but significant skin crushing occurred on the compression side. The impact forced the battery forward several inches into the nose damaging formers, but not the skin, as it went.
The only damage to the wing apart from a green stain on the wing tip was to 'strain' 2 of the wing bolt mountings but easily fixed.

Its hard to believe it actually flew before and that was when it had a significant twist in its wing.

Maybe ou ought to twist them back again

Ouch ! that's a shame. Actually you might be on to something here, as there seems to be a trend appearing. When you do the repairs why don't you build in a deliberate weak point so the nose breaks off without damaging the rest of the airframe. It's 75% there already. that way you could have a couple of spare nose cones pre built.

That is a shame, you could do with a assistant to help launch that way at least you would have your fingers on the sticks.

Klipkopwildlife wrote: You're wicked!

If I took crashing to seriously I would have given up long ago ! Let's face it Iv'e had my fair share.

Eric
With the state of field I hand launch all the time and I am left handed. For me a 'wheel' take off is a rarity.
It seems the Gnat is very sensitive to torque at launch and a bit short of aileron power.
On its one flight so far the gyro was 'on' and the first unsuccessful launch had warned me to set full right trim and be ready with right stick.

With the wing twist removed I had assumed the worst of the aerodynamic roll would be cured which indeed it may be but it has not flown long enough to find out. The gyro should deal the initial torque roll with very well as the Lemon rx gyro is seriously sensitive but in the previous two 'nose' crashes I forgot to switch it on - both times. Doh!

The only excuse I can offer is that with the muddy state of the field I use the car roof as a table to install the battery. The problem then is the control surfaces 'jiggle' constantly walking from the car park to the launch point so I switch it off reminding myself not to forget but by time I have walked 50 yds, judged the wind direction, the sun position and a final control check - I have!

To do so once is feeble. To do so twice shows a seriously distracted mind. I put it down to my age and of course COVID 19!

For my reference, what do you have the gain pots on your Lemon stab set to Q.

crash
For the Lemon gyro rx all three pots are still in the middle as it left the factory and has proved very adequate in countering any disturbance.

Strictly the pot controls sensitivity not degree of deflection so the pot settings tend to be limited to avoid 'hunting' where the gyro causes the servo to over correct making the plane oscillate back and forth all the time.

My concern with the Lemon gyro is that it is so good that once you are flying truly straight and level it keeps the plane that way come what may, thus making an appropriate 'fail safe' setting rather important.

Slowly 'making good' each side of the break in preparation to gluing the nose back on.

The flat floor, which is also a structural member, is where the gyro rx will sit. The battery will be mounted vertically in the next compartment forward alongside the ESC. Both compartments will be accessible under the removable canopy.

It had better fly next time. I doubt I will be motivated to repair it yet again.