Wing Launch - Can it pull your wings off?
Some translation from Free Flight Duration Model Airplane speak.
I'm not altogether surprised. I once tried using a light (5-10Kg) woven
Dyneema line the control tailplane release for VIT -- Variable Incedence Tail
....and d/t -- DE-THERMALIZER (brings the plane down quickly after a
set time) on a small
(F1J) (.051 Cubic Inch Displacement) power model, which required it to slide round a 3mm alloy tube that
converted the movement from fore and aft through the fuselage to vertical
travel as the tail surface moved. It was a miserable failure *-the mere
act of threading the line into the fuselage caused it to fluff into total
unusability. I threw it away and replaced it with woven Dacron. Problem
solved.
Since then the only Dyneema I've used has been 100 lb kite bridle, which
I used as the towline for an F1A competition model glider. This line has
a core of straight Dyneema fibres inside a woven Dacron sheath and is
excellent: no tangles, nice to handle, abrasion resistant. Its very stiff
too. The total stretch is about 150mm in a 50m length under the nominal
5Kg test tension - and even that stretch is mostly pulling the kinks out.
On this showing I'd be wary of any Dyneema rope that lacks a Dacron outer
casing: the ease with which the naked Dyneema line fluffed up was really
a shock.
--
martin@ * | Martin Gregorie
gregorie. | Essex, UK
org * * * |
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