Counterweighting to prevent flutter

On Tue, 07 Jun 2005 18:23:12 -0700, John Ammeter
wrote:

On Tue, 7 Jun 2005 20:03:14 -0400, "Morgans"
wrote:


"Stealth Pilot" wrote

so you can build in flutter proofing by balance, absence of hinge slop
and control tensions but in the end it is up to some careful test
flying to determine whether there is an onset of flutter.

The flutter test for the brave, goes something like this. Get plenty of
altitude, say 8 thousand feet AGL, put the plane into a pretty steep dive,
WOT, and give the stick a sharp rap. If the plane keeps flying, and you are
satisfied with this speed as Vne, OK, you are done. If the plane starts to
flutter, and the wing falls off, use you parachute, now.

Oh, you did have a parachute on, didn't you? g


Uh, you might have made a slight error here... the correct
method is to get into a dive, pull up and at the correct
test velocity, give the stick a sharp rap. The difference
is that you're slowing down NOT speeding up as you enter the
"test".... If you do encounter flutter, it's hopeful it
will stop as you slow down.

John

thank you john. that's exactly how it is done. if you lose control
because of flutter the aircraft is moving back into a more inherently
safe speed range. ...if it lasts that long. :-)

Stealth Pilot