Oct - Rcsoaring.com

One of the two tow hook blocks installed in the wings.These are full depth so the loads are transferred to thewing skins.The drogue ’chute and associated servo linkage.The wings tow hooks are placed 1/2inch forward of the balance locationwhich is 4% MAC forward of the balancepoint. This seems too far forward butany further aft and the launch sufferedin height and would periodically pop offduring launch. The launches have beena non-event, perfectly straight up the histart.The initial launch is what concernedme most prior to the first flight but thelack of sleep was unwarranted.THE ’CHUTEThis hobby is supposed to be fun so Iadded a drogue ’chute. I saw this on afriend’s Graupner SB13 flying wing, soI thought the idea would be great to tryon my wing. There was room for a ’chutein the area that made up the bat tail. SoI simply made a hatch with a releasemechanism. The aft part of the hatchis held in place with two plywood tabsthat slip under the top sheeting and thefront of the hatch has a small balsa blockglued underneath with a hole drilled in itthat accepts a plastic pushrod.At the end of the ’chute I tied a loop ofstring and inserted it from left to rightthrough a hole in the center plywoodbulkhead and when the pushrod isinserted this holds the ’chute in place.See the photo above right. The pushrodgoes through the loop and extends pastthe hole in the rib into the balsa blockOctober 2008 73