Maiden flight of a Minimoa today

[Mosquito]

Rumor has it, Kevin Kavaney flew his EMS Minimoa today that he has been working on for almost a dozen years! He is rumored to have flown it at a friends private airstrip north of Minneapolis on a beautiful spring afternoon. Maybe we can get Kevin to tell us more about it.

Tim

[kjkavaney]

Okay Len and fellow sailplaners. This has been a long journey. This plane was started by Rick Biggs many many years ago. He built the horizontal stabs and handed it off to me. ​The spoilers are top and bottom and I could never get them to close properly until I machined up a tiny piece of brass that kept the two wires parallel rather than pinched together. Other issues were the hinging and covering as the EMS, which pre dates LET, these planes were not hinged, not covered, no canopy fitting, stabs not drilled, nor hinged, zero work done really...figure it out or forget it....crap...everything is in German...turns out I probably had the wrong CG...definitely tail heavy....a real struggle to control it once it was off tow..PIO'ing like crazy...wanted to loop without trying....dialed in a ton of down elevator but I still had to fight to keep it from tucking and rolling...WOW..
I am shocked at how strong the airframe really is given what gymnastics it went through today until I got it tamed down...
Fortunately, my mentor and coach, Tim Mattsson was beside me once he got his tow plane on the ground...was able to calm me down enough to help me from not trashing the plane in his distant fields...I was EXTREMELY gentle with the elevator and aggressive with the rudder to keep it going straight...landed it on Tim's great green grass landing strip with out incident.
Will be definitely adding some nose weight and re checking everything before another flight, but happy as a lark to have finally flown this plane after all these years...
kevin

[French1]

Kevin,

please use this free software, it will save you time in order to find the correct CG.

I use it on every of my sailplane and it works 100%

http://www.jivaro-models.org/predim_rc/page_predim_rc_en.htm

Stéphane

[lenb]

Kevin,
The plane was really tail heavy.

A tail heavy plane is a nightmare to control. Ailerons become ineffective as well as pitch control.
One trick if it happens again is to put out the spoilers and put the plane in a slight bank.

Once you fix the CG, you may want to reduce the control throws and perhaps mix in rudder with ailerons.



Best of luck.

LEN

[Swiss1]

Minimoa's do not respond well to Aileron only, with all Gull Wings including my 7.8M Musger they need lot's of Rudder authority!
I use the switch in front of the Tow Release switch with a mix of Aileron to Rudder so on tow I just use aileron and after release i switch it to get my mix, and some of the time still induce more rudder! Just my Swiss Cent's worth

Jeremy and Ben
SCC AAA TT TN

[ARUP]

Oh boy! Another scale vintage bird flying! Congrats on the successful (and memorable) maiden! Len... Tim misses you really bad!

[DennisB]

Glad it survived Kevin. I looked at that kit for long time, nice to see it had some "action"!

[LRFitch]

Kevin,
Congrats on the maiden! Hope you get it balanced to it's sweet spot for the next tow.

Larry Fitch

[kjkavaney]

I re checked my CG today with that great balancer we got from Jeremey last year at JR....I DID have it exactly what EMS wrote to Rick Biggs to use......at 230mm WTF....​Stephane suggested a software to use but the complicated lay out of the MIni WIng is driving me crazy to use that formula. Anyone have any idea what the new LET mini CG is at ?? I think it is the same wing platform and dimensions...I feel only a little better in that I did not make a mistake in what I set it at...just a mistake for trusting the damn company that kitted the plane !!! WOW>...
Kevin

[lenb]

Scale	1:3,5
Span	4,8 m
Length	2,0 m
Profil	HQ 3,0
Weight	8,5 kg
Wing area	1,7 m2
Central of gravity	180 mm from LE
Elevator	+15/-15 mm
Rudder	L / R max
Ailerons LET MINIMOA	+25/-10 mm

[kjkavaney]

Thanks everyone !!!! back to balancing again.... only 2 inches too far back on the CG...no wonder I had stains on my under wear after that first flight !!!
kevin

[ARUP]

Clinch, man, clinch!

[Steve P]

...no wonder I had stains on my under wear after that first flight !!!

Strictly speaking, correlation is not causality.

[kjkavaney]

A friend helped me re balance it today at the 180mm site...not 230mm
​It required an additional 2.25 pounds of lead to balance it correctly...Damn..what a miracle I got that thing back on the ground !!!

[ARUP]

Kev... you're a heck of a pilot! I remember you getting the big Ka6 back to the field when it was 'dicey' at best. BTW...Tim misses you!