We had a good turnout with 11 pilots going for the gold. As is often the case Quan was fashionably late in arriving putting him at the very end of the signup sheet. Jovi did a great job of keeping things moving along and keeping the scores.
In the first round of the preliminary races there was some very tight racing with Alex and myself trading places for much of the race—near the end of the race with things a virtual tie Alex made a bad turn giving me enough distance ahead to get the win. A couple races later Otto and Alex tangled at the downwind turn just a couple laps into the race—with both tumbling to the ground. Steve Manganelli waltzed into first place in that round given that 2/3rds of the group had crashed.
Alex had planned ahead and had a second plane ready to go for the finals—and Otto was able to glue the wing back together all within the 10 minute break before the medal race start—amazing what the right CA glue can do with foam.
The results were as follows:
Bronze:
1) Quan
2) Bob Simon
3) Carl
Silver:
1) Alex
2) Otto
3) Bob Stinson
4) Daric
Gold:
1) Steve N
2) Glen
3) Steve M
4) Brad
For those looking for “tips and tricks” for racing T28s a good starting place is this guide:
Setting up your T28 to race.
The most important thing that many people miss when starting to race RC planes is that going fast is nothing without control! The FMS T28 is a small plane and setting it up to race IS very different than for your basic sport flying. Getting the CG and control throws dialed in are key to getting the plane to “go fast and turn left” and keep in control. As a racer running at full throttle— the elevator and aileron travels needed are minimal . A properly setup T28 will actually be easy to fly with only small control deflections.
The control throws suggested in the FMS instructions are intended for a plane flying much slower on a 2S battery. We are flying much faster with 3S. Here are the control deflections I have on my plane:
Ailerons: 6mm up 6mm down
Elevator: 3mm up, 3mm down
Rudder: 6mm left, 6mm right
CG measured from edge of wing at fuselage opening 71-72 mm
I like about 30-40% expo on both aileron and elevator—helps make the plane less sensitive around center making it easier to do fine adjustments to the planes track. A little nose heavy help make the plane positively stable in pitch which and the elevator less sensitivity but the recommended CG in the FMS instructions is too nose heavy for my tastes. Too rearward CG locations will make the plane neutral in pitch stability or even negative which will make it more difficult to find a stable track down the course. The trade offs in moving the GC is stability vs turning ability with the aft CG setup being able to turn more quickly. You need to be careful with the CG and elevator throws in that if you get too aggressive the plane will tend to snap roll in tight turns.
If you find the racing setting a little too mild for take off/landing and general sport flying I suggest setting up a dual rate switch so you can easily swap from one control rate to another.
Some of you did not read my previous article regarding the “AD” for the nose wheel strut—I learned the hard way that on our rough field the stock strut puts the nose wheel too close to the prop which will result in props getting busted when the blade hits the nose wheel rubber. fix is easy—just turn the nose wheel around (be sure to put a flat on the shaft on the opposite side!).
We had a great time—see you at the next T28 race on November 12th!
