pictsidhe
Well-Known Member
I'm seriously considering a flying flea FAR103 ship. I'd like something small and foolproof to fly.
There appears to be a stability issue with fleas, there is quite a bit of anecdotal evidence that once in a while, a flea nosedives into the ground, turbulence is often blamed. Without getting into a Punch and Judy 'Oh yes they do', 'Oh no they don't' debate, for the purposes of this thread, can we just assume that they do? I am aware of the early HM14 nosedive problem which was 'solved'. I say 'solved' as I wonder if the problem was merely pushed outside of most normal flight conditions.
I've seen a few explanations, but none of them really work for me. One is that front wing stalls in positive lift and just doesn't unstall. I can't see how that might be statically stable.
So I'll kick off with my current pet hypothesis. A disturbance causes a negative lift stall, the rear wing, now in the wake of the front wing then stalls too. If the event has pitched the nose down far enough, you have a negative g deep stall. 'Merde!' is really not going to be a strong enough expletive if this is stable.
There appears to be a stability issue with fleas, there is quite a bit of anecdotal evidence that once in a while, a flea nosedives into the ground, turbulence is often blamed. Without getting into a Punch and Judy 'Oh yes they do', 'Oh no they don't' debate, for the purposes of this thread, can we just assume that they do? I am aware of the early HM14 nosedive problem which was 'solved'. I say 'solved' as I wonder if the problem was merely pushed outside of most normal flight conditions.
I've seen a few explanations, but none of them really work for me. One is that front wing stalls in positive lift and just doesn't unstall. I can't see how that might be statically stable.
So I'll kick off with my current pet hypothesis. A disturbance causes a negative lift stall, the rear wing, now in the wake of the front wing then stalls too. If the event has pitched the nose down far enough, you have a negative g deep stall. 'Merde!' is really not going to be a strong enough expletive if this is stable.
