Flight B/C

[Astronomyguy]

Received my FF kit Friday and have been building it yesterday and today. I’m looking to fly tomorrow (exciting!) and I’m building more carefully and closer to the manual this year. Some questions:

1. I changed to a soldering iron this year to trim mylar and found that it wasn’t as neat as I expected it to be - the Mylar tends to curl up when heated so the edges always curl around the cf if they’re not burnt and I have to uncurl and cut them using an xacto. Does that make a difference (small pieces of mylar on the edge of cf rods) or is it too trivial of an improvement to spend time on?

2. I’ve had 2 or 3 holes in my mylar and I found that mylar tends to stick to itself through static electricity, so instead of fixing holes like I did last year (with scotch tape or gluing mylar scraps on holes) which got heavy real quick, Im just putting mylar scraps on the holes and rubbing them to make them stick. Is this the normal way to fix holes?

3. The duco cement I have on hand is from 2 years ago and has thickened to the point where it just doesn’t work anymore, so I haven’t used it. Should I be using duco? Is it easier to cut through than super glue?

4. So I accidentally installed my tail boom upside down which results in the HS being a couple mm lower than normal and maybe tilted up by a degree or two. Is HS incidence a thing, and is it beneficial/detrimental to my plane in this case?

5. How important is it to have the leading edge of the wings level? I had some problems with this last year but forgot what happened when they weren’t level. Right now, my inner (left) wing is a couple mm higher than my outer. I expect this to increase the turning radius slightly - is this true? How does this affect flying compared to wing wash?

Thanks,
Astro

[Hartman]

Received my FF kit Friday and have been building it yesterday and today. I’m looking to fly tomorrow (exciting!) and I’m building more carefully and closer to the manual this year. Some questions:

1. I changed to a soldering iron this year to trim mylar and found that it wasn’t as neat as I expected it to be - the Mylar tends to curl up when heated so the edges always curl around the cf if they’re not burnt and I have to uncurl and cut them using an xacto. Does that make a difference (small pieces of mylar on the edge of cf rods) or is it too trivial of an improvement to spend time on?

2. I’ve had 2 or 3 holes in my mylar and I found that mylar tends to stick to itself through static electricity, so instead of fixing holes like I did last year (with scotch tape or gluing mylar scraps on holes) which got heavy real quick, Im just putting mylar scraps on the holes and rubbing them to make them stick. Is this the normal way to fix holes?

3. The duco cement I have on hand is from 2 years ago and has thickened to the point where it just doesn’t work anymore, so I haven’t used it. Should I be using duco? Is it easier to cut through than super glue?

4. So I accidentally installed my tail boom upside down which results in the HS being a couple mm lower than normal and maybe tilted up by a degree or two. Is HS incidence a thing, and is it beneficial/detrimental to my plane in this case?

5. How important is it to have the leading edge of the wings level? I had some problems with this last year but forgot what happened when they weren’t level. Right now, my inner (left) wing is a couple mm higher than my outer. I expect this to increase the turning radius slightly - is this true? How does this affect flying compared to wing wash?

Thanks,
Astro

1. The small pieces of mylar are probably trivial but it's nicer to have a clean edge since they might cause a bit of drag when flying, making the plane less efficient.
In general to anyone reading this, building a clean plane allows for a much better flying experience since a lot of issues beginners might have can be directly bypassed. Read directions twice or three times and really understand them before building if you're new. And take your time measuring and adjusting before gluing.

2. Can't really speak to that. Only issue that might show up is that the pieces might blow away when flying. I believe some people have done this and used the spray glue to keep the patch in place.

3. Duco is easier to adjust than super glue and is slightly lighter when done correctly, but super glue has the major advantage of drying nearly instantly. It is possible to soften/dissolve super glue with acetone, same as duco. Just a bit messier.

4. HS incidence is a thing, but I'm not totally sure what your situation is. Is it the leading or trailing edge that's higher? If it's the leading edge, you might want to rectify that. I believe no incidence is the most 'normal' but there are some instances where you'd want the trailing edge to be a bit higher. Not totally sure which instances those are, though.

5. Yes, your circles will likely be slightly bigger. If the leading inner edge is tilted higher and the trailing edge is 'level' in comparison, this is basically wing wash and will add more lift to the inside of your wing and make the circles slightly larger as a byproduct. If the whole wing is tilted, then the plane will simply turn in a larger or smaller radius. I believe the latter situation is in essence the same as tilting your HS.

[pumptato-cat]

I'll wait on the coaches to provide better input for some of these but here's what I know.
1) I use a fresh X-acto blade. Never had any issues with this; just cut slow and carefully. I have heard of people using a cautery pen instead of a soldering iron. I bought one and I'll report back on how that goes when I build something with it.
2) If you use the search function in the forums and search phrases related to or similar to "mylar patches" or "torn mylar" there's some information. I used 3M77 to attach small patches. I sprayed it directly on the patch because SciOly planes are already heavy so weight doesn't matter too much to me. However, I've known some teams that dilute the glue with a lot of Naptha and paint the patch before gluing instead of directly spraying.
3) Dunno, depends on the purpose I guess? For things you want to adjust easier, use Duco. I've found CA to be very hard to dissolve with acetone(not sure if that's just a me problem, though--but once I spent half an hour brushing the same joint with acetone and it never dissolved).
4) What's HS? I feel like this is something I should know...
5) Hartman pretty much summed it up well but I'll try to explain the last part further. I'm assuming you mean that the entire wing is tilted, not wash-in--if so, I think I recall something about how the wing determines the angle at which the plane flies(the wing will always be flat instead of the motorstick IIRC). So, if the right side of the wing was lower than the left, the plane would have to fly with the wing flat--doing so would lift the right side up to be level and decrease stab tilt(assuming it was set for left circling) as the entire plane rotates counterclockwise, and vice versa if the wing was tilted the other direction.
Hope that makes sense, and please correct me if I'm wrong!