Taming of a triblade
Here's a midweek update on what has been happening with the project.
Ian has been working on painting the remaining boomerangs while I tackled the problematic triblade. We had thought that because the quad version worked so well with the wings swept forward, so would the triblade. Well, the triblade just rolled around the field in a large circle, having trouble keeping in the air. My next thought was that if I reverse it to wings swept back, it should be fine. A quick trip to the field provided another disappointment. Now it had way too much lift and almost flew straight up. Back to the shop and the band saw where I reduced the chord of the wings and re-sanded the airfoils. I went back to the field again, only to have similar results. I was beginning to hate this boomerang.
Time to sleep on it...... I got up Tuesday, with a day off to get car and appliances repaired. The forecast was for a hot humid day with temperatures in the high 90s and heat indexes above 100. My garage gets very hot, very fast. I took a quick trip out to cut a new version of the triblade. I reasoned that wings forward, was too low and wings back was too high so maybe wings straight will work? Grabbing a piece of 5 ply 3/16 inch Okoume plywood, I cut and sanded the latest version and headed to a nearby field. My first toss had a beautiful flight with the boomerang landing at my feet for 10 points in accuracy. Finally, a working version we could be proud of.
I emailed Ian with the good news and put the testing to rest.
Dave
Photo: the old version (top) and new (bottom)
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