Unflyable Spitfire

jiminbartow Sun Nov 09, 2014 10:46 pm

Thanks Roddie.

I am 60, born in 1953. We had the greatest toys back then. Not the politically correct toys of today. Heck I feel sorry for the kids these days that are missing out on all the educational toys we had at our disposal that, no doubt, awakened the scientist in kids of the day and spawned many of the top scientists that we have today. Granted, many of the toys back then were dangerous such as Chemistry sets which had many dangerous chemicals and the Vac-u-form which had a high heating element for melting plastic into molten hot sheets and even the Cox airplane engines, with its' sharp propeller, but kids must have been smarter back then because we had a lot of fun and survived our childhoods.

Regarding my un-flyable Spitfire, I think you may be right. It came assembled and if it was missing a weight that would have provided the necessary weight to create the outward centrifugal force, I never knew it or knew to look for it. After getting rid of it and thinking back on it, I figured that, maybe the tail rudder was bent to the left instead of to the right, that would have caused the plane to fly toward me instead of away, but that would have involved a faulty set of molds in order to create such a unique tail so a missing weigh sounds more plausible. How was it affixed to the wing tip and what did it look like? Could it have fallen off in transit?

Thanks again.

Jim Patrick

**Cribbs74** Sun Nov 09, 2014 11:04 pm

I didn't think any Cox RTF had tip weight, although not having owned any I can't say that with any certainty. I have seen a fair amount and none of them had tip weight.

Anyway, that may have been the issue, but keep in mind centrifugal force has nothing to do with tip weight. Tip weight is to compensate for weight and drag of the control lines so the plane flies level. Tip high (outboard wing high) is caused by to little tip weight and can cause the plane to come in on you. Tip low is caused by to much tip weight and sometimes results in hinging.

It could be something as simple as you were flying in too much wind with a heavy underpowered plane.

Lastly, welcome to the forum!

Ron