Festifall 9.6.12
2012, The M-4
M-Fly started off the 2011-2012 year by looking at different configurations for the competition plane. One of the designs that had a lot of thought put into it was a tandem wing airplane. The team performed analysis and simulations on the design before building a small foam model of the tandem wing plane. We did some stability testing on the plane and tried to perform a test flight before deciding a monoplane was simpler and easier to build and would be just as capable of lifting an ample amount of payload for the competition.
For the 2011-2012 year, the team decided to spend less time designing the plane and running simulated tests and to spend more time early in the year building the plane so that we could perform tests on the actual plane. This involved some changes in the construction techniques of the plane, such as having a modular design for easier transportation to and from the flying field.
The team spent a lot of the first semester designing the plane and working on building the wings for the plane. By January 27, the team had completely finished the plane. We performed an engine test that day to make sure everything was in working order and to prepare for our test flight. Due to high winds, the test flight had to be postponed from January 28th to the 29th until better weather arrived in the area. On January 29, the team took the plane to Flying Pilgrim's R/C Field for a test flight. Despite some mild winds and snow, the plane flew successfully with 7 lbs of payload.Videos from the test flight have been posted on YouTube: ground view or tail camera.
The flying portion of the competition began on Saturday, March 17. The weather in Van Nuys was not very good on Saturday, so the flying rounds were postponed until later in the day when the weather cleared. When we finally made it to the flying field for the competition, M-Fly decided to compete in the empty weight bonus round. Our plane flew well until final approach for landing, when the pilot lost signal with the aircraft and it crashed into the bushes. There was a decent amount of damage to the fuselage and tail of our aircraft, but the team decided it was worthwhile to rebuild the aircraft to compete in Sunday's portion of the competition.
After staying up all night, the team had the plane in flying condition for Sunday. We performed a center of gravity check on our aircraft before flying and heard something pop in the process. We looked and didn't notice any structural damage, so we decided to fly in Sunday's first round of competition with about 13 lbs of payload. The plane again took off well, however we noticed an increased dihedral angle as it rounded the first corner. As the plane began the downwind section of its flight, the left wing sheared off the side of the plane, and the plane nose-dived into the ground, leaving the left wing to flutter to the ground by itself. Upon inspection of the damaged plane, it was not possible to repair the damage. We determined that the popping noise we heard with our CG test must have been the main spar breaking because the outboard sections of our wings were still attached to the inboard wing. A video of our flight has been posted on YouTube.
Despite not actually having a successful flying round at the competition, M-Fly performed well at competition this year. At the awards ceremony, M-Fly won first place for our written design report and got a trophy for our efforts. Also, the team won best crash of the competition for Sunday's crash, so M-Fly left the competition with 2 trophies- a new team record! We finished 19th out of 35 for the 2011-2012 year. While this is not the greatest number in the world, the team learned a lot at competition and despite the flying, had one of our best competitions.
