FMS 800mm Warbirds

[DonRhone]

I really like the size of the FMS 800 series warbirds.

With the one piece wing sets, would the wings not be sturdier if a Carbon Fiber rod was inserted into the wing piece.

Holding the wing section against a strong light does not reveal any interior reinforcing of the one piece wing.

A sharp knife will certainly cut the foam and inserting a carbon fiber piece certainly would be easy, after the piece was inserted into the wing section it could be easily glued in place and a Miniwax finish applied over that would be a permanent seal.

Comments anyoneÉ

[WintrSol]

Re: FMS 800mm Warbirds

The answer varies with the model, as the wings on some are more rigid than others, depending on wing design. I have a P-40, and, flown with the stock 2S battery, wing flex isn't much of an issue; with 3S, however, high-speed maneuvers do show some flex, and I reinforced the wings. A bigger issue with the P-40 was flexing of the horizontal stab with elevator motion; before installing it, I carefully drilled a hole from tip to tip, and added a CF tube. Tubes flex less than rods of that size, BTW.

One way to estimate how much flex a given wing will have, is to lift it by the tips, battery installed, and see if there is any significant curve in the wing. The P-40 wing only arcs a little bit with this test, which is why it's fine on 2S, since the speed is not high enough to pull significant Gs.