A bunch of goodies on tail booms from the early 2000's

 

From: ScrollSander [chris@scrollsander.com]

Sent: Friday, June 29, 2001 9:27 PM

To: shink@m.alta.jordan.k12.ut.us; RCSE

Subject: Re: [RCSE] DHLG booms

 

The tailbooms currently being used are of three-four general types.  There

are Skyshark booms, G-Force Avia Booms, Allegra Booms, and Godinov (sp?)

booms.  The SkyShark and Avia booms are thin, OD about 5/16" tapering to

abouot 1/4" over approx 36".  Avia G-Force are avaialbe for $8 for

PoleCatAero.com. these have flex.   The Alegra Booms go from 9/16" to 5/16"

over 33" (approx) and sell for approx $25.  The Goodinov booms are a CF-Al

laminate and are 36" long.  17mm down to aprrox 5 mm over 36".  these are

$30 each.  The Alegra and Goodinov Booms are quite stiff.  I have flown the

Avia's and Allegra's and they are different.  I have the CF-Al boom to try,

but I konow on person who has 6 planes with these and loves them

 

I'll have pictures of these booms and the planes they are on on my CD of the

contest, hopefully done soon.

 

Chris

 

 

 

----- Original Message -----

From: "Scott Hinckley" <shink@m.alta.jordan.k12.ut.us>

To: "RCSE" <soaring@airage.com>

Sent: Friday, June 29, 2001 9:37 AM

Subject: [RCSE] DHLG booms

 

 

> I have heard that the booms used on older HLG aren't stiff enough for

> the new DHLG. What tubes are being used now? Straight? Tapered? Custom?

> Where can they be purchased?

> 

> Scott Hinckley

> RCSE-List facilities provided by Model Airplane News.  Send "subscribe"

and "unsubscribe" requests to soaring-request@airage.com

> 

 

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Mark Drela kindly did some testing of booms.  Here is his results:

 

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> 

 

Carbon boom stiffness measurements

Mark Drela

7 May 01

 

 

Booms tested:

 

1) Avia Skinny Super-UL  27" 10.5g, 0.305" OD -> 0.205" OD

(trimmed off 5.5" from small end of 32.5" 11.8g boom)

 

2) Skyshark Allegro-Lite 27" 13.5g, 0.625" OD -> 0.365" OD

 

 

The Avia boom is nearly the same in dimensions and weight

as the Skyshark 3PT boom used in HLG's, and is expected

to have comparable stiffness properties as well.

 

The Apogee 36" HLG uses a lighter Avia boom (Skinny UL)

than the one tested here.

 

 

 

Testing procedure:

 

Each boom was mounted by clamping 3" of big end in a split wood block.

Weights and torques were applied at the small end, 24" from clamp.

Deflections and twist angles were also measured at the small end.

 

 

 

Nomenclature:

 

EI = average bending stiffness

GJ = average torsion stiffness

 

 

 

Bending tests:

 

    Load       Deflection   EI             EI_relative   

EI/boom_weight

    -------    ----------   ------------   -----------   

--------------

1)  0.54 lb    1.625 in     1540 lb-in^2   1.0             66500 in^2

 

2)  2.00 lb    1.250 in     7370 lb-in^2   4.8            248000 in^2

 

 

 

Torsion tests:

 

    Torque       Twist      GJ             GJ_relative   

GJ/boom_weight

    ----------   --------   ------------   -----------   

--------------

1)  0.85 lb-in   10.6 deg   111 lb-in^2    1.0              4800 in^2

 

2)  3.24 lb-in    7.2 deg   622 lb-in^2    5.6             20900 in^2

 

 

 

Observations:

 

A) The specific stiffnesses closely match the theoretical results...

 

  EI  ~  boom_weight * diameter^2

  GJ  ~  boom_weight * diameter^2

 

Extrapolating the Skyshark's stiffness down to the Avia's diameter,

predicts that for the Avia...

 

  EI  =  7370 * (10.5/13.5) * (0.305/0.625)^2  =  1365 lb-in^2

  GJ  =   622 * (10.5/13.5) * (0.305/0.625)^2  =   115 lb-in^2

 

which isn't too far off the actual values of 1540 lb-in^2 and 111

lb-in^2. 

 

 

B) The Skyshark has a smaller bending stiffness and a larger torsional

stiffness than the theory predicts.  This is easily explained by the

Skyshark's significant +/-45 glass content.http://auctions.yahoo.com/

 

From: Oleg Golovidov [Oleg.Golovidov@engineous.com]

Sent: Saturday, June 30, 2001 3:38 PM

To: soaring@airage.com

Subject: [RCSE] Re: DHLG booms & Taboo

 

> I spoke with Oleg at Mid-South and he said that he has the SkyShark

> boom (3P or 3PT I believe) on his Taboos.  Very (VERY) nice planes!

>

> - David

> david@enete.org

 

David,

thanks for the kind words. I am using Avia Composites booms on my

Taboos. The G-force SUL is the largest tapered kite spar thay have and

it is quite adequate for the job. With the gyro the plane does not

suffer any disatvantage compared to an Allegro tail boom plane. Without

the gyro a stiffer boom would probably help a little, but again not

dramatically. Maybe 10ft extra altitude. The gyro helps to get those

extra 10ft back.

Oleg.

 

see www.geocities.com/olgol/taboo.html for pictures of Taboo...

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Glass/Carbon/Glass Boom Layup

 

This type of boom is composed of unidirectional carbon, with

glass on the inside and outside to provide hoop stiffness

and torsional stiffness and strength. It is similar in

principle to the Al/CF/Al booms, except glass (or Kevlar)

are used instead of the Aluminum.

 

For small HLG's, 1 layer of 3 oz Uniweb carbon and 0.75 oz

glass is sufficient.  Full-size HLGs will require at least

2 layers of carbon and perhaps an extra layer of glass or

just 1 oz Kevlar instead of the glass.  

 

A non-stick tapered mandrel is required.  A 0.4" to 0.5"

diameter at the big end is about right.  The small end

wants to be about 0.25" to 0.35" diameter.

 

 

 

Layup procedure:

 

Cut the carbon to size. Lightly spray it with 3M-77, and 

stick it down onto the glass (or Kevlar) stock at 45 deg.

 

Cut the glass to twice the width of the carbon + 1/8". 

The 1/8" of glass sticks out past the carbon along one edge,

and the full width sticks out past the carbon along the other edge. 

In cross-section:

 

  ==============

------------------------------

 

Wet out the carbon only (and the glass under it).  Remove excess

resin by putting down a paper towel on the carbon and rolling

over it with a hard roller.  The exposed glass is left dry

since there will still be enough excess resin in the carbon

to wet out the glass after rolling.  With Kevlar you may

want to wet out everything, but blot it as much as possible.

 

Wipe a thin stripe of highly cabosil'd epoxy onto the mandrel,

and stick it down onto the edge of the dry glass.  If the edge

of the glass doesn't somewhere, dab on more thickened epoxy

in that spot so it does.

 

Roll the mandrel on the table, wrapping the glass and carbon/glass

onto it:

 

                            ---

                  <----   /     \

                          |     |

                          \     /

  ==============            ---

------------------------------

 

 

I spirally wrap the layup with a strip of 1/2" wide heat-shrink tape,

overlapping 2/3 of the tape width (effectively 3 layers of tape are

applied).  You could also wrap it with a polyethylene strip, and then

compact it with a vacuum bag or wrapping with a long strip of rubber.

 

 

For strength, it's important to get the carbon fibers straight.

I leave about 1" of extra carbon on each end extending past the glass. 

This allows me to pull hard on it after rolling before spiral wrapping.

 

- Mark Drela

 

 

 

From: Dick Barker [dickb@eskimo.com]

Sent: Saturday, June 30, 2001 8:26 AM

To: soaring@airage.com

Subject: Re: [RCSE] DHLG booms

 

>The tailbooms currently being used are of three-four general types.  There

>are Skyshark booms, G-Force Avia Booms, Allegra Booms, and Godinov (sp?)

>booms.  The SkyShark and Avia booms are thin, OD about 5/16" tapering to

>abouot 1/4" over approx 36"......

 

Skyshark booms come in both tapered and non-tapered. The non-tapered work

well for me as I can get two UpLinks from one boom. The 3P booms are

very stiff but tend to split lengthwise when abused. The p300 has a bias

wound layer that prevents this failure mode. Old non-DLG and the small

toy  DLGs can get by with the 2p or p200 booms. You can use the tapered

ones (with the -t in the name) if you wish and pick the portion of it

with the stiffness and weight you need. The downside is that it is *much*

harder to replace a broken tapered boom.

 

Red at http://www.tgworks.com/ has them or you can check your local kite

shop.

--

Dick Barker

Seattle, WA

- Turning HLG Around -

 

 

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