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Old 17th Feb 2015, 01:36
  #16 (permalink)  
Kasper
 
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: uk
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Flea bitten ...

Flying a flea is really easy to understand as a pilot in terms of control input response ...

They are configured as a canard ie forward wing controls pitch and it more highly loaded than the rear wing... its just that they are the reverse of a 'traditional' or modern canard in that the forward wing is a lot bigger than the rear BUT for a flea to be safe to fly the CofG position is such that the wing load for the forward wing remains higher than the rear requiring that the AoA of that wing remains higher and of course stalls first.

That's a bit of a simplification there as the close coupled front wing screws up your effective AoA on the rear wing due to down wash ... with some flea combinations it is actually easier to think of them as a flying wing on the front with a stabilizer on the free hanging fuselage ... regardless of how you mentally think of them they operate as a canard with respect to control inputs.

So Fleas at the stall (normal stall) do the classic 'nodding' and are very resistant of pilot mishandling errors ... but if you pitch up aggressively just after takeoff and cut the power it doesn't matter if its a flea or a piper cub, the result is not going to be gentle.

BUT with Fleas (or any mignet type tandem wing) you have some quirks to be aware of that come from using the secondary effect of rudder as your roll control ... it is POSSIBLE with very aggressive and out of phase use of rudder to stall both front and rear wings on one side at the same time while the other side is still flying ... you roll and rotate SPECTACULARLY ... but that's not usual ... that's what you test during flight test of the the buggers ;-)
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