Tailplane vs Wing aoa?
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Tailplane vs Wing aoa?
Hi guys,
I am currently coding up a little flight simulator to try and better understand the physics of flight.
I have the lift/drag equations implemented, and have curves defining Cl / Cd for each surface.
I am noticing however that when the aircraft comes in to land, the tailplanes AoA is very close to that of the wing and as such sometimes stalls before the wing, not giving me enough control authority to flare correctly. Good job its not a real aircraft otherwise I think the results would be a bit painful!
Here is a video of it in action..sadly Youtube has down resed it so you can't really clearly read the debug text shoing the AoA for each surface.
My current thinking is that either the elevator isnt big enough..to produce enough lift, or has too smaller moment again resulting in the same effect? But then the proportions are modelled closely on that of the cirrus so I would have thought it would behave in a similar manner?
Maybe my cg is in the wrong place? Maybe I need to learn more about pitch/thrust coupling etc.
Any words of wisdom?
What is the expected difference in aoa between the wing and tailplane in terms of aoa both in cruise and also during the flare? How close does the tailplane come to the stall when flaring?
Do I need to take into consideration the down wash from the wings, which will have an effect on the tailplane aoa?
I am currently coding up a little flight simulator to try and better understand the physics of flight.
I have the lift/drag equations implemented, and have curves defining Cl / Cd for each surface.
I am noticing however that when the aircraft comes in to land, the tailplanes AoA is very close to that of the wing and as such sometimes stalls before the wing, not giving me enough control authority to flare correctly. Good job its not a real aircraft otherwise I think the results would be a bit painful!
Here is a video of it in action..sadly Youtube has down resed it so you can't really clearly read the debug text shoing the AoA for each surface.
My current thinking is that either the elevator isnt big enough..to produce enough lift, or has too smaller moment again resulting in the same effect? But then the proportions are modelled closely on that of the cirrus so I would have thought it would behave in a similar manner?
Maybe my cg is in the wrong place? Maybe I need to learn more about pitch/thrust coupling etc.
Any words of wisdom?
What is the expected difference in aoa between the wing and tailplane in terms of aoa both in cruise and also during the flare? How close does the tailplane come to the stall when flaring?
Do I need to take into consideration the down wash from the wings, which will have an effect on the tailplane aoa?
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I am noticing however that when the aircraft comes in to land, the tailplanes AoA is very close to that of the wing and as such sometimes stalls before the wing
Thread Starter
Join Date: Aug 2009
Location: UK
Age: 39
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Edit - Had lots of questions about that link, but then answered them by reading a bit futher 
will see what happens with my new found knowledge tomorrow lunch time!
will see what happens with my new found knowledge tomorrow lunch time!
Last edited by chipmeisterc; 14th Jun 2012 at 20:44.
