Take off from grass - any tips for 1400mm FMS foamies?

[blushoes]

hi guys

was doing some ground handling testing of my 1400mm fms corsair,
on grass (since hard surface hard to come by).

i slowly increased my throttle, at maybe half or 1/3 throttle,
the tail lifted, but the wheels had too much resistance against the
grass and so my prop ate some ground and broke.

any tips from any one who have successfully taken off from grass?

maybe i shld not do slow throttle increase but gun it to max
so that plane has momentum/thrust to 'cheong' over the grass?

tips pls!

[remauled]

I prefer to hold the tail fin, full throttle, then release when taking off grass. At the.same time I hold up elevator to keep the tail grounded. My last 50sz will take to the air in this way. Once airborne, I'll release elevator and climb normal to avoid stall.

Head into wind will definitely help

[Caine]

hi guys

was doing some ground handling testing of my 1400mm fms corsair,
on grass (since hard surface hard to come by).

i slowly increased my throttle, at maybe half or 1/3 throttle,
the tail lifted, but the wheels had too much resistance against the
grass and so my prop ate some ground and broke.

any tips from any one who have successfully taken off from grass?

maybe i shld not do slow throttle increase but gun it to max
so that plane has momentum/thrust to 'cheong' over the grass?

tips pls!

hi bro, noticed you mentioned taking off,...what about landing?...I think taking off is the easy part,...landing on grass that seems to be a different story...last time I tried landing my Lanyu Corsair on grass,..it flipped forward, I took off on the walkway...

[remauled]

Sorry I meant hold the elevator 'down' not up

[rayshaw23]

i feel that if u are having trouble taking off normally, then u will definitely encounter the same problem during landing. =) your landing gear will get caught in the grass and the plane will topple over. maximum damage is vertical stabilizer and rudder broken and landing gear gets ripped out of your wing/fuselage or at least bended. personal experience =)

[Ben]

Will increase wheel diameter help ?

[remauled]

The other tip is to run large wheels. Unglam like multiplex fun cub but it works.

In other plane tilting the gears forward helps to reduce tip overs, but doesn't work in your case of retracts

[Leo]

hi guys

was doing some ground handling testing of my 1400mm fms corsair,
on grass (since hard surface hard to come by).

i slowly increased my throttle, at maybe half or 1/3 throttle,
the tail lifted, but the wheels had too much resistance against the
grass and so my prop ate some ground and broke.

any tips from any one who have successfully taken off from grass?

maybe i shld not do slow throttle increase but gun it to max
so that plane has momentum/thrust to 'cheong' over the grass?

tips pls!

How big is your wheel size? Also you might consider the hold up elevator until it at the beginning run.

[goot]

Hi Blushoes, I had the same thing happen to me with my T28 1.4m. The props broke once it touches the ground. Where did you fly? Try to take off from the road but be sure no cars are around. Safety first always!

Singapore grass is very long and untrim unlike other countries seen on youtube.

hi guys



was doing some ground handling testing of my 1400mm fms corsair,
on grass (since hard surface hard to come by).

i slowly increased my throttle, at maybe half or 1/3 throttle,
the tail lifted, but the wheels had too much resistance against the
grass and so my prop ate some ground and broke.

any tips from any one who have successfully taken off from grass?

maybe i shld not do slow throttle increase but gun it to max
so that plane has momentum/thrust to 'cheong' over the grass?

tips pls!

[nic]

I prefer to hold the tail fin, full throttle, then release when taking off grass. At the.same time I hold up elevator to keep the tail grounded.

I do the same for my planes, regardless it is fms 1.4m or other nitro/gassers. I think that should be the proper technique to practise. It allows better taxing control during take off too.

No problem with fms stock setup using the above.

Becareful when landing though, the stock retracts might try to act as a landing hook and gets rip off.

[raidor88]

I prefer to hold the tail fin, full throttle, then release when taking off grass. At the.same time I hold up elevator to keep the tail grounded. My last 50sz will take to the air in this way. Once airborne, I'll release elevator and climb normal to avoid stall.

Head into wind will definitely help

Sounds feasible. A video of this method would be nice.

[blushoes]

Hi Blushoes, I had the same thing happen to me with my T28 1.4m. The props broke once it touches the ground. Where did you fly? Try to take off from the road but be sure no cars are around. Safety first always!

Singapore grass is very long and untrim unlike other countries seen on youtube.

hi goot.

wasnt flying. just testing it moving on ground on a grass patch.

ur prop broke on take off or landing?

[blushoes]

thanks guys for the tips.

so looks like the main tip is full throttle, hold tail fin, up elevator (to
keep tail down) and let go. will try that. *fingers crossed*

yea i suppose bigger wheels sound logical, but i wonder how
much more bigger before it yields noticable results.

with my 1m fms hellcat, i changed from the stock wheels to
65mm dia ones. still cannot take off without eating prop.
but no problem cos can hand launch. a bit difficult to hand launch
the 1.4m.

but for the hellcat with bigger wheels, at least now when landing,
i get to roll on ground a bit first...before it eventually nose kiss ground.
with its stock smaller wheels, landing sure kiss nose immediately when
wheels touch the grass. or also, i conceded...not enuf landing skill.

[blushoes]

How big is your wheel size? Also you might consider the hold up elevator until it at the beginning run.

think my wheels are about 70mm dia.

[baby_zyklon]

You want 3" or bigger wheels to roll off short grass. Bigger the better. Look for something similar to those dubro super lite wheels. 1.4m plane can do with 4" wheels, if you don't mind the funny look.