Very neat animation on Alphasim freebie C141

O

OBIO

Retired SOH Admin
I was just flying the freeware Alphasim C-141. Going no where in particular, just flying the big beast as it is a a really neat aircraft...maybe not up to par with the newer stuff...but I like it well enough now that I made some tweaks to the panel set up.

Anyhooo...I was cruising along at 11,000 feet with autopilot kicked on the maintain altitude. The plane was pitching about a bit....going from 10,980 to 11,020 feet. I jumped out to spot view and was checking out the plane...and thinking how neat the plane would look in a bare metal skin...once I give it reflective texturing that is. As the plane was pitching up and down, I noticed something very neat. The entire elevator/horizontal stabilizer moving to adjust altitude...not just the elevators. The whole thingiemajig on top of the vertical tail was pivoting.

For those who have the C141...fire it up, climb to altitude...which does not take long in this bird....I did a steep climb out of Cincinnati at was at 11 thousand feet before the airport was out of sight. Once at altitude, set the AP on for altitude, jump out to spot view and rotate/zoom as needed to see the tail of the plane. What the upper part where the horizontal surfaces attach to the tail.

OBIO
 
Stabilitor - all-moving tailplane - pioneered by the Miles M.52, and used operationally on the Bell X-1. Work for effecting pitch - and in some cases, roll control. They can operate differentially from each other - as in one deflecting up and another down.

Large - especially long aircraft - would otherwise have extremely slow roll response - so having additional roll input from way back helps keep the whole plane oriented in roll, rather than inducing a twist from the wings wanting to roll, but the tail not "keeping up".

With aircraft getting faster, and heavier, the all-moving tailplane creates a greater moment (force) to get the plane moving in these various axes. All fighters like the '18, '15, etc. have them. A plane that heavy, travelling that fast, could never be quickly and precisely controlled with traditional aileron/elevator control surfaces.

dl
 
I've noticed this nice effect on several aircraft but only while setting up trim. I'll have to have a look while in flight.
There are even a couple of helicopters that have a tell-tale yarn on the windshield that accurately respond to the apparent wind direction so you know when you are heading into it. It's details like these that really add to the fun.
 
Most modern tubes move their entire elevator when trimming the aircraft. I know the Posky models and David Maltby's aircraft show this effect as well. The Focke-Wulf FW-190 has this too btw.
 
Douglas Skyhawks too. The smashing Razbam models show this nicely (even the CFS2 versions :d)

Jamie
 
I have never really looked that closely at the animation of the elevators/tail area before....the only reason I noticed it on the C-141 was that I was checking out panel line placement on the paint template that I am putting together for the plane....since I had the plane in the air, I figured I'd fly it for more than the few minutes it takes to check out the panel line alignment. I suppose I will have to pay more attention to the hind end of my planes from now on.

OBIO
 
OBIO said:
I have never really looked that closely at the animation of the elevators/tail area before....the only reason I noticed it on the C-141 was that I was checking out panel line placement on the paint template that I am putting together for the plane....since I had the plane in the air, I figured I'd fly it for more than the few minutes it takes to check out the panel line alignment. I suppose I will have to pay more attention to the hind end of my planes from now on.

OBIO
Click to expand...

Do you want, or need, the original master layered textures for this aircraft ?, they are in PSP format, if so drop me a line and I'll send them across, pleased you spotted the all moving tail plane, very common these days wasnt modeled that often way back then though.

Nice to see the old girl still getting some air time, it was a nice model to build :).

Best

Michael
 
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