Maiden day for a Hangar 9 plane is seldom exciting in a bad way and the Timber
was no different.
Text, photos and video by Tom Hintz
Flight video by Dennis Shaver and SoloShot 3
Posted –
As maiden days go, taking the Hangar 9 110” Timber up for the first time was one of the better ones, despite a radio issue described below. We also had gusty, omni-directional winds that are common at our field. Overall, the maiden flights showed that Hangar 9 is not losing any of their model design and manufacturing chops.
Issue #1
When installing the left wing strut, I discovered the blind nut inside had fallen out. There is a round hole in the balsa leading edge sheeting directly above that nut, so we cut the covering away and fished it out. We discovered that none of the tangs on the blind nut were upright. They all appeared to have been squashed down flat with the flange in manufacturing. We were able to use a longer bolt and get a washer and locking nut onto that bolt so I could fly the Hangar 9 110” Timber safely. I will install a new blind nut topped with the original plywood cover back in the shop.
Issue #2
While making the first climbing turn on the Hangar 9 110” Timber maiden flight I noticed it do a quick porpoise-like “bump” then return to straight and level flight just as quickly. It looked a lot like when a gyro gain is set to high but only one “bump”, but I thought perhaps it was gusty winds aloft. That same3 “bump” happened a couple more times and that got us looking.
While checking the satellite receivers to be sure all were working Dennis noticed a plug at the receiver that had one pin that had slipped out of the plug body a little bit. That plug led to the left elevator half which would explain the intermittent “bump”. Dennis pushed the pin back into place and all subsequent flights were “bump” free. To be safe, that servo extension will be replaced back in the shop.
I have to say that the side door that Hangar 9 designed into the fuselage made doing this repair dead simple. I had installed the receiver with the row of plug sockets facing that door. I have had to remove receivers in other planes to check the plugs. This is where years of experience accidentally made fixing a plane at the field simple.
Maiden Flight
The Timber on the left has a DLE55 in it while on the right, a DA35. After balancing
they weighed a virtually identical 19.94lbs!
With my Hangar 9 110” Timber weighing in at 19.94lbs I was a little concerned with how the DA-35 would pull it. The Hangar 9 110” Timber looks (is) very big but the DA-35 was up to the job, easily.
The Hangar 9 110” Timber doesn’t jump off the ground and you do have to fly it into the air, but it feels solid the whole time with no mushy feeling to the controls. As I write this, I realized that I never tried taking off with the flaps at the first setting. I will try using flaps on takeoff the next time out but so far, the Hangar 9 110” Timber does not appear to need them to get airborne from a grass runway.
On the maiden flight I needed a bit of down elevator trim and some right aileron trim. Both were small trim changes that had the Hangar 9 110” Timber flying straight and level in the first minute of the maiden flight. I had my normal Fmodes set up so alternated between my Landing and General settings to begin refining those settings. I generally have a slightly lower engine idle and enough down elevator trim to keep the nose down for Landing. The Landing setting proved to be helpful as with full flaps deployed the Hangar 9 110” Timber glides much farther than I anticipated and has to slow a bunch before losing much lift. I will tweak the flaps settings to include a little down elevator during upcoming flights.
My Hangar 9 110” Timber had a slightly odd feeling like it is nose heavy, yet it responds to the elevator crisply, even at slow speeds. When doing stall tests, I was literally standing the Hangar 9 110” Timber up in a high alpha orientation with the engine at idle before it fell through. When the Hangar 9 110” Timber does stall, it noses down with little tendency to drop a wing. I repeated the stall test several times and it always fell through nicely and gave full control back in a second or two.
My Control Throws
I have a long-standing control throw theory - all I can get. On most planes that works well for me as I am accustomed to control sensitivity. However, I’m not stupid. I also program in my standard set of dual rates in all those same planes, just in case. With the Hangar 9 110” Timber “just in case” happened early in the maiden flight. I quickly learned that wide open throws on Hangar 9 110” Timber mean you don’t bang the sticks around without repercussions.
Any fears I had of the DA35 not handling this plane were left on the runway. No power problems at all.
I had yet to complete the first circuit around the field when I hit the dual rate switch for my mid rates which turned out to be very close to what the Hangar 9 110” Timber manual suggests for high rates. Once again, the folks at Hangar 9 know what they are doing. My Hangar 9 110” Timber at those rates was both very smooth yet very responsive at the same time. It was responding to all my control inputs with authority, just not as violently. That solid sense of control persists down to very slow speeds like on landings. I stand control throw corrected.
Another control-related surprise that should not have been surprising is the roll rate the Hangar 9 110” Timber has. I did the mix that makes the flaps work with the ailerons and that makes the 110” wing far more active than with most high wing planes with traditionally sized ailerons.
Keeping a simple roll on a line requires a good bit of down elevator as it passes through the inverted portion. This is to be expected on a high wing plane. Also, inverted flight takes what felt to me as a normal amount of down elevator to sustain. Throughout inverted flight and rolls the Hangar 9 110” Timber remains responsive when additional down elevator input is required. I never felt like I was running out of down elevator control.
Bungee Suspension
As soon as my Hangar 9 110” Timber taxied onto the runway we could see the suspension was softer than anticipated. Dennis put an extra wrap around one of the bolts on two bungees per side and that made a big difference. Back in the shop I will shorten each of the existing bungees by an inch or two and try it again.
The desired tension on the bungees is not a moving target. Once we find the length that works best for this plane that will not change significantly if at all. I expect to have to replace the occasional bungee with all the touch and goes I do but once the right length is determined, that is a simple bit of maintenance.
I learned that with the suspension undercarriage the Hangar 9 110” Timber is not afraid to bounce a bit if the landing deflects the suspension. This isn’t a shortcoming of the suspension. It is more an indication that I have not fully learned how to land the Hangar 9 110” Timber smoothly. None of this is severe, needing only practice bringing the plane to the ground and tweaking the dual rates to better suit how the Hangar 9 110” Timber handles at low speeds.
Rudder Friendly
One thing I expected of the Hangar 9 110” Timber was a smooth, predictable response to rudder inputs and that turned out to be true. This plane loves rudder and refuses to do dangerous things when you move that stick as some planes will. That is not to say the Hangar 9 110” Timber will not become unstable if excessive rudder input is used. It does, however, move the stupid level of rudder input necessary to a much higher level.
The Hangar 9 110” Timber rudder remains effective at landing speeds which gives the pilot great control with which to keep the plane aimed down the runway. Only small amounts of aileron cross control were necessary to keep the wings level as rudder input increased.
Conclusions
I was looking for another great high wing plane for every day flying, like my Hangar 9 30cc Valiant. The Hangar 9 110” Timber turned out to be all that and more. The wide range of compatible engine sizes and generous control surface areas give this plane a huge flight envelope while offering smooth, predictable response to the transmitter sticks.
The Hangar 9 110” Timber is obviously big, easy to see and easy to fly. All of those make it a great choice for a first giant scale plane when you are ready to make that jump. As always, getting buddy-box help is a good idea to make the transition less threatening. However, the Hangar 9 110” Timber is very easy to fly, and I expect most new pilots will be on their own quicker than they might expect.
The only down-side I have with the Hangar 9 110” Timber is the aluminum landing gear that come with it. For a 20lb plane, they seem to be a little flexible. True, the Hangar 9 110” Timber is capable of very slow, feather-lite landings. However, the real-world promises the occasional, harder than planned contact with the runway that can spread the aluminum gear out. They can be bent back easily but during harder landings that spread the gear the prop can contact the ground and they can’t be fixed if damaged.
The plus’s out-weigh the admittedly small issues. Keep in mind that these are issues in my estimation and may not be to others. If you are looking for a big high-winger or your first giant scale plane, the Hangar 9 110” Timber is a must see.
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