Wing Loading???

[rcairplane4lfe]

I have been looking a some different airplanes to buy. I already own an r/c airplane, but it was an ARF and these are all kits. I am looking forward to building one. Ok what I was wondering is, What is the differene between high wingloading, and low wing loading? And what is a low wing loading, and what is high wing loading?(numbers) Thanks alot

[Richard Miller]

In the beginning there was no wing loading. Models were built very lightly, just one step up from indoor construction, as Manny Feinberg's 1931 (?) Nats winner.

Along came the AMA and classes and the specification of loading. These were 3, then 4-oz./100 sq.in., and models built to those weights are what Dave and I and some of the others grew up with.

From our experience we have an intuition about how a model, at least in the lower size range, feels in the hand, and how fast, or slow, it's going to glide.

When I handle today a model with a couple of hundred square inches that weighs a pound, twice what one of my old Class "D" models weighed, I know it's going to fly fast and I'm going to have to react quickly, and crashes will do a lot of damage.

Advice. Determine the size range of the models you're going to be flying. Figure out the wing loadings, or read them on the spec sheet. See, and experience, how those models feel when you handle them, how fast they are when they're launched.

More advice. Anyone just starting out would do well to ignore all that "scale 400 mph" and build a lightly loaded model, one that flies slowly and can be easily controlled. Work up from there.

-Richard

[CalmAir]

Hey RC,

For electric aircraft I consider a low wing loading anything under 5 oz/sq. ft. Aircraft in this range are generally much easier to fly. They do not require large airspeeds to generate enough lift. The downside is that they need to be flown in winds under 5 mph for good flight characteristics. Planes in the 6 to 9 oz/sq. ft. range are generally good sport models that may require some intermediate skill. They will require a little more speed, but also handle the wind better. 10 oz/sq. ft and above will need to fly faster yet and require prior experience, but they will fly very scale like and handle heavier winds. Aerobatic electrics will fall into this range. Bear in mind that these numbers are for electric planes. When it comes to glow power the numbers will be different.

As Richard has mentioned, try to watch how other aircraft perform and find out their loading. See what planes folks are saying make good trainers and you will see that most of those are under 6 oz/sq ft.

Another fact that Richard mentioned is the scale of the aircraft. You can have a scale aircraft that may only be 7 oz/sq ft loading, but can be very tricky to fly due to the scale shape and airfoil of the wing and control surfaces.

If you see a model and it does not list the wing loading you can figure it out if you know the size of the wing and the flying weight. Lets say you see a plane advertised that has a 300 sq in wing area. Convert that to sq ft by dividing it by 144. example:
300/144 = 2.08 sq ft. Now take the flying weight, lets say it's 14 ounces and divide it by the wing area in sq ft. 14/2.08 = 6.73 oz per sq ft.

This is just my experiences, there are others here that can give a much better description. Hope it helps.

Dale

[rcairplane4lfe]

Hey thanks guys, that does help, I really didn't know what was a low wing loading and what was high. That helps me alot in my search for a new plane.