Model Forum / Radio Controlled / Air Models / April 2007

In the olden days a sliding tray was used to control a V tail.  One
servo was mounted in the sliding tray and connected to the tail via
pushrods in the same way you generally mount an aileron servo.  This was
the rudder servo.  The other servo was connected to the tray to move it
fore and aft for elevator control.

Most of the high end radios have V tail mixing where you just plug two
servos into two channels, and you tell the radio that it's a V tail and
it does its thing automatically.

On Apr 24, 5:01 am, Terence Lynock (MSW)
<modelshipwrig...@zetnet.co.uk> wrote:

           With the two angles surfaces, up elevator is both up, down
is both down. The net forces are vertical. Left yaw is left surface
down and right surface up, and the net force is tail right. Right yaw
has left surface up and the right one down, so that the net force is
tail left. If we apply up elevator and right rudder, the right surface
won't move and the left one will rise, forcing the tail down and to
the left, producing a climbing righ turn, which is what we asked for.
            These airplanes are a little less stable in yaw than
their three-surface cousins, but it might be noticeable only in
turbulence. I've flown a Bonanza and noticed no unusual yaw, though
some who fly long distances say it'll "hunt" a bit.
            In full-scale airplanes like the Bonanza or Davis DA-2
there's a mechanical mixer that takes the rudder pedal and control
column inputs and mixes them to produce two outputs for the tail. Once
you see these things they're easy to understand.  In models the two
servos are fed appropriate signals from the receiver, which is a lot
simpler and lighter than a mechanical mixer.

          Dan