Test 3.

Diary log Video made public on May 2022

Thank you, Wong Wen Xuan and Coy Fagan for helping out.

I finally received permission to use an airplane hangar to see if I could improve my distance. This is a huge breakthrough for me as I've been attempting to get access to large facilities like this for years.

There's good news and bad news. The good news is, I broke my own record. The bad news is, I didn't break the world record. From the previous test, I thought the only thing holding me back was the space. But having the best facility and still failing to cross 226 feet was disappointing.

The hardest thing is to get the glider to fly relatively straight at high speeds and low speeds. Often times, the glide is good but the launch causes the glider to roll violently or pitch down.

It is ultimately a game of balance. The climb has to be perfect, and the plane has to glide at the last third of the flight. This is extremely difficult because in order to get a glide, you need to bend the trailing edge of the wing (elevator) upwards. But if you bend it up too much, the climb will be too steep causing you to lose a lot of initial distance. If the deflection is not enough, the climb is optimal but it won't have enough pitching moment to glide after the recovery.

Besides that, the recovery phase has to have enough speed. If the climb is too steep, the plane will be too slow during the stall and as a result, it'll nose over too much and dive too steeply. You want the plane to nose over at more speed. However, if the glider rolls slightly during the stall, that will significantly improve the recovery to have a higher chance of gliding the last third. But considering how unpredictable paper airplanes are, its extremely difficult to make sure this "roll over" happens every time. Or even get any of the above variables working in harmony to get the ultimate flight. Out of maybe a hundred throws, only about 10 had a shot of flying past 200 feet. The rest either turned wildly, nose dived, rolled over during launch, or just hit the ground before it could start gliding.

Better luck next time. My throw needs to be improved as well.