Greetings. It's been a while since I last posted a note.
I just made a detachable wing for my airplane and I have a question about wing twist.
The wingspan is 30", laminated 1/32" 7lb. balsa, 5 airfoil ribs and 3/8" X 1/16" basswood trailing edge. I designed it to fly at zero angle of attack. It's a lightweight, high wing rather than a midfuselage or low wing, but not too high. The fuselage is 22" long and about 1" in diameter.
The wing is beautiful and a little flexible, though it retains it form and goes back to that form when I twist the wing tip a bit. It has no other spars & and the underside of the wing is open and uncovered. I can send a drawing of it.
Anyway, the wing tip trailing edge droops a bit and I'm wondering whether to twist the wing tip so that at takeoff (and landing) it is in one of 3 possible conditions: 1. It's angle is slightly negative while at the fuselage it's zero. 2. It's the same angle all the way across the trailing edge. 3. It has greater attack angle than at the fuselage.
Normally I wouldn't go with number 3 (like flying all the time with extended flaps, which I've found to be bad) but since the wing is flexible maybe it would go slightly more negative angle as it came in contact with the wind and it would be a useful effect. The same thing might apply to number 2.
I'm familiar with why it's often very desirable to have the wing tips at negative attack angle compared to at the fuselage, though I've never been able to find out if that helps prevent stalls in an unpiloted, uncontrolled airplane.
Another question: Do you think 3/16" (vertical distance) is enough separation between the wing and the horizontal stabilizer for this size airplane?

In any event, thank you and I look forward to hearing from anyone.
Oracletwo signing off…