As I identified in the last post there's quite a bit of pressure buildup in the thrust fan. So I've been reducing the drag induced by the protective grill.
The 1cm width is narrower than necessary. So with help from Wim, I've removed every other wire from the front. And 2/3 from the rear of the thrust fan housing.
With these gaps I still cannot reach the propeller even if I try with my hands since it has 3+" of clearance at the front and 6+" inches of clearance at the back.
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| View from the front of the reduced lift fan grills |
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| Back left view |
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| Back right view |
In this process we removed a lot of clippings. The ones I collected weighed 2.4 lbs. Not bad for decreasing the weight at the back.
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| Most of the clippings removed |
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| Clippings bundled in cling wrap to be weighed. (2.4 lbs) |
With so very unscientific testing of standing downwind of the fan, it felt noteably stronger. And throttling up and down did not result in the front grill flexing like it used to do.
We held back on the lift fan since it's both closer to the pilot as well as lower volume due to having back pressure. With the improved fan mounting the craft is floating much higher, but the CG is still notably aft. To take a passenger I'll probably need to add weight at the front with the current configuration.
