airelons upside down

[colin_in_space]

I am trying to make a space plane (using near and deadly reentry). When I try to pitch up the airelons pitch down. The control wings work fine. I have tried rotating the aerilons and the wings but nothing works.

As a side effect of this (or at least I hope this and not terrible designs) my plans tend to disintegrate shirtlybafter takeoff.

Ideas appreciated

[Tex]

The way the your control surfaces work often correlate to where they're placed. Just do a quick experiment: Take a plane, and up an extra set of control surfaces at the front of the plane, and one at the back. Note how the front ones will rotate in a different direction than the ones at the back.

In this situation, pictures are always a must, if you have any! ^.^

[The_Rocketeer]

Ailerons shouldn't affect pitch, they control roll. If they control pitch and roll they are elevons, which is a different kind of control surface and should be placed differently.

Assuming you mean ailerons, you can use the tweakable menu to stop them from moving when you use pitch. Just right click on them (either in the SPH or during a flight/before take-off) and make sure the button next to Pitch is toggled to off. Incidentally, they should also have Yaw toggled off.

If you mean elevons, the problem is probably caused by the surface being in front of the CoM (centre of mass). Surfaces in front of the CoM automatically angle upwards to pitch up because under torque the aircraft pivots around/close to the CoM - think of a buggy with 4 wheel steering, the back wheels turn the opposite way to the front wheels to make a very tight turn. The solution in this case is to make sure your CoM is well in front of your surfaces, or to convert these surfaces to ailerons only and use a separate rearward tailplane or forward canards to manage the pitch.

[Martin0]

Are you using Swept wings? I noticed that control surfaces placed on those wings sometimes they do the opposite of what they should.

I avoid swept wings like the plague for that reason.

[Hodo]

I am trying to make a space plane (using near and deadly reentry). When I try to pitch up the airelons pitch down. The control wings work fine. I have tried rotating the aerilons and the wings but nothing works.

As a side effect of this (or at least I hope this and not terrible designs) my plans tend to disintegrate shirtlybafter takeoff.

Ideas appreciated

What are describing is not an aileron. It is a Canard or an Elevator.

Ailerons control roll

Elevators and Canards control pitch

Rudder controls yaw.

Eleverons are a combination of an Aileron and Elevator.

As Rocketeer said, right click on the control surface in the SPH and set the job for it. There is a guide in this sub forum for basic setup of an aircraft.

[Dust]

Control surfaces automatically react to control inputs based on where they are in relation to center of mass (as far as I can tell) so that when pitching down (A button), canards in front of CoM angle up and elevators behind the CoM angle down. It could be that your "ailerons" are placed forward of the CoM so that when you pitch down they correctly react by angling up to push the nose down.

Design tips: If you're using ailerons for pitch they are called elevons, and will need to be positioned well back from the CoM to be able to provide pitch control (think Space Shuttle). If that's not possible you will need to place a separate elevator and/or canard, then disable pitch on the ailerons.

[MarvinKitFox]

Ailerons shouldn't affect pitch, they control roll. If they control pitch and roll they are elevons, which is a different kind of control surface and should be placed differently.

He is not asking about ailerons, he is asking why the airelons are making his plans disintegrate shirtlybafter takeoff.

And no, i have no clue what that means!

[Pecan]

...When I try to pitch up the airelons pitch down...

Sorry, but I have to ask: HOW are you trying to 'pitch up'? The default key is 'S'.

[The_Rocketeer]

He is not asking about ailerons, he is asking why the airelons are making his plans disintegrate shirtlybafter takeoff.

I'm not confused about what he's asking. If you think I've failed to answer his question, I suggest you write your own answer.

[kujuman]

I am trying to make a space plane (using near and deadly reentry). When I try to pitch up the airelons pitch down. The control wings work fine. I have tried rotating the aerilons and the wings but nothing works.

As a side effect of this (or at least I hope this and not terrible designs) my plans tend to disintegrate shirtlybafter takeoff.

Ideas appreciated

Are you by chance using the Elevon5? (The angled one?) It may have some issues with pitch inversion, but it's not easy to replicate. Another user's had this issue.