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NC Science Olympiad

Wright Stuff

Division: Div C – High School

NC Essential Standards Alignment: Science as Inquiry

Event Rules: See the National rule manual

Event Score Sheet: None

National Event Page: Here

Required Materials: Teams MUST bring Safety Glasses and may bring up to 2 airplanes, any tools, their flight log, and two stand-alone calculators of any type. Event Supervisors will provide all measurement tools and timing devices.

Clarifications:In NC, participants will be required to wear safety glasses while in the flight area.

Description:

This is a building event. Teams will build and test ahead of time up to 2 rubber powered single prop monoplane(s). A flight log containing at least 6 parameters for at least 10 test flights must be written and turned in at the competition. At the competition, teams will have 8 minutes to complete up to 2 official flights for the maximum time aloft.

Materials:

Teams MUST bring Safety Spectacles and may bring up to 2 airplanes, any tools, and their flight log. Event Supervisors will provide all measurement tools and timing devices.

Scoring:

High score wins. Points are earned for seconds aloft. Teams missing part or all of their flight log will be penalized.

Common Mistakes:

Don’t forget your flight log! This is an easy penalty to avoid.

Recommendations:

These flights will take place in some sort of gym, either a basketball court or an open arena, depending on where you compete.  If you do not have access to a gym, reach out to other competitors at nearby middle or high schools and see if you can share practice time with them.

Balsa wood can be bought at most hobby stores, or in bulk from Tower Hobbies or other online stores

Rubber band motors and winders can be bought at some hobby stores, or from Midwest or other online stores, search for rubber motor or contest rubber. Also, make sure you know the gear ratio of your winder. 1:5, 1:8, and 1:16 are all common, and will affect how many turns you make to achieve the ideal number of winds on your motor. The first number (1) is how many times you turn the crank compared to how many times your motor is turned on the output side (the 2nd number).

Event Resources:

2017 Coaches Clinic Presentation – Flying tools

2017 Coaches Clinic Presentation – Wright Stuff

Laser Cut Planes
MySO October 2021 Flight Resources 
Guru Engineering Tech 

The National Free Flight Society
2021 Coaches Clinic Presentation

Media:

How to wind your rubber motor. This video shows a helicopter, but the principles of winding and what to watch out for are the same.
How to attach wing covering- tissue paper shown.
How to weigh, cut, tie, and lubricate a rubber band motor for one of the flying events.
In flying events in Science Olympiad (Wright Stuff, Gliders, Flying Bird, Helicopters, etc.) it is sometimes necessary to curve balsa wood to get a desired shape for the outline or a rib of your wing. This demonstration shows one way to achieve a significant curve.