Part 3 - Planning Your First Flight

Learning to Fly Part 3 - Planning Your First Flight

Prerequisites: Have plane, have practiced on simulator and can take off, fly circuit and land most of the time.
Objectives: Identify where you are going to fly, Watch the Weather, More Simulator Exercises.

Choosing The Right Venue

Model planes take a lot of space to fly, and beginners need a little more space again. If you are using any of the three planes identified you need to plan to have an area at least as large as a cricket field (US Visitors - cricket is a strange game played by most of the former British Empire - this explanation might {not} help) for your first flight, ideally completely free from any obstructions (making an actual cricket field a reasonably appealing space). If you don't actually know how large a cricket field is allowing for the run off area you probably want a space at least 80-100 metres square on either side (90-110 yards).

As you are travelling about in your day to day life keep an eye out for such a space. Ideally it will be reasonably flat, you don't want anywhere that is tightly surrounded by people's houses if you can avoid it. Apart from an actual cricket field and other sports ovals there are all sorts of other spaces (Farm paddocks {make sure you get permission from the owner}, parkland, etc. You probably want to avoid anywhere that has a significant amount of water (definitely not the beach), and as I mentioned, best if your space isn't infested by trees.

Why is so much space necessary? On your first flight the odds that adrenaline and a little bit of panic are going to kick in are reasonably high. You need enough time (space) for that to happen, you to realise you still have control of a plane, and correct. You need enough space to start turning in the wrong direction, realise your mistake and turn it back the other way. The Electrafun XP, at cruising speed, will cover 50 metres in 5-6 seconds. That is not long for you to have to make a decision on your first flight about which way to turn. And (this is a really important point) unlike a car, you can't just stop. Your plane needs continual control whilst in the air. Whilst you can take a moment or two to figure out what is going on, you can't just stop and reassess the situation - so, do yourself a favour and find a field big enough.

Picking the Right Weather

For your first flight you want to have zero, or as close to zero wind as possible. Getting this can be tricky and frustrating.

Generally the lowest times for wind will be either early in the morning, or late in the day before sunset. Keep an eye out and figure out which of these is the quietest where you live. The tips and leaves of trees will give you your easiest indication of wind when you aren't actually in it (like if you are in the car).

If you can't find a zero wind day then how much wind could you attempt to fly in. A lot will depend on how much simulator time you have done, and which aircraft you have. The Electrafun XP is very suseptible to breeze and so it really does require light wind conditions. The Supercub is a little more stable in slightly heavier breezes.

For the Electrafun XP you wouldn't want the wind to be more than a slow walking pace (0-3kmph/0-2mph). For the Supercub, for your first flight maybe a briskish walk (0-6kmph/0-4mph). However - no wind is best.

How do you figure out how fast the wind is - attach some ribbon to your trasmitter aerial and walk somewhere where the air is still. Note how much the ribbon deflects from the vertical for a slow walk and brisk walk.

Other things
Try and make sure you aren't going to be distracted while flying - if you are one of the unfortunate people that needs to carry a mobile for work in your own time then either pick a period when you aren't on call, or just make a mental note before the flight that if the phone rings you let it go to voicemail and check it after you land (yes - I've seen a beginner, ont he first flight no less, try and answer their mobile while flying).

If you've got someone experienced who can give you a hand think about whether you would like them to or not. If you would try and tee up a time that suits them.

Simulator Exercises

Given you are going to have to land your plane for real shortly I though I might run through how to land again, and then you can take this stuff and practice on the simulator.

For your first flight I am going to suggest a dead stick (no power) landing. There are lots of reasons that dead stick landings are good, and with these trainer aircraft they are usually reasonably easy to achieve because these trainer have nice low wing loadings meaning they glide quite well. Probably the most important benefit to a dead stick landing as a beginner is having one less control to think about.

This diagram will hopefully explain how a deadstick landing is done. The distances are approximate, and may not work for all trainer aircraft depending on their flying speed etc, but they should be good estimates. If you don't work with metres much you can just substitute yards directly - close enough for this exercise.



The critical thing for a dead stick landing is that you must dive below the glide angle so that you have airspeed to flare at the bottom of the dive. Most planes glide angle is steep enough that the aircraft will actually be damaged if it hits the ground at that speed and rate of descent (although honestly - your trainers are so tough they will take it but no reason not to try and get it right from the start).

So, give that a go and see how smooth you can make your landings in the simulator.

One more simulator exercise for you. Try flying with a little bit of wind. For FMS just put in 1 m/s winds with no gusts. Just try this for a while. It will be a good chance for you to get used to real flying where the model cannot be relied upon to react perfectly to your instructions because of other factors.

Next Part - yes - your first flight. Thanks for sticking with me so far.

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