Building to fly or building to crash?

I'm going to put something a bit controversial out there today. For the past 6 or 7 months as I have been building and flying aircraft I have noticed a phenomenon in how people approach building and modifying their aircraft that I think is flawed. In fact, extreme application of the philosophy turns good flying aircraft into bricks.

What am I talking about? Reinforcing aircraft to improve their crash survivability. For some it seems to become an obsession as carbon fibre rods are inserted here, there and everywhere, pieces of wood are glued to foam to reinforce weak spots, and the model is covered in heavy tapes (like duck tape).

Now it would be folly to suggest there aren't any good crash survivability mods out there, but when I see people that have tried to turn a Parkzone Stryker C into an M1A1 Abrams, or a foam warbird into an armoured car I can't help thinking that they haven't been told what makes aircraft fly well, and what makes them fly like rubbish. Perhaps they don't realise this very important fact about model flying (and crashing). It is this:

In a serious crash the energy has to go somewhere. Often all reinforcing does is transfer the energy of the crash to some unreinforced part of the airframe.

Further to the above, if your strengthening mods have substantially increased the weight of the model then this increases the inertia which the model is using at the moment of impact to destroy itself. And of course, increasing weight also increases the wing loading and leads to worse flight performance (which in extreme cases can actually lead to the crashes).

As an example I have seen many a pilot reinforce the PZ Stryker particularly around the nose region. In most serious crashes the Stryker's nose pops off, or busts off. It's a five minute fix with foam safe CA or maybe 15 minutes with some fast setting epoxy. Re-inforcing of the nose has led to crashes where the load of the impact is transfered further down the fuselage leading to breaks much deeper into the fuse which are harder to repair and require reinforcing themselves. Also, it often seems motor mounts are much more likely to come away when the energy isn't dissipated through the breaking of the nose.

Another example is a balsa Cessna 180 someone I fly with owns. After a serious prang the plane was "re-inforced" to prevent breakage. My estimate is that something like 20-30% was added to the weight of the aircraft by way of carbon fibre, tape, extra balsa, extra covering etc. The plane became a flying brick, needing more than 75% throttle to "fly". The next time it went in (which was hardly surprising due to the weight of the plane) it destroyed itself in the crash so completely that it was really beyond repair.

No amount of reinforcing will prevent model planes from becoming damaged in a serious crash. There is too much energy involved.

When it comes to reinforcing model aircraft I think you need to set yourself a level of "load" that you may reinforce up to, but not beyond. The benchmark I would say is "routine" things (and no - you aren't allowed to count crashing as routine). So your model needs to be strong enough to handle air loads while flying and landing loads, so reinforcing/redesigning for issues there is fair enough. You might even want to stretch it to "bad landings" like nose overs etc if they are common with the aircraft.

The other time you might want to do it is where the reinforcement costs you almost nothing in terms of weight, and should be effective at preventing damage, and ideally distributing the load. For example, using clear packing tape to protect the trailing edge of a trainer so that the pusher prop doesn't cut the wing, and also using packing tape on the leading edge of a wing to prevent it from being cut if the plane happens to end up in a tree. In both these cases the tape distributes a realistic amount of load over a larger area meaning the whole thing survives.

However, trying to reinforce a fuse so that it doesn't break in half when the plane comes in hard is folly. All that will happen is that the plane will break elsewhere and you have added weight to it which will make the crash all the worse.

Now of course, it is slightly more complicated than that. For example, EPP foam is clearly stronger, but heavier than balsa. So am I saying don't use EPP even though it is stronger - not at all. I am talking about reinforcing an aircraft made of any sort out of any material. For example, if you have an EPP foam warbird that breaks around the avionics compartment when it crashes do you reinforce the area with carbon fibre, or just epoxy it back together. Whilst I wouldn't object to some tape around the area, I think all carbon fibre would do is transfer the load somewhere else to break something else.

If you have a crash, and the repair takes you 15 minutes that's a great result - don't reinforce anything. Chances are the plane broke exactly where the designers planned knowing that it would be easy to repair.

So in closing:

• Models need to be strong enough to survive air and landing loads. If a wing folds in the air then yes it is worth reinforcing. If it breaks because she touched a wing tip and cartwheeled then no it doesn't.
  
• Reinforcing against crash damage is fine provided it doesn't add much weight (for example clear packing, or fibreglass tape) and you have some appreciation of where you may be transferring the load.
• If your reinforcing is adding more than 5% of the total weight, it is too much.
• When a model has a serious crash you are going to bust it. The more weight you have added to it through reinforcing the more damage that will be done to it.

So, in short, build your models to fly, not to crash.

Crap

There is no more appropriate way to title this post. Today I had two serious accidents that have removed two of my favourite planes from the flight line, one of them probably for good.

The day didn't get of to a good start when on my second flight for the Zero I took of with my elevator "adjusted" way too far down. After struggling for control for a couple of moments she ended up in some trees and came down hard to the ground.

Here are the bits assembled later. The fuse is in two major pieces, the horizon stab and elevator snapped off, and the motor mount has been torn away from the nose of the plane. I reckon she will probably take 2-3 hours to fix, although I'm worried she will still have the elevator authority issue I was trying to fix when I got her into trouble.

So how did I get into trouble - after all an out of trim aircraft shouldn't be a problem. Simple - I treated it as a regulation take off when in fact it was effectively a remaiden. I should have given myself more space to takeoff, and also would have got her back in one piece if my flying had been a little more quick witted. I had enough elevator authority to climb slightly - I should have climbed out some more..., anyway - the day got worse.

I was testing on my new 3s 2200mAh battery in the RV4 keen to see what sort of endurance this battery would pull. Although I had gone loud for a few moments for the most part I was just flying a slow circuit across the field and back.

That's what I was doing when DJ's Typhoon flew into my flight path and collided with the RV4. The plane started to spin. I went loud on the throttle and tried to correct her, and for a moment seemed to have her recovered and in level flight, but then she stalled on the left hand side, rolled over on her side and nosed in.

It was a heavy hit, and the damage is extensive. I'm a realist about balsa. Having been through incidents of the RV4 coming apart before I have some experience putting her back together. But nothing like this. The front firewall is basically destroyed, the areas of the plane between the start and the end of the cockpit is in a dozen pieces at least. I really think I would stuggle to put this back together again.

Oh - to top it all - the LiPo took an impact and is probably ruined.

Seriously annoyed (and yes - stronger words than that too) but after all - at who or what? - mid-airs happen.

The left hand wing of the RV4 is apparently where the Typhoon hit her and did a serious amount of damage to the wing. Once again, maybe if I'd been thinking faster I might have gotten down, but it didn't work out that way for me. I guess it just acted like a serious airbrake on the left, which is why she was so violently rolling to the left.

Anyway, that's what I can write for the moment.

Flying High

Long time since a general flying blog entry eh?

Well, there's been plenty of flying over the last two weekends, as well as some new aircraft, a few little incidents (none involving my aircraft - well not quite - read on for more) and some of my fleet starting to show a little bit of age.

When I am talking about ageing it is the Zero to which I am referring, which is now getting very close to having flown an amazing 200 sorties. Anyone with serious RC experience I tell this to is amazed. It was late November in 06 when I first flew this plane. Since then I have busted her up good in very serious crashes, as well as making her endure a long run of nose over landings (which still regularly happens on grass, and occasionally on bitumen).

She has had her powerplant upgraded, battery system upgrade and for the last 100 flights or so she has been an absolute pleasure to fly, and the envy of many of the pilots I fly with. Quick, responsive, no bad habits, almost unlimited vertical (a solid 5-6 seconds on the right battery) - she can even almost hover, but then you turn her downwind, and zoom her past at low altitude and everyone knows that she has earned her place in the sky.

However, as 200 flights has started approaching a few little niggles have started to appear in her flying. For example, the weekend before last after landing I checked her control surfaces to realise that two aileron hinges had come away from the wing leaving the aileron secured by only one hinge. Also, for some reason her elevator pushrod has now started flexing giving her less elevator authority, and the battery compartment foam has now compressed enough that batterys she used to hold securely are now shifting around in flight - making for interesting CoG issues.

These are all fixable with enough maintenace, and I will be looking over her for more issues over the next week as well as trying to fix. I'm really hoping she makes her 200 flights, and then goes far beyond that. This little plane has given me so much fun, its cost me so little in terms of money and even effort to keep her flying. With a cheap brushless upgrade I can absolutely recommend a GWS Zero.

Okay, other stuff - Incidents. The Pole of death at Kambah claimed another plane during the last two weeks - DJs new PZ Typhoon.

He had his plane up and dancing around the sky before it wandered to close to the pole and was smaked out of the sky. Although I was flying at the time I was able to glance over as DJ fought to control the model as it fell. Ultimately it was futile - this photo illustrates a large part of the problem - left wing.

Anyway, he glued it up basically as good as new, and took the Typhoon out to Lyneham the following week. He was messing around doing some hovering and various stuff about 2 metres off the ground. He took a hit, recovered, suddenly took another hit and ended up in the ground with a busted nose. The plane was only about 25 metres away from him, well away from the infamous Lyneham Bermuda Triangle. Lyneham just has bad glitches sometimes, and there is not much you can do about it.

Needless to say he was a bit annoyed about this and we immediatelly had another discussion which concluded with the idea of replacing the JRs with Spektrums. I'll write something on them another time, but there is no doubt it is a good idea to my mind. It's a lot of cash though, and you are usually okay, provided you keep enough clearance from the ground. Certainly if I was starting again I would be straight on the Spektrum wagon.

More incidents and accidents. I no longer have an Electrafun. Yes - my bird is gone. A mate new to RC Planes (has messed around with Helis at home for some time) was trying her out with a view to buying her when he drove her straight into the tallest tree on the field.

If you look very closely at the middle of this photo (click on it to bring it up larger) you can make out the shape of the EF in the middle of the frame.

So, with the plane 15 metres of the ground various attempts were made to recover it, before it was accepted that the plane now "belonged" to my mate. Right up til the crash he was flying her very well - good stick association, good orientation - probably all RC heli developed skills. Depth perception - a work in progress perhaps (but it gets very hard when planes are a long way from you).

Speaking of RC helis - I'm buying one. A GWS Mini DragronFly from NQRC. In fact, it is on its way to me right at the moment. Ground Dancer let me have a play with his on Sunday. I just skated it around the ground for a few minutes before lifting her off. She immediatelly yawed left. I correct with a little bit of right, gently pushed her over the grass (took of on the edge of the bitumen) and put her in for a pretty reasonable landing. This is going to be fun - challenging but fun.

On the topic of new aircraft I have a new StevensAero kit. For those that aren't familiar with the tales of my RV4 she is kit build balsa plane (so from laser cut balsa sheets) which just flys beautifully. The only reason I wouldn't recommend her as a good low wing trainer is her complete intolerance to bad landings etc. Anyway, I'm only talking about her to lead into my new StevensAero kit - a G300 park flying aerobat (the G-Ride).

I'm looking forward to building this bird. I've seen one fly and they are exciting and fantastic planes. This time I'm really going to work on keeping the weight down - I guess that means contending with a ghastly pull/pull rudder and elevator setup, and also keeping my natural tendency to pour lots of CA into any joint that seems like it might be a problem.

However, before I get to it I have some other kit to look after. My heli will be here soon, I still have a microseether which hasn't come out of the shrink wrap, and my elebee needs to be converted for phase 3 (yes - I am clipping her wings - but not to stop her flying - to help her fly faster).

There is heaps more to tell you, but I am out of time for today. May your landings have a light and steady headwind.

Learning to Fly Part 8 - Now you are really flying!

Learning to Fly Part 8 - Now you are flying!

Prerequisites: You can perform a loop, snap roll, or crucifix stall with ease. Low level low speed, and low level high speed passes are straightforward and cause you no concern whatsoever. Your landings typically touch down within 10 metres of where you anticipated. You've probably done 30-40 flights (maybe more, maybe less - some people pick this up faster than others). You have complete control of the plane in all 3 dimensions and are comfortable exchange altitude for speed and vice versa. You very very rarely lose orientation, and you are able to recover when you do. You probably haven't had a serious prang (excluding when you were doing something intentionally risky and dumb) for at least 10 flights.

Objectives: Control sensitivity, powered landings, flying in the wind, low level flying, talk about your next plane.

Congratulations

If you can do all the prequisites above then congratulations. I don't think you are a beginner anymore - you can call yourself a novice. Well done.

Control Sensitivity

If you haven't already done it yourself it is well and trully time for you to fly your trainer on it's most sensitive setting. The most sensitive setting is achieved when the linkage goes into the hole in the control horn closest to the control surface.

So, set your trainer up for most sensitive, trim the surface by eye, and then give her a couple of flights to get used to trim her in the air, and get used to the new sensitivity level.

Powered Landings

At this stage if you've been following the course you may not have tried a powered landing (if you have - no probs - you might find this stuff useful anyway).

Powered landings are not something that trainers typically need, as they normally glide pretty well and controllably, and so to make landing simpler we have just gone for dead stick (not throttle) approaches. As we start thinking about your next plane however, chances are that it will land more easily with at least a powered approach and maybe even a powered landing.

Also, as you take on more challenging wind conditions you may need to do powered approaches and landings to land succesfully into the wind.

Your dead stick approaches have taught you most of what you need to know for powered approaches and landings. The one last thing you need to learn is throttle finesse. Whereas most of your flying occurs in the 1/2 to WOT range, landing takes place in the 1/2 to closed throttle range. So maybe spend some time familiarising yourself with what the stick on your TX feels like in those positions.

In a powered landing rather than diving below the glide angle, we instead just reduce the throttle to the point where the aircraft starts to lose altitude due to the lack of lift. If the aircraft slows so much that it might stall, use the elevator to push the nose down for a little more airspeed.

Just like a dead stick approach about 0.5-1 metre of the ground you are going to flare the model with the power still on, and then let her gently float the last few centremeters to the ground. Either the instant before, or the instant after touchdown close the throttle completely. Obviously if you are belly landing your plane make sure you close the throttle well before touchdown.

Whether or not you need throttle at the point of contact will depend on many factors:

• Quality of approach - a good approach may mean you don't need throttle for the last bit. On the other hand, a less than perfect to fast approach might mean you need to close the throttle before you start to flare (think about going around).
  
• Surface - if you are landing on a rough surface (not so much with your trainers but with other aircraft) you may find that a bit of throttle will help prevent a nose over landing.
• Weight and flight characteristic of the model - some models just really need throttle all the time, it will just lose altitude too quickly if it doesn't have a little bit of thrust, or has a really fine airspeed point between losing altitude and stalling.
• The wind and heat.
  

It all sounds kind of complicated right. So why would you bother. Simply because some aircraft just do not land well dead stick, and powered approaches are much much easier. Some examples include warbirds (because the wheels are almost right on the CoG these models are notorious for tipping over as they land - they need to touch down super gently onto a good surface to prevent this), anything with a high stall speed, any aircraft that is heavier than it should be (such as my Tigermoth due to hot glue repairs).

So, go out and give powered approaches and landings a go. If you have a super cub you will probably find that this is the easiest way to land the cub once you have your throttle finesse sorted out. Electrafun and Easystar pilots may find that their landings just start running too long using this approach. Understandable, but do try and get some practice, or give it a go on the simulator with another plane.

Flying in the Wind

You mastery of the aircraft is also now going to allow you to fly in stronger breezes. There are still limits due to the lack of power in the models, but you should find that you can fly a supercub or easystar in 10km/hr (6mph) breezes (a medium jog) and an electrafun in 8km/hr (5mph) breezes (a slow jog).

Flying in the wind will be a good way for you to continue to develop your skills. The frequent adjustments which are needed when flying in stronger breezes will give you a good chance to practice your orientation and use of subtle inputs.

Just talking about some common scenarios where planes are flying in stiff breezes:

Being refused by the wind: You might find it is very hard to get your model to turn into a stiff breeze. Part of this is about power, so make sure you have full throttle. Some part of it is about airspeed, so if with full throttle you still can't get around then use a dive to build up some airspeed before turning back to the wind. Once you get your nose into it the wind will either try to push you left or right, or maybe over the top (particularly with an Electrafun) to try and turn you away from it.

When you fly across a stiff breeze it will try and turn you downwind. Just use a little rudder to compensate, and finesse the elevator to hold the whole thing as steady as possible.

When you fly downwind, just remember you will go much faster, and have to turn much sooner. Plan for it.

As with all things when you are trying something new make sure you have enough altitude. With your experience somewhere around 10-20 metres should be okay. I would say a little higher normally, but wind tends to get stronger as you go higher.

Landing in a wind, particularly a gusty one can be tricky. There are a few things to keep in mind.

The wind is going to reduce your speed relative to the ground, so your landing approach will be shorter relative to the ground (the plane travels the same distance through the air though).

If the wind is up to, or less than the numbers I gave above for wind you can fly in, then a normal powered approach should work just fine. Let's have a talk about landing in more difficult conditions, just in case you take off in just flyable wind, and it deteriorates from there.

If it is gusty you want to aim for a "hottish" landing. Hot landings are those where you come in a a very low angle of attack, at a higher speed. Particularly when it is gusty one problem on approach can be where the wind suddenly dies off leaving your aircraft with no lift. Also, if the wind is quite strong you may need to go for a hot approach simply because you need significant throttle to make headway against the wind.


By having a little more speed we help to overcome the problem of the wind suddenly dropping off - hopefully enough to ensure that the model will stay in the air if the wind suddenly drops away.

Also, if the wind is strong enough the usual principles of a powered approach wont work. You cannot reduce the throttle to a point where you are slowly descending because:

• The model might be flying backwards (if the wind was really strong)
  
• The model now doesn't have enough authority to keep its nose pointed into the wind

You need to keep your throttle up, and use your elevator to fly the plane to the ground. Flaring will be a particular challenge because you have more than enough airspeed to climb, even if your ground speed is not high, so you will need a lot of finesse on the controls.

One you get close to the ground you need to check your landing speed and figure out how to get down the last 6 inches/15 centimetres. If it is really windy and you are only just making forward progress at say 1/2 throttle, then use the elevator to gently lower to the plane to the ground, shutting the throttle once you touch down for the cub (or other plane with undercarraige), or the instant before for belly landings. For aircraft with undercarriage be aware your work is not over when you touch down because you still have enough airspeed to fly. You need to use the elevator to hold the plane level while the airspeed drops - to much down and you will nose over, to much up and you will pull away from the ground, probably stall and come down with a thud.

If however, you still have good forward airspeed, then bring the throttle back (maybe even close it) and go for a nice long flare finessing the elevator until you settle in for a normalish landing.

Low Level Flying

On calm days you can safely fly between 5 and 15 metres as your low altitude. Whether you want to or not you want to is largely up to you.

There are some reasons for keeping your cruising altitude over 10 metres, and even higher, but you should be able to safely fly in that 5-15 metre range all day without anything you do causing a problem.

However, there are some things to be aware of as you bring your altitude down:

• You wont have as much energy for tricks.
• If you get a trick wrong, or the trick requires more altitude than you allowed for it a pretty serious prang is a distinct possibility.
• Something can always go wrong in RC flying. A glitch with you close to the ground could end in a crash. A momentary lose of orientation might lead to you giving an input with less time to recover, or your battery might give up whilst close to the ground.

So, what am I saying - you are now more than experienced enough to make your own decision about flying altitude, but do keep in mind that things can and do go wrong, even when it is not you doing them. Provided you understand and accept the consequence, more power to you.

And if you are helping a beginner yourself, make sure they are flying at an appropriate altitude (30-50 metres) for their first few flights. Yes - you know enough about this now to be helping others if that is something you enjoy doing.

Your Next Plane

I know that this is the only reason you are still reading 8-)

Radios

Before we talk about planes lets talk about radios. Assuming you bought an RTF trainer you might want to now consider getting a proper radio with your next plane. Although it is a sizable investment, it is something you should only have to buy once for many years.

If you are going to get a Transmitter separately (rather than buying another RTF that includes it) I would be awfully tempted to look at the Spektrum kit at the moment, and particularly the DX7. The DX6 seems to only support the more expensive receivers. All the Spektrum kit uses 2.4GHz technology which eliminates glitches. Although you may not have noticed them so much in your trainers, as you go to more advanced models glitches can quickly spell disaster.

Planes

I'm going to talk about two types of planes. Aileron trainers and "others". Aileron trainers are planes which anyone who has completed the prerequisites to here should be able to transition to. "Others" are a few more advanced aircraft. I've listed them because not everyone advances at the same rate and some readers will be ready for more advanced aircraft sooner.

So which are you? If you like pushing the plane around the sky at 2/3rd throttle just enjoying the sheer thrill of flying, put together a couple of loops and just love flying smoothly then an aileron trainer is probably the right way to go. However, if your trainer flights have become a process of building atitude just so that you can lose it all in a sequence of 4 or 5 high energy manuveurs then you might be ready for one of these "others". To be ready for any of these models you need to be able to takeoff with your trainer, fly easy circuits all day at 5-10 metres with no issues, and bring them back down to land without incident.

Sitting in front of your computer without your ego on display to the world make your own decision about this. If you go through the aileron trainers you will probably make a better pilot than if you skip the trainer and go ahead, but not everyone has time or money for another intermediate step, and there are a few people who this comes so naturally to that they can go ahead without adverse affects to.

If you choose one of the "others" you will crash it. Seriously. The planes suggested have been put forward because they are tough and reasonably easy to repair. Some stuff you will learn a little faster, but some things you may never actually learn taking this approach.

So, starting with the Aileron Trainers:

GWS Tigermoth 400 (aka Big Moth)

This foamie has great scale looks, floats along nicely, and has a nice gentle roll rate on ailerons only. When you are ready, start building rudder into your turns and this plane becomes seriously aerobatic.

The biplane wing configuration does make this plane a little more fragile (than say the estarter below) but she repairs easily.

This plane is an Almost Ready to Fly (ARF) so there will be some building involed, and you will need a set of avionics (TX, RX, 3 servos, ESC and battery {2s 2200 recommended}).

Price: $110 AUD for airframe + motor.

GWS Estarter

While not the prettiest plane lots of people swear by the estarter as an aileron trainer. She has nice gentle roll rates, and is fairly robust as well as being easy to repair.

She is probably the superior aileron trainer to the Tigermoth, but obviously is not as nice to look at.

Like the TM, this plane is an Almost Ready to Fly (ARF) so there will be some building involved, and you will need a set of avionics (TX, RX, 3 servos, ESC and battery {2s with capacity to suit cavity}).

Price: $70 AUD for airframe + motor.

Multiplex Mini-mag

I don't know much about this plane. It is here mainly on the recommendation of forums etc. Ailerons are described as "optional".

The elapor foam that Multiplex models are made out of is top stuff. It can take some serious impacts and is easily repaired using normal CA glue.

Price: $115 AUD for airframe + motor although doesn't seem to be widely available in Australia.

Now - the others:

Awesome RC Extrafun

This plane is quite challenging, even for capable pilots, and you have to expect a couple of serious prangs even if you are quite accomplished. It is unforgiving of mistakes in terms of flight envelope, but is reasonably tough and will probably take a couple of impacts pretty well.

If you go this direction you must set the contro throws to the minimum otherwise you will be on the ground in no time flat. Personally I think this plane is a bit underpowered for her weight. Because of her weight she has to fly fast which is another challenge for the transitioning pilot.

The pricing isn't bad as the plane is RTF including a battery. However, I think she really needs a brushless upgrade for decent performance.

If you are a transitioning pilot you will crash this plane. However, it may be tough enough to survive these impacts until you sort it out.

It will take you some time to get bored of this plane, but it is an awful big step from a 3 channel trainer too.

Price: $200AUD full RTF including fairly average TX.

GWS Zero

One of the best flying low wing warbird parkflyers available. The GWS Zero has no bad habits (provided you do the wing incidence modification) but would still be very challenging for the transitioning pilot.

Apart from a somewhat forgiving flight envelope (forgiving in low wing warbird terms anyway) the main advantages of this model are its weight (meaning it can fly slow on a 2s LiPo but still have interesting performance), its robustness and ease of repair.

If you are a transitioning pilot you will crash this plane. However, the model is reasoanbly tough, and repairs pretty easily.

A brushless upgrade later will enhance this aircraft considerably.

Price: $90 AUD for airframe + motor.

Parkzone Stryker C

The Parkzone Stryker is a brushless powered fast delta wing elevon airplane. For the transitioning pilot trying to tackle this plane the main problems are going to be copeing with ailerons (quite a high roll rate) and the speed of the model. Also because of the model's speed it can cause orientation issues by getting a long way away quickly.

The Stryker flys well, and does exactly what you tell it too. It has enough power that it can be put into almost any pitch or yaw without adverse affects. It is also quite easy to repair.

As a transition plane there are a couple of drawbacks - first is no rudder. The second is that the power of the Stryker does mean that learning when an aircraft is going to stall, how an aircraft reacts to significant elevator in a nose up corner with decreasing airspeed and a whole lot of other interesting scenarios are not things the Stryker can teach you. All the same, they are fun and predictable to fly. Keep your throttle under control while you figure her out.

Comes as either an RTF or Plug and Play.

Price: $360 AUD RTF, $300 AUD Plug and Play.

Other planes:

There are tons of other planes out there that would make good transitioning aircraft (from rudder steer to aileron steer). In ancitipation of the questions:

What do I need to look for?

4 channel, or 3 channel with ailerons but best is 4 channel. High wing is best. Mid and low wings only if you have a high level of justified confidence, the plane can fly slowly, and will survive impacts well and be easy to repair.

How about Parkzone P51/FW190/Spitfire?

All of the Parkzone warbirds are quite heavy and brittle. This means they need high flying speed, and if (when) you go in the plane will be quite badly damaged by the impact.. The P51 in particular is very tricky to launch as well.

What about modifying my Supercub/Electrafun/Easystar/etc to have Ailerons?

It is possible. It is a matter of whether it is worth the effort. For example, the dihedrayl in a trainer's wing makes ailerons much less effective, and often you need to reshape the wing to make ailerons viable.

I'm happy with my trainer. Do I need another plane?

Of course not. However, from here the course is going to start talking about things related to aileron flying so it may not be as relevant to you. But feel free to read on anyway.


Next part - Aileron flying

Back to Learning to Fly

Back to Main

Managing Risk when Charging LiPos

If you own some Lithium Polymer batteries you are no doubt aware that you should not charge these batteries indoors, or anywhere outdoors that is flammable. In Australia this does present somewhat of a challenge because pretty much the entire Country is flammable (Canberra probably even more so - although our big bonfire all those years ago did wipe out some of the fuel mass).

I'm guessing a whole lot of people charge their LiPos indoors, even though they know they shouldn't, and even though they know there is a risk. Well, if you have to do it (and please understand I'm not endorsing it) you may as well do something to try and minimise the risk.

This ceramic cookie jar came from Kmart (about $9AUD) and I'm using it as a container when charging my LiPos (whether I'm charging indoors or out). The basic idea is to contain the initial fire the LiPo creates. It has one of those lever action clasps which is ideal because it allows the lid to be hooked under, so that when a force comes from within the container the lid won't fly open, but also leaves a gap to allow the charging lead in, and also allow gases to vent (which if you don't have your "container" may explode). Obviously you want to point the partially open lip of the container away from anything flammable. I also removed the rubber seal from mine - didn't seem that was needed, and would add combustible material to the mix, and might even prevent gases from venting as effectively.

I honestly have no idea how effective this might be if I have a LiPo fire but it is a heck of a lot better than nothing in my opinion. If you live in the US/Canada you should probably have a look at the Battery Bunker. It is purpose made and tested for exactly this job. I looked into trying to get some of these to Australia but the freight was a bit much.

Learning to Fly Part 7 - Getting Down to Business

Prerequisites: You have good control of the plane in the air in level flight. You very rarely get disoriented, and can figure out how to reorient yourself when it goes wrong. You've looped your plane, or at least tried to, and you understand how to convert altitude into airspeed and have played around with this a little. Your landings work out okay most of the time, and you can normally land within 30m (or 30 yards) of yourself provided you aren't landing due to dead batteries. You have probably done 10-20 flights.

Objectives: Low level low speed passes, a new trick or two, and learning to fly in a 3D space.

Congratulations - if you mostly pass the prerequisite list at the top then you are well on your way to learning how to fly RC.

Just going to refresh a few old things before we get started:

1. Thinking ahead - concentrate not only on where the plane is and what it is doing, but where it will be in a few seconds time - this is going to be critical as we bring down your altitude.
2. Don't be afraid of altitude - it is still your friend. If you get in trouble your are generally better of being higher.
   
3. Wind is still something you should avoid, although you can now comfortably fly in fast walk/slow run wind (0-8km/hr, 0-5mph - use your TX ribbon to check the airspeed).
4. Remember, if you are doing low altitude work, do it while you have a fresh battery. Losing power close to the ground is no fun.
   

Control Sensitivity

Depending on how you think your flying is going it may well be time to adjust your controls one step on your control horn (so move the control surface linkage one hole closer to the control surface). If you do this make sure you put in two flights to re-familiarise yourself with the plane before moving onto the other things in this part of the course.

Thinking differently about altitude

So over the previous "lessons" I've stressed the importance of good altitude. Now that you have good confidence in the air we are going to start bringing the altitude down. Rather than flying at 30 metres, we are going to come down to about 20 metres, which is about 2 mistakes high. This is the cruising height - we will come lower than this while manuveuring.

It is time to start coming down to less than 10 metres altitude more regularly, but you are not ready to just fly at this height all the time. Instead, all of our incursions into the last 10 metres above the ground will be planned manuveurs which we come down, execute and climb out.

The nature of your flying is going to change a bit now - climb to altitude (investing in potential energy) and then use that energy for some manuveurs, then go reestablish your altitude etc.

It is also going to change how you approach obstacles - with enough energy you might decide to climb over obstacles rather than flying around them, and with your altitude coming down you are going to start being low enough that such things might be around.

A note about wing folding

Many trainers have quite light wings which may start to fold if you give them too much speed and try to pull up to sharply. The Electrafun in particular can fold wings under extreme manuveurs and high speed. If you have prepped the wing as per my notes that will help, but this is just something you need to be conscious of. For example, if you put two stall turns together you will push the EF wing to its limits, if you put three stall turns together you will almost certainly fold its wing.

Two things fold wings - too much airspeed, and trying to change kinetic energy (ie speed) into potential energy (ie altitude) too quickly. Of these two, the latter is the worst. In other words if you have a lot of speed pull up gently whilst you turn airspeed into altitude. Pulling up hard is more likely to fold the wing. Obviously if the ground is just there, pull up as hard as you have to and hope for the best.

Low Speed Low Level Passes

With you standing in the middle of your field, as your plane flys over your head on the downwind leg at 15-20 metres altitude bring the throttle to about the 50% position and let it gradually lose altitude to around 10 metres as it is about 40-50 metres away from you. Do a medium 180 degree turn, making sure to use some elevator to make the turn a bit faster, and to prevent the plane losing too much altitude. If there is any significant wind your plane should now be pointed directly into it.

After the corner use the elevator to slowly bring the plane down to around 3 metres altitude (1.5 people high). Use your own judgement as to whether you need less or more throttle to maintain this altitude and dial in the right throttle.

Let the plane pass you at about 3 metres altitude and run it out the other direction for another two seconds or so (provided there is plenty of space). Go 100% throttle and climb out to 15-20 metres, back to 50%, turn towards yourself, and get ready to set it all up again. (note - you may not be able to reach 15-20 metres before you turn back - just do your best).

On the next run use your own judgement about the height you need to start your turn at, what throttle position to use etc.

If anything goes wrong on this you need to open the throttle, get the wings level if they are not already, and pull up for altitude.

This series of exercises will really teach you some control finesse. It is putting you in a tight spot, the turns into the wind can go wrong as you are reasonably close to the ground to make a turn, and the possibility of a mistake close to the ground on the actual pass is always there as well.

As you get confident with this try reducing the altitude for the low speed pass from 3 metres, to 2 metres (about your head height) to 1 metre eventually (about your waist height) - take your time getting there!

You thought you could fly didn't you 8-) Keep at it - these exercise are some of the most demanding and beneficial you will do. They really teach you the minimum needed to keep a plane flying, and how to have precise, spot on control.

Some new tricks

All the way back in part two we talked about stall turns. It's a bit debatable whether this is a trick, but it does make the aircraft do something cool, and is a neat way to quickly get airspeed, turn 180 degrees and setup for a high energy trick.

At about 15-20 metres minimu altitude feed in full left or full right rudder and hold it. Don't use the elevator at all. The plane will bank until its wings come past perpendicular. As the wings come past perpendicular and the plane starts to flip over release the rudder. The plane will stall, and fall out of the sky, turning approximately 180 degrees in the process. Use a little up elevator to restore level flight.

One neat combination is to put together a stall turn with a series of loops. At full throttle at 25 metres minimum cause a stall turn, and then use full up elevator to make the plane loop. Provided the plane pulls the first loop cleanly, just hold the elevator and pull a second loop straight away. If you find you don't have quite enough energy for the second loop then immediatelly after the stall turn let the plane fall for just an instant longer for a little more energy. By gradually letting the plane dive for just an instant longer you might just get three loops in a row. Also by elongating the dive at the end of each loop you can trade a little altitude for more energy to pull anothe rloop. Do be careful about the stress on your wings and your overall altitude though.

Another couple of easy tricks are a crucifix stall and the similar and slightly more advanced hammerhead stall.

With full throttle and plenty of energy (either from a dive or a stall turn) simply pull back on the elevator until the plane is perpendicular to the ground (so from in front or behind its wings make it look at little like a crucifix). Use finesse on the elevator to hold the plane perpendicular for as long as possible (it may need a little down, or a little up elevator to hold it in position). Eventually the aircraft will stall, possibly coming over on its back, in which case pull up once you have a little airspeed, or fall forwards, in which case just use a little up elevator to restore level flight once you have enough airspeed.

The hammerhead stall is a variation on the crucific stall. As you approach the stall point while climbing perpendicular feed in full left or full right rudder. The aim is to make the plane fall to the side rather than forwards or onto its back - from behind or in front the wing tip looks a little like the head of hammer being swung. This manuveur will be quite hard to get text book with a high dihydral trainer, but you should get something approximately correct.

If you get this correct you should emerge flying in exactly the opposite direction of what you entered the hammerhead stall in.

Finally, let's talk about a snap roll which is one of the few ways to make your three channel trainer roll. Leave this one until you have tried all the others on a few other flights. Once you are getting a feel for how much space you need to recover, turn etc give this a go.

From not less than 25 metres altitude, and with full throttle and a fresh battery, dive for 5 metres building up plenty of airspeed. Pull up with the elevator until the nose is about 20 degrees above horizontal, release the elevator and give full rudder input and hold it(either direction) while the plane rolls through 360 degrees until level flight is restored. If you've gotten the timing right the plane will snap roll, probably losing 2 or 3 metres of altitude in the process. If you don't have enough energy, or your timing is slightly off you may end up with a stall turn, or possibly half way through the roll upside down. In either case, let go of the rudder, and use gentle up elevator to restore level flight. Provided you started your snap roll at 20 metres you will have plenty of room to recover, even if things do go wrong.

More flying stuff

Okay, well now you have some tricks to work on. At the same time start using your altitude for some more interesting flying, like diving from 30 metres down to 20 metres and just doing some tight corners, and noticing (and enjoying) the difference in how the plane handles with the extra speed.

One thing to be a little careful of as you do this is you will find that the plane is more responsive with more airspeed. Just be aware of those stall turns. If you do one too close to the ground you will have a crash, so use finesse on the stick. You will also find that you can sustain a higher banked turn with more airspeed (that is, you stall turn later), but exercise care when your altitude is down.

Your next plane

You are already thinking about it aren't you? Maybe, maybe not. Either way, put it to the back of your mind for the moment while we try and get every bit of fun and learning we can out of the trainer. I'll talk about your next plane in the next part of the "course". For the moment I would suggest you hold off.

That's it for this part

So, that's it for this part - there is a lot of stuff for you to learn here and a lot of stuff to practice. Probably 20 flights worth give or take. So hopefully I will see you for Part 8 by which stage you will have a pretty good handle on what your trainer can and can't do.

You will probably find after some practice you are varying my starting altitudes for manuveurs quite a bit based on your own sense of what is required etc. Go for it! Just don't get too far ahead of yourself. The difference between a close call, and a really serious crash is just 5 metres difference in starting altitude.

Don't be afraid to try out some crazy stuff yourself once you have all this under control. Just remember when you are trying something new:

1. Get plenty of altitude
2. Keep on thinking in front of the plane, particularly about your altitude.

Keep on practicing your landings. By the time you come back for part 8 your planned landings should be within 15 metres of yourself almost everytime, and an unplanned landings due to power loss at a starting altitude of anything over 2 metres should be a non-event.

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Learning to Fly Part 6 - Starting to get the hang of this

Prequisites: You've taken your first few flights. You can fly a circuit reasonably well. Your landings are still a work in progress but are getting a little better all the time.

Objectives: Gain some spatial awarness for altitude. Learn how to exchange altitude for speed. Continue refining control. Practice some low level passes.

We are now going to talk about how to use and vary your altitude whilst flying. Up til now the focus has been on getting to a safe altitude, flying circuits and landing. What we have been doing until now is looking at a three dimensional activity (flying) and reducing most of it to two dimensions. This was done intentionally cause there was already a lot to think about.

Without getting to bogged down in technical details altitude is potential energy - you store energy in altitude (by gradually climing to a height) which you can then "exchange" for more airspeed. Obvious enough isn't it, but perhaps you haven't thought of it that way before.

Your trainer is capable of doing some weird and wonderful manuveurs (yes - your trainer) but the thing that is typically lacking is enough energy, or airspeed to do them. This isn't a problem though - provided you have stored enough potential energy in altitude you can always exchange altitude for speed. You might have even done this already to get your plane to loop in the last exercise.

When we give our planes extra speed there are all sorts of flow on effects to the plane itself. For example, all of the trainers will have a strong tendency to "balloon" up once they have enough airspeed. Their wing and the high airspeed will make them want to climb until they start to reach their normal flight speed again.

So, as you are doing your next few flights start bringing the plane down from altitude and just getting a feel for the way speed builds up in the aircraft. Starting at a cruising altitude of 30metres (about 100feet) and once you are sure there are no trees or other objects in your path dive her for 5-10 metres at a time. At the bottom of the dive let the plane naturally pull up (so just release elevator) perform a gentle turn, and just note how the plane handles differently with the extra airspeed. Don't come below 15 metres on these dives (that's the next exercise). Do be gentle on the controls - feed in the input slowly - otherwise you might cause the plane to do one of those extreme manuveurs which might not be helpful so close to the ground.

Once you have lost the airspeed, climb back up to 30 metres. Repeat.

You may have noticed I knocked 20metres of your cruising altitude. By now you should be getting a reasonable feel for the plane in the air and hopefully it doesn't feel like you are barely in control anymore. However you may still get yourself into trouble if you aren't thinking ahead of the plane. So, keep on thinking about where the plane will be in 5 seconds time, and what you need to do *now* to avoid unpleasant ends.

Another thing to start work on is your finesse on the controls. Hopefully by now your heart is doing less than 140 beats per minute when you fly, which is great cause it means we can start work on that stabbing motion you use to control the plane (you may already have more finesses than that - so sorry those of you that feel slighted by that comment 8-) Control inputs to an RC plane can be quick, but they need to be smooth and that is the key. So, as you are flying focus on giving inputs smoothly. You will actually see the difference in the way the aircraft behaves between violent stabs on the controls, and quick but smooth use of the controls.

So practice turning faster, slow, diving quickly (above) and slowly.

Once you have all this under control we are going to do some low level high speed passes. We are going to make them high speed so that the plane has plenty of energy, and at the end of the pass can pull back up to a safe cruising altitude. A low speed pass is something you will do eventually, but you might get yourself into trouble because you don't have enough power to get altitude to turn at the end of the pass and end up in some trees, or touch a wing tip while trying to turn.

So, with the plane at about 20metres altitude, and at full throttle, with the plane coming towards you (with you in the middle of the field and plenty of space around you) put her into a moderate dive and hold her there as she picks up airspeed until she is about 5metres from the ground (about two and half people high). Use some finesse on the elevator to hold it there for 1,2,3 seconds, and then climb away. If you feed in too much down elevator, just pull up straight away. Climb back up to a safe altitude, get the throttle back to the 2/3rd position, go around and get ready to do it again.

Picking the Battery Drain Point

By now you will have flattened a few batteries, and maybe even ended up in a spot of bother when you lost batteries a bit close to the ground. While you are still figuring out when the battery starts to go here is a simple rule. If you are going to do some high speed, or even low speed passes, do them shortly after you first take off, when the battery is fully charged.

Losing power close to the ground severely limits your options, so try to make sure you are at reasonable altitude at the tail end of your battery.

In terms of picking the point when your battery is going to deplete you will begin to get a sense for this. At the first point when you notice that you aren't climbing with the same throttle position, you are probably getting the first indication that you will have to land shortly. When you start to get this warning send you plane out and start to "loiter", going backwards and forwards across the wind at approximately the place you are going to start your landing from.

Once you find you can't sustain altitude it is time to setup for your landing. If you have been loitering the plane in the right place you should be able to gradually bring her down. If she is a bit high then do a 270 degree turn into the wind (so turn away from the wind first, coming all the way round to face the wind), otherwise just do a 90 degree turn into the wind, shut the throttle, begin your landing glide. If you have depleted the battery make sure you have enough room to landing. Landing with the wind beats hitting cars or trees, so don't force the plane down into the wind if there isn't enough space.

If your plane is too high to start a landing run after turning 270 degrees, then just fly across the wind for one or two more lengths, until the altitude is right to start a landing run.

Next Part

Next part we will talk about some low level low speed flying, and some more aerobatics, as your confidence with the plane in the sky starts to build.

By the way - are you getting some value out of these? If you are please drop me a line - it will encourage me to keep on writing them.

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Tower Pro Mag 8 Programming

Not a very exciting post I'm afraid, but the number of people hitting the site looking for the Towerpro Mag8 ESC has me thinking that people might be looking for programming instructions for these little speedies, so I have typed in the programming instructions that came with mine. I've taken the liberty of fixing a couple of the typos, and have not doubt introduced one or two of my own. Hope this is of some use to someone:

***update***

Seems like there are two versions of ESCs out there now, and they have slightly different programming. Try the instructions below - if they work for you then great. If not, try checking out this forum on RCGroups:

http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=641357

Tower Pro Brushless Motor Controller Set Up Instructions for 18A and 30A

Remove prop from motor if fitted
Connect speed controller to motor and receiver
Disconnect battery from speed controller
Move throttle stick on your transmitter to full throttle
Reconnect battery to speed controller

After three seconds you will hear sound patters (Each one repeated three times)
These sounds represent programmable functions-

= CELL Type and Number
== BRAKE
=== TIMING Mode
==== VOLTAGE protection

When you hear the sound pattern relating to the function you wish to programme move the throttle to the MIDDLE position

The ESC will then emit sounds again in groups of three in the following order-

CELL Type and Number
+ NiMh/Nicad/Auto
++ 2 LiPo 7.4v
+++ 3 LiPo 11.1v
++++ 4 LiPo 14.8v
BRAKE
+ Off
++ Soft
+++ Medium
++++ Hard
TIMING
+ 2 degrees
++ 7 degrees
+++ 15 degrees
++++ 30 degrees
PROTECTION VOLTAGE
+ 2.8v/Cell
++ 2.9v/Cell
+++ 3.0v/Cell
NB: 10C and higher suggest 3.0v
When you hear the pattern sound for the function you require move the throttle to the UP position
A long BEEP will be heard confirming the option has been saved
The system will then revet back to the programming mode for the next option

When all functions have been selected move throttle to the DOWN position
The system will save all selections after one second and the unit will then be ready for use.

Learning to Fly Part 5 - Your next few flights

Prerequisites: You've done your first flight. Hopefully you still have a plane.
Objectives: Learn some things about aircraft repair, some more flying and simulator exercises.

Repairing your plane
It didn't seem appropriate to talk about this before your first flight for obvious reasons. Now that you have done that let's have a quick chat about repairing your plane.

I'm not going to try and give you a full list of techniques or anything like that. Places like rcuniverse.com and rcgroups.com are full of helpful people in forums who you can ask about particular details. I'm going to try and give a really quick overview of some of the materials used, when to use them etc.
Repairing foam:

If you need to repair foam you have three choices of glue: Epoxy (Araldite is one type), Foam Glue (such as the GWS and Ultrafly foam glues) or Foam Safe CA (super glue - but must be foam safe).

Foam Safe CA is best for those jobs where you might have a partial crack through a fuse or wing, and want to get glue through the joint by capillary action without having to pull the joint open (thus increasing the size of the break). It does take a while to dry, and in this application may well need some tape to hold it in place while it drys. You can get foam safe kicker these days to make your CA dry very quickly, even on foam.

Foam Glue is best for building your plane. Of the two mentioned above the Ultrafly glue is far superior. Foam glue takes quite a long while to cure, meaning it is not ideal for repairs.

Epoxy works well enough. However, it can be a fraction heavy, and is sometimes more flexible than you might like.

Some people also speak highly of hot glue (and the associated hot glue gun) for this kind of stuff. Personally I don't like it, and don't think it is strong enough to justify its weight.

Tapes:

This hobby is going to give you a new appreciation for the load bearing potential of sticky tape, packing tape and other tapes such as fiberglass reinforced tape. Tape is one of the model aviator's secret weapons in the battle against gravity.

Model planes tend to be so light that tape is actually quite a useful, versatile and (comparitively) strong material. It is also reasonably light, and incredibly easy to use.

Some applications for tape include as a protective layer (on leading and trailing edges and elsewhere) as well as an assistant holding foam in place while it drys. It's also the premier cowling repair method (yep - just tape her up, if you do the job cleanly and put the tape on the inside people wont even realise that you smashed the cowling into 4 pieces on the last "landing").

Repairing Balsa

What the heck are you doing flying balsa? Normal CA and other bits of balsa are best for repairs.

More Flying

You had your first flight, and no doubt it was quite a rush. Hopefully it lasted a little while, and ended well.

The good news is it does start to get easier from here.

For your next 4 flights you want to follow the same flight plane as for your first flight. Take off, get to altitude and then fly either circuits or figure eights at about 3/4 throttle. You want zero, or very light breezes for these flights.

Before you fly again

Few things you need to check before you fly again:

1. Were you able to trim your aircraft or was she still out of trim with the tabs pushed fully in one direction? If you couldn't then you may need to make some mechanical adjustments before she flys again.
2. If there are any particular mistakes you made that you can recall, think about how you might have dealt with them differently, and mentally drill yourself.
3. Repair any damage to your plane - trying to fly with a damaged plane will probably get you into trouble. The plane doesn't need to be prefect, but the wings need to be straight and strong, and the control surfaces need to work properly.
   

Here are some things to work on your next flights once the plane is high and safe:

Thinking Ahead

As well as concentrating on where your plane is, and what it is doing, a very very important skill, which you should start to develop straight away is thinking ahead of your plane. You need to not only know where your plane is and what it is doing, but you should also be thinking 5 seconds ahead of your plane (is it starting to get close to those trees, in 5 seconds is my plane going to be getting too far away etc).

Concentrating too much on the plane, and not enough on where it will be in 5 seconds time is a sure recipe for disaster. This is how model aircraft get stuck in trees. If you are unlucky it may be so high up it can't readily be retrieved.

There are two ways we think ahead (and you need to do both) - the first is with our eyes, the second is with our mind.

When you use your eyes, first things first, keep your model in your field of vision at all times. As you may have noticed you only see things really clearly in a very small part at the middle of your vision. The rest of your field of vision is very good at detecting motion, but crap at identifying just about anything else. So, to look ahead of the model, keeping the model in your peripheral vision, glance ahead, and then back at the model.

The second part of thinking ahead is using your mind to build a 3D map of the space you are flying in. This starts when you do your initial assessment of the field during your preflight check (trees over there, creek and some power lines that way, road behind me, a basedball back stop over there - okay), and is continually added to as you glance ahead of your model. Over time, you will build a very good 3d map of your flying field, to the extent that you will look ahead with your eyes at the hazards you know are there to locate them exactly with respect to your model.

Learning your Stall Speed, and how your plane stalls

Once you have your plane high and safe figure out the minimum throttle you need to fly, intentionally stall your plane to figure out how to recover it, etc.

You could also try a bit of gliding. Shut the power off and just let her glide about. Remember, your model is probably trimmed for power, so with no power she will tend to stall, dive, stall. To stop this, dive her ever so slightly, or introduce just the smallest amount of down trim.

Get your model back on power before it gets too close to the ground. Ten metres altitude should probably be the minimum you let the model glide down to at this stage.

Some aerobatics

If you are feeling comfortable and happy cruising then try pulling a loop. To do this: Full throttle, push the nose down (not too much) for about a second (for a little more speed) and then pull full back on the elevator. The plane should pull through the loop. If the plane stalls before looping then next time aim for a little more speed (with a deeper dive - needless to say start at a slightly higher altitude to allow for this). If it is still stalling you may not be able to pull a tigher loop until you have your controls in a more sensitive position.

One thing that might happen on this loop, which will be unlike your simulator experience is that the plane may not emerge from the loop cleanly - it might do a half roll, stall in the hammer head position and fall onto its back etc. Believe it or not there are quite a few things that can go wrong with this manuveur, which is why we want plenty of altitude - enough time to figure out what has gone wrong and figure out how to fix it.

The diagram on the right shows the situation where the plane stalls when it gets perpendicular to the ground, and folds over on its back. If you have enough altitude this is simple to recover from - pull up. If you don't have enough altitude you crash - simple as that.

I know I keep on harping on about altitude but it is frustrating to watch people get into trouble not because they can't fly, or couldn't have recovered the aircraft, but because they just didn't give themselves enough altitutde and time too.

If you plane emerges from the loop in bank you may find yourself confused about how to recover the plane and restore level flight. The reason you are confused (apart from the fact that stuff is happening faster than you expected) is possibly because normally when you give a plane an input to make it bank, your brain knows it gives the opposite input to correct and restore level flight - your brain is relying on memory rather than calculation to figure out the correct input. Understandable - brains are naturally lazy organs and who can blame them. What has happened here is that the brain has no memory of the input given to make the plane bank, and suddenly you are left trying to figure out how to fix this.

A good trainer (with dyhedrayl) will probably self correct. However, if that is not what you have, you will need to fix this problem yourself. Remember - imagine yourself in the cockpit of the aircraft. If you can't figure that out then give a small control input and reorient based on that. If you started your manuveur at 20+ metres of altitude you will have time for all of this. If you didn't you could easily crash.

Landings

You are probably going to be trying to make your landings gentler and gentler now. Just remember that planes often run longer on landing runs than you expect. Give yourself plenty of distance, and remember a slight rough landing beats a plane stuck in a tree, or crossing a public road at head height.


Enjoy your flying.

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Learning to Fly Part 4 - Your First Flight

Prerequisites: Ideally you have done the exercises suggested in parts 1-3. At the very least you have read them.

Objectives: Complete your first flight.

I am only going to say a few things about your first flight because much of the prep work to make it a success has already been done in the last parts.

This will be an exciting and memorable occasion.

Okay, the few things I will mention are:

1. Use the electric flight checklist before you takeoff.
2. Read through the maiden flight checklist - this stuff applies to you as well.
3. Have a flight plan - I'm going to take off, climb to 50 metres, fly five four sided circuits and then land (or something like that).
4. Make sure where you position yourself for takeoff you have heaps of space to takeoff and climb to altitude.
5. Once you are up and at altitude set your throttle to about 3/4. This will stop the plane from going too fast, and building up too much altitude.
   
6. During your flight pay particular attention to your altitude - a common mistake is to let the plane lose altitude on every turn until eventually a turn is attempted to close to the ground, panic strikes and the plane goes in. Try and use coordinated elevator on turns to reduce the lose of altitude, and in the straights, climb to reestablish your cruising altitude.
7. Don't be afraid of altitude - it is your friend. Your cruising height should be well over the height of any trees at the park (even popplers). Don't fall into the trap of thinking the plane is more controllable close to the ground - there is only pain in that approach.
8. When it is time to land let yourself lose a little altitude on each turn until you are at about 10-15 metres above the ground, when you make your last turn into the wind and start your landing approach (as we spoke about in Part 3).
9. Remember when landing you must dive below the glide angle for your dead stick landing. Dive, flare, land. If you run out of room on a landing you can either wave off and go around if you have enough power and altitude, or just force the plane into the ground. Try to avoid letting it reach the trees though. If you are going to wave off, make the decision early.
10. If your plane is going to go in, make sure you close the throttle before it hits. This will substantially reduce the amount of damage that is done.
    

I wish you all the best of luck. I think you are going to do well if you have followed the notes and done the things I recommended up to this point.

In the next part we are going to talk about what to practice over the next few flights.

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