Model Forum / Radio Controlled / Air Models / April 2006

Don't let a little breeze scare you off!  Practice some very serious slow
flight 3 mistakes high until you are comfortable at throttle settings one or
two clicks above stall when straight and level.  When you do that, you begin
to recognize the 'feeling' (hand and eye coordination issues) just before
the plane stops flying.  This will help you in high wind times and when you
have to bring a plane down with a dead engine.

The way to start this is to make sure your engine is well and correctly
tuned.  You want the engine to idle for 5 minutes and take a slam to full
throttle without stumbling.  If yours is not like that, fix it but as my
friend George Aldrich taught me, do the fixing at 1/2 tank.  Most folks tend
to run a little rich on the low end which floods the plug when at long idle
and slammed to full throttle.  For a 2 stroke, use a glow driver to test the
idle mix.  Once you think it is right, put the glow driver on the plug.  If
the engine speeds up, you are too rich.  If the engine note does not change
significantly, you are probably right on.

Now that the idle is fixed lets go flying.  Get 3 or 4 mistakes high and
trimmed out hands free when at full throttle.  The next step is to find the
lowest throttle setting that is needed to maintain straight and level flight
without stalling.  If your throttle won't go that low, land and fix the
linkage so it will.  Go fly and test again.  Then establish a horizontal
figure 8 with the plane coming back at you when it hits the crossover point.
This will give you a 2 for 1 training flight, slow and left and right under
those conditions.  Once the pattern is established, begin reducing the
throttle a few clicks at a time while maintaining altitude.  When you get to
the straight and level stall throttle setting, advance the throttle 2 or 3
clicks and just fly that figure 8 for several cycles.  The trick here is to
get comfortable with the feeling of sloppy controls, recognize your left and
right, and to be ready to land.

A little of this is generally recommended for each and every model you fly
as all airframes are different.

Jim Branaum
AMA 1428

Well that's changed.  My recollection of little blue pills is they did the
opposite...

One of the most difficult things to learn as a pilot is that the model flies
in the air. The ground has nothing to do with it, or the airspeed at which
the model is travelling over the ground. Unfortunately, we humans have
trained ourselves to relate everything to the ground. This must be unlearned
when flying R/C models.

High speed stalls are usually what brings a model down in a downwind turn.
The pilot tightens up on the bank angle and the elevator in an effort to
make the model fly over a particular portion of the ground which he/she
feels is appropriate. This feeling does not take into consideration the true
airspeed of the model relative to the airmass that the model is flying in,
hence, the high speed stall.

No matter how long you have been flying, this one can creep up on you and
cause mayhem at times.

Ed Cregger

40 mph is a LOT of wind.  It's also great fun if you have an
appropriate slope and slope planes to fly there, but I probably
wouldn't go flying anything that wasn't made of foam, and I probably
wouldn't fly in it unless I was slope flying.

Well, don't forget the wind gradient.  If the wind is 5 mph at six
feet, it may be 10 or 15 mph at 30 feet up (the exact difference
depends mostly on your terrain) and may go higher even higher.

And because of this wind gradient, flying in the wind IS somewhat
different, even to the plane, than flying when there is no wind.
People like to rant about the `myth of the downwind turn' and such,
and while it is mostly just a perceptual issue, there are some real
things that might affect your plane under certain conditions.  And of
course, people who say `flying in the wind is no different' are also
assuming that the wind speed is constant (which it rarely is -- gusts,
lulls and direction changes happen often) and are ignoring the
turbulence that is usually there.  But your airplane won't ignore
these things ...

Of course, now you're talking apples and oranges.  Not only is a knot
15% more than a mph, but you're also talking about a crosswind -- that
Cessna can probably safely take off and land in winds a lot stronger
than that with no crosswind.  And as for models, you usually don't
have to do a proper crosswind landing or takeoff if you don't want to
-- just do it on the grass.  (There are some exceptions, of course --
a paved runway, and a plane that can't go on grass.)

To be more specific, you need a plane that has a top speed faster than
the wind speed (because if it's not, you'll lose the plane downwind, no
matter what you do), you'll need lots of control authority to cope
with the turbulence kicked up by the wind, and you'll need big cajones
to actually fly in a big wind -- either that, or a good amount of
skill, or a plane that can survive crashes.

High wing loading tends to give you a plane that is faster and it also
tends to get buffetted less by turbulence, which it's why it's
suggested that you fly such a plane in the wind.

In some places, not being willing to fly in the wind means you're not
flying, ever.

If you're in a windy, hilly place, get something like your typical
Zagi (foam flying wing) and fly it.  It'll help you become quite adept
at flying in heavy winds with lots of turbulence and the like.  It's
also a blast!  But beware -- flying a plane that is undamaged by
crashes tends to make you lazy (no need to bother with a formal
landing -- just smack it down) and reckless (`hey -- watch this!'), so
be sure to put yourself back into the right frame of mind when you fly
your more fragile planes.

It's funny how you can go slope flying all day, and end up with not a
single real landing -- just a bunch of crashes (or maybe just one!)
(That probably didn't hurt your plane if you're flying the usual
flying wing.)

That's why you should fly a helicopter.  Just point the nose into the
wind.  No need for a couple thousand feet of concrete to land..  :)